PJSTA – Page 4 – The Official Website of the PJSTA

The PJSTA Takes the Ice Bucket Challenge!

One cause that has always been near and dear to the heart of the PJSTA is Ride for Life whose mission is to find a cure for ALS. Ride for Life was started in 1997 by former teacher Chris Pendergast who has been heroically battling ALS for over 20 years now. Anyone who has seen Chris (or Mr. P as the kids call him) speak at their school knows what an inspiration he is. Chris is also the husband of former PJSTA President Christine Pendergast.

Given the recent wave of “Ice Bucket Challenges” that have swept social media, the PJSTA leadership felt that they could not let pass the opportunity to help further the cause of finding a cure for ALS.

Enjoy…

Get excited… New PJSTA Apparel is Coming This Fall!!!!

We will be ordering new PJSTA apparel this fall. We have a wide array of options this year including all of this fall’s hottest fashion trends! Ok, maybe not the hottest trends, but great union made apparel none the less! Plenty of options for you to wear on Thursdays this year along with the many rallies and pickets you are sure to attend! Among the new available items are shirts specifically cut for women, dress white shirts, hooded sweatshirts, beanie hats for cold weather, and more! We are also offering more red shirted options for Wednesdays (Remember, every Wednesday “We wear red for public ed!”)!

To order your new PJSTA apparel click here. You’re sure to be the coolest kid in school this fall!

Mike Mulgrew plays tough guy in defense of Common Core

We have written at length on this blog about the failure by our parent unions to adequeately represent the rank and file membership. We will be addressing this issue in depth at our conference day this year and over the coming months, along with providing a potential solution. Nowhere, however, was the disconnect between our leadership and our members more glaring than at this summer’s AFT Convention.

You will recall that in May the PJSTA Representative Council unanimously passed a resolution to oppose the Common Core State Standards. Well many teachers headed to this year’s convention with the same idea in mind. However the resolution brought to the floor of the convention was a resolution that essentially asked the AFT to continue their support of the Common Core. Below is video taken by MORE’s incomparable Norm Scott. The video shows supporters of the Common Core and opponents of it. Watch for yourself…

First of all seeing members of the New York delegation fight in favor of the Common Core is absolutely nauseating. It is exhibit A of how out of touch our leadership is with the membership. Secondly, the performance by UFT President Michael Mulgrew was reprehensible. To have a representative of teachers stand up and say they are going to “punch you in the face and push you in the dirt” if you try to take away the Common Core is beyond unthinkable. It flies in the face of everything we try to represent as educators. Finally, only mere months ago, then candidate Karen Magee ran for NYSUT President as being “Against Common Core” yet there she was on this video shamelessly supporting the resolution in support of the CCSS. If you read this blog regularly you know that I am not surprised by Magee openly lying to membership. Still, it’s important for our membership to see her flip flop on the issue.

The above video showed one very interesting thing. The three people who spoke in favor of the CCSS (Mulgrew, Leroy Barr, Magee) are all union “leaders” but spend no actual time in the classroom. The people who spoke against the CCSS (Timothy Meegan, Pia Payne-Shannon) are both people who spend their time in the classroom teaching. It’s a connection that can not be ignored. If we are going to take back the direction of our parent unions, it must come from the in the classroom, rank and file teachers.

The ICEUFT Blog and NYC Educator blog both wrote about Magee’s flip flop back in July.

You can read about Mulgrew’s tough guy act here (NYC Educator), here (Ed Notes), here (Perdido Street School), along with here, here, and here (all Fred Klonsky).

And finally a reminder of Magee’s campaign promises…

Thank You PJSTA!

The 2013-2014 school year has been a year like no other. The PJSTA called on it’s rank and file to show up like never before as the battle for the soul of public education escalated to heights greater than any of us had seen before in our careers. Large numbers of the PJSTA rank and file answered the call as they attended rallies, pickets, hearings, phone banks and more. As we proceed the PJSTA will continue to to rely on it’s members to heed the call as the fight for our profession, our students, and our communities rages on. Enjoy the video below of some of the highlights of our activities this year and as the school year draws to a close, continue to check thepjsta.org as we will be on top of news pertaining to public education and the labor movement.

On Binding Delegates

As we creep towards the unprecedented NYSUT election on April 5th much has been made of locals who are committing all of their delegate votes to specific groups of candidates in the election. We would like to make it clear that this is not how the PJSTA operates. Our NYSUT/AFT delegates are elected by our rank and file membership in even numbered years. Those delegates, full-time teachers in our district, are charged with speaking to colleagues, understanding the needs and concerns of our membership and voting in the way that they feel best represents our membership.

