I suggest highly that anyone in need of a laugh get on the mailing list of Educators4Excellence. It is laughs galore!! I also suggest Whitney Tilson's mass email. There are plenty of laughs to be found there as well.
We shall now look behind the curtain at the true agenda of E4E.
We are excited to announce the launch of our E4E Weekly Update emails! Check in each week to find out about the biggest developments in education, upcoming E4E events, and ways you can get more involved in sharing your voice!
Take Action:
- Apply to become an E4E School Captain! We are looking for a group of motivated individuals who are interested in becoming E4E School Captains, who will serve as the voice of E4E within their school. As a School Captain, you will help encourage and activate other members in an ongoing effort to put the needs of our students first.
- Join an E4E Policy Team! Are you ready to create change? As a member of a Policy Team, you will have the opportunity to come together to discuss specific issues in education, and create E4E's official position papers by making recommendations that will aid student achievement.
- Become an official E4E Member (if you are not already!) by signing our Declaration of Teachers' Principles and Beliefs. E4E members will receive access to special member-only events and other opportunities!
I am scared, and nervous about that team captain thing. This seems so, well, at an attempt to undermine the entire school. Particularly the CL and the union. But will it stop there? Will it be run like the Stasi? Will there be an enemies list? But I encourage people to sign up. Already Dick Hertz, Dick Bender, Ben Dover, Mike Hunt, Seymour Butz, and Heywood Jablome have all signed up to be team captains.
Network:
- E4E events will start up again at the end of the summer. Stay tuned!
- If you are interested in hosting an E4E event for your school community, please e-mail info@educators4excellence.org with the subject line "Event Hosting"
Learn: This week's top education stories...
- Paul Peterson's Education Next article clearly articulates the amazing success of New York's "small high schools of choice" in improving graduation rates.
- Newsweek gives an in-depth description of the problems with the Obey Amendment, which would siphon money away from the Obama/Duncan school reform programs.
- The Sacramento Bee identifies the disproportionate impact that Last In, First Out policies have on lower income, lower performing schools in California.
- EdWeek explains the impact that the second round of Race To The Top has had in promoting pro-student reforms in states all over the nation.
I find it ironic that E4E is taking this leap. Don't Little Evan Stone and Princess Sydney Morris have to get prepared for the upcoming school year? Oh wait. They aren't teaching anymore. They did their three years and split.
8 comments:
Ihave to say, if one of my co-workers began touting him/herself as an E4E "Captain" they would immediately be shunned by nearly all of my colleagues. And my chapter leader would make mincemeat of the person. I'd be truly surprised if anyone over the age of 30 wanted that gig, and unless your school is heavily TFA, I don't see any real threat. And if the school is heavily TFA, as one of the schools in my building is, the staff will turnover quickly anyway.
Shocked to see that a bunch of unionized persons are trying to tear down someone who is thoughtfully advocating meritocracy. Can he do worse than the union? I think not. But it's good to see all you union people backing each other instead of worrying about what to do in terms of improving education.
Shocked? Thoughtfully advocating meritocracy? Or rather being a shill for Joe Williams, Whitney Tilson, DFER, and the rest of the ed deformers? How about Little Evan comes clean with how much financial backing he is getting from such people? As far as the meritocracy, bullocks. Little Evan has no merit.
"Thoughtfully advocating meritocracy"? I don't think so. Evan and Sydney are so concerned with improving education that they are hightailing it from the classroom after 3 years. They are playing into the mayor's hands, even if their intentions are good. Bloomy's goal is to fill the system with temporary teachers who will slave away for 2-3 years tops. Those of us who have stayed in NYC, one of the toughest teaching gigs out there, have showed our concern for education- by staying. And yet that commitment has been disrespected by the mayor; Evan and Sydney don't come close to understanding it. They are a joke and have no credibility at all. They don't understand that their work will put the most expensive teachers out of work, not necessarily the worst.
A touch of objectivity would require that more than one study of TFA's efficacy be posted. A quick review of the google "academic" search engine reveals that the majority of efficacy studies of TFA, such as this one (http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=411642), support the movement and its evolution. It might not be perfect but it does appear to be a step in the right direction. As for Evan and Sydney's inexperience, it doesn't seem that they are holding themselves out as expert but instead seek to create an ongoing dialogue for review and merit based compensation. As far as I can tell from their website they are trying to start a conversation about merit NOT fire people who make more money AND DESERVE it. The cheap cost of new labor exists in all field in America and doesn't seem to be stifling the older, better compensated workers in those industries.
Wow, where to begin? First, are you a teacher, or have you ever been one? Or do you prefer just to whine from your gilded stage in California?
To tell you the truth, the link you posted after having just read page 6 really does not shine a good light on TFA's.
As far as Little Evan and Princess Sydney, call me old fashioned but when I started teaching I was told to keep my mouth shut for a minimum of three years. I see arrogance and ignorance in both of them, as I have seen with most TFA's.
I don't believe their reasoning is truly altruistic. They were concerned for their own jobs, and also they are funded through several front organizations.
Please don't compare education and teaching to other professions, occupations. It's like comparing apples and oranges.
Please, have facts straight next time you post.
"Please don't compare education and teaching to other professions, occupations. It's like comparing apples and oranges."
That statement is an unsupported conclusion. What about teaching makes it impossible to judge based upon merit. Plenty of highly complex fields used merit based pay and lay-off low performers in lieu of abdicating thought to a system of seniority in employment. I would welcome more merit based review, compensation, and firings in the field.
That's because Skippy you do not have the constant variables that are attributed to children, learning, home life.
You still have yet to answer my question. Are you a teacher?
Let me ask you something. In criminal trials the prosecution wins over 95% of the time. Should criminal defense attorneys lose their positions for not winning at trial?
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