Carol Burris, veteran teacher and principal, author and executive director of the Network for Public Education, here analyzes the proposal by the charter committee of the State University of New York to allow charter schools to hire uncertified teachers and to do their own certifying. Among other problems, this insults the education faculty of SUNY, as well as the New York Board of Regents, which sets high standards for new public school teachers in the state. The charter committee includes no educators; its members were appointed by Governor Cuomo.
Burris writes:
The proposed regulations by the State University of New York (SUNY) Board for charter school teacher certification have been posted. The SUNY Board should hang its head in shame. These regulations eliminate nearly all NYS requirements, requirements they themselves have endorsed under the new TEACH certification regulations.
While this proposal may further the political interests of the Governor who appointed 15 of the 18 Board members, and who has received millions in contributions from charter school board members, it does so at the expense of the children who attend the charter schools SUNY authorizes.
In a nutshell, turn up at a charter school door with a bachelors’ degree, and you can become a certified teacher in weeks.
According to the proposed regulations:
· Prospective charter teachers would be required to take only 30 hours of instruction (the equivalent of less than 4 days) by someone who holds a Master’s Degree, including an uncertified teacher whose students got good scores on state tests. (Yes, that nuttiness is written into the regulation.) The 30 hours do not even have to be “real” hours—SUNY’s proposed regulation defines an instructional hour as at least 50 minutes. Instruction can even be provided via video, as long as there is some face to face time.
· For a second certification—only six more hours is all that is required.
· The candidate needs 100 hours of field experience under the supervision of an experienced teacher. That teacher can be uncertified as long as they are a two-year, TFAer, anyone who has taught for 3 years and received satisfactory evaluations, or a university professor. Contrast this field experience requirement with that of SUNY’s Stony Brook University which requires a 75 day internship with a certified teacher. The State Education Department requires a minimum of 40 days.
· The teacher would be eligible to teach in SUNY authorized charters only, essentially relegating them to an indentured servant status. They would be unable to leave for public schools with better pay and better working conditions unless they went through a traditional program which would be very difficult, if not impossible, given the long days required by charter schools.
Speak out and let SUNY know that you are opposed to the proposed regulations. Let them know every New York child deserves a well-trained, qualified teacher.
Sign the Network for Public Education’s petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/every-child-deserves-a-well-prepared-teacher?clear_id=true
Call: Ralph A. Rossi II, at (518) 455-4250
Send an e-mail to charters@suny.edu
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The SUNY Charter Schools Committee needs to be dismantled, and this proposal makes that clear. They are terribly out-of-touch. There are 4 members, all men, none an educator — and one doesn’t even reside in the United States! And they propose creating a two-tiered system where poor kids get second-rate teachers and kids in wealthy suburbs gets teachers with Masters degree. Our country rejected that system long ago….
Journalists have been gullible and too lazy to actually investigate some of the SUNY Charter Institute’s history, especially after Pedro Noguera resigned in 2012. At his resignation, he noted that the Charter Institute had become charter cheerleaders (of rich and [politically charter chains) instead of doing the oversight they are legally obligated to do.
I don’t think SUNY favors all charters but it certainly has favored Success Academy despite numerous complaints, video, documentary evidence that there are got to go lists and that their most honored principals refuse to send home renewal forms of children who they deem unworthy. Instead of investigating, SUNY has instead done special favors for the charter chain whose highly unusual “100% passing rates” are unmatched by every other charter.
I have previous noted the numerous times the SUNY bent their own procedures specifically to accommodate a request from Eva Moskowitz. They include: allowing Success Academy to change lottery priorities so they didn’t have to give preference to at-risk kids anymore, renewing their charters years earlier than they were supposed to without doing oversight, ignoring all the parents of special needs kids who complained about their child’s treatment, always granting any request to open new charter schools in very rich neighborhoods even if Success Academy already had charters with empty seats in that district that had very few disadvantaged students! If Moskowitz wants another school for affluent students and a few “worthy” poor ones, SUNY will happily oblige – no questions asked. Even if her model teacher is caught on video humiliating and punishing one of those few disadvantaged children who got a seat.
And the worst — SUNY Charter Institute heard Eva Moskowitz telling the world that she has to suspend 20% or 25% of the non-white kindergarten children students in some of her schools because the children were all violent and constantly doing violent things in their class. And SUNY Charter Institute – instead of questioning one of the most racist things I have ever heard a charter operator say – instead rushed to give her renewals EARLY! Because there’s no need to wait to renew at the proper time when you don’t plan on doing any oversight anyway. Sure some of those schools were suspending extraordinarily high numbers of African-American and Latino 5 year olds and sure some kids disappeared but SUNY didn’t care how many. They heard Eva Moskowitz explain how violent those non-white children were and they took it as gospel.
That is what SUNY’s proposal is all about. Eva Moskowitz wants to expand and she wants to hire teachers who can be trained by the model teacher who was caught on video demonstrating the methods that work so well to get the unwanted children out of their charters. And SUNY takes their marching orders from Eva Moskowitz. She is like a spoiled child and SUNY has never once said no to anything she wants. So she keeps demanding more and more. Now she wants her “model” teachers to be able to train recent college grads in how to treat unworthy children who aren’t doing well academically and whose test scores might ruin the near 100% passing rates. If new teachers actually had a graduate degree in education, they might say “hey, sending a well-behaved child to the “calm down” chair because she didn’t answer the question the way you wanted is not sound educational practice so why are you insisting that your teachers do this?”
