Clownmommy

I guess I kind of scared The Husband when I told him my mind had wandered to thoughts of Indian boarding schools while I was thinking about the strict systems of merits and demerits and rote learning at Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School and Eva Moskowitz’s Harlem Success Academies profiled in this weeks issue of The Village Voice.

Boarding schools were created towards the end of the 1800’s in order to educate the children of Native Americans, Canadian Indians and  the Aboriginal Peoples, of Australia (to whom the Australian government recently issued a formal apology).  Children were taken away from their families.  Their hair was cut, they were forced to wear different clothes, practice a different religion, speak a different language and even change their names all in the interest of assimilating.

The missionaries who founded these schools believed they were helping the children by taking them away from their families in order to teach them how to function in the dominant Eurocentric culture.

One of the comments by a PS 9 parent advocate, at the PEP meeting the other night, focused on the Uncommon Schools (the parent organization of the Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter school) policy of actively discouraging parental involvement to the point of sending a cease and desist letter to a group of parents attempting to start an PTA organization at one of their schools.

I don’t know what would cause me to ponder the culture destroying Indian boarding schools of the last century… unless… It might have something to do with the lack of respect for the values and opinions of public schools parents that I have so recently witnessed.

Hundreds of people spoke passionately for two timed minutes each, one after another.  At the end of it all the board went ahead and voted to pass all of the resolutions for closing or relocating schools.

Not even a single motion to simply table just one decision about any individual school –while awaiting clarification of the validity of a particular statistic, number, or fact–if only until the next meeting– was passed.

The meeting ran until one in the morning.

Nothing changed.

The members of the panel didn’t even pretend to listen for insight about the schools from any of the parents, students or teachers who are in those buildings every day.

The lack of respect shown by people of power towards those whose own children’s educational lives are at stake was appalling.

Until tonight I thought my difficulties with the New York City Department of Education were all mine –not being a bureaucrat, disliking forms and standardized tests and all that–  But, after sitting through the vote of the mayor’s Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) I no longer believe that decisions are made in the best interest of the children or even of schools as community institutions.

I heard one of the representatives of the DOE actually say out loud “Our most important issue is space.”

It is all about real estate after all.

And it is about the money that can be made.

The last item on the agenda was about a software program to teach classes in lieu of teachers.

However, if a school’s computers work as well as the microphone used by the man who was proposing the purchase of the new system –The microphone kept cutting in and out with periods of not working at all–  I think the kids are screwed.  (So are the teachers)

A man, who I think was the parent representative on the panel, questioned the wisdom of signing a contract with the vendor to provide this particular software to more schools.  He said his kids attended a school where some software was being tested and his kids, having tried it, came home and told him it didn’t work.

The man promoting the purchase disregarded this.

The parent asked why they needed two years to test the software when his kids knew after two weeks that it was broken.  The process of choosing and purchasing this product was 2 years.

At the same meeting when PS 9 parents asked for the decisions about their school be tabled until they could put together a proposal to make their school a zoned K-8 school for the growing neighborhood full of young families as option to be considered in lieu of closing “failing” MS 571 and inserting the philosophically opposite Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter Middle School to which lottery winners come from all around Brooklyn.  But, those parents were told they had their chance to apply to become a K-8 school 11-months ago at the same time as another neighborhood school, Urban Assembly Arts and Letters had done just that.

The parents countered that it hadn’t occurred to them to put together a proposal to change PS 9 from a K-5 school to a K-8 school because at that time, a year ago, they had a working relationship with the principal and PTA of Middle School 571 already in their building (remember the library building project) and had no idea the DOE was planning to remove that school and replace it with strict and rigid statistics driven charter school at the complete opposite end of the educational spectrum from the community supported neighborhood school with a whole child philosophy until the DOE press release less than three months ago.

My official copy of District #13 middle school choices which lists the Bergen Upper School (aka MS 571) as one of my choices and said nothing about it being a failing school on the chopping block.

At another point in the PEP meeting, someone asked the DOE representative what happened to the children who were stuck attended the failing comprehensive high schools that were being phased out in the Bronx and Queens.  The bureaucrat said that New York City has a choice process for High School enrollment and those student had chosen that school, implying that any gaps in their education were their own fault because through their own free will they  chose to attend a failing school in the process of being phased out of existence.  That was the most offensive thing I heard all night.

