City Loses Out
On Fed $35M

I took a quick look at the grant list. Indeed most of the 49 are non-profits and universities. I am disappointed that the federal government chose to overlook school districts in favor of other groups.

I share Dr. Mayo's disappointment: This was a great opportunity for New Haven schools to push forward on a couple of important reform fronts. It's too bad more homegrown reform approaches -- as opposed to national models -- aren't in the mix. I guess all of us in New Haven will need to rally our own resources until national funders are ready to step up to support our work.

college scholarships? Nah man, it's the PARENTS job to pay for their kids college, or the kid should work their way through college. Why should tax dollars be stolen from one person to pay for some strangers kid?

Is this a chink in the armor of school reform?

Check out the real deal on this race to the top money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxWbJ2wu5NM

15 out of 49 are school districts..... That means the other 34 are PRIVATLY run schools or universities..... THINK ABOUT IT!!! why did they get the Federal $$$ .... Because they are private companies that have lobbyist in Washington to give kick backs.... The same way DeStefano id trying to bring in private companies to do City work... Do you really think there isn't something in it for old Johnny boy!!! Think about it!!!!

OK, can we finally say that the much-hyped New Haven contract is now officially last year's news?

And guess what? It doesn't seem to count for very much until we actually produce dramatic results for the KIDS not just exquisitely drafted contracts for the ADULTS.

New Haven better get going...we're already playing catch up to New Orleans, New York, Denver, Providence, Boston, Hartford, DC..etc.

posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS on August 6, 2010 9:44pm

New Haven better get going…we're already playing catch up to New Orleans, New York, Denver, Providence, Boston, Hartford, DC..etc.

New York needs to return the money.

Kids are big losers in Mayor Bloomberg, Joel Klein's school test scores game

Juan Gonzalez - News

Friday, July 30th 2010, 4:00 AM



So all those glowing school test results were a fraud, after all.

For years, Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and top education officials in Albany touted big jumps in math and reading scores statewide - and skyrocketing results among New York City's pupils.

The scores, they said, were proof that mayoral control and Klein's data-driven version of school reform had succeeded.

Schools were winning the "civil rights battle of our time," the chancellor claimed, by closing the racial "achievement gap."

Fix:

You are well aware that the New Haven contract became effective July 1, 2010. While you rush to push New Haven out of the Reform focus in order to shift it back to the private profit centric education creations..., the reality is that New Haven remains an appropriate model. Much has been done leading up to this contract and much more is in place to be done now that it is in place.

New Orleans and New York are hardly models of anything except a dramatic cash shift to Charters which have had little actual impact once you strip away the marketing gloss. You are nothing more than the Haliburton of Education. Mercenaries seeking pathways to local, state and federal money while disinterested in truly closing the achievement gap as your continued viability requires keeping a portion of the population down in order to build yourself and your unfunded, unsustainable and impossible to scale up business model.

You can continue to tout Hartford all you want but there is nothing going on there outside of state subsidized Monopoly with the student playing the role of the thimble and car being moved around the board while you haul away the cash back to the parent organization. You have had unfettered control and cooperation in Hartford yet the results speak for themselves. More money shifted no results. Whereas New Haven has continued to make gains with no more money over the last 2 years as its BOE budget has been frozen.

... [T]ake up Dr. Mayo's offer and take over a Tier 3 school and turn it around. Not a hand picked small group of students who are already proficient but the ones who could most benefit from your wisdom and state of the art techniques.
...

Yes We Can!! on August 8, 2010 2:00pm

New Orleans and New York are hardly models of anything except a dramatic cash shift to Charters which have had little actual impact once you strip away the marketing gloss. You are nothing more than the Haliburton of Education. Mercenaries seeking pathways to local, state and federal money while disinterested in truly closing the achievement gap as your continued viability requires keeping a portion of the population down in order to build yourself and your unfunded, unsustainable and impossible to scale up business model.

I like this.I agree with you all the way. In fact check this out.

Harlem Program Scrutinized, Obama Initiative Cut
Congress is contemplating a major reduction to President Obama's flagship anti-poverty program, as its model—the Harlem Children's Zone—faces new questions about results.