Eva Moskowitz’ has been heard to make some outrageous comments — praising Betsy DeVos as the savior of poor children and demanding the Senate approve her, making claims about how violent non-white children in her charters are, pretending that she was FORCED to drop priority for at-risk kids the one time any journalist asked her despite it being an outright lie. (Long after Moskowitz demanded that SUNY allow her to drop priority for at-risk kids, there was a question about whether charters could legally give priority to at-risk kids and the liars at Success Academy grabbed onto that debate as if that was the reason that they intentionally dropped priority for all at-risk kids years earlier!) In her willingness to say anything and do anything regardless of who is harmed (i.e. releasing private records of a 6 year old) Moskowitz reminds me of Donald Trump. And Joseph Belluck at SUNY reminds me of Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, more than willing to enable her instead of doing the oversight he should be doing.
Belluck takes his marching orders from people far more powerful than parents. He is the Mitch McConnell to Eva Moskowitz’ Trump and we all know how that plays out. I hope someday Belluck’s willingness to look the other way instead of do real oversight is properly reported and he is called to account for his actions. He has a job to do and he works for the public — not the charters with the richest and most powerful boards. It’s about time he acted like it for once.
Cross posted at https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Carol-Burris-analyzes-SUN-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Carol-Burris_Charter-Schools_Diane-Ravitch_Insults-170730-477.html#comment668051
with 2 comments that have embedded links
After years of underfunding public education and diverting money to charters and vouchers, Arizona is coping with an acute teacher shortage. http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2017/06/22/arizona-public-schools-teacher-shortage-classroom-experience/351033001/
In this post, Chester (Checker) Finn Jr. questions the need for teacher tenure. Getting rid of tenure, he says, will save money, as it has in higher education, where money is lavished on administrators’ salaries and facilities, but not faculty (except for the Big Names).
Look at Massachusetts https://dianeravitch.net/2017/04/23/massachusetts-commissioner-seeks-power-to-remove-teachers-unilaterally/ to get an idea of the mentality of those leading the discussions which are leading to ‘trained mechanics’ for classroom teachers. Massachusetts: Commissioner Seeks Power to Remove Teachers UnilaterallyThis letter came by email from a teacher in Massachusetts. Evidently, the Commissioner of Education believes there are some bad, bad teachers in his state, and he wants the power to remove them quickly. Bear in mind that by every current metric, Massachusetts is the highest performing state in the nation. It must have many excellent teachers. Why does Commissioner Mitchell Chester need a whip in his hand. This kind of power play is threatening and demoraling, as well as unprofessional.
.A new study http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2017/teacher-resignation-letters-paint-bleak-picture-of-us-education/ was just released by two professors at Michigan State University analyzing what they call a new genre: the teacher resignation letter. In a trio of studies, Michigan State University education expert Alyssa Hadley Dunn and colleagues examined the relatively new phenomenon of teachers posting their resignation letters online. Their findings, which come as many teachers are signing next year’s contracts, suggest educators at all grade and experience levels are frustrated and disheartened by a nationwide focus on standardized tests, scripted curriculum and punitive teacher-evaluation systems
It isn’t a stretch to imagine the corporate charters will be hiring trolls, bullies, Trump clones, psychopaths, sociopaths, malignant narcissists, serial killers, child molesters, and foul mouthed Scaramouches – anyone that’s a Trumpist, fascist, racist, child-hating fraud of a slime ball.
Anyone willing to work longer hours for less pay without benefits while being treated and abused like a slave either starts out ignorant, is a fool, or is one of the above in the first paragraph that are drooling to torture children.
The naive ignorant ones that swallowed all the lies thinking they were going to save children from those allegedly horrible, incompetent public school teachers will be the first to leave once they wake up to reality and realize they have been conned because they only listened to the lying Alt-Right media machine.
I’m NOT a teacher and I don’t live in NY, but I say let it happen. Stop fighting it and let the cards fall. The kids in Charter schools won’t be any worse off than they are right now….. Charters already have horrible teacher retention, scripted curriculum in a box delivered under quasi nazi teaching practices. The only ones that will be hurt are the fake teachers and they are already the ones being hurt right now. The state will have to figure out this mess and take responsibility when the fake teachers find out they’ve “been had” because they can’t go anywhere else to get a job. When the adults decide to rally for fairness, there will be change.
“Stop fighting it and let the cards fall.”
Really?
I hear anger. I hear no logic. No thinking.
This is probably the exact same thoughts many German’s had during Hitler’s rise to power. “Stop fighting the Nazi’s, and let the cards fall without resistance.
What good does it do to speak out and attempt to stop the insanity? It’s going to happen anyway. Let’s give Hitler a chance to prove himself.”
But by the time Hitler or Trump proves himself, it will too late to go back and put the monster back in his cell down in hell.
Come on, let’s open Pandora’s Box and find out if all the warning myths are true or not. And if we were wrong, well Armageddon can’t be that bad and we won’t be alone when we die because everyone is going to die with us.
The public schools are one domino in a long line of public sector dominates, and they are all being pushed to collapse. If we do nothing and let them fall, one by one, there will be no going back.
My reply, John Paul Jones must be our example instead of a defeatist attitude and we must shout just like he did in 1779. “I have just begun to fight.”
Or we can borrow another quote from an American general who refused to surrender during the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.
When the German’s sent American General Anthony ‘Tony’ McAuliffe a letter asking him to surrender his division, the 101st Airborn, because they were surrounded by overwhelming forces and trapped in the city of Bastogne, his one-word reply was what I want to say to your suggestion.
“Nuts!”
John Paul Jones went on to defeat the British in a sea battle where the odds were against him from the start.
General McAuliffe was not defeated. Instead, his division held off the Germans until the 4th Armored Division arrived (part of General Patton’s 3rd Army).
It’s called picking your battle. The Charters already have uncertified teachers running the classroom (TFAers). When adults get a fake degree from a fake college to perform slave labor in a Charter School for very little pay, they will get wise and protest. The fight should be getting rid of Charter schools…..period. The War (ed reform) can only be won 1 small battle at a time. Get rid of Charter schools and get rid of the fake teaching degree.