I have many clown friends who play fast and loose with their text.  But, clown is not the same as stand-up comedy.  I’m not a mime, but I prefer to be silent, or at least not say very much as a clown in front of an audience.

This might be due to my journalism studies.  Be careful which words you choose and all that.

I have my reasons to be afraid to let just any old thing come out of my mouth.

When I was in journalism school we had a textbook case, in one of our actual ethics textbooks, about an event that I clearly remembered as part of my freshman year in high school.  A big city newspaper’s slice-of-life-on-the streets gritty feature story about a murder victim was reprinted in the victim’s hometown paper.   Her father taught at my school.

Now, friends of mine are involved with a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Mikado with updated improvisations referencing current political figures that have drawn national attention to the theatre company and not in a good way.

Yikes!

The thing that I was afraid would happen has happened.

Today My Kid brought home a letter informing us that she was invited to interview at a middle school on a particular Saturday morning which happens to be the same time that she is scheduled to take the test to see if she qualifies for a city-wide gifted and talented school.

The previously scheduled winter soccer league game–that isn’t even allowed to count for anything in this equation.

One school gives me the name of a person to contact.

The other school uses an online test registration program and we must present our test appointment confirmation computer printout to get in the building.

From which school will I request and hope for a possible reschedule?

The Impact Statement produced and cited by the DOE to prove that there is room to implant a charter school into the building currently occupied by PS 9 and MS 571 says that PS 9 currently has three kindergarten classes when in fact there are six.  Given the current demographic of the neighborhood, I would be willing to bet that most of those kindergarteners are dropped off each morning by parents pushing strollers containing younger siblings.  Last year 237 families applied for the 54 pre-k seats available at PS 9.

The Parent Teacher Organization has worked hard to revitalize PS 9 including the development and completion of the Book Hive, a brand new state of the art library funded by school parents, the office of Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President and the office of Letitia James, New York City Council.  It was designed by PS 9 parent Kiki Dennis.

A reception to celebrate the opening of the beautiful new school library was held on November 17, 2010

Unfortunately, after the party, the library was closed because, due to budget cuts, the school does not have enough money to hire a librarian.

The DOE’s plans for the new charter school in the same building call for limiting PS 9’s access to the brand new library that the parents built, to four and a half hours per week for 29 classes.  The charter school with a quarter as many students will have access to the library two thirds of the time.

As reported on the blog Brooklyn Ink:

“Here we truly came together…with a common cause … and created this for our youngsters,” said Sandra D’Avilar, Principal of the elementary school that renovated the library, but whose tightened budget no longer had room for a librarian. “And it’s still not enough to make someone from the Board of Education call and say, ‘hey, we found some money. We‘re going to send someone you can interview, and we’re going to find you a librarian.’”

Instead, the DOE has decided to insert a charter school into the “underutilized” building.

The DOE has plans to close MS 571 which opened in in 2004 under the leadership of the former PS 9 principal who was familiar with the building and known to local families.  The first 6th grade class at MS 571 was immediately filled with high performing graduates of PS 9.  When the founding principal retired in 2006 she was replaced by a woman who had been principal of  Intermediate School 33 from 2006 until it was declared an “underperforming school” and closed by the DOE in 2007.  This new principal was a graduate of the NYC Leadership Academy for aspiring principals.  (I don’t know what is taught in the 14-month training program, but the organization has a CEO and Board of Directors which implies some sort of profit-making motive.)  By 2008 this woman was replaced another new principal.  In 2009 MS 571 finally got the middle school accessories, a science lab and new computer lab, that had been sorely lacking.  AND in 2010 with the new labs in place and the joint community venture of the PS9/MS 571 library completed the DOE declared MS 571 a failing school and announced plans to phase it out and bring in a charter school of the strict reform school mold.

This is not a good fit for a school with a whole child philosophy as stated on the PS 9 website full of photos of smiling paint spattered children;

We believe in servicing the whole child—the physical, intellectual and emotional well being of every student—as we strive to teach students to be ready for the 21^st Century.  We foster a close bond between the school and the entire community as it is our goal to create a learning environment that is challenging, child-centered, diverse, and supportive of risk-takers.  We believe in, and provide our children with, authentic and organic instruction everyday.   Students are given the opportunity to seek, read, question, create and draw conclusions from the world around them as they are exposed to the urban world around them.  Our classrooms are laboratories where our educators involve students in hands-on activities and closely observe them as they work in groups and individually.  Our teachers are lifelong learners who share best practices through collaboration and team planning.

