New Haven Independent

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | June 19, 2009 10:25 AM

Mr.Rawlings said that,It will be Interesting how the metrics are laid out and who defines those.It would be wonderful if the Community is involved in the process.Mr.Rawlings the metrics is laid out by King John and the corporatist Garth Harries who job is to keep community control out and Mayoral control in.People of New Haven wake up The Corporate Plutocracy is comming to the New Haven School System. Check these website out and you will see what Mr.Harries was a part of in New York and You will see what he is about to bring here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2PW2iN_Yvw

http://www.dumpbloombergnow.org/?p=78

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2009/06/03/2009-06-03_dont_these_kids_count_too_students_at_ps_123_are_pushed_aside_for_charter_school.html

http://socialistworker.org/2009/04/30/using-civil-rights-to-sell-privatization

Posted by: teachergal | June 19, 2009 10:31 AM

Dr. Mayo, "When we're talking about 'reconstituting' at this point, we're talking about throwing the principal out, throwing the teachers out, putting a new principal in, and kind of letting the principal decide on who the new staff will be," he said.

T Gal: So this is the problem...the teachers and the principals. Of course, it has nothing to do with students, poverty, educational background, home support....Dr. Mayo you have wonderful teachers working in some of the most difficult neighborhoods. Most of us are not working @ Conte, Hooker, and the other magnet schools that get much more money to support the needs of students. We do our best. We support our students. We attend professional development where we get wonderful strategies to incorporate into our lessons. We come to work everyday with positive attitudes and want the best for our students yet many of us are disrespected by both students, parents, and principals for no apparent reason.

How can you say that throwing out teachers and principals is going to make the difference. That just doesn't make any sense and it's a total insult to the teachers and principals who work in these very needy areas.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | June 19, 2009 10:47 AM

Kudos to Dr. Mayo.

Even as an outsider coming in as Mr. Harries is, it will be hard enough to implement the kinds of changes that they are planning. But it is even harder to implement the needed changes after 18 years at the helm.

Dr. Mayo is taking a bold and courageous journey. It won't be easy, but as he often says "its about the kids".

For the sake of our city, New Haven needs to come together to support him in this reform effort.

Posted by: Anothermother | June 19, 2009 12:38 PM

Couldn't agree more with Teacher Gal. That's how you overhaul a school, by shuffling the staff?

By all means find the ones whose hearts aren't in the job and who are making life harder for the kids (if you can) and move them along. And by all means identify and dismiss any principals who are asleep at the helm and not inspiring their teachers and students to do their best work.

But this is a system-wide morale problem and you won't fix it by installing a new bunch of teachers to throw rotten tomatoes at. Instead, involve the whole school - students, teachers, parents, principal - in redefining from the bottom up what a great school would look like. Ask the kids what they want. Ask the teachers what they need. Ask the parents to front up. Give the principals freedom to explore a philosophy that works for their school.

It's just a guess, too, but I suspect that if the schools were more grounded in the neighborhood, this sense of purpose would be more easily focussed and tapped. Imagine parents and kids being able to walk to events at the school, or drop in on the way to work for a chat with the teacher. Impossible to do when your kid is bussed halfway across town to a school that's not necessarily any better or more diverse than the one down the street.

And:

"We've got to create more opportunities for kids to be teachers - give them stipends, whatever," [Mayo] said.

I'm a teacher, although not a schoolteacher, and the "whatever" that gets me excited about my job is the chance to use my training and expertise and what I've learned from other teachers to light a fire under my students and bring out their inherent, unique brilliance.

Teaching to a standardized test (and fearing that my job security depended on the results) would drain my tank pretty darn quickly. I worry that it might turn me into an impatient, exhausted antagonist of the students that needed the most help, rather than a kind and optimistic mentor. It's a depressing dynamic that can be observed in any random classroom in this city. These are the dispirited teachers that Dr Mayo appears to be threatening to blame and remove, rather than help by freeing up their ability to use their talents to help kids discover their talents!

So yeah, bring on the "other metrics" and make sure the community, the pupils, AND THE TEACHERS help define them. We are all in this together.

Posted by: Alphonse Credenza | June 19, 2009 12:38 PM

Results would be better if most of the poor performers were kicked out. Get some better students in there and you'll see the results soar.

