Intercepts

Leo Casey is a special representative for the United Federation of Teachers in New York City. He has been one of the union's leading lights for many years. He is well-respected and has even received favorable mention in these pages. He is known for being the lead contributor to UFT's EdWize blog.

Yesterday afternoon Leo posted "Disney and Me: On Being Erased From Official Corporate History," which begins:

"On the Disney Company’s corporate website, the reader will find a honor roll of teachers from across the United States who have been recognized by the American Teacher Awards, starting with the first class of 1990 and concluding with the last class of 2006. A close examination will reveal that there is no teacher listed as the 1992 honoree in the category of Social Studies. Two of the three Social Studies finalists are listed, but the teacher who was actually named Social Studies Teacher of the Year is missing.*

"I am that missing teacher. My name disappeared some time after I organized a public letter, signed by twenty-five American Teacher Award honorees, protesting Disney’s sponsorship of John Stossel’s Stupid in America, an ideological broadside against public education and the teachers who labor in our public schools."

The asterisk at the end of the first paragraph refers readers to screen shots of the current Disney page and the Google cache of the page as it used to look. And, sure enough, Casey's name is missing from the current page. Casey posted these, he states, "in anticipation that this listing might change once again in response to this posting."

Casey's story was picked up and championed as evidence of the petty evils of corporate America by The Daily Gotham, AFT's NCLBlog, Daily Kos (with, at last count, 182 credulous reader comments), BuzzFlash, and Democrats for Education Reform (shame on you, Joe!). Only Eduwonk expressed some skepticism.

That Leo's name is missing from the current page of Disney honorees is indisputable. That the omission has anything to do with the "Stupid in America" letter is easily disproved.

Exhibit A) Of the 25 honorees who signed the letter, Casey is the only one who is missing from Disney's web page. The letter lists the signatories in alphabetical order, giving Casey no special recognition as the composer of the letter.

Exhibit B) The Google cache page is dated October 1, 2007. It sometimes takes up to two months for Google to update a cache page, depending on how often the original page is updated, but it's still hard to believe that Disney was so angry about the letter, that it would erase Leo Casey alone more than a year after it was sent.

Exhibit C) A comparison of the current page to the Google page reveals a significant difference - the current page lists the honorees in chronological order, the Google cache page lists them in alphabetical order, regardless of year. This may explain why Leo and the blogs who cited him didn't bother to check whether any other honorees were missing.

Surprise! I only checked through "H" and I still found 14 other Disney honorees whose names, like Leo's, didn't make it to the new page. They are:

Karen Butterfield, 1993 honoree for Visual Arts
Colleen Mary Callahan, 1991, Performing Arts
Lauradis Cardet, 1990, Foreign Language
Todd Coleman, 1993, Early Childhood
Carolyn L. Cotton, 1990, Vocational Arts
Judy Darden, 1992, Early Childhood
Beverly Y. Davidman, 1994, Mathematics
Stephen Fox, 1991, Physical Education/Health
Katherine K. Fujii, 1991, Science
Rebecca Goldman, 1992, Early Childhood
John E. Guardia, 1990, General Elementary
Janet Walton Hayes, 1990, Physical Education/Health
Herbert Lee Holland, 1991, Performing Arts
Virginia Honomichi, 1991, Athletic Coach

I could have continued to "Z," but why? As far as I can tell, none of these teachers has reason to fear petty retribution from Disney, yet they, like Leo, are also missing. The fact that all the names are from the early 1990s suggests transcription errors, rather than some ridiculous conspiracy theory.

It's pathetic that Leo himself spent so much time and energy writing up his little corporate persecution story without the smallest attempt to see if it held water. But what's worse is that so many people ran with it without bothering to ask such simple questions.

UPDATE: See Leo Stands By His Fantasy.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 13:05 | Permalink | Comments

NEA was unhappy with its role in the 2004 Democratic primaries. Its own activists and state affiliate leaders split among the various candidates. Although the national union strongly supported John Kerry in the general election, NEA played no part in getting him nominated in the first place.

NEA discussed various measures to get behind a candidate earlier. Its idea for a "nominating convention" devolved into invitations to the presidential candidates to speak at the NEA representative assembly last July.

It's likely a presidential endorsement will come out of the union's board of directors meeting on December 7-8. But will it matter anymore?

Just as in 2004, NEA's state affiliates have filled the void with their own endorsements. The Connecticut Education Association endorsed Christopher Dodd. The Delaware State Education Association endorsed Joseph Biden. The North Carolina Association of Educators endorsed John Edwards. Linda Nelson, president of the Iowa State Education Association, personally endorsed Barack Obama, prompting Edwards to trot out other ISEA activists who personally supported him.

All of this without the complication of AFT endorsing Hillary Clinton, which at least ostensibly puts NEA's merged affiliates in Florida, Montana, New York and Minnesota in her camp.