By contrast, the website Uncommon Schools, the parent organization of the Brooklyn Collegiate East Charter School is full of grey graphs indicating statistical percentages by which the students improve on standardized tests.  It states;

Collegiate creates a calm, composed, and disciplined environment to maximize the amount of time on-task, including a strictly enforced school dress code, a merit and demerit system that defines clear expectations for and immediate responses to positive and negative behavior, a rubric system that provides constant feedback to classes, and a common Blackboard Configuration consisting of a Do Now, Focus, Agenda, and Homework.

Collegiate creates a calm, composed, and disciplined environment to maximize the amount of time on-task, including a strictly enforced school dress code, a merit and demerit system that defines clear expectations for and immediate responses to positive and negative behavior, a rubric system that provides constant feedback to classes, and a common Blackboard Configuration consisting of a Do Now, Focus, Agenda, and Homework.

Yikes!

Parents writing for the PS 9 PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) blog have an answer for other parents who might think the new charter school addition to the neighborhood will benefit their own children.  Think again:

“Brooklyn East Collegiate is not a good fit for most P. S. 9 graduates.  It runs a very strict program for under-performing students (for example, 5th graders who are reading at a 3rd-grade level).  It’s young, idealistic teachers are doing a great job to help their students advance.  But, otherwise, PS 9 parents who visited Brooklyn East Collegiate discovered an environment markedly different from P.S. 9’s.  The labor-intensive work of bringing students up to grade-level performance leaves no room for art or music programs.  In the hallways, children are seen and not heard.  They stand in straight lines, and everyone wears a uniform.  Discipline is based on a stringent system of merits and demerits.  For example, a student may receive a demerit for falling off task.  The school originally intended for the Brownsville neighborhood (in District 17) will accept children from all over Brooklyn.  It will not be a viable option for most neighborhood children in District 13 where PS 9 is located.

Brooklyn East Collegiate has no PTA, nor does the charter leave room for one.  It’s “Family Involvement Committee” is allowed to make suggestions.  The board of trustees has much more say than the parents.  By contrast, PS 9 is a barrier-free school that serves a wide range of students in our community including special needs and gifted & talented.  Principal D’Avilar has worked hard to forge ties with the Prospect Heights community, which has welcomed her efforts.  The narrow focus and rigid philosophy of Brooklyn East Collegiate is not inclusive enough to serve the broad needs of the baby boom in Prospect Heights.”  (http://ps9pta.blogspot.com/2011/01/think-you-might-send-your-ps-9-student.html)

The DOE claims MS 571 lacks the capacity to turn around and is not allowing PS 9 to expand (even to become a K-8 school which is what local parents want).  The DOE is misguided to think that the creative classes who find the cultural diversity of Brooklyn so appealing would consider a strict remedial program for “underperforming students” a viable option for their own kids.

No wonder Council Member Letitia James is so passionate about improving rather than closing MS 571.

NO WONDER THE PARENTS OF PS 9 HAVE MOUNTED A CAMPAIGN TO PROTECT PS 9 FROM THE DOE!

I was in journalism school passing through the big editing room and paused to watch the rocket launch on multiple television screens.  Against the beautiful blue sky  the smooth white trail of smoke from the rocket suddenly split into a sickeningly jagged Y.

There are posts on various online local parents list-servs about tonight’s rally to protest the closing of Middle School 571, Upper Bergen School AND/OR to protest the co-location of a Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School in the same building as P.S. 9.

On the Fort Green Kids List, Stephanie posts:

Rally 5:00 pm

Public Hearing 6:00 pm

PS 9 is located at 80 Underhill Ave.

“Come out and support one of our best public schools against the Department of Education’s arbitrary decisions that make no sense. They want to put a third school in the same building as PS 9  severely restricting access to the library, gym, schoolyard and cafeteria.  The DOE wants to cap Pre-K at 54 students which is an absurdly low number for the area’s baby boom.”