Kids are not kids for long. America’s citizens are today’s children.
What they learn will determine the work they can do… YEAH work!
School is where the human child learns to DO WORK, TO THINK TO ANNLAYZE AND TO PLAN…to create strategies.
It ain’t a place to learn the 3 Rs.
Would you want a medic to be your doctor.
Would you want a trained legal scribe to be your attorney.
What you describe demonstrates this nation’s total disregard of the enormous task that a TEACHER-PRACTITIONER takes on, when asked to plan and to ENABLE AND FACILITATE LEARNING.
HERE IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU HAVE A PUBLIC THAT CANNOT DO THE WORK
What you said, is your opinion, and your are ‘entitled’ to it.
I am just as entitled to mine..
You are not a teacher, and also not much of a thinker.
@ Susan Lee Schwartz…..I think a lot! My kids have never known anything but ed reform and I live in a good state/county with a highly rated school system (which I think is bunk since ed tech and CBL are taking over and Common Bore is the awful curriculum). I send my kids to public school because I want them taught by certified teachers and because I don’t want them in a religious school with unqualified teachers or a charter school with unqualified teachers and we just can’t afford a private school with uncertified teachers. I believe in a decent and democratic public education for all children. My sister was a public school teacher for 30+ years. When teachers start ranting about certification and non certification and Unions etc etc etc, it just perpetuates the myth…. that all teachers care about is their loyalty to the Union and protecting their jobs and that the kids don’t matter. Lots of parents believe that, in case you didn’t know! If you starve the Charters, then there is no need to have a separate certificate program to run those Charters. As a parent, I would not invest money in a fake college for a fake degree/certificate. If my son wants to become an electrician and goes to a trade school, I would certainly make sure that he could travel to any state in the USA and be certified as an electrician….. and if that weren’t the case, then I would think something is a bit fishy. Wait until the fake teachers try to use their fake degree in another state…same thing with Trump U and it’s fake degree. Cutting corners is NOT the best way to anything that’s great, but some people just have to learn the hard way.
Wow. The propaganda won.
I hate the unions, They let THIS http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
happened to me and to tens of thousands of others. I was one of the most celebrated teachers in NYC, http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
and they had to work hard to throw me to the dogs.
If they could do that iNYC and give the schools away to the charters, they figured they could do it In the second largest district ,LAUSD, where in one year 800 teachers were charged and then FIRED BECAUsE THE UNION COLLUDED.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
So, when you talk to me about the unions, you are talking to someone who knows a thing or 2. Maybe you want to do to my series at OPED News, http://www.opednews.com/author/series/author40790.html
YEAH.. i know, a thing or two about the media — which is FULLY OWNED BY THESE GUYS in the EIC EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Click to access eic-oct_11.pdf
For 2 decades they sold the rant that teachers only care about their jobs, and the union is protecting them. The union contract on my desk provided for grievance procedures that followed the LAW OF THE LAND, where DISCOvERY WAS CRUX when charging a teacher. If you re following he Esquith case, you know that he had to go to court to get that civil right, but this story offers you a look at what has been happening to the PROFESSIONAL TEACHER-PRACTITIONERS,
FOR 2 DECADES the media pointed the finger at the PROFESSIONALS WHO KNEW WHAT LEARNING LOOKED LIKE, so they could end their voices, and they could put into the CLASSROOM the very crap that you hate so much.
The media did it. http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/have-reporters-become-poli-ticks–the-media-parasites-of-the-body-politic.html
Collective bargaining for those of us born in 1941, was the thing the unions brought to the table, so that those of us WHO WERE BRIGHT, AND WHO SPENT THE TIME AND MONEY to EDUCATE ourselves for a profession that paid little, could at least have e some SECURITY AND BENEFITS for retirement.
When the EIC– a part of the ‘deep state’ of billionaires who own this nation, and who decided to make both health care and education into a profitable marketplace and screw the people,– needed to get rid of the MOST EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONALS (AKA ‘TEACHERS’) they spread the fake news, that teachers are only interested in their jobs
The truth is that they are only interested in $$$ http://www.perdaily.com/2014/06/lausds-treacherous-road-from-reed-to-vergara–its-never-been-about-students-just-money.html
.
Most teachers receive no support, are blamed when kids fail, and after all they planned, and all their hard work…they last 3 to 5 years, and boom…they are sent out. Sure they want the union to do their job. They want to be treated FAIRLY.
The purpose of a union contract is to do that.
“Fairness is a contract’s fundamental purpose. A raw, moralistic conception of fairness—that people shouldn’t get screwed” —would become the basis for Liz Warren’s crusading.”
We used to be a nation of laws!
The unions represented the law for teachers.
What is happening in the macrocosm of our government— as the rules fall by the wayside in a post-truth culture where the media lies about everything — is identical to what I learned was happening in the microcosm of the NYC bureaucracy — which is only one of the 15,880 bureaucracies that comprise our public education ’system .
There is no fairness and no accountability in the school systems run by non-educators and legislative bodies in the pockets of the corporations.
“Corruption can take many forms — not just bags of cash under the table, but a creeping rot that saps our collective motivation to pursue the cause of justice. As Upton Sinclair might have written were he alive today: It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his résumé depends upon his not understanding it.”
Enough. It is a lovely day her win NYC and I could tell you the reality… go to my site… read my articles on how they sold Magic Elixirs to BAMBOOZLE A CITIZENRY THAT is so easy to fool, when it comes to complicated things like medicine, law, science and yes pedagogy… how the human mind acquires REAL skills.
Magic Elixir: No Evidence required!