I am serious. Manual labor is the work for youth who have little intellectual ability or interest. They have no business being in school when, at 16, they are merely being minded and learn nothing.

Posted by: missteach | June 19, 2009 4:19 PM

thank you teachergal and anothermother. both right on in pointing out that it isn't just the teachers that would need to be "thrown out."

I too work at a "needy" new haven school and one thing that keeps me going there is the dedicated professionals I work with. we have no greater goal than to see our students to succeed so that regardless of the school name or location in the city, ALL new haven schools will be viewed as high achieving.

Posted by: Carlos Verde | June 19, 2009 6:33 PM

First let me say that I wish I were a member of the NAACP so I could have been at that meeting so I could hold Dr. Mayo's feet to the fire.

When you talk about throwing out the teachers and the principals who are not performing, that is a good thing. People, lets keep in mind that these are professional educators that we pay millions of dollars to teach our children. They should be treated like any other person in the corporate world. If your performance is not up to par, either correct it or be replaced. You need to come to the reality that you just may be in the wrong profession. So don't be insulted. Learn from your mistakes. That's what a real professional does.

We all should be offended at the unprofessional and uneducated comment by the reader who thinks that the poverty level of a student should be considered in the performance of a teacher or principal. Not to mention the comment "needy schools". Maybe you need to go back for more of that "professional development training" because I think you must have fallen asleep during an important part of that training. THE AMOUNT OF MONEY IN YOUR POCKET HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR ABILITY TO LEARN.

To those who don't think it's right to shuffle the staff really needs to take a course or two in management. One of the major reasons for shuffling the staff is to get those staff members who are underachievers to learn from others who have a proven track record and are dedicated to their profession. Maybe that will save their job! Fear of loosing your job because you don't perform well enough is a very real part of life.

Some of the comments sound like they come from the kind of teacher who likes to hide behind the protection of the union. There is no reason that it should take an act of congress to get rid of a poorly performing employee. And they are ever place. Lawyers, judges, teachers, police, mechanics, you name the field and there are underachievers.

It's not ALL teachers who are disrespected by principals, parents and students. It's only those who don't EARN their respect. We really do not need to offer our teachers any monetary incentives to do the job that they asked to do. ALL teachers need to be "dedicated professionals". Then we will have more high achieving STUDENTS.

Posted by: blue dog democrat | June 19, 2009 9:12 PM

If we are going to remove those persons who are underperforming, when does Mayo leave? Its been under his and JDS' watch that the scores and conditions have kept getting worse. Start there before you remove those on the front lines.

Posted by: Newhaventeacher | June 19, 2009 10:04 PM

I couldn't agree more with teachergal and missteach. I too work in one of the more challenging New Haven schools, and most of the teachers at my school go above and beyond what is expected of them and what they are paid for. They do this after being told off by parents and cursed at by students. But in the end we all hope that these students will rise above their environments and our efforts will pay off. So to "throw out" the teachers, might be be throwing out some of the best role models, friends and chances these students have to succeed.

Posted by: Hood Rebel | June 19, 2009 10:53 PM

The NAACP need to be asking questions like:
How we do ensure that this reform is not about sending out "lifeboats" to save the students with "medium to high potential?"

How do we reduce the teach-to-the test mentality driven by No Child Left Behind and , but instead ensure a rigorous program of instruction that truly prepares our elementary school students to succeed in high school and graduate from college?

How do we move past reporting, bragging, and bashing on just CMT scores but rather have an honest dialogue about the level students actually started and the vertical progress they have made as they progress through the grades?

Why are we comparing the success of 600 students in charter schools to that of 20,000 students in traditional NHPS public schools and using misleading percentages to prove "charter is better?"

How do we demand that schools do not judge students by their lineage, neighborhood, and economic plight; but have the highest of expectations that regardless of students socio-economic situations these children shall succeed academically?

How do we ensure that we do not create a 2-tier system of students who have lottery-savvy parents versus those who not?!

How do ensure the success of ALL students!