In the process of putting together this simple “passing the info along” post, I found out that the Parents Association Board of another PS 9, in Manhattan on 84th street, has also recently drafted a resolution in opposition to the co-location of a charter school this one named:  Success Academy.

FYI:  Public schools must accept and educate all comers.  Charter schools are allowed to limit the size and composition of their student body through application processes including lotteries.

Are we meant to select AND/OR hope for winning lottery tickets to get our children into schools on the open market based on some sort of pseudo-preppy logo, allure or street appeal in a manner similar to the way in which we decide which among the multitude of delis and coffee shops to frequent?

While sitting in a diner in Chelsea today, I overheard a couple at the next table who seemed to be in their 60’s.  They were talking about current and former careers including high school guidance counselor.  One of them said he got into the field because of his preference for one-to-one contact with students and was critical of all of the accountability required by the current system, which turns teachers into robots. He said the kids have multiple choice tests and have never been asked to think.  When the city got millions of dollars for education from the state it was used to evaluate the evaluations.

She remembered when they were in school and there were three kinds of high school diplomas, general, commercial and academic.  He said now everybody’s going to get a regents diploma.  But, we need people to be plumbers.  The kids have been sold a bill of goods.  They are told “You can do better.”  At the same time PhD’s can’t get jobs.

He has a point.  Tracking fell out of favor because gifted and intelligent students of color were told they weren’t college material.  People like me had no options but going to college and found out later that one of my favorite jobs ever was a deckhand with the engine room checks and safety drills and the diesel fuel scent anticipating getting under way.

In the 1980’s the media was all abuzz with admiration for the wonderful Japanese school system, but I worked as a clown in Japan, and I happen to know  that most of the stage managers, and sound and light board operators I met there, had dropped out of high school as soon as they realized they did not want to become salarymen in suits which was the only occupation such an education was good for.

At this point we have no idea which middle school our daughter will attend next fall.  There are some with science themes which we prefer.  I have a daughter who self-identifies as a geek and who says she wants to be an engineer or a physicist and go to MIT.  I don’t know if she really wants to do that or if she even knows what it means.  Perhaps she just says it because it makes adults smile.  But, wether or not that is what her future holds it damn well better still be an option when she comes out of middle school at the end of eighth grade.

Not that it was a life goal of mine, but by the end of eighth grade, I knew that the possibility of becoming a medical doctor was already off the table.

There are schools which encourage children towards academic excellence (which is not the same as test scores) through exploration and discovery.  But they are few and far between.  There are other school which focus on the metrics of test prep, standardization and scores.  This is not what I want for my child.

In the looking for the correct spelling I googled “metrics” which, via Cathie Black, I understand is a business term.  I came across this quote:

“Businesses that succeed and make money constantly assess themselves and improve in all dimensions of their business; metrics are the cornerstone of their assessment, the foundation for any business improvement.” –CFO Magazine via the Business Process Reengineering website.

This is the language of CEO Mayor Michael Bloomberg and CEO Schools Chancellor Cathie Black.

On the same page I also found this.

Developing effective metrics may appear easy at first glance, but many have fallen into common traps that you can avoid. Examples of common pitfalls are:

1. Developing metrics for which you cannot collect accurate or complete data.

2. Developing metrics that measure the right thing, but cause people to act in a way contrary to the best interest of the business to simply “make their numbers.”

3. Developing so many metrics that you create excessive overhead and red tape.

4. Developing metrics that are complex and difficult to explain to others.

IMHO the NYCDOE had stepped into each and every one of these traps in the effort to measure what the children are learning.  (But that’s a whole ‘nother post.)  Any parent will tell you, what we intend to teach our children is not the same thing as what they learn.

As it happens, over the holidays my husband taught my daughter to play blackjack with poker chips and she took to it like a fish to water, which I believe is a direct result of my child’s familiarity with the the crap-shoot middle school choice process and the lottery system used to place children in charter schools.

Here is the text of a speech Cathie Black gave to the parents and students of the $50,000.00 per year Connecticut boarding school that her own two children attended followed by the text of the speech she gave at her Brooklyn debut before an audience of public school parents, teachers and students at the Panel for Educational Policy packed into the auditorium at Brooklyn Tech High School last Wednesday.