By Helen Zelon

http://www.citylimits.org/news/articles/4123/harlem-program-scrutinized-obama-initiative-cut

"Yes We Can", sorry if I hit a nerve. Must be tough to be under such pressure these days. Not like the good 'ol days of summer is it?

Why choose to turnaround a school when it is far better to start a new school?

Turnarounds are REALLY difficult because the culture is broken. It takes an inordinate amount of resources to reverse attitudes among the adults in the building and even some of the students. Better to start clean.

You want new school leadership, new teachers (non-unionized), and all incoming students would have to go through a lottery process (with some preference for neighborhood residents). That's the best way to get a lot of children into schools that work. Turnarounds are for the adults not the kids!

Re the innovation grants, I will note that New Haven Public Schools IS part of the the only Connecticut Finalist: Education Connections STEM 21 grant, which is supporting new innovative STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses in 12 districts across the state, and NHPS has several high schools involved in this, and we work closely with the cooperative planning this.
(oh, and Hartford is NOT a part of this, and our science scores continue to well outperform Hartford, Bridgeport, New Britain, etc...).

Richard Therrien
NHPS Science Supervisor

Congratulations on your progress thus far, Mr. T. Sounds like you're gaining real traction. I am looking forward to hearing and learning more about your team efforts!

Fix the Schools -- ... Where did this vitriol come from? Heck all the money went to all your kind in the I3 race for money---I guess we should pay a huge amount to grant writers in the future to assure our getting taxpayers money at the expense of other school districts across the nation(the race to the top is a joke) Most of the money went to think tanks and for profit non-profits(did you ever see a non-profit not profit personally)----We developed the BEST plan imaginable --a model for others--yet not a dime---
We don't need it nor do we want it---we will move forward with our bold reform goals no matter what---TOGETHER (parents,teachers,administration and students) have moved forward over the past years and this momentum will continue at an even greater pace--I am thankful for the leadership our BOE and Dr. Mayo have shown in the face of adversity and I trust them to continue doing the things that are necessary to keep this ship moving forward--
Where have you been Fix?---while New York and Texas were caught cheating on their scores and Hartford plummets into the abyss--New Orleans(Louisiana) the easy target for charters after Katrina, and DC ( the biggest joke of all from top to bottom---watch the lawsuits concerning the evaluation program called IMPACT) lets just fire and hire our way to better results----the charter movement made up of your $$$$$ seeking kind is only viable because the economy is hurting and states are looking for a way out(looking for misguided foundations to pay for education) while their new CEO's profit at the expense of students as a whole----
.... -You say
" Why take over a failing school, when you can just start a new one"----Cowardly my friend---with a lottery--can we do that too in all our public schools---what happens to the kids that are not selected(the troubled ones)---where do they go----stop the BS, or do you not care about the least of our children(who your people never serve and have never seen)Do not be a coward--do as Yes we Can stated and take our challenge--or just go away please----Your want to make $$$ for you and yours at the expense of our children--disgusts me----go ahead and take our money and hurt our children so you can have a big house and a nice car----but do it more insidiously please for right now you are right out in the open----Thank you "Yes we Can" you are right on---Unless I get an apology from FIX concerning these last two embarrasing(to him) posts--I will no longer acknowledge his existence and would hope everyone else would do the same(so he and his like might stop stealing from us) Tom

RIGHT ON TOM...i teach in new haven, and i am proud to tell people that!!! charters, lotteries, closing schools...none of that will help our students be successful. every teacher in NH knows that those schools "select" their students. the kids that are troubled, or not successful, are "counseled" back to the regular school classrooms. my school gets at least 5 of these students every year. New Haven PUBLIC school teachers take these students, and help them be successful. we can't/won't turn any child away. And we do it with little or no supplies, changes to the methods of how we teach, and different programs/curriculum every few years. All we ask is that Parents start getting involved. That is the missing piece. Parents need to be in the schools, visible to their children. If we can get 80 percent of our parents involved...that will close the achievement gap. Not money, or new schools, or government intrusion. just let me teach, get the parents into the school and into the classrooms, and we will all be successful.

how will all of the initiatives in the School Reform happen with no money? what about all of the training and mentoring low performing teachers are supposed to get? how will the city pay for that? you can't fire a bad teacher without providing training and mentoring. what will happen to all of the great things in the contract?

