I am glad to see that the mentions I made, when i first came on board here, of a Hillary, Joel, Randi connection are now almost fully appreciated.
In truth this was, is, and will be until the end, a Kabuki Thaeter choreographed and performed by a small group of people who see publicity about attacking a disfunctional system as a means to national power. With their allies in the media this group, along with co conspirators like marc Tucker and Lucy Caulkins, has successfully achieved a scam of vast proportions and endangered the education of millions and the social and economic futre of this Republic.
The release of progress reports for New York City’s public schools by The New York City Department of Education provides helpful information for parents, but falls short of accurately assessing a school’s ability to provide a well-rounded education for its students. While The Center for Arts Education (CAE) supports increased accountability, these reports only paint part of the picture of what is happening in our city’s public schools.
Tracking overall performance of a school based overwhelmingly on standardized test scores may be informative. However, relying too heavily on these measures, and penalizing those schools and principals that receive failing grades, ultimately cheats our students and our city. The Center for Arts Education believes that a quality education is one that is balanced and includes learning in the arts, sciences, social studies, physical education, as well as reading and math. Students from all income levels, families, and in every community deserve a well-rounded education. All students should have access to a wide array of educational opportunities that will enrich their lives and provide the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in a new global economy and become good citizens.
Good schools have arts. We are supported and encouraged by the fact that 60% of our partner schools received an A or B grade, reinforcing that good schools are those that include the arts. The arts provide students with unique opportunities to learn and grow, to develop creative and critical thinking skills and the ability to problem solve and innovate―all skills that employers in New York City and around the world are looking for.
The Center for Arts Education encourages parents and school communities to continue assessing the quality of programs in their schools that include the arts in order to ensure that New York City children are receiving a well-rounded education. We hope that these reports will not discourage those receiving lower grades from continuing to provide access to the arts for their students and instead venturing down a harmful path of a limited, less dynamic curriculum.
Richard Kessler
Executive Director
The Center for Arts Education
I agree with you on how this fiasco relates to the "political fortunes of Bloomberg and Klein" and have collected some reminders on how Klein got appointed and how unqualified he is for the job. They're at:
underassault.blogspot.com/2007/11/wmds-at-board-
of-education_10.html
Xkaydet: Glad you added Marc Tucker, who plays a prominent role in the Kahlenberg Shanker book, which will show how these connections go back way before Randi.
Next assignment for Woodlass: show how Randi and the UFT jumped on board the Klein appointment, never raised objections to the Cerf appointment, etc. Connecting the Clinton/Klein/UFT/Tucker dots makes it all make sense.
As to Farina, she ran a "successful' school as principal - -one of the most elite in the city. That was why she thought she could impose the workshop model on kids who had to struggle for every bit of knowledge as teachers did to get them to focus, not exactly a strong point of the workshop model.
Carmen, as deputy, has stated on a TV interview that teachers were not bound by the reading workshop model. She knew that phonics and other components needed to be incorporated.
However when she was a principal, she had the type of population that did well with the workshop model.
We were TOTALLY BOUND by the workshop model in Dist. 2. All the desks HAD to be turned around to face each other in small groups, even when it wasn't your style or desire. Mentors demonstrated the model on one of the better classes, naturally, and teachers told me that when they asked for help with it in one of the less functional classes, these people just had better things to do. Obviously. They couldn't make it work in those classes either.
(This was during the years when they overturned the school library, throwing out much of the world-class literature and putting in contemporary stuff that the good students told me they'd read 5 years before. It was also the time the district had a "no textbook" policy: we had to teach from xeroxes, of all things, and there weren't all that many machines in the building. But I digress....)
The superintendent of a later school I was in (Bronx) was equally fierce on installing this workshop model. Desks turned inward on themselves there, too. We HAD to use it. They put it in writing.
I know all about that workshop model and how it was foisted on a population of students that needed something totally different. The damage it has done to students with poor work habits, who can't settle down, and who can't work without extraordinary intervention by an adult is pretty amazing.
Carmen Farina had her head in the sand. Or maybe she was gaining something from promoting it.
The consequences (for using the Workshop Model) can be observed when students get into High School. They can't read (comprehension), they can't spell or write in full sentences. They don't know how to write an essay. My students write words the way they sound. They just want to do "fun activities in groups" and refuse to work independently. That lack of writing skills affect them in all subjects.
English is my third language and I know that is limited. But I always find myself correcting their spelling.
I was lucky to work in a school that let teachers incorporate the model the way they wished. When I told my principal that I might want to use Basal and workshop together, she had no objections because she trusted me as a teacher.
In that respect she is good, but she still intimidates and our CL's mantra is that she has the right to do so.
I knew Carmen before she was a principal and she was very nice and open to all types of models. However when she became a principal, she changed. That was why my mouth fell open when I saw that interview on Channel 13.
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