Taking Life On

Prize Day Address, June 6, 2010
Cathleen P. Black

I want to talk to you about “taking life on.” Meeting its challenges. Enjoying its pleasures. Fighting its injustices. Facing disappointments. Getting right back up. Standing up for what you believe in. Finding your passions. You are the generation who will truly be global citizens. By having friends from many cities, countries, and continents, you have learned that similarity of thought and action outweighs many differences. Intelligence, pluck, and determination know no borders. Everything you need to be armed with, everything you will need is contained in the Kent motto—Temperantia, Fiducia, Constantia. For those of you who forgot your Latin in the last weeks of fun and goodbyes… that’s “Simplicity of Life, Directness of Purpose, and Self-Reliance.” That sums up exactly what you will need in the world… and what the world needs from you.

Simplicity helps you focus on what’s really important.
Purpose makes it meaningful.
Self-reliance makes it happen.
Those principles—focus, purpose, and selfreliance— you will need in college. You’ll need them in whatever career you choose. You’ll need them in family life down the road. What you think you want today will undoubtedly change. And that’s fine, too, and just part of growing up and growing wiser and knowing yourself.

I went to a small women’s liberal arts college; Alison has chosen the University of Colorado—25,000 students! Think she wants a completely different college experience than I had? You bet! On our college visit, I can still remember Allie getting out of the car in Boulder, surveying the campus and the mountains in the distance and saying, “This is exactly what I am looking for!” The good news… she got in! But no matter whether big or small, an hour from home, or a coast away—college is an exhilarating and expanding experience. And yes, often scary, too. As you think about your major, this too could change. I was an English major, liked writing and  reading, and entered into publishing a long time ago. My publishing career has been more interesting than I could ever imagine, full of challenges, talented people, creative endeavors, and a lot of satisfaction.

Yet at the end of the day, it is my family—loving husband, Tom Harvey, and two great kids, Duffy and Alison—that are my greatest satisfaction. You will figure out what your purpose is. It will not lie in the expectations of parents, teachers, friends, though they have a profound influence on you. You will claim your own purpose and come to define your dreams for yourself. Or in the words of Oprah Winfrey, “Live your best life.”

Your self-reliance has taken root and grown here. That sense of confidence and independence will make you feel at home in the world of college. But there will be many distractions—and a lot fewer rules, so be careful! I hope you will also take advantage of any opportunity to study or travel abroad. I spent my junior year in Rome. It was amazing—enriching, life changing, and a whole lot of fun—expanding my horizons and giving me new goals and dreams. I didn’t realize it then, but I was preparing “to take life on.”

I was always motivated, but I became more selfreliant. Others can teach and guide and mentor you, but just doing—and doing more than is expected— and doing it well, is about self-motivation. Here at Kent you have learned much about motivation and also leadership, through sports—whether on the water, on the fields, on horseback, on the courts—on stage, in the labs, in the studio, in community activities, in clubs. There have been victories and losses, all helping you to learn that life gives and—takes back. And it’s not all about winning. It’s about learning and leading. I want you to think about what it takes to be a leader—for this next phase of your life. One can lead in big and small ways. Standing and taking responsibility is a first step.

Competence and confidence are two more components. The other is knowing that a leader needs followers. They define and decide who the leader is. On the subject of leading others… here’s a short fable Alison recently wrote for Mrs. Stout’s “microfiction” class.

The Goose with the Gray Feather
“The flock began their journey south for the winter. The goose with the gray feather saw another goose leading the flock and knew he could fly faster. “Leaving his place in the V-formation, he flapped strongly until he passed the leading goose. But soon the goose with the gray feather got tired and began to slow down. He glanced behind him but saw no flock… “… For one cannot lead a flock one is not united with.”

That’s a lot of wisdom from an 18-year-old. As you leave today to start a new chapter, I really want you to understand that you are a whole person with every opportunity to maximize life in college and life beyond college classes. Maybe you’ve been known here as an athlete or a brainiac… or both at the same time… or a screw-up or an introvert. Well, whatever you’ve been labeled, you can choose a new persona! You also leave this campus knowing how important it is to take care of others. Compassion has been instilled in you. So be great—in mind and spirit and body. And be kind. There’s no one right path to greatness. The world needs everyone’s gifts, be it politics, sports, rocket science, biotechnology, entertainment, medicine, education, philanthropy, volunteerism. There are many ways to be helpful and caring, and to make your own dreams come true as you take life on.