Posted by: Comcerned Citizen | June 20, 2009 4:32 AM

As usual we have a few BAGS of noise with nothing constructive to offer. "Corporatist Garth Harries" is not the problem Threefifths. Where have you been for the past 17 years? What solutions have you put forth? The NHPS has been going down the drain for years. If this NHPS problem was not so costly in terms of the wasted lives and unfulfilled potential in so many past students, the comment by Fix the Schools (who is giving Dr. Mayo kudos for taking "a bold & courageous journey") would be laughable. Unfortunately, it is just plain depressing.

As to the NAACP, where have they been all these 17 years while the NHPS went from bad to worse? There was someone in NH once who had the answer on how to fix the schools, but he was run out of town. He actually wanted to make real changes!

Who has headed up the NHPS system since 1992? Dr. Mayo has. Do you know how many potentially productive lives have been wasted due to the shoddy NHPS? Have we had some very successful students? Yes! Thank God. However, those kids also had committed parents or guardians, and they were in the good schools; they also had good teachers and effective administrators. Some VERY successful students have come out of Wilbur Cross, and some have failed miserably.

Dr. Mayo is talking about moving teachers and principals out. He needs to start cutting his top-heavy, nepotistic, incompetent administration by 30%. Put that money into smaller class sizes, more innovative, creative and dynamic teachers. Go back to doing intensive parent education workshops that teach parents how to be effective teachers and support system for their children & the classroom teacher. Build a supportive foundation for learning, especially in the innercity neighborhoods.

For years there have been many who tried to tell Mayo and DeStefano about the problems in the schools. They would not hear it. It fact, any principal or teacher who tried to point out the weaknesses in the NHPS system or specific school got ostracized or alienated. The good caring ones got out as soon as they could, or they went elsewhere. Mayo has been very defensive; it has been all about his ego rather than about the children's education.

Why is it only now that he and the Mayor recognize the need to make significant changes? What is at stake and for whom? That is the main question. How could they have allowed this to go on for so long while they talked up the beautiful structures and the magnet schools (mostly filled with students from the suburbs)? Where were the voices of the politicians and community leaders?

The only question that needs to be addressed is- How do we ensure the success of ALL students? Everything needs to be done to effectively answer that question. The answer might include the Mayor's ouster and Dr. Mayo's retirement. Their egos will get in the way of the type of sweeping changes that need to be made in the NHPS.

Posted by: hope for the city | June 20, 2009 9:54 AM

No serious improvements will be made until Mayo is gone. These ideas sound nice but we're asking the shoplifter to re-stock the shelves.

Posted by: Umm Hood Rebel | June 20, 2009 10:36 AM

There are at this point well more than 600 kids in New Haven charter schools. So it's time to drop the nonsense that these schools are not comparable to the whole district.

In New Haven Achievement First schools alone there are 1189 children this year. That equates with about 6% of all New Haven School children. This number will get closer to 10% in the next few years as new schools open and existing schools grow.

In addition:
Common Ground High School has 150 kids.
New Haven Academy has 250 kids.
(And don't forget that Highville Mustardseed has a large portion of New Haven kids -- it's total enrollment is around 275.)

So before you parrot some talking point from 5 years ago, please be reminded that time marches on. We are no longer in a place where the success of these schools can be attributed to serving small numbers of children or to some kind of creaming of kids.

Dr. Mayo and Mayor DeStefano have dropped these talking points and now say "let every flower bloom." Since (for all but Mustardseed) NHPS has always run the lottery for who gets in these schools, the talking point about creaming has always been nonsense. Same kids, same district, different results.

Get over it and join the effort for real reforms.

Posted by: teachergal | June 20, 2009 11:22 AM

Carlos says, "When you talk about throwing out the teachers and the principals who are not performing, that is a good thing. People, lets keep in mind that these are professional educators that we pay millions of dollars to teach our children."

Actually, I can agree with this to a certain pointl. And Carlost, that's why we have evaluation practices in place. If this was actually followed by admin. then we would not have teachers who are ineffective in the classrooms. We have 3 years before we can be tenured teachers and this is plenty of time to weed out the good from the bad. But, I have not seen this occur in my years teaching in New Haven. Then we are evaluated every year by our principals who are responsible for our continued tenure.