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
“BAMBOOZLE THEM” where teacher evaluation is the key to reform: http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
Series Page for 15,880 Districts in 50 States: already divided for conquering. | OpEdNews
http://www.opednews.com/Series/15-880-Districts-in-50-Sta-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-140921-34.html
Labor unions like corporations and government are all human organizations and subject to being flawed and susceptible to corruption.
But elected human leaders know that if they are caught, then they will usually be ruined and lose everything. #FakePresident Trump has gotten away with being a bully, a fraud, and a con man for so long that his way of thinking is tattooed deep throughout his brain. Imagine all the dead brain cells below those inked tattoes.
Nothing will change Trump. As an elected leader, he might eventually get kicked out but then he will return to his oligarchy and continue to cheat and bully everyone around him.
Wealthy powerful corporate leaders are dictators and there is no way to get rid of them unless other billionaires come along that beats them at their own game and takes over their private sector empire.
But labor unions are democratic organizations, like the government, and that means as long as those organizations are around, there is always a chance the membership that votes for their leaders will get rid of the corrupted ones and replace them with honest and efficient leadership.
Once the democratic labor unions are gone, then there is no organization that will represent the workers. As long a labor union is there, even with corrupt and/or incompetent leaders, there is always a chance for change.
Ah, Lloyd, you know MY story and THE story. of what began in the late eighties, and became the ploy in the plot to end the INSTITUTION of PUBLIC EDUCATION.
SO, SIMPLE… remove the doctor from the practice and the patient dies.
Remove the profession voice from the classroom, the one who KNOWS what GENUINE LEARNING LOOKS LIKE, the one who brings AUTHENTIC ASSESSEMENT OF EVERY CHILD, to the school, and VOILA, the school will be demolished as surely as the World Trade Center.
The plot for the DEMOLITION of public education began with silencing the AUTHENTIC voices so the salesmen could sell shinola.
We are now in the final stage, almost 3 decades later, where legislatures with no educators on board, have replaced the local boards where parents and teachers WATCHED AND GRASPED WHETHER OR NOT THE SCHOOL WAS FUNCTIONING.
Diane posts the stories https://dianeravitch.net/?s=legislature
My series here follows her posts.
https://www.opednews.com/Series/legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html?f=legislature-and-governorsL-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-150217-816.html
No accountability and now, no transparency, with a world class charlatan as Education Secretary! https://dianeravitch.net/2016/12/14/how-the-billionaire-boys-club-paved-the-way-for-betsy-devos/
BUT, Lloyd, here is something you do not know! i
I correspond with Randi Weingarten, who was the president of my union , the UFT, during the more than a decade that the contract of the teacher meant nothing.
In a strange moment in my story, my husband called her in 1999, and he gets through by accident.
He is beyond distraught, because an accusatory letter is being used to return me to the district office, (i.e the rubber room) from which I was freed 6 month earlier,becasue I hired hiring an attorney for 25 thousand dollars, in order to challenge them for publishing a letter saying the I had been found guilty corporal punihment.
A letter!
One written by the SUPERINTENDENT , with not a word to me from the UNION about allegations, no charge, no investigation and no hearing. The Manhattan union hack said nothing but “sit down Mrs Schwartz,” — because I had stood up — in shock to discover that THIS was why I was in the rubber room for six months while they dismantled by celebrated practice.
Now, I was returned to the rubber room, because some anonymous teacher in another school, alleged that I said I wanted to kill the principal.
I lost it. My husband came to retrieve me from this hell. He called the UFT, reached Randi, and she, knowing who I was, immediately put me on medical leave. Even that was dangerous, because now they wanted to say I was impaired in some way to end my teaching career.
While on Medical leave the same woman who was responsible for all this criminal behavior, seeing no ACCOUNTABILITY, put our charges of INCOMPETENCE.
Me. The NY Sate Educator of Excellence, 4 times in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers… the NYC Cohort for the National Standards research…
Randi eventually intervened and helped to arbitrate me into retirement. She is aware that it was THAT intervention that softened my attitude towards her. I know how hard it can be when a large bureaucracy is riddled with corruption… look at Congress… but then look at the Senator from Maine!!!
Because I can talk to this person who is the head of the AFT, I do. I encourage her to get the truth out there, to use the pulpit to represent the teachers,
One thing she relates to me, is the enormous anger and hate that comes her way.
It can’t be easy.
But, I grasp why that is, and I cannot blame those who know how their lives were devastated by the top-down bullies that the Unions allowed to function.
I was there!
My publisher, Rob Kall, at OEN is writing a book about TOP DOWN, BOTTOM UP.
He, like you and I , know that we the people are at the bottom rung, as the zillionaires call the shots.
He will be including a chapter about what happened the ‘the schools.’ My journalism there persuaded him that the assault on public education is a prime example of how the bottom -up would bring the solution, but the top dogs at the top, mandate the destruction.
… and the union needs to STOP THIS. NOW!
I see what you meant.
It is sad.
I went to public schools in Brooklyn in the forties and fifties, and in fact went to HS with Bernie Sanders. We had brilliant teachers. I went down the Block to Brooklyn College…a city college, that cost me $50 a semester in tuition.
MY boys went to public schools in Rockland County, when the schools hired great teachers who followed age appropriate objectives. The curricula were created BY THE TEACHERS to meet these objectives. Each teacher used their own education and interest to create dynamic interesting classroom experiences. No one told them what books to use, and there were no standardized tests.
Kids learned and went on to careers that used their skills and knowledge..
One son is CEO of an internet company, in Texas, The other is a cardiologist.
I have 4 grandkids.
2 live in Texas and are in a home school co-op, although the oldest is entering high school in Austin. All I know is that he school is divided into smaller communities, and the learning is project based.
The other 2 live in NJ, and go to a private academy that costs 35k a year.
The classes are small.The teachers are top rate. The programs are wonderful and my grandson has been accepted to The University of Michigan.