PJSTA President Beth Dimino, highly involved on the state level, has been vocal in her support of Arthur Goldstein for Executive Vice-President, the six MORE Caucus candidates for the At-Large Director positions, and the Stronger Together team of Dick Iannuzzi, Maria Neira, Kathleen Donahue, and Lee Cutler for the officer positions they seek. This does not, however, bind our other two delegates from voting exactly the same way. While it is certainly possible they do vote this way, the PJSTA leadership does not believe it is democratic to instruct all delegates to vote the same way.

It is encouraging to see that the Yonkers Federation of Teachers is conducting itself in the same way. Via Capital New York…

Yonkers Federation of Teachers president Patricia Puleo said her union’s delegates are free to decide for themselves who they’ll vote for in April, and she questioned whether new leadership would make a difference in how the state Education Department goes forward with implementation of the Common Core standards. But she recognized that the city’s teachers have grown frustrated.

“People are so upset that they are willing to make whatever changes they can,” Puleo said.

Unfortunately, NYSUT’s largest local, the UFT, does not conduct itself in this way. UFT elections are run with slates competing against each other. It is “winner take all”. Last year, for example, the Unity Caucus, who has run the UFT for half a century and rigged the system in their favor, ran candidates against the opposition caucuses. The MORE Caucus had significant support in their favor (in excess of 40% at the high school level). However because they did not have the largest number they ended up with zero of the UFT’s 800 NYSUT delegates. They literally have no voice at the state and national levels. In essence it would be as if our country voted either Republican or Democrat in elections. Winner taking every single position within government, with the winner also allowed to then structure the voting system to benefit them going forward. It’s insane.

As for this year’s NYSUT election, we know all 800 UFT-Unity Caucus members will vote as they are told to by their leadership. Posted at the bottom of this post is the invitation for Unity Caucus membership. You’ll see that it is invite only. Among the responsibilities…

To express criticism of caucus policies within the Caucus;
To support the decisions of Caucus / Union leadership in public or Union forums;
To support in Union elections only those individuals who are endorsed by the Caucus, and to actively campaign for his / her election;
To run for Union office only with the support of the caucus;
To serve, if elected to Union office, in a manner consistent with Union / Caucus policies and to give full and faithful service in that office;

In other words, you can only disagree with them in private, you must support them publicly, you must vote for the candidates they endorse, you will only run for an office with their blessing, when in that office you will do as you are told to do.

It is this arrangement that stifles the voice of rank and file teachers within the UFT, as well as within NYSUT and the AFT. With the UFT being the largest voice within NYSUT it stifles the voices of teachers across the state as well. Here’s hoping that more locals across the state will take the lead of Yonkers and release their delegates to vote as they see fit, rather than the top down approach taken by the UFT.

Below is the full Unity Caucus application…

How to Jump Start Your Union- NYC Book Party

The Mrs. and I will be attending this along with Beth Dimino. Any other PJSTA members interested?

Via Labor Notes…

Join us for a discussion of Labor Notes’ new book, How to Jump-Start Your Union: Lessons from the Chicago Teachers, with a presentation from Chicago Teachers Union organizer Matthew Luskin.

How to Jump-Start Your Union tells how activists transformed their union by engaging their co-workers and neighbors and unleashing the smarts of rank-and-file members. Readers will learn how to work with their communities, organize a caucus, run for office, rebuild a stewards network, train new leaders, run a contract campaign, and strike.

Books will be for sale at the event for $15.

For questions, or to RSVP, call (718) 284-4144 or email Samantha@labornotes.org

Comments on the book:

“Labor Notes has done it again! Every unionist should read this book that chronicles how the new leaders of the Chicago Teachers Union organized their members, built strong support with the community, and waged a strike against formidable adversaries. But this book is more—it’s a manual on how all unions can revamp to win justice, with lessons that every union can apply to their own situation.”
—STEVEN ASHBY, professor of labor relations, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

“How to Jump-Start Your Union should be a beacon to all rank-and-file members on how to bring democracy to their locals. It’s a toolkit that shows how good old-fashioned hard work and faith in the membership can empower every frontline worker. The bird’s-eye view of the CORE caucus carefully proves that issues are more important than elections and can serve to unite us. It is never all right to just complain.”
—KAREN LEWIS, president, Chicago Teachers Union