So when NEA finally makes its choice, it will receive national headlines, but what difference will it make on the ground? If NEA endorses Hillary, will the union send operatives into Iowa to boost her campaign, while Linda Nelson is stumping for Obama? How will the union deal with its national and state officers campaigning on opposite sides?

The only ways to avoid that scenario are to delay the endorsement until the field thins out, or issue a multi-candidate endorsement. Either one is less than ideal for NEA, but now it can only make the best of a bad situation.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:02 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:08 | Permalink | Comments

Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, unveiled her plan for a teacher-led school before the school board last night. The key segment of the story follows:

David McClellan, president of the principals' union, blasted Ms. Lawrence's
idea and efforts, claiming she subverted the district's school improvement
committee by presenting the idea to teachers at Pickett Elementary and even
worse, that her idea would violate his union's contract.

"I will fight this as hard as I can," Mr. McClellan said. "It is a clear violation of our contract and if they go through with it, I will file for an unfair labor practice."

State law that requires administrative leadership, particularly for disciplining students, and the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel union's contract states there will be a principal in every school.

Ms. Lawrence wants two "teacher leaders" in the school - one for instruction and the other for operations.

"I am not going to be derailed by roadblocks," she said. "This is not intended to be against Mr. McClellan or his model … People throughout the country are looking for different models and they need to be creative."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:18 | Permalink | Comments

It's an idea I can get behind:

"The Toledo Public Schools teachers' union president wants to take the district's lowest-performing school, remove the principal, and let teachers supervise themselves."

Sure, there will be a lot of scoffing out there, but the proposal would allow the school to choose teachers from a pool of applicants. It would have significant community involvement, and teachers would receive additional pay for working in this hard-to-staff school.

District and state officials are supportive and even encouraging. But there is one roadblock, and you have to love the irony.

In Toledo, school principals are unionized.

"It is a very obvious violation of our agreement, and we are not going to let that happen," said David McClellan, president of the Toledo Association of Administrative Personnel.

I wish the Toledo Federation of Teachers well in their endeavor, and hope - win or lose - they gain a greater appreciation of the obstacles faced by those who just want to open a good school.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:26 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) New Jersey Leads in NEA PAC Fundraising
2) NEA Sends Big Bucks to Missouri
3) Washington Teachers Union Trades Silver for Green
4) Last Week's Intercepts
5) Quotes of the Week: Union Democracy Edition

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:57 | Permalink | Comments

The headline of the Birmingham News story reads: "Layoff of beloved teacher a sign of Birmingham schools' problems, parents say."

It begins: "Teacher layoffs last spring dismayed two Birmingham parents. On the layoff list was Shasta Wyatt, second-grade teacher at Epic for the children of Monica Hill and Majella Chube Hamilton."

It continues: "How in the world could Birmingham schools let a teacher - a remarkable teacher in Hill's and Hamilton's eyes - go?"

OK. Why was she let go?

The story tells us 398 Birmingham teachers were laid off when the district discovered a $19 million budget shortfall.

Got it. Why was Shasta Wyatt one of the 398?

"Last May, Hill wrote to Birmingham Superintendent Stan Mims to tell him how Aysiah bloomed in Wyatt's class. Hill said she felt saddened by Wyatt's departure, and told Mims that '...given the reputation of the Birmingham City Schools, I do believe losing Mrs. Wyatt is a great loss.' Hill said she got no response from the superintendent."

Wow. So Wyatt was dismissed for no reason?

"Hamilton waited through the summer. She decided to publicly share her concern in a Commentary article in The Birmingham News on Oct. 28. In the story, she praised Wyatt's 'nurturing classroom, where much was expected, everyone was valued and treated equally within a calming and fun environment.' Hamilton asked in the article: '... how could you let go of this amazing second-grade teacher?' and 'Where, oh where, is Ms. Wyatt?'"

The News found her, and reports she's doing a great job teaching first-grade in Jefferson County.

Aha! So Wyatt was laid off at random, right? That's intolerable!

Oh, wait a minute. In the 28th paragraph of a 35-paragraph story we finally get to this:

"Tenure laws are the reason Birmingham loses teachers like Wyatt, said Birmingham school board member Phyllis Wyne. The system has to let untenured teachers go first."

Journalism 101: Don't describe the crime in the lede, then wait until the end to identify the culprit.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:17 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:56 | Permalink | Comments

John Rogers and Jeannie Oakes, co-directors of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, found that the problem with public education in California isn't the racial achievement gap, it's the gap between the rest of the nation and California.

Rogers and Oakes write:

"For example, for years, people have been describing and lamenting California's general decline in education. We've all heard it. Test scores of California's Latino and African American students are, on average, among the lowest in the country. However, white students don't do well either, and by a wide margin: California's white eighth-graders score below white eighth-graders in every state but West Virginia and Nevada on the NAEP reading test."