But, by the time both are finished with k to 12 education, my son will have spent almost half a million dollars to get what was once available to everyone.. Isn’t he lucky to be able to afford that?
THAT, is not merely sad, it is insane, and unfair to millions who are stuck in places and lives where their children will have little access to building the skills they need to earn a living, raise a family and save for the future.
LisaM: I hear you on this. Let the system show itself for what it is and it will eventually be uprooted and thrown out.
Two problems with that rationale:
1) Many young lives will be negatively effected before the system is dismantled.
2) The charters are taking taxpayer money from public education, which is a big problem in all areas of teaching and providing a clean and safe environment.
The longer this goes on (and the big money reformers can hold their breath for a long time), the worse it will become for the public schools. Their end goal is to dismantle our public school system.
For an understanding of SUNY’s reasoning, here’s a long post about the “allternative” to university teacher training that the corporate ed. reform world is trying to replace university training with. This alternative, corporate ed. reformers claim, is actually better for training teachers who serve kids from minority or low socio-economic backgrounds — i.e. the kids in the SUNY-authorized charter schools.
It’s long, but worth reading for its insight into the corporate ed. reform mindset:
x x x x x x x x x x x x
Low socio-economic kids “need a different type of teacher”… i.e. a graduate of the Relay G.S.E. (Graduate School of Education)…
That’s according to one of the proponent of Relay. In fact, Relay G.S.E. is not, in fact, “a Graduate School.”
Instead, it is a totally unlicensed, unaccredited school taught by unaccredited, unlicensed, pseudo-teachers, where, after this short crash course, earn bogus “degrees” that are not recognized as degrees by any licensing authority in education anywhere.
Sometimes it is within an article’s COMMENTS section that corporate ed. reformers reveal themselves “not wisely but too well,” to quote The Bard.
(In one COMMENTS section, Dmitry Melhorn owned up to the fact that, yeah, we ARE, IN FACT, out to wipe out all traditional public schools .. something denied repeatedly by corporate reformers such as Secretary Devos, who instead lie their heads off and claim that they seek an idyllic “family of schools” — private, traditional public, public charter — all co-existing in peace and harmony. Yeah, right. You mean like they have in New Orleans?)
For example, a Relay G.S.E. supporter got into it with Denver’s Jeanne Kaplan — and one other person calling himself “CONCERNED EDUCATOR” — in the COMMENTS section of an article covering Relay’s expansion into Denver. Alas, this Relay person deleted all of his/her COMMENTS before I arrived at the article and its COMMENTS section.
This article included quotes from both Relay G.S.E. supporters and opponents:
http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2016/09/13/new-teacher-training-favored-by-charters-comes-to-denver-as-critics-sound-off/
First of all, in the COMMENTS section, this “Relay Proponent” kind of let some cats out of the bag with what he/she posted, then deleted everything that he or she posted (with quote remnants present in the Comments responding to him or her. I’m calling this poster “Relay Proponent” as her or she deleted her on-line handle along with his/her posts.)
Check out this doozy (an actual quote) that includes Relay Proponent’s claim that Relay pedagogy should only be used in poor communities, not in wealthy communities:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
RELAY PROPONENT:
“Kids from less affluent areas are typically raised in a much different household than those in affluent households. Moreover, those kids raised in affluent households in most cases need less teaching and structure and more flexibility.
“If they’re in an affluent family, they likely have educated parents, and are being afforded opportunities in their family life to learn.
“Kids from impoverished areas? Not so much. They need structure in their classroom. They need to be reminded to track and listen to the teacher most likely.
“They need a DIFFERENT type of teacher.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Oh boy, this got a Relay critic named CONCERNED EDUCATOR riled up:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
CONCERNED EDUCATOR:
“I want to just point out that, by placing students of low socio-economic status in this light, you have highlighted a very important gap that we are perpetuating by allowing the language of Relay (G.S.E) to continue.
“Yes, students who grow in homes with severe trauma need specific psychological structures and interventions in place, because their brains function differently, and have been altered by the toxic stress.
“However, NOT ALL STUDENTS IN POVERTY HAVE GROWN UP IN TOXIC STRESS ENVIRONMENTS. Making this assumption lowers our expectations, and devalues those students. You are making assumptions that devalue children, and Relay perpetuates that.
“We can value the culture of our students without assuming that culture is negative.
“In addition, assuming that our impoverished children ‘need’ a negative, controlling structure creates prison-like environments, where we do not teach critical thinking skills or self-awareness, but lock children into negative patterns of thought and behavior.
“We also perpetuate the opportunity gap, because we are denying students the opportunity to have the education that wealthy white students have, simply by making the assumption that ‘those students need structure.’
“ALL CHILDREN NEED STRUCTURE. ALL children also deserve the opportunity to have an education that prepares them to excel to their greatest potential, which does not mean treating them like prisoners.
“Relay perpetuates this cycle of creating sub-par education for students, based on the excuse of ‘those kids’ (always meaning children in poverty and non-white children) needing more ‘structure’. SOME students with trauma need more specific interventions, but ALL children deserve the chance to be a child.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
RELAY PROPONENT, in another deleted COMMENT of his/hers, then incorrectly claims that Relay students attend Relay G.S.E. “to earn their Master’s Degrees.”
Jeanne Kaplan’s replies that Relay G.S.E. most certainly does NOT award accredited “Master’s Degrees.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
JEANNE KAPLAN:
” ‘To earn their master’s degrees…’
“Teachers attending Relay G.S.E. cannot acquire a Master’s Degree because the ‘Relay Graduate School of Education’ is not a certified Graduate Program.
“The (Relay G.S.E.) ‘degree’ is bogus.