For 30 years I have received only excellent evaluations. I have worked hard and have earned them. But, I know people who have received the same evaluations with little to no effort. Is that right? Maybe we need to make the administrators (Principals) more accountable.

Anyway, let's not play the blame game, there is plenty of blame to go along. Let's begin to finally solve the problem. I hope to be a part of the committee to begin to institute this new "portfolio schools initiative". I look forward to moving forward despite all odds. We need to be positive and stop pointing the finger even though it is hard when we here things like, "throwing all the teachers and principals out of schools."

Lastly, most of us who work for the NHBE are responsible, caring, hard-working individuals who are working in some beautiful if not difficult environments.

Lastly, I have to disagree with Carlos on one very important point, poverty does affect student achievement, like it or not. Students who live in poverty do not have the advantages that other students have. Children who live in poverty do not have the advantage of extra-curricular activities and many times have no one to check their homework, cook them dinner, or spend quality time with them. These are the things that affect learning. I never said working in a "needy or school in the poorest section of town" should affect how a teacher/administrator instructs students. I don't believe that at all. But we should not expect these students to learn at the same rate that students who do not have the same upbringing to learn.

Lastly, (Carlos)I am neither unprofessional nor uneducated, quite the opposite and you should show a bit more respect towards individuals who have a different opinion than yourself.

Take a walk around a 7th/8th grade section of a New Haven school, if they let you, and see for yourself the disrespect, the inability to follow simple directions and rules, and discusting language thrown about. If i heard the word "nigga" used towards another student on Friday I was about to pull my hair out. Until we address those issues, raising test scores will never happen.

Posted by: Harry & David | June 20, 2009 12:28 PM

Having just finished reading "Whatever it takes" by Geoffrrey Canada and "Sweating the Small Stuff -- Inner City Schools" by David Whitman, I feel totally qualified to comment on the matter.
Take a look at this interview with Geoffrey Canada -- http://www.amazon.com/Whatever-Takes-Geoffrey-Canadas-America/dp/0618569898"

Of all the comments above I lean towards those of "Concerned Citizen", except for those comments that may offend anyone.

My comments are based on my limited understanding of what is going on in our schools these past 15 years. Taxpayers -- City and mostly state -- have spent over $5 billion (that is with a B) over the past 10 years on our public schools. Education Department budget gurus will contest this but I have added up the monies allocated in the General, Special and Capital Funds, including the fully loaded personnel costs in the General Fund that reflects benefits and other costs, bond financing costs, etc. and can substantiate these numbers, give or take a few millions. WE cannot contest that over 50% of the City's budget goes for education.

WE also know from State Department of Education sources, NAEP, etc., that New Haven schools have performed in the bottom 10% of all Connecticut schools and these results reflect years of much proclaimed progress. Graduation rates properly measured are not good, reading, math and writing skills are not sufficient to secure jobs for grads in our technical New Haven environment, and we all pay for the consequences in the form of public security, incarceration, wasted lives and taxpayer support for low income segments of our community. Every study has shown strong correlation between wage income and education attainment.

Given my understanding outlined above, the Mayor's and School Superintendent change of heart must be commended. It is most welcome and a pleasure to note this attempt at a new direction, which must signify a recognition that prior defenses of our school system performance was misguided. It takes a big man and a little bit of savvy political calculus to come to these conclusions. In this case the public good and the interests of the political classes may coincide. Democracy works sometimes!

So with this long preamble let me get to the point. Dr. Mayo may not be the man to actually define the needed changes to turn around our schools, but he did what he has to do -- he selected a young heavyweight from Joel Klein's New York school system to head up the multi-year challenge. Garth Harries seems to have the right skill mix and credentials -- Yale, McKinsey, Joel Klein -- to map a new course, provided he is indeed allowed the freedom to do so. He will face the usual forces more interested in the interests of everyone except the students themselves, so let us hope that he has the real support of the Superintendent and the Mayor. And let us do our part to provide that political support.