On the practical side, you’ve already learned more about time management than many people know when they first go to college! You have not had your parents to review homework or get you out of bed in the morning. You know how to get your work done in the time you have to do it. You know what it is like to not just have a roommate, but to learn how to compromise in small ways and small spaces. You also know how to be away from home, some of you from very far distances. That’s a great advantage in those first few months. You understand and embrace diversity. It’s the world you live in. The inclusive student body has given you an appreciation of different types of people with different backgrounds and stories. You also graduate fluent in the language of technology that everyone now speaks around the globe. The importance of this can be summed up by Alison, who recently informed me while she was busy texting with her flying thumbs that, “E-mail is for old people.” Well, I just got an iPad! So there!

But she has a point. The world flies into and out of your palms. It moves way faster than it moved for us, as parents. The world of knowledge and information is yours with one click to Facebook or YouTube or a swipe on an iPhone. Your fluency in technology prepares you to connect, compete, and collaborate globally like never before. It is another way that you can both make a difference in the world and help realize your own big dreams.

Your time at Kent has supplied you with a great experience to help others—whether it be a roommate in need or just a friend who needs a shoulder to cry on. It’s called empathy. At Kent, you have seen helpfulness and experienced the forming of deep friendships that should stay with you for years and years. I have heard many adults say that to this day their circle of boarding school friends are still their best friends. That’s what Science Department Chair and Master of the Guild Jesse Klingebield presented the Stone Bowl for the best Guild paper to Ruxin Michelle Zhao. Kathy Nadire and her daughter, Nora. comes from growing and experiencing so many situations together. One more thing before you leave “to take life on…” As proud graduates, remember in the days and all the years ahead to have fun. And to give back. Work and life brim with opportunities for joy. And for those of you from less fortunate circumstances or complicated family situations, here’s a direct message from the famed basketball star, Magic Johnson.

Just last week I heard him give a talk to 4,000 high school students in Detroit. He told them how he grew up in the projects with six brothers and three sisters and not much food on the table. But it was his mother who said over and over, “It is not where you are from—but who you are.” Kent has taught you a lot about who you are. That should stay with you always. It’s about knowing who you are and being the best that you can be. And always know that happiness has more to do with success than success has to do with happiness.

So go take life on… and don’t forget to say thank you to your own parents and your Kent family. We are all very proud. You should be too!
The best of luck!
Congratulations, Class of 2010!

Difficult Times Ahead

Prepared Speech at Panel for Educational Policy, Brooklyn Tech, January 19, 2011

Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Good evening to members of the panel, elected representatives and to everyone assembled here tonight.  By being here, you’re displaying a real commitment to public school education and I appreciate you for coming to make your voices heard.  Thank you to the members of the Panel for the Educational Policy.  This panel has played a vital role in the major policy changes that have dramatically improved student outcomes in our city.  I look forward to working closely with you on the important issues that we are all facing during very difficult times ahead.  We must continue to keep the children of New York City at the forefront of our decisions and be thoughtful, but bold.

Since joining the Department of Education, I have visited many schools and have been inspired by conversations with students, teachers, principals and parents about the great work that goes on in our schools every single day.  At these school visits I’m seeing what makes an effective school leader and how a strong school culture can contribute to learning.  And if we want to build on the historic progress already made with this administration we need to put the strongest teachers we can in every classroom and the best principals that we can in every school.  We need to support these dedicated leaders so that they can provide each and every child with the best possible education.

As chancellor I’m dedicated to the mission that our students must have a rigorous core curriculum that truly prepares them not only for college and careers but for the opportunities of the 21st Century.  I will focus on building a comprehensive evaluation system that will support and develop our teachers so that every child has a teacher who is constantly challenging him or herself to get better every day.  I will continue to find ways of empowering our principals so they can run innovative exciting schools that are helping students thrive while also holding them accountable for results.  As chancellor I will constantly be asking myself this question: are we providing the best most comprehensive supports that we can in our schools.  That’s what drives me day in and day out.

The school visits have also reminded me of the real challenges that we have ahead.  If we are going to prepare our kids to succeed in this increasingly competitive world we need to continue to raise standards and expectations.