“Students are being taught by unlicensed people.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
In another deleted comment (which I’m reconstructing, using inferences drawn from Jeanne Kaplan’s reply to her … sorry no exact quotes this time) RELAY PROPONENT replies to Kaplan’s accurate statement — Relay G.S.E. is not accredited, and thus can issue not legitimate “degrees” — by saying that traditional teaching programs are all failures according to the data, and that research proves that Relay alone works with low income children. RELAY PROPONENT claimed that Kaplan has “no research” proving the efficacy of traditional teaching programs, and that any data that Kaplan could offer to the contrary comes from “biased resources”, again, according to RELAY PROPONENT.
Again, from Kaplan’s response, it can be inferred that, in making his/her point, “RELAY PROPONENT also called Kaplan names, and insulted Kaplan (again, no quotes, just reasonable inferences from what Kaplan replied … I’d love to know exactly what “names” that RELAY PROPONENT called Kaplan… if you’re reading this, Jeanne, please chime in.)
At this point, Jeanne Kaplan simply ain’t havin’ it.
Kaplan also wants to know if Relay is paying rent at the Denver public school building where it holds it courses:
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JEANNE KAPLAN: (to RELAY PROPONENT)
“Who are you?
“Identify yourself, at least. I could say the same about you. I could also call you names. That is the M,O, of most ‘debates’ in America today.
” ‘Biased resources.’ Only you ignore data that shows repeated failure.
“As for no research — I beg to differ. I have actually talked to people who have undergone the Relay* (G.S.E.) indoctrination. Some have quit. Many have ended up
in great debt.
“I ask again: is Relay paying rent?
“And please don’t take the chicken way out and not identify yourself. Transparency is another trait lost in ‘education reform.’
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Relay Proponent didn’t just “take the chicken way out” and not identify himself/herself. He/she deleted everything which he/she had earlier posted.
Ever wonder what goes on in a closed-to-the-public meeting of the SUNY Board of Trustees — the group that authorizes NYC charter schools such as Eva Moskowitz Success Academy Charter Schools?
Well, hey, now’s your chance!
Somebody secretly videotaped a meeting of the SUNY Board of Trustees meeting — a meeting where the controversial measure to allow uncertified teachers to work in SUNY-authorized charters was discussed.
It’s now on YouTube.
Included in this meeting was a community leader not happy with the new regulations — one Maria Bautista.
This is truly explosive stuff, and should be posted on your blog ASAP, and please feel free to use the TRANSCRIPT I just made.
SUNY Board Chairman Joseph Belluck claims that he is livid at the tweets and overall “smear campaign” that has been portraying him as *“racist.”
In response to this, Afro-Puerto Rican activist Maria Bautista of the Alliance for Quality Education is not buying Belluck’s attempt to fabricate victimhood for himself. She then proceeds to unload on Belluck, saying that his new policy is most certainly “racist” in its effect, if not intent.
Would you want YOUR OWN kids taught by these uncertified teachers? Bautista asks him, and this sets Belluck off. Unfortunately, this is when the video cuts out.
Enjoy!
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TRANSCRIPT
( 0:13 – )
( 0:13 – )
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Well, I just want to clarify that this ISN’T a smear campaign against you. Right?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That this has EVERYTHING to do with black and brown children – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Right.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – and THEIR access to high quality education, and second of all, if the teachers’ union wanted to be here and talk for themselves, they WOULD be.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “So I’m here to talk about the Alliance for Quality Education.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well, I’ll just … I’ll just say to you that, when I look at my phone, and someone tweets the following:
” ‘ @JoeBelluck is willing to allow this RACIST policy to persist.’ ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That’s RIGHT!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “‘Cause you ARE!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay?”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I take umbrage at it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” ‘YOU”RE the Chair, and you’re allowing it to proceed – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Well -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – so that’s NOT a smear campaign. It’s ACTUALLY WHAT’S HAPPENING, and whether or not you feel defensive about that – ”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – but this is YOUR responsibility.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “I’m NOT defensive about it.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Exactly. You ARE defensive about it. You’re saying that this is a SMEAR campaign, and it’s NOT. We’re calling … we’re calling the cards for what they ARE.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggesting to you is that – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “THIS is the card that YOU are ALLOWING to move forward — THIS idea …THESE regulations for people to give comments on, when we know that they *(classes taught by uncertified teachers) *are going disproportionately impact black and brown children.
“You would NEVER have uncertified teachers teach YOUR children, so WHY is it okay for black and brown children? Why is THAT okay?”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “Okay – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “It is NOT okay!”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m suggest – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “That is the point.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: “What I’m saying to you – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “This is NOT a smear campaign.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” “What I’m suggesting to you is that the things that are going to MOVE this committee to ACT are going to be the SUBSTANCE of the regulations, and WHETHER OR NOT they are the BEST for educating the kids who are in our schools.”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “Would you want THIS for YOUR children? No.”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: (angry) “I’m not going to speak to you about MY children -”
MARIA BAUTISTA: “I would love that -”
JOSEPH BELLUCK: ” – because frankly .. because frankly – ”
MARIA BAUTISTA: ” – because what you would want for YOUR children is what you should want for EVERY child in this city.”
MALE SUNY BOARD MEMBER: “Alright. Can I just – ?)
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Video CUTS OUT
Reply
Belluck’s self-pity reminds me of Trump, whining about how people are saying mean things about him when all he does is say that he has Obama Kenyan’s birth certificate and he only did it for 5 years because Hillary Clinton forced him to. He’s not racist.
Someone should tell Joseph Belluck that when you promote people saying racist things, it is the same as being racist. And claiming that 20% or 25% of the non-white African American kindergarten and first graders have turned out to be so terribly and constantly violent that only suspending them can address their violent nature is actually a very racist thing to say. Which is why the NAACP is questioning it.