When we turn to the "how" change can happen, we have not heard much, and for good reason. Presumably it is being developed as we speak. The Portfolio Schools INitiative (PSI) is a nice slogan that requires a lot of meat to flesh out. (Sorry vegetarians). Performing triage on our schools -- high performing, middling performing and low performing -- and providing more freedom of action to the better performing schools is good in principle. One must be concerned about the quality of the "support" that is promised from the Department of Education for those low performing schools. If "support" is nothing more than the old "control" without effective guiding principles, it will fail. Presumably Harries will bring to the table examples and experiences of successful school reform attempst in this country -- from the KIPP schools to the Hartford model to our very own Amistad ACademy here in New Haven.

It is noteworthy that the Hartford system is only one of two in the country to adopt the entire 10 principles of effective schools that I noted were enumerated in the recent REason Foundation report. They include school choice with funding following the student, not the school, performance incentives for principles including merit pay, freedom to innovate, accountability and performance monitoring, etc. Lack of these basic principles create the school environment we have in many of our schools -- with successful schools succeeding despite these obstacles. It is testimony to the innate learning ability/capacity of the human mind that our children have succeeded in our schools despite the lack of these basics.

In conclusion, I must say that the issue is not the teacher or the principle so much as the school and family culture that favors education and supports learning. Some may decry the elements of paternalism implicit in these new methods at KIPP and Amistad, for example, but if they work, let us have more of it.

(A side note. Even though the intake at Amistad is by public school administered lottery, there is still an element of self-selection in determining which kids "choose" to enter the lottery. This should not take away from the Amistad school performance which shows steady improvement for the same kid when measured longitudinally)

Public support is critical, and resistance is sure from those with strong interests in the status quo.

And now I am fatigued and must rest.

Sincerely, H

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | June 20, 2009 5:08 PM

Comcerned citizen
My solution is that I agrre with the solutions that I posted in my comments,Read the webistes and let me know what you think!!!

Posted by: Harry David | June 21, 2009 10:16 AM

My apologies for conflating "principal" with "principle" in many instances of my previous post.

Teachergal has it right. For reasons best known to our school administrators -- feckless administrations allowing union management placing presumed teacher interests above those of students is a possibility -- teacher assessment is not performed adequately and consistently. Teachergal may admit that awarding tenure after 3 years, combined with union contracts that define how performance assessments are made and disciplinary actions taken, are strong disincentives to administrators doing their jobs. Only the most egregious instances of poor performance warrant disciplinary action.

Let us find out how many cases of disciplinary actions and removal from teaching have occured during the prior 15 years? Labor contraccts set the rules for some of these practices -- ongoing teacher assessments, assigning teachers to where they are most needed, work hours to reflect student needs, merit pay for better teachers, etc.

Teachergal is also correct in thinking that these are prerogratives of principals, educators and administrators that have been emasculated and fallen into disuse due to mismanagement, fecklessnes, inertia and labor agreements. Hence the need for school choice and a school financing system that allows school funding to follow the student -- parents will choose the good schools and the failing schools will wither on the vine or whither they go to wither.

And yes, principals need incentives to perform. Name me any enterprise where high and disastrous performance are treated equally? Where there is no incentive for failure to teach?

Of course, we can implement all the best principles and practices discussed and still see our students fail because of other reasons. In the high performing schools teachers play a role but the major performance drivers are the students themselves, they, their parents, their culture, and all the other factors that instill and foster the innate love of learning. Teachers augment this innate learning capacity and in some cases have to substitute for lack of same. Which makes it so much more critical that students who are disadvantaged in their family lives have access to the best teaching that can be provided.

Having said all this the tough work is yet to start. Where will New Haven find the teachers who are still idealistic enough to want to do the job and who are immersed in the new teaching cultures that have shown so much promise? And how will any reforms be implemented -- ideally one may start in elementary school and follow this cohort through middle and high schools, as seems to be the Amistad model. This runs into the political -- and real -- problem of how long will the public and the students wait for these changes to produce results.

The recent Conn Can promoted legislation removing some of the obstacles to using more "Teach for America" volunteers in our schools, to making it easier for qualified individuals to teach after a certification examination without the silly nonsense of requiring an education degree and other reforms are steps in the right direction.

Some implementation hybrid -- all the elements of reform instituted in the elementary schools as soon as they can be put in place with only some of these elements instituted in the middle and high schools due to lack of capacity and more importantly the difficulty of inculcating the right learning culture in our schools and in our students in higher grades.