Tom, you say you don't need a dime – nor want it. I don't think that Sharon Palmer got that memo because the AFT just spent a whole lot of its members dues on paying for a big expensive study and suing the state demanding $5 billion more from taxpayers. And yet right here on the pages of NHI, you say you don't want it or need it! So which is it, Tom? Do you "need" $5 billion more like CCJEF says you do? Or not a dime more? It's so confusing.

Thanks for the shout-out Nhps teacher---and to Hondo----Will Clark, Leida Pacini and Dr. Mayo have been shuffling the deck for years trying to make ends meet through grants and programmatic changes that are brilliantly done in order to get the biggest bang for the buck---Now could we have used some federal $$$ to help with reform?---of course-----but no tears will be seen and no turning back on reform will happen---we have added some very capable and energetic people to the leadership mix and with their additional talent and ideas, we will find a way-----Hondo, we have all the talent we need here already to get the job done of assisting teachers to be the best that they can be---by using our present resources more efficiently all of the plans in our reform movement will come to fruition---Money isn't the only answer and should never be the first thing we seek---we need to seek a smarter way and that is what we will do---stick with us--if you do, you will be on a winning team, that I guarantee--

And to any naysayers or haters----Sharon Palmer protects the whole public school community and all students with her actions in order stop the big-business take-over of education---Kudos to you Sharon

Take a good look at what is happening----I believe Madoff is still in jail and the Hewlett Packard CEO just received $40 million dollars in this down economy while so many people are out of work(How many people could he have hired if he only took a paltry $5 million for himself) Some things never change--but I will continue to shine the light on these reckless and greedy individuals

Stay the course ---Tom

"Big Business takeover of education"?

Everyone knows, Tom, that the biggest, most corrupt, most regressive, most anti-child business in education is the sinister cartel known as the AFT and the NEA.

The AFT and the CEA stand in the schoolhouse door in Connecticut and New Haven every single day preventing the poorest children in our community from having access to great schools and getting a chance to go to college and breaking the cycle of poverty. You do this all in the the cause of Big Labor.

And for all of your pep-rally rhetoric, you and some of your members continue to make excuses. It used to be "we NEED more money". Now it's "we NEED parental involvement or reform will never work...". ... Its never about what teachers can do to improve the situation on their own. Its always about what someone else has to do first.

... You propogated the lie that "these children" can't learn the same as children who live in the suburbs. And you're still doing it in less direct ways ...

The teacher unions no longer have any credibility - just muscle. But we're on to you. Secretary Duncan is on to you. President Obama is on to you. And the country is on to you.

This union (NHFT) has never made any excuses nor blamed anyone for a childs lack of achievement. We will continue to bring our children to the river of knowledge and chide them to drink, using every approach we can think of----but in the end it is the childs decision whether to drink or not--and when they don't drink we won't give up as most money-making charters do---we will continue on trying to save the childs life even though he chooses to quit-----The difference is Charters teach these children how to quit--and how to give up by counseling them out when the going gets tough----but we will take them gladly and continue nurturing and supporting them through their trials and tribulations----and the charters will wait for the lottery hoping to replace these lost children with ones who are more capable--thus enriching themselves at the expense of the children--Join a REAL movement with a REAL purpose and REAL compassion for our school community-----together we will RISE--
Tom

Rise? - Ha! ... New Haven is disorganized, choatic and should be ashamed of what it has done to their teachers. I am repulsed by the Nh school system. They need a miracle to happen, parents coming in? bigger HHHAAAA! In some kinder terms - let us not forget that teacher reform MUST COME WITH GETTING RID OF HORRIBLE PRINCIPALS - I just don't think anyone grasps that if a leader can't run a building - u think students are going to learn???? Nah, they too busy stealing stuff and smoking stuff they shouldn't on school grounds! - NH is a joke.