Someone should tell Belluck that actions speak louder than words. Choosing to believe and reward a white woman with a financial motivation to get rid of expensive children who struggle to learn who claims she has lots of violent non-white students in her charters without doing a bit of real oversight as to whether her claims of the violent nature of non-white students in her charter is true? That’s something only a racist would do.
CRAZY. What do they know about teaching other than abusing kids and being frauds. And then there’s the money…GREED to the MAX.
Back in 1975-76, before I could earn my teaching credential, I had to go through a year long program through Cal Poly Pomona and that included not only classes but an urban residency where I worked full time for one full school year with a master teacher in her 5th-grade classroom. The poverty rate at that elementary school was 80-percent or higher.
In “The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession” by Dana Goldstein, I think it was in chapter 10 where different teacher training programs were compared. TFA came in dead last for quality and urban residencies came in first by a wide margin.
Lloyd, clearly we need to open a medical clinic that hires “physicians” that we certify and license ourselves, with minimal training for them.
Maybe a five day “training session.” Think of the money we could make.
Hey, if it’s good enough for those so-called “teachers,” why not physicians, nurses, EMT’s. Even, for that matter, plumbers and electricians.
(Yes, this is snark.)
Why are teachers denigrated and disrespected to such an extent, as opposed to other either highly educated or highly trained professionals? Or maybe that’s their next step.
Mao did it in China during his Cultural Revolution. He flipped the country upside down and made it okay for bullies to attack the educated including teachers and doctors.
Have you heard of Mao’s Barefoot Doctors? During the Cultural Revolution, while teachers were attacked just like they are being attacked and insulted in the United States today, anyone in China could become one even if they were illiterate.
For instance, if an illiterate peasant who never had electricity, piped in water, sewage systems, etc. wanted to be a surgeon, there were illustrated pamphlets and films to teach them how to do surgery, andy kind of surgery from the brain to the toes.
The Barefoot Doctors were also taught about hygiene and healthy living. That part worked. All they had to do is go around and show people how to clean-up their homes and wash dishes, take baths, etc. That, by itself, improved the average lifespan in China from 35 to 55 by the time Mao died in 1976.
But there seems to be no data on how successful the illiterate surgeons were. Since more than 95-percent of the Chinese lived in extreme poverty in 1949, most of them had never had any modern health care so even with these bare foot surgeons cutting into people using illustrated pamphlets and/or films to teach them what to do, the quality of life still improved.
Instead of living at minus ten, life improved to +1 on a scale of 10.
Lloyd, I agree 100%. And what stuck out for me was this:
“The Barefoot Doctors were also taught about hygiene and healthy living. That part worked. All they had to do is go around and show people how to clean-up their homes and wash dishes, take baths, etc. That, by itself, improved the average lifespan in China from 35 to 55 by the time Mao died in 1976.”
Those barefoot doctors did a perfectly fine job with the patients who weren’t actually ill but just needed some basic knowledge about hygiene told to them. If this was the charter world, they’d open a hospital run by barefoot doctors that accepted “all” families and taught them about basic hygiene. And of course that hospital would make sure that patients who had any serious diseases were drummed out of their hospital since their illness proved that they were unworthy and at fault for getting sick. And they wanted to show they were 100% successful!
They people who are paid to promote barefoot doctors would point to the hospital run by real, trained doctors who tried their best to care and treat every patient and talk about how many people died there and say that more money should be taken from that doctor-run hospital that has failed so many patients and given to reward the barefoot doctor hospital that has 100% healthy rates! And they would be rich enough to make sure no one questioned why so many patients went missing from barefoot doctor hospitals.
That’s the system we have with charter schools. It’s truly corrupt and the fact that charter operators would prefer to attack the NAACP pointing out that there needs to be oversight and accountability and demands that all should be done in secrecy is something that is worthy of Mao’s China.
Mao’s China was insane. That’s why after Mao died, the military supported Deng Xiaoping who had been an open critic of Mao’s policies, and that almost got him killed. But Deng was smarter than Mao and he managed to save himself and his family and then step back into the shadows while he worked out of sight to gain the support of the generals and was ready when Mao died.
Mao’s wife planned to rule China after Mao died and she was going to continue the insanity of the Cultural Revolution. Soon after her cheating husband died – like Trump, Mao had many affairs with younger women, but he didn’t go out to find them. He had the military find them for him and most of them were teenagers. The teenage virgins that got pregnant from Mao were married off to army officers in the PLA. Those officers were rewarded with rank advancements.
Mao’s wife was arrested as a member of what Deng called the Gang of 4. To avoid being found guilty and executed, she hung herself in her cell.
Mao won the Civil War but Ding Xiaoping made China what it is today, not Mao.
The charter schools now are only about one thing, THE MONEY. Look who owns them and look at the POS head of the department of deeducation in this country. It’s a sham.
I am not in New York. Several things interest me here.
SUNY wants to become systems oriented, like McDonald’s University. The train-your-own-franchise-workers is the model for the charter industry.
I gather that SUNY teacher preparation programs are being captured by the “systems” thinkers who want “pipelines” of talent to flow into teaching and the preparation of teachers, with less concern about professional qualifications then getting a pipeline for schools operated like a franchise, low cost workers and few barriers to entry.
That is not surprising. Chancellor Zimpher will step down from her current role at SUNY at the end of August; and officially launch the nation’s first “Center for Education Pipeline Systems Change” as senior fellow at SUNY’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, beginning in January (2018).
As a member of the University at Albany faculty in the School of Education, Chancellor Zimpher will also serve as chief adviser to President Havidán Rodríguez and his staff… for cradle-to-career partnerships, ensuring that the university’s national leadership in this area continues to build. http://www.suny.edu/suny-news/press-releases/july-2017/7-13-17-zimpher-future-plans/7-13-17-zimper-future-plans.html
If there is a bandwagon around, Nancy Zimpher will join and try to get everyone on board. She is the ultimate “systems are best” thinker and jargon promoter.