This will get some results in the high schools but the full power and the full assessment of the effectiveness of PSI will not be known for much longer.

Adamowitz's efforts in Hartford and Joel Klein's in NYC are worthy of review. Canada's and Whitman's books demonstrate how difficult it is to select a good school model, so one should reserve plaudits until we see results.

In the meantime let us, the sorely taxed public, maintain the spotlight on the school administration and the City administration to assure that selecting a new Assistant Superintendent is not just the window dressing it can become and that we support the difficult changes that may be proposed next year. And yes, let us anticipate the gnashing of teeth that will follow any serious attempts to reduce the top heavy administrative staffing that is not only costly but have become a serious impediment to any reform efforts.

My apologies again for allowing a desire to correct the spelling of principle versus principal degenerate into this diatribe.

Harry

Posted by: Ned | June 21, 2009 1:03 PM

Harry, you missed: "Fear of loosing [sic] your job because you don't perform well enough is a very real part of life."

Posted by: Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee | June 21, 2009 3:14 PM

Umm Hood Rebel: "So before you parrot some talking point from 5 years ago, please be reminded that time marches on. We are no longer in a place where the success of these schools can be attributed to serving small numbers of children or to some kind of creaming of kids.

Dr. Mayo and Mayor DeStefano have dropped these talking points and now say "let every flower bloom." Since (for all but Mustardseed) NHPS has always run the lottery for who gets in these schools, the talking point about creaming has always been nonsense. Same kids, same district, different results.

Get over it and join the effort for real reforms."

Now J.C. if you were REALLY pride of this argument you would not try to hide behind TWO pseudonyms to place it on this here. Apparently, have even less fortitude than I originally thought. SMH - that means Shaking My Head.

BUT to your "argument", now are you REALLY going to advocate that an argument is bad, not worth stating, or illicit because it was initially raised 5 years ago. Did the conditions that made the argument legitimate 5 years ago change? I think not.

You were creaming kids at the Charter schools in New Haven five years ago and you're STILL doing it today. Are you REALLY trying to advocate from the prospective that if you tell a lie long enough and shout it loudly enough that the those who would confront you with the truth of the situation should simply go away and stop advocating for that truth because a certain amount of time has past. Are you kidding me with this one, J.C.? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!

A relevant truth should never have to cower in the corner, or give way to political expediency. And this one won't either. Stop creaming your student body. Stop using kids with the best academic potential from the Black community to help you create a two-tier education system where you privatize public schools for the benefit of a some, and the legitimate charges leveled against your program won't be necessary.

And while you're at it, stop hiding behind made up names to push your pernicious agenda.

Posted by: Harry David | June 21, 2009 7:17 PM

Ned: Harry, you missed: "Fear of loosing [sic] your job because you don't perform well enough is a very real part of life."

Did I use loosing instead of lose?? Or should I have caught these grammatical errors in others posts too??!!

My grammar is loosey goosey, being based on colloqial use rather than memorization of the appropriate rules.

Harry

Posted by: Hood Rebel | June 21, 2009 8:08 PM

To UUM:

Sending out "lifeboats" to students "with medium to high potential" has been charter schools lingo. Those are your words and that is your practice.

I hope you don't think that just because it is your wish, that I will stop speaking truth to "power." The truth is that some charters need to reform how they operate as well. You don't like it said, you have a hissy fit when it's said but it's the truth. It will be said!

If this reform process is honestly happening in the interest of children, it cannot be okay for Charters to bash NHPS then transfer kids back to New Haven district in middle of the school year.

Annecdotal data from canvassing the hood, talking to principals, students and families expose this sad and widespread practice.

Charters should do the right thing and post the number of students tranferring back to New Haven after October 1st, and post the charter-transferred students who will be tested on the CMT and CAPT as New Haven students, along with those students grades, attendance, and behavior etc.

Post the data! Tell the whole truth!

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | June 21, 2009 8:26 PM

Harry&David
You want some good books to read on the education system in this country,Check Out Jonathan Kozol.

http://www.powells.com/authors/jonathankozol.html

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2009/04/jonathan_kozol_on_de_facto_sch.html

http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2002/sites/kozol/Seevak02/ineedtogoHOMEPAGE/homepage.htm

Posted by: Fonseca | June 21, 2009 10:02 PM

Well stated Hood Rebel! You are on point. That would be interesting data.

