Community Colleges Grade Rates

Klein might have graduated them, but they don't know much.  Check out this article in the Queens Courier. 

The colleges are now faced with provideing all sorts of remediation and special services.  At this rate, medical schools will be facing the same problems in the near future.

Superman Is Already Here

I just marked my first algebra exam of the semester.  In a class of 34 students, the grades ranged from 11 to 93.  Sixteen of the kids got grades of 80 or above while 10 scored under 50, 6 under 40.

Someone with super powers is needed to teach a group this large with this diversity. If I go too fast, or do problems too difficult, I am losing half the class.  If I stick to snail's speed many will be bored.  I heard a boy in another algebra class say,"This must be a special ed class because we are going so slow." (My class is not unique.)

These kids are in a four term class which means none are math super stars and while they can and do do well, they cannot learn on their own. 

Klein praises Waiting For Superman.  He should realize that to be a NYC public school teachers is to have super powers.  He has nothing to wait for.

They Killed Kenny

For those too mature to watch South Park (obviously I am not one of them), I will tell you that Kenny, one of the little boys, comes from a very poor family. He always wears a parka pulled so tightly that it covers his face and muffles his voice. In the first five seasons, Kenny would die in almost every episode and then reappear the following week. Doing something so despicable to a poor boy didn't really matter. No one, except for his friends and his family would miss him.

Bloomberg, in his infinite school budget wisdom, has killed the fourth year of high school math. Kids who want to take calculus, pre-calculus or discrete math as seniors are being deprived of the opportunity. Only a select group, the elite of the elite, will have classes funded and will be able to carry on.

In this day and age, where we are supposed to be moving everyone ahead, for every baby step we take forward, we are taking giant steps backward. Even expressions like "please" or "may I" are useless. There is no money for the education of New York City children. They are like Kenny, the poor, the ones that do not count for anything.

So, my message to Bloomberg and Klein:

YOU KILLED NEW YORK CITY EDUCATION, YOU BASTARDS!

The Gap

Klein is still bragging about closing the racial gap in education. He should walk into any community college in New York City, look at the demographics in remedial math and English classes then make the same statement. I don't understand why the reporters who listen to him don't do this as well.

The Gap Is As Wide As Ever

If Klein and Bloomberg really looked at schools they would see the racial gap is as big, possibly bigger than it has ever been. They would not have had to rely on meaningless statistics. To say the gap is narrowing, they would need to look further than their meaningless statistics and look at advanced placement and honor classes. Those classrooms are still lacking students of color. Look at the students participating in Intel and other research competitions, point out the diversity and I will eat these words.

The headline and the article, Triumph Fades on Racial Gap in City Schools, is right on the money.

We Are Graduating Illiterates

Finally, what I and thousands of others have been saying for years. Anyone who doubts the validity of this should just pay a visit to any community college math class. And, it does not have to be a remedial one, although I will begin this post with a few thoughts on some of these.

Last semester I taught a second term remedial class at the college. We began with close to 30 students. From the 30, I managed to hold on to about 20 (and this took great effort). Out of the 20, approximately 8 got through and this was better than average. Many of the students had no idea as to what was expected. They were used to make up exams, extra credit, calculators and being allowed to be out as much as they wanted. They were used to not doing homework. In other words, they got used to being passed for doing nothing and they expected this to continue.

Now, the first real class for credit, the one that comes right after the remedial course, the course taken if the student scored at least a 75 on the algebra regents. Those students coming from the remedial class usually do okay in this class, not great but they manage to get through. Those coming from high school are usually not so fortunate. More often than not, this class is taken at least twice, sometimes more. The students cannot factor, or graph. They cannot even handle signed numbers, yet the high schools have determined they are competent enough to graduate. Even the pre-calculus course that comes next finds these students struggling. The foundation they needed in high school and earlier was never built. Like the buildings built on swamps, these students are tumbling down.

The high schools had to do this. If not, they would have had lower graduation rates and the city would have shut them down. Luckily, the colleges still have standards.

So now more money is being spent to generate reports showing what every high school and every college teacher has known for years. What a joke! What a travesty! What a waste! There will still be no real plan in place to help. Yes, there will be a change in curriculum and there will be something else to hold teachers accountable for but there will be nothing else. Nothing changes but the name of the game.

Target

The arrogant, crotchety, ignorant principal has an agenda. S/he wants to "U" rate a specific number of teachers every year. Everyone knows this is true because s/he told this to an AP and is on this AP's case because of the refusal to do so. Since the AP is honorable, Principal From Hell ( PFH) has picked a target his/herself.

Target teacher has been teaching for many, many years. S/he has always been well respected and liked by fellow teachers, students, and even administrators. In over 15 years, Target has never received any evaluation short of glowing. Target however, has one major flaw. S/he speaks his/her mind. S/he does not let people walk over him/her and when something is not right s/he says something. PFH does not like this. PFH is not that bright and does not take any of these conversations well.

Target teacher was recently observed by his/her AP. The lesson went well, the kids were engaged and the AP was very happy with what s/he saw. PFH was not happy when she read the observation and decided to pay Target a surprise visit. PFH visited Target's worse class, on the first day back from spring break, without any warning or pre-observation conference. Target was intermittently showing a film and stopping for discussion and question time. The majority of the kids were engaged and working. One student did say the work was boring and did not want to do it, but that happens in every class. The class ended and Target was reasonably satisfied with the lesson she taught. PFH was not happy. To quote Target, "S/he ripped me a new ass hole. Nothing I did was right. S/he did not understand the topic I was teaching although the kids knew exactly what I was doing and did not stop finding fault." Target was given a "U" for the lesson.