– See more at: http://labornotes.org/events/2014/how-jump-start-your-union-labor-notes-nyc-book-party#sthash.wYcoyRKo.dpuf

PJSTA’s McMullan Responds to Newsday’s Propaganda

Those unfortunate souls who still read Newsday may have seen an editorial in today’s edition titled, “Stop the testing tug-of-war”. Other editions seemed to have it titled “Don’t Slow Down the Common Core in New York”. It was a real propoganda piece in which Newsday shilled for the Common Core. The PJSTA’s Melissa McMullan penned a response. Diane Ravitch published it on her blog today. Here is McMullan’s reply…

In response to “Stop the testing tug-of-war”

Upset is not the word. As a teacher, as a mother and as a taxpayer, I am filled with disgust. Let’s speak of facts from people who are in the system, rather than the hypotheses of those (the media and corporations) on the outside.

1.    The “standardized tests” do not track year-to-year progress of a student. No teacher knows what students mastered, and what they did not. Last year’s assessment tested students on materials that were not available until after the assessment. It contained proprietary material that the test’s maker, Pearson, includes in curricular materials that it sells to school districts – giving purchasers an unfair advantage on the test. Next, the test’s outcome was predicted by the Commissioner weeks before the tests ever made their way to schools for administration. Finally, in the six years I have administered the assessment to my students, I have personally observed ten point swings between passing and failing – depending upon how the state wanted schools and teachers to be perceived by the public.

2.    The state teacher evaluation system (APPR) will find few teachers ineffective because the majority of the score (60-80%) is derived from local measures – observation, lesson plans, parent communication,etc…. The state gave me a 1 out of 20 for my growth score for last year. If the state’s portion were used as my only evaluative tool, I would have been considered ineffective. I could accept a 1 out of 20, if the state could tell me what I did well, what I did not and which portion of that score was for my math instruction of 60 students, and which portion was for my English Language Arts (ELA) instruction of 30 students. No one has this information.

3.    Standards-based evaluations have yet to be seen. During my years in business, I had objectives I was required to meet. Each year, I sat down with my supervisor and we discussed those I had met, those I had not, and how to improve. In this system, we give students assessments that have no standardized bar to pass. After they take the assessment, their teachers and parents never know what standards they have met, and which they have not.

4.    The curricular materials were not available last year. This is true. This fall, the state released materials. The math modules availablefor my sixth grade class required me to spend two hours per day modifying them in order to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors, replace a 10-point font with a 14-point font that young children can read and see, as well as define ways to bridge gaps between what my students were able to do, and the skills they needed to have to get through the lessons. Furthermore, the first unit was comprised entirely of lengthy word problems that my students, who are reading several years behind, were unable to read.

As a mother and a teacher I ask for:

o  Assessments that measure state standards, with consistent benchmarks for passing to track progress over time.

o  Item analysis for parents and teachers so both parties know what students have mastered and what they have not.

o  A state growth score that tells a teacher what his /her students mastered, and what they did not.

Until those three requirements are met, my own four children will not participate in the state’s fraudulent assessment system that drains valuable resources from cash-strapped school districts, promotes growth for corporations like Pearson and in its lack of transparency, erodes the teacher-student relationship.

Sincerely,

Melissa McMullan

6^th Grade Teacher

MORE than a Test Score!

Our friends from the MORE Caucus of the UFT will be hosting a forum on standardized testing on Saturday, February 1st in Manhattan. Rob Pearl and I will be headed in to represent the PJSTA. We’d be happy to have any other PJSTA members join us.

Here are the details via MORE’s Facebook page…

Find out how you can stop the overuse of High Stakes Testing in your school, and join the citywide effort to focus on real teaching and learning.

Panel and workshops will discuss:

What are the effects of high stakes testing on students, teachers and school communities?

What are solid alternatives to standardized testing that already exist?

How can we be active in the fight for a better educational system for ALL students?

Hear and speak to educators and students from schools where standardized tests are not used to make major decisions. There’s overwhelming evidence to support that collaboration trumps competition when it comes to bringing out the best in all of our students.
Together we can stop the corporate standardization of education and create a responsive educational system that serves the needs of our young people and communities.

11:00-11:15- Welcome and Introductions!