Last year the state set a higher bar for passing English and math exams and we applaud them for it.  Now we will have to redouble our efforts to help our kids meet that higher bar.  That’s why just yesterday it was announced by our mayor that extra resources, a total of ten million dollars for schools where students are struggling on the state test.  We know that we need to help those who need it most.

And I’m hopeful that we’ll find a way to get schools extra state school support.

Lastly, I want to briefly mention some of the educational priorities that Our Mayor, Mayor Bloomberg, laid out this morning in his State of the City address.

First, as we face enormous budget challenges and the harsh possibility of teacher layoffs there is no way that we can afford to loose our brightest teachers.  We need to change the last-in-first-out policy so we are keeping our best teachers above all regardless of how long they have been in the system.  We also must have a -come to a compromise on the ART pool, some one thousand teachers who receive full salaries and benefits without having positions in classrooms.  Finally a large part of our future deficit problem is a pension problem.  The mayor laid out a strong vision of reforming our city’s pension system and I urge all of you to watch or read his full speech on nyc.gov.

These priorities will help up build on the enormous progress we have already made for the children in our New York City schools.  First and foremost we must think of our children first.

Thank you for coming tonight.

For the students at Kent School: horses, tennis and study abroad.  For the students of the New York City public schools: more standardized tests with extra test prep.

Cathie Black’s daughter Allison put it best:

One cannot lead a flock one is not united with.

Cathie Black was booed at a public meeting at Brooklyn Tech last night.

Seriously?

Are you kidding me?

I didn’t see it myself, although I wish I had.

I was attending the PTA meeting at my own child’s school, where I mostly kept my mouth shut.  But, then I went to the wine bar with some of the alpha parents and ended up volunteering for both the 5th grade movie night fundraiser and the family dance fundraiser.  Whoops!  Oh well.

Anyhooo…

Because of all that, I missed my chance to watch Cathie Black make her Brooklyn stage debut at the regularly scheduled PEP meeting.

The Panel for Educational Policy (PEP) consists of 13 appointed members and the Chancellor.  Each borough president appoints one member and the mayor appoints the remaining eight.  The Chancellor serves as an ex-officio non-voting member.

The meeting took place in the auditorium of Brooklyn Tech, one of the top 3 selective high schools in New York City, to which admission is granted only to those lucky thousands who manage to score highly on the SHSAT.

A pause for some googling: according to Wikipedia;

The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city’s Specialized High Schools. The test is given in the autumn for admission the following school year. After the results of the test in October and November 2008, 6,106 students from New York City were accepted, out of 29,000 students, who applied.^[1] Students have until the end of February to make their decisions.

The results of the SHSAT are ordered from the highest score to the lowest score. The list is processed in order by score, with each student being placed in their most-preferred school that still has open seats, and continuing until there are no remaining open seats at any school.^[5]

The student’s absolute score does not matter as long as it is higher than the cutoff score, which is found by the results of all the students who took that score that year. For example, if there are 500 seats available at Stuyvesant the top 500 students who put Stuyvesant as their first choice scores will be admitted. The lowest score admitted is the cut off score.

The SHSAT tests for logical thinking and high ability in both English and mathematics. Both sections consist of multiple-choice questions. There is a time limit of 3 hours for both sections, with no break in between. The exam is only offered once a year, and can be taken in both the eighth and ninth grades if the student wishes.

And I’m back!

So Schools Chancellor Cathie Black was booed at Brooklyn Tech Wednesday night during her first appearance at a public meeting (not optional, part of the job description) held by the Panel on Educational Policy (PEP).

So, I’m watching the video of the event –and to be fair the video camera that took the footage available on youtube doesn’t have as good a seat as did the one turned on during last week’s meeting in Sheldon Silvers office– but one gets the sense.

Cathie Black looks small and scared.

She’s in Brooklyn after all.  It’s one of the Boroughs where they keep the Black people.

I must admit that I too was a little uneasy when I first came to Brooklyn, coming as we did from the Northwest corner of the United States where most of the population practically glows in the dark.  But, after about the tenth or twentieth introduction to neighbors of color who were way cooler than I could ever hope to be –that first week after we moved here…  Race is an issue that comes up.  Often it is more about class.  Lets just say the topic of fair and even distribution of DOE resources came up at the meeting.

Brooklyn is it’s own thing–Like Texas!  (As in don’t mess with!)