If it's bad, it's bad for everybody, regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, English language status, income, parent education or teacher experience. What a great way of looking at the problem. Wish I had thought of it.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:15 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: Colorado Public Employees Unions' Secret Agreement
2) Share It Fairly But Don't Take a Slice of My Pie
3) On the Docket
4) Three Headlines, One Newspaper, Same Day
5) Two Million Teachers Update
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:17 | Permalink | Comments

"Failing teachers need love and support, not criticism."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 06:56 | Permalink | Comments

"Like so many of you, I woke up on the morning of the November 5 payday with the admiral in my bedroom." - United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy. (November 9 United Teacher)

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:33 | Permalink | Comments

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is the winner of this year's NEA poll as the substitute teacher American students would most like to have for a day. Last year's winner was actress Jessica Alba.

Either one would be an improvement over this Georgia substitute teacher.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:26 | Permalink | Comments

Well what do you know? It turns out Resolution 4204, the measure in Washington State to eliminate the supermajority needed for school levies, didn't lose after all.

The resolution trailed by 38,000 votes on Election Day, but now has an 11,000 vote lead. Thank heaven for those late King County ballots. They always come through in the clutch.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:36 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:27 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:43 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) Two Million New Teachers Needed in the Next 10 Years! Or Is It the Last 10 Years?
2) Lid Tight on AFT Disaffiliation Battle in Colorado
3) United Federation of Non-Teachers
4) This Week's Message from Beyond
5) Nano-News
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week: Life Imitates Intercepts Edition

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:09 | Permalink | Comments

"After 38 percent backed vouchers, fans and foes vow to work for change" - headline, Salt Lake Tribune of November 12, 2007.

"No one in CTA interprets yesterday's vote as a mandate for 'business as usual.' We must reform our public schools. And we in CTA believe that we can reform them - that we can make them once more the envy of the world." - press statement by California Teachers Association President Del Weber on November 3, 1993, after the defeat of the first statewide voucher initiative.

Weber announced that CTA would "prepare a bold and comprehensive plan for making our schools better." Looking back, the elements of that plan are extremely interesting.

"There are too many people in public education who do not educate children - who do not work with children directly and who do nothing to help teachers educate children," said Weber, committing the union to help eliminate "needless bureaucratic structures and functions."

Weber complained of excessive mandates - but not the ones you would expect. "Among those added this year is a mandate that elementary schools take time away from reading, writing or arithmetic and teach children about bicycle safety," he said. Weber wanted teachers to spend more time on the subjects on which they would be evaluated - "the '3-Rs' and other academic subjects."

Weber insisted on school safety, computers in the classroom, class-size reduction and increased parental involvement.

And, as we all know now, the California education establishment used the voucher "wake-up call" to pull together, reduce the bureaucracy, spend more time on core academic subjects, and make the schools safer. And after installing classroom computers and reducing class size, by 2007 California's public schools once more became "the envy of the world."

So chin up, Utah!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:52 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:54 | Permalink | Comments

The e-mailed EIA Communiqué is the very backbone of the Education Intelligence Agency, but for one person it's a major chore administering the list, dealing with spam filters, and staying on the good side of your ISP. When I started posting the communiqué on the EIA website long ago, I thought people would switch from the e-mail version. Nope.

After launching Intercepts in August 2005, I stopped soliciting new e-mail subscriptions, thinking (hoping) that readers would prefer daily blog entries over weekly e-mail.

That didn't happen. Then I added an RSS feed. Uh-uh. You folks sure like your e-mail.

So I've stopped fighting the tide. The market prevails and the e-mail communiqué will exist for as long as you keep reading it. And since you like e-mail so much, you can now get Intercepts delivered directly to your e-mail inbox each day.

Scroll down this page (just above the links section) to the fast, super-easy subscription form provided by Feedburner. It's cost-free, spam-free, and best of all, work-free for me. The only hitch I can find is if your pop-up blocker is turned on, the "Subscribe" button may not work. I apologize for this, but turning it off for 10 seconds is a small price to pay, right?

You'll get one (only one) e-mail each day I post on Intercepts, which means weekdays. This is separate from the communiqué list and will not affect it in any way.

If you have any problems, let me know (via e-mail!) and rest assured that, unlike other technological problems in your life, a human being (me) will take care of it.

Thanks for your patience and support.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 13:51 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:54 | Permalink | Comments

I don't know if Tough Liberal author Richard Kahlenberg read last week's blog post headlined "Shanker Seance" (although there's a pretty big clue here), but it looks like he's giving me what I asked for.