11:15-11:45- Key Note Speakers

11:55-12:55- Workshops Round 1 (Diverse range of workshops for everyone)
* Portfolio Based Assessments (Middle/High School): Presented by educators from a Consortium High School (Non-regents based public high school)
* High Stakes Testing 101: The Truth About Testing- Presented by Change the Stakes
* Why the UFT should fight “Advance”: Presented by MORE’s Contract Committee
* High Stakes Testing and Zero Tolerance Policies- Promoting Restorative Justice
in our schools: Teacher’s Unite
* Building Student Voice and Empowerment: NYC Student Union: Building Student Unions on your own campus. Let’s build a network of collaboration for collective action to have our educational demands met.
* Portfolio Based Assessments in Elementary Schools- Presented by elementary school educators in the current progressive network

1:00-2:00- GET PLUGGED IN! Round 2 (Great place for people who are already plugged in to different community based groups and for those who are looking to learn more about how to get actively informed.)
* MORE- Movement of Rank and File Educators:
* Change the Stakes
* NYC Student Union
* Teachers

2:00-2:30- Endnote Speakers and Closing

2:30-3:00- Mingle and Meet- bake sale and connect at the water cooler

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU THERE!
*Workshop organizers subject to change depending on demand.

Change the Stakes http://changethestakes.wordpress.com/
Movement of Rank and File Educators http://morecaucusnyc.org/
Teacher’s Unite http://www.teachersunite.net/

Introducing “Wear Red for Public Ed!

The PJSTA is excited to announce the launch of a new campaign that we will thread throughout the rest of the school year. The campaign, dubbed “Wear Red for Public Ed” gives every PJSTA member an opportunity to take sustained action throughout the rest of the school year in a support of public education. We will be starting on Wednesday, October 2nd! Here is what Wear Red for Public Ed consists of…

Every Wednesday we will ask every PJSTA member to wear red to work in some form. Red short sleeved and long sleeved PJSTA tee-shirts will be available as an option, but any red will do.

Hopefully you will be asked why you are wearing red. You can say that you are wearing red because you stand in support of public education and against top down, corporate reforms that have been imposed on us. You can then give them a copy of our flyer (see bottom of this post).
On Wednesday we will ask you to use the hashtag #red4ed on social media to share why you wear red. Tweet it, set it as your Facebook status, take pictures of your colleagues in their red and post to Instagram. We anticipate other groups joining this cause and we are hoping to get #red4ed trending on Twitter every Wednesday! A great example could be “I wear #red4ed today because I care about my students!” or “I wear #red4ed today because I stand against high stakes testing!” Be creative and have fun with it!

Once again, we will be starting on Wednesday, October 2nd! If you would like to order one of the red PJSTA shirts please email Beth Shapiro at bethshapiro1@gmail.com. Be sure to specify short sleeve (50/50) or long sleeve (100% cotton), along with your name, your shirt size, and what building you work in.

Feel free to use the comment section below for any questions.

#SNSRally Going Forward

An estimated 2,000 people converged on Comsewogue High School yesterday to tell the powers that be what they should do with the Common Core State Standards. The crowd, a mixture of teachers, administrators, parents, students, and other concerned citizens turned out despite only having a week to organize the rally.

Speaking at the rally were Comsewogue Board Trustee Ali Gordon, PJSTA President Beth Dimino, NYSUT President Dick Ianuzzi, Comsewogue Superintendent Dr. Joseph Rella, Comsewogue High School student Arya Hezarkani, parent Gina Renard, New York State Assemblymen Steve Englebright and Al Graf, and former Suffolk County Legislator Vivian Viloria-Fisher.

Perhaps the highlight of the rally was Assemblymen Englebright saying, “Somebody’s head should be on the block and it should be John King!” He was right of course, but he neglected to mention King’s host of other ed deform cronies: Barack Obama, Arne Duncan, Andy Cuomo, John J. Flanagan, Ken LaValle, Chris Christie, Cory Booker, Mike Bloomberg, Merryl Tisch…. and the list goes on and on and on.

PJSTA members should be taking the next few days to bombard their elected officials with their feelings on these matters. Ask them if they are with us or against us. Tell them there is no middle ground. They will earn our votes or they won’t. It should be noted that 2,000 people at a rally in Comsewogue is a nice turnout with only a week’s notice. However it is hardly enough. It’s nice to gather together, make signs, wear green laces, show our community and union pride, and scream and shout a bit. However it all means nothing without sustained further action. The PJSTA will again provide you with ample opportunities in the coming school year to work towards our agenda. It’s time for you to decide whether or not you are willing to get involved. Yesterday was the fun part. Today the work starts.

Reality-Based Educator’s view on the rally. Please read this, it’s worth it.

Enjoy the pics from the rally below. Fell free to use the comments section to link to your own pics from the rally.