Posted by: Concerned | June 22, 2009 12:52 AM

"that this is new for him and they're trying to figure it out as they go along."

Did he just admit that he didn't know what he was doing?

Posted by: City Hall Watch | June 22, 2009 9:07 AM

Concerned:

You are exactly right many times over.

Fix:

You are exactly wrong. Your sudden love affair with DeStefano and Mayo is as jolting as their drunken swerve to school reform. "Bold and Courageous"??? You have to be kidding and not in this lifetime.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | June 22, 2009 5:51 PM

CHW, Their swerve is not drunken. It is startling, but it is sober and clear-headed.

They are finally headed in the right direction. All of the sign posts are going this way. The federal directives aimed at closing the achievement gap; potential funding wrapped up in the stimulus; and the new-found openess to embracing high performing charter schools.

Why are these actions bold and courageous? Because even though there is clearly a macro shift going on in the educational world, DeStefano and Mayo have built a political support base around them which will not be happy with these changes. The teacher unions will not be happy with these changes. The patronage system will not survive these changes. Teachers will go. Administrators will go. Even though New Haven will have some of the finest public schools in the country, the people who have been at the political core in New Haven may view this as a set-back.

So by embarking on this journey, the mayor and the superintendent will be moving away from the safety of their power base. The easier way to go would be to continue to run things the way they had been. No one is challenging them. A few more terms seems inevitable. But instead, they chose to go the hard route - the right route. So give them some credit. Change is risky.

To Hoodie and Rev. Ross-Lee,

Wake up. The fight is over! You lost! Or, you won! Whichever way you choose to view the situation, the Amistad Academy/AF issue has been settled.

Instead of fighting with AF and ConnCAN, the district leadership is now working WITH them. They're on the same side and seem to be now pursuing the same strategies.

So if you think that AF has it all wrong, that children are cherry-picked, that the data is manipulated, that behind it all is a secret elitist conspiracy to boil and freeze-dry school children to be sold as corporate fertilizer, you need to take it up with the mayor because he has signed up as a card-carrying member. FIX is no longer your nemesis. AF has gone main stream. Don't agree? Read the text of Arne Duncan's speech today and you'll see that the President and the Secretary don't seem to share your view about Achievement First.

But take heart because you also won as well. Why? Because AF will no longer have the luxury of being the alternative. Soon, ALL schools will be run with high expectations, accountability for the adults, highly skilled and energetic principals, great support systems for highly talented teachers including technology, curriculum, recruitment, and lots of professional development. With time, there will be more stories like King-Robinson and as a result the local Amistad Academy success story will rightly be eclipsed by the success of New Haven's own "district of great schools".

So, partly because of the Amistad/Kipp/UCS catalyst - soon EVERY child will have access to a "charter school" education. Congratulations. Isn't this what you have been arguing for all along?

Posted by: Harry David | June 22, 2009 7:26 PM

Threefifths: Thanks for the reading list. I read through the interview with Jonathan Kozol. Normally, Kozol is only on my reading list when I have to do penance for some sin I have committed.

But I get your drift and can gauge your political proclivities. To each his own.

Kozol's paean to school integration smacked to me of paternalism of the worst kind -- the idea that black or minority or any child cannot thrive in any environment other than an integrated one should be insulting to anyone. Does proximity to a white or Asian child in a classroom somehow confer knowledge and good grades??

The rest of Kozol's interview was a diatribe against No Child Left Behind and it's insistence on some performance metrics that avoids the trap of averaging grades for all classes of students in order to bury the achievement gap. But enough said, you get my own political proclivities!!!

Harry.

PS: What is threefifths?? Some measure of single malt Scotch? I would switch to fourfifths and notice the improvement right away

Posted by: Hood Rebel | June 23, 2009 12:45 AM

Love the 4 different models of reform outlined in Duncan's speech...Loved the fact that he challenged all stakeholders to step up to table, get out of their comfort zone, and not cut corners to achieve success... His ideas make a lot sense for New Haven.

http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/2009/06/06222009.html

Posted by: Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee | June 23, 2009 1:26 AM

"To Hoodie and Rev. Ross-Lee, Wake up. The fight is over! You lost! Or, you won! Whichever way you choose to view the situation, the Amistad Academy/AF issue has been settled."