The latest op-ed from the afterlife concerns New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's consideration of a plan to reward high-performing public school students with free cell phones and airtime. Kahlenberg Shanker thinks would have thought it is a good idea:

"Shanker argued that the incentive structure in American public education was terribly biased in favor of well-off kids and against poorer ones.... While Shanker wished that students would be motivated by a love of learning alone, he knew that was unrealistic. 'I once hoped for such a world,' he said."

Uh, isn't Shanker in such a world now?

UPDATE: Oops. Left out the link to Kahlenberg's column. Sorry.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:56 | Permalink | Comments

The Utah voucher initiative went down to a 62%-38% defeat. The final pre-election poll had it losing 57%-35%, and the 8% undecided end up splitting in the same proportion, so I think it's time to start believing those things when they come out.

Voucher referendum financer Patrick Byrne went off the deep end when the results were known, although some might argue that happened when he came up with the idea for the 65% solution.

"It's a big relief and it's an expression of support for Utah's schools," said Utah Education Association President Kim Campbell. She's half-right. We'll know if it's an expression of support for Utah's schools if UEA can pass an referendum of its own by a similar margin.

Because yesterday's votes across the nation upheld the recent tradition of ballot initiative skepticism. The Associated Press has a round-up of those that flopped yesterday, and that story doesn't even include the rejection of Resolution 4204 in Washington, which would have eliminated the supermajority requirement to pass school levies.

The Washington Education Association has been beating the drum for it non-stop for months, and NEA contributed $450,000 to the effort.

Strangely enough, one of the few measures in public education to pass yesterday also occurred in Utah. Voters approved a plan to split the state’s largest school district in two. The 76,000-student Jordan School District will be divided into east and west sections. Predictably, a legal challenge is expected.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:33 | Permalink | Comments

I'll gather more info on this during the week and will have a full story in next Monday's communiqué, but the American Federation of Teachers has a situation with one of its affiliates in Colorado that bears a strange resemblance to a previous battle in Puerto Rico.

Accounts vary, as they say in the news biz, but what isn't in dispute is that the executive council of the Colorado Federation of Public Employees (CFPE) - 1,000 members strong at last check - voted on October 20 to disaffiliate from AFT. CFPE President Jo Romero notified AFT the same day.

An October 24 letter from AFT President Ed McElroy in response claimed the council's vote was without legal effect, since it violated CFPE's constitutional requirement to place affiliations to a rank-and-file vote, requiring a two-thirds majority.

Additionally, McElroy accused CFPE of being at least four months behind in dues payments. He placed AFT Colorado President Dave Sanger in charge of CFPE's relations with the AFL-CIO, central labor councils, and state government.

For its part, AFT Colorado stated, "Most troubling are indications that an agent of an outside union may have been involved improperly in orchestrating this failed hijack attempt. The facts of the matter are being explored and will be shared as they come to light."

CFPE is standing fast. "It is disappointing to learn that the AFT may be contacting CFPE members to make assertions about CFPE, its officers and council members that are simply inaccurate," the council wrote to members.

EIA will have more on this story as it develops.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:47 | Permalink | Comments

I spent about 90 minutes this morning putting together a blog post, only to discover Blogger was having an outage and I couldn't publish it. So I reread it and decided it wasn't all that funny anyway. Then I ditched it.

I know some of you wish I would exercise similar judgment more often, but I wanted you to know it does happen occasionally.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:27 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) Utah Voucher Referendum Pre-Mortem
2) Latest Union Campaign Contribution Numbers in Utah
3) Things We Learned Today That We Should Have Known Yesterday
4) Go to eBay and Help a Union Down on Its Luck
5) November EIA Video Intercept Promotes Military History
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:57 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:20 | Permalink | Comments

The Maryland State Teachers Association (per-pupil spending, about $10K annually) wants you to know what a typical day is like:



Wow! If only those folks had an effective union!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:31 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:28 | Permalink | Comments

I haven't read Tough Liberal by Richard Kahlenberg, but by most accounts it is a fine biography of a man deserving of such - the late American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker. I also understand the mandates of the publishing world, in which the author himself is forced to become the one and only publicity source for his work.

Nonetheless, Kahlenberg's forays into the op-ed world seem a little odd to me. Granted, he probably knows more about Shanker than anyone else, but his columns have him acting as Shanker's mouthpiece, as if Kahlenberg were attempting to channel him.

Shanker on the No Child Left Behind Act? Check.

Shanker on the New York City merit pay plan? Got it.

And, appropriately on Halloween, Shanker on Utah's upcoming voucher election.

That's not to say Kahlenberg is misrepresenting Shanker's views. On the contrary, I think he's got them down pat. I'm only wondering if maybe we could get a column about Shanker on Randi Weingarten, Shanker on Pat Tornillo, Shanker on the ING-NYSUT scandal, Shanker on the NEA, or Shanker on schools without teachers.

"Where We Stand" would become a must-read again.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:40 | Permalink | Comments