Way back in June 2014, in the midst of failing support for the Common Core and PARCC tests she chaired a higher education PR campaign intended to keep both fiascos going. From the press release: “A coalition of more than 200 university leaders from 33 states launched this week in support of the Common Core State Standards and aligned assessments.”….
“These Standards are good for our students, our states and our country. We must have students that are college- and career-ready in order for the United States to continue to compete and win in the 21st Century global economy” said Nancy Zimpher, chancellor of the State University of New York and chair of the National Association of System Heads.”(link A Few of PARCC’s Lessons from “Testing the Test” – WordPress.com).
Back in 2014, the Orwellian-like title of “National Association of System Heads” was relatively new. The Association included the chief executives of the 52 colleges and university systems of public higher education. Among the “partners” of these systems heads were the National Governor’s Association, and Council of Chief State School Officers, the official sponsors and commissioners of the CCSS. The current website for the systems heads is still filled with talk about standards, aligned assessments, and aligned professional development… now framed to promote state plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act.
In 2016, Zimpher jumped on the Aspen Institute’s bandwagon for social emotional learning, joining the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. This commission is co-chaired by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford and The Learning Policy Institute, with John Engler, president of the Business Roundtable, and Tim Shriver, Special Olympics Chairman. According to Politico, (Sept 20, 2016): “Others on the commission include Jim Shelton, president of education for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and former deputy secretary at the Education Department, outgoing State University of New York Chancellor Nancy Zimpher, and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.”
The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, will be funded through 2018 by members of the “Funders Collaborative:” Many of these funders are easily recognized as co-conspirators who want to be in charge of national policies in education: The Anschutz Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Dalio Foundation, The Einhorn Family Charitable Trust, The Joyce Foundation, Pure Edge, Inc., Raikes Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, HopeLab, and Stuart Foundation. Aspen has raised about $4.5 million for this effort.
According to the Aspen Institute’s website, “We expect the Commission to develop a 5-10 year action-oriented road map with specific recommendations for next steps in research, practice, and policy that can accelerate our efforts to promote all students’ social, emotional, and academic development. The Commission’s work will culminate with a final Report to the Nation to be released in the fall of 2018.” Another reform initiative, a do-over for the strictly academic test-driven agenda of the last 17 years.
The Aspen Institute Trustees include, among others, David Koch (funder of climate change deniers), Kay Henderson (ex Chancellor of DC Public Schools), Arne Duncan (ex Secretary of education). There are many others worth noting.
Leaders of the education initiatives at the Aspen Institute include persons who have come from positions in the Education Trust, Gates Foundation, USDE under Arne Duncan, and National Council for Teacher Quality. All are poised to use that dubious experience for the purpose of scaling up really questionable policies. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/programs/education-and-society-program/team/
My question: What on earth is Linda Darling Hammond doing as a leader of an independent policy group now associated with the Aspen Institute and with a Commission intending to have a 5-10 year action-oriented road map with specific recommendations for another educational reform movement, one evidently envisioned as suitable for school accountability under ESSA.
What happens when the SUNY and other charter-friendlies invite minimally educated teachers into schools where the high stakes accountability measures are not just test scores but a bunch of SEL (social emotional learning) measures almost all of these based on highly questionable surveys of students, parents, “educators?” What happens when these surveys are sold by commercial vendors who value the data for ancillary marketing as much as the contract to collect it? Will Betsy Devos’ Neurocore treatment be offered to the minimally trained teachers who are now expected to meet or exceed expectations in producing scores on academic tests and SEL scores? http://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/sel-new-accountability.
It makes sense that they are “systems” oriented because their favorite charters seem to believe that every child is merely an interchangeable piece of machinery that quickly trained operators can program to excel on tests.
If that piece of machinery can’t be programmed by a quickly trained operator, that means it is “defective” and worthless and needs to be replaced by a more worthy piece of machinery that SUNY’s quickly trained operators can program. Of course, what happens to all those supposedly defective pieces of machinery that the SUNY-approved system-trained programmers can’t program to excel is something no one in the education reform business wants to talk about. They don’t matter and are expendable.
Diane,
I need some clarification. I post a lot of what you send and I have a friend that disagrees with this one aspect. This is the quote from him
“I think whoever wrote this blog does not understand how to read a statement of required minimum qualifications. I recruited teachers for several NYS agencies for half a decade, and have been familiar with the state requirements since the early 1970s. The assertions made in the column/blog are only marginally connected to what I have re-read in the trustees posting of regulations. Someone has a point to prove, and either misunderstands or deliberately misconstrues the regulations as drafted. I despise charter schools, but my reading of the draft regs shows them to be directly comparable the the State Education Department’s standard teacher requirements.”
Do you have some feedback for me? I admit that I got a bit lost in the “legalese” of the regulations.
Juanita Mitchell
The post was written by Carol Burris, who was a high school principal in a public high school on Long Island for many years. She read the regulations and concluded they were a disaster.
Is there a way to contact Ms. Burris? The following is also from my friend.
“Yah, I would very much like to see an explication; something along the lines of chapter and verse from the regs to support the assertions. I couldn’t find it. What I did read concerning classroom requirements for the schools themselves seems to have gotten merged into the minimum qualifications for the teachers in the writer(s)’ mind. Please let me know what comes of it.”
Contact information for Dr. Burris can be found on the NPE website.
https://networkforpubliceducation.org/board-of-directors/
Thanks!
I find it interesting that he’d say “half a decade”. That’s only 5 years. Five years at a job in education, or any complex and complicated job, is just scratching the surface and does not make him an expert that knows it all.