The arrogance of power is not new J.C. Obviously, you're not as smart as you try to appear. History is replete with the bones of braggarts who claim victory based on the mistaken belief that might makes right. So some politicians have given you a shout out and you've prematurely pushed your chest out over that fact. You've won?

You can only win, my misguided friend, if you're playing a game. But this is not a game. It is not a frivolous contest. This is about the lives of our children. It is about your willingness to exploit their education for the sake of your agenda which is not concerned with what is best for all of the students of New Haven, New York or wherever else you plan to plant your business institutions disguised as public schools.

History is also replete with the words and mistakes of Washington politicians who make wrong-headed decisions in attempts to quick-fix problems that are more complicated, complex and tricky than they would like to grapple with.

I'm aware of the perspective of the Secretary of Education and his work in Chicago. He was wrong there and he is wrong now if he insist on supporting Charter schools simply for the sake that they are different from the current public school system and is not willing to take a close look at what Achievement First and other businesses like it are doing to and within the African-American community as it cherry picks students and leave the rest to the devises of a poorer school system with little help and even less hope of a legitimate chance to succeed.

We've lost, you say. Not until we stop fighting have we lost. Not until we stop revealing the truth about your agenda and its ultimate affect on our children and community have we lost anything. More and more you agenda is being revealed by the wise and the vigilant.

Know this, J.C., the wise, the vigilant and the faithful never lose, because they never stop. You probably shouldn't declare this issue "settled" too soon.

Posted by: City Hall Watch | June 23, 2009 9:44 AM

Fix:

Talk of school reform is about money and federal money to be exact, which is why Mayo/DeStefano have finally joined the train. ... So give these two their due for having a mercenary epiphany but don't call it courageous or bold. And don't forget the thousands of lost lives across the last 16 years that have been sentenced to a life of poverty under the leadership of these two men who twiddled while New Haven burned; who built monuments to education for a dwindling school enrollment and in the process, destroyed the neighborhood schools.

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | June 23, 2009 1:17 PM

CHW, I agree with you re: the sentiment. But practically speaking, these two have the best chance to make progress. No one else is even on the horizon. And frankly, the mayor now is very knowledgeable on the topic. Once he decided that this whole thing was worth investigation, he became a very quick study. Sometimes you just gotta go with what you've got!

Rev. Ross-Lee,

I meant that the debate with FIX is over. Not that the fight for good schools is over.

But you now must take up the argument with the mayor, the superintendent, and the BOE. Not to mention that there are an increasing number of parents who recognize that unequal education need not exist in New Haven.

Rev., anybody who can visit KIPP-Infinity and remain unimpressed by the wonderful transformative effect that that school has on children and their families, is locked into some very misguided ideaology.

If schools like these are not part of the answer to breaking the cycle of poverty, what in God's name would you propose to do, sir?

Posted by: Rev. Samuel T. Ross-Lee | June 23, 2009 5:19 PM

Fix: "Rev., anybody who can visit KIPP-Infinity and remain unimpressed by the wonderful transformative effect that that school has on children and their families, is locked into some very misguided ideaology.

If schools like these are not part of the answer to breaking the cycle of poverty, what in God's name would you propose to do, sir?"

I remain "unimpressed" because it's remarkably clear that KIPP is doing the same thing that AF is doing. They're creaming my friend. They-Are-Creaming!

In GOD'S name, I would propose NOT taking the best students from the African-American Community and leaving the difficult cases to fend for themselves. In GOD'S name, I would propose not lying about your record, when you only have students of your choosing and then comparing their records to students who are not as naturally gifted, or whose gifts are a bit more challenging to discover and cultivate.

In God's name, I would propose not working to set up a system that will re-segregate the public school system.

In God's name, I would propose a care and concern for a quality education for ALL of God's children.

I could go on of course, J.C. after all, I am a Baptist preacher, but I think you get the point.

P.S. Tours don't impress me. Facts Do!

Posted by: anon | June 23, 2009 5:45 PM

Harry David: probably means three-fifths of a person.