Joe Williams' Blog
January 1, 2008
Panderpalooza, Big Apple Style!
It really is a fascinating phenomenon, this whole YouTube thing. It has the potential to make things very difficult for politicians who engage in the age-old practice of letting wackadoo stuff fly out of your mouth to appease your audience.
Last summer, we got to watch the presidential candidates "take one for the team" by pandering up a storm at the National Education Association's annual Representative Assembly in Philly.
Now, courtesty of YouTube we get to watch a prominent NYC politician pimp himself on behalf of the lowest-performing teachers in the NYC schools (the ones even NYC teachers and union leaders complain about!)
Robert Jackson is a City Councilman from Northern Manhattan, chairman of the council's education committee (what used to be an interesting committee, before he took over), and the heart and soul behind the well-intentioned Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit in NYC. In the clip, he comes out strongly against "weeding out the worst teachers" from the classrooms serving the city's 1.1 million public school children.
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Perhaps it is worth noting that the elite private school that his daughter attended in NYC probably doesn't put up with teachers who aren't adequately serving the kids. Also worth noting that the lawyers Jackson is protesting only get involved after teachers have an earlier chance to improve their skills.
A recent issue of City Hall newspaper warned us that Jackson is weighing his options since he is term-limited out of the council in 2009. Can't NYC Democrats find politicians who are a bit more pragmatic? (Being a complete hack can't be all that much fun for Jackson either!)
Posted by Joe Williams on January 1, 2008 11:00 AM
New Year's Resolution
Happy New Year DFERites!
Major apologies for temporarily abandoning the blog the last few weeks. I got sidetracked with rumors that my name showed up in the Mitchell Commission report on education bloggers who used performance-enhancing substances. Then, the whole Britney Spears kid sister getting pregnant thing threw me into a tailspin.
I resolve to keep this thing updated in big and bad ways in 2008.
How about you?
Here's an easy one: Resolve now to sign the DFER Statement of Principles. It's easier than that diet you're going to blow off by the Super Bowl! Sign the online petition today and feel good about yourself for the rest of the year!
Posted by Joe Williams on January 1, 2008 9:58 AM
December 19, 2007
Coming Up For Air
Special thanks to Siobhan Sheils for guest-blogging for a while as I try to handle some end-of-the-year tasks. Regular blogging should resume tomorrow. Thanks for your patience!Posted by Joe Williams on December 19, 2007 5:18 PM
December 14, 2007
DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on K-12 Vouchers
Gov. Corzine’s new funding formula for New Jersey would require full-day preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds students in at least 100 low- and middle-income districts that currently do not provide it.
In this article from the Newark Star-Ledger, Tom Moran cites the success of New Jersey’s public and private preschools, “probably the most remarkable success story of the last decade in this beleaguered state.” All of New Jersey’s preschools – both public and private – receive public dollars.
Continue reading "DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on K-12 Vouchers"....
Posted by Joe Williams on December 14, 2007 8:10 PM
December 13, 2007
Siobhan Sheils: Linda Darling-Hammond, the Democrats, and Education Dollars
In April of 2004, I, along with a few hundred other Teach For America corps members, schlepped from our teaching placements in Washington Heights, the Bronx, and Harlem to Pace University in downtown Manhattan, where we were nearing the end of our master’s program. Pace had invited Linda Darling-Hammond to speak, and given her scathing criticism of TFA, this was something we weren’t going to miss.
When I learned this week that Darling-Hammond had been chosen by several Democrats to advise on issues of education policy – including Obama and Clinton – I decided to dig out my notes from that lecture.
Continue reading "Siobhan Sheils: Linda Darling-Hammond, the Democrats, and Education Dollars"....
Posted by Joe Williams on December 13, 2007 10:16 PM
December 12, 2007
DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on Corzine's Funding Formula
Gov. Jon Corzine was scheduled to unveil his plans to revamp New Jersey’s education funding formula today, some of the details of which can be found in this article from the Courier-Post.
Another story from the New York Times highlights Hoboken’s “rags to riches” story – a perfect of example of why New Jersey’s current legislation must change in order to meet the needs of economically-disadvantaged students.
Continue reading "DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on Corzine's Funding Formula"....
Posted by Joe Williams on December 12, 2007 11:08 PM
DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on KIPP
We're extremely busy preparing for Thursday night's fundraiser for Assemblyman Ruben Diaz Jr. and completing some year-end projects that have piled up on the DFER desk. To help us keep things lively in the mean time, we've asked Siobhan Shiels to monitor the blog for a few days. Siobhan was a 2003 Teach for America corps member, and taught 8th grade English for four years at a traditional public school in New York City and a KIPP charter school in New Jersey. Please make her feel at home.
Newsday recently published a story about KIPP Bronx’s retreats to the Bahamas and Caribbean, which has been met with plenty of commentary. One op-ed in the NY Sun today rightly points out New York state comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s perhaps questionable motives in scrutinizing the minutia of KIPP’s bookkeeping.
Not only does DiNapoli’s audit smack of anti-charter bias, it has led to a series of illogical conclusions, a few of which can be found on the NYC Educator website: http://nyceducator.com/.
Continue reading "DFER Guest Blogger: Siobhan Sheils on KIPP"....
Posted by Joe Williams on December 12, 2007 6:59 AM