So anyway, in the video I watched today, Cathie Black looks pretty nervous in that cavernous space in Brooklyn Tech (a building My Kid first experienced as a 7-year-old second grader attending her first Brooklyn Borough-wide (FLL) First Lego League Robotics Tournament.  Just sayin’)

Last night in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Cathie Black spoke carefully ploughing through to the end of her prepared text looking down at her words and pausing when she turned the page.  The speech as written was vague and pointless failing to express any vision at all.  It was filled with phrases such as:

“a comprehensive evaluation system”

“constantly challenging him or herself to get better every day”

“helping students thrive while also holding them accountable for results”

Cathie Black flubbed her words several times including before and during this sentence.

“If we are going to prepare our kids to succeed in this increasingly competitive world, we need to raise standards and expectations.”

Cathie Black gave a speech that would have failed to make it to the final round at a high school speech meet.

I would not be such a harsh critic of the poor public performance of Ms. Black if it didn’t seem as though –for no apparent reason– she has been handed the responsibility of running one of the largest and most complicated school systems in the United States; while at the same time –also for no apparent reason– my 10-year-old is expected to submit herself to an absurd series of tests and auditions and interviews just to take her seat in an 6th grade classroom.

In case you are unaware of the NYCDOE boilerplate language aimed at the parents of current 5th graders, here it is:

Information for Families

The purpose of this Middle School Directory is to help you learn about the middle school choice process and to identify those middle schools that you feel would be the best fit for your child. This publication contains detailed descriptions of each middle school that you and your child can include in your list of choices as part of the process – the schools that have a page in this Directory will be listed on the application. You will also find a list of middle schools that conduct a school-based application process for which your child may be eligible – these schools will not be listed on the application. If you are interested in learning more about these schools (for example: what percentage of the eighth grade graduates from this particular middle school school were accepted into one of the selective high schools?) and the individual, school-based process by which students are accepted, please contact the school directly for more information.

School Characteristics

Middle schools come in a wide variety of sizes and grade configurations such as:

o Small, themed schools

o Large schools organized into small learning communities

o Large comprehensive middle schools

Priority for Admission

␣ Students residing in New York City who have met promotional standards from elementary school admissions are assured entrance into a New York City public middle school (somewhere in this city of eight million people)

␣ Each student receives priority to attend a middle school (some middle school somewhere, anywhere) in the district in which he or she is zoned to attend middle school or in the district in which he or she attends a New York City public elementary school

Choices

We expect all of our schools to be academically challenging and nurturing learning communities that cultivate the diverse interests and skills of middle school students. (They aren’t.) Take the time to gather as much information (from gossip and blogs) as possible as you read through the school pages:

␣ Consider a school’s theme, emphasis, special programs, partnerships, sports, enrichment opportunities and services  (some themes are in name only, some special programs are not available to all students, enrichment opportunities and services come and go with grant monies and budget cuts)

␣ Consider a school’s location:

o Investigate travel options and make sure you feel comfortable with the commute your child will be taking each day  (Is the school anywhere near a subway stop, do you have a car?)

o Review the train and bus routes available to your child (6th graders are 11-years-old, some are only ten for the first months of the school year,  In 2008, a New York mom and journalist, Lenore Skenazy caused a media sensation when she let her 9-year-old ride New York City’s subway by himself and wrote an essay about it stirring up controversy resulting in a Today show appearance and a book deal.  Suffice it to say, not every parent is comfortable with every home to school commute.

o Remember that the Department of Education offers transportation to students based on specific criteria that are described at www.nyc.gov/schools/offices/transportation or by calling the Office of Pupil Transportation (OPT) at 718-392-8855.

(The official policy of the DOE  states that middle school students are expected to take public transportation to school:  Any student who is eligible for full fare transportation may be issued a full fare student MetroCard if that student requests a card or if yellow bus transportation is not available for that student. MetroCards are typically used by students in grade 7 and above (none of whom can receive yellow busing) and by students for whom yellow bus service is not available because, for example, the school does not have bus service, or there are not enough students for a route, or because the student lives beyond five miles. Student MetroCards are issued by the school transportation office.)

Oh, and if you have any more questions.  You’re on your own –with nothing to go on but playground gossip and the stories told by those who have gone before.

Unless…

Perhaps, Ms. Black, is there something else you would like to share with the rest of us?