Target is strong, and a fighter and PFH is weak and stupid. Target will end up winning this war, but, how many teachers, in similar situations will not emerge victorious? How many are sitting in rubber rooms or are in schools, worried if there livelihoods will be taken away from them by principals like PFH? All the victims of these sick, stupid, ignorant despots, will be on the streets if Klein and Bloomberg have their way.

UNITY just won the election. The people have spoken. Now is the time for UNITY to stand up and protect teachers like Target and all the ones falsely charged and unfairly incarcerated in these reassignment cents.

You Can't Fight City Hall and Win

I just read over Gotham School's report on last night's PEP meeting. All the work and the hours people put in were for naught. From reading Blomberg and Klein's closing remarks, it is obvious that the decision was written in stone months ago. They allowed the meeting to occur last night because they had to.

Bloomberg and Klein are still citing statistics about closing 91 schools and opening 351 new ones. Notice, the number of seats the new schools have are never mentioned. There is also no mention of the placement of the students that caused graduation numbers to be so low in the first place.

My heart goes out to all the wonderful people who worked so hard for something so right to only be stomped on by the big, rich guys.

There are parallels to be drawn between the movie Avatar and our city. We, the citizens of Gotham are being destroyed so a few others can gain wealth. (The actual story has a much greater connotation.) Maybe an Avatar will come along that will help us fight back.

Feeding Your Pet Snake

Manuel was in my geometry class last year. He was (and still is) a quiet, sweet boy who was absent quite a bit. When I questioned him about his absence, he told me about his different illnesses. I foolishly believed him and let the whole thing slide. I assumed (and made the ass out of u and me) incorrectly that his resource room teacher would look into the problem. I guess it was better late than never but I did start looking into the problem, got his ISS guidance counselor involved and we did our best to help him.

One of the things I discovered last year was that Manuel's Math A regents grade was not on his transcript. Manuel told me he took the exam and passed it and the teacher he had for Math A confirmed this. I spoke to Mr. AP about the missing grade, I spoke to Ms. AP Guidance about the missing grade, I spoke to the teacher about the missing grade, but it never appeared. I was worried because if Manuel straightened himself out, he would graduate in 2010 and I did not want him to be missing the credit for an exam he needed and already passed. (Unfortunately, he only got a 60 on the geometry regents, short the points he needed to pass.)

A few days ago I got an e-mail from the ISS guidance counselor asking me if I knew anything about the algebra regents. I'm sure my screams went from Texas to New York. This poor kid will have to take the algebra regents in January and while I am guessing he will pass and not even mind taking it, I mind. I resent the incompetence that is making him do this.

Packemin HS is too big but even if we were smaller, mistakes would still occur. Guidance counselors, teachers and even assistant principals, even in smaller schools, have huge case loads which make it impossible to avoid mistakes like this. Someone needs to take the fall for Manuel and it shouldn't be someone from Packemin. I HOLD BLOOMBERG AND KLEIN ACCOUNTABLE. They are the ones that refuse to do anything to reduce class size. Schools will keep failing and they will keep closing them. They will shift the kids to different schools with the same over sized case loads and the problems will continue.

NOTHING IS CHANGING. KIDS WILL ALWAYS BE LOST IN THE SHUFFLE. THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT BLOOMBERG, KLEIN AND THE PEOPLE LIKE THEM DO NOT CARE. TO THEM, THESE KIDS ARE THE MICE THE PET STORE SELLS TO SNAKE OWNERS.

Zilch, Nada, Nothing

Klein spoke at a community school board in my neighborhood tonight. I planned on going and reading the following but things didn't work out as planned. I didn't expect him to care about what I said, but I wanted to say it anyway. I'll have to settle for printing it here. I know the results will be the same--Zilch, Nada, Nothing.

Mark Twain said “there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics”. Education has been filled with lies since Bloomberg took control of the NYC school system. I have been teaching math in NYC since 1973 and math education is at its all time lowest. Yes, it is true, more students are taking algebra now than ever before and more students are graduating than ever before but they are graduating knowing less than ever before.

There are some things that cannot be measured numerically and education and the value of a teacher is one of those things. Teachers are working with human beings, people with feelings and abilities and sometimes problems far beyond what you or the mayor could possibly imagine. Our job is more than test scores. Now the mayor wants to tie teacher tenure to these scores. This is just not right. A teacher must be evaluated on what goes on in the classroom, how her students are growing and learning and developing, not on some grade on an exam made up by some big business company that has no idea as to what children are really like, capable of learning and need. Principals and administrators who do their job correctly can see what is going on daily and should be able to judge who is doing a good job and who isn’t. Parents and students themselves can help with a true evaluation. Test scores—impossible.

In my school, Packemin HS, the teachers in my department are terrified of poor regents statistics. Mid year, teachers try to drop students who are failing in hopes of keeping their passing rates high. In September, too many students are dropped from two term algebra classes into four term algebra classes to keep regents stats high. Kids are being tracked too quickly and it is all because of numbers. Teacher tenure and test scores are not even linked yet.

My AP wrote in a recent e-mail that although he would always like to do what is best for the student, we work in a NYC high school and doing what is best for them is not always possible. We have to keep our stats up to keep our A rating.

I started teaching in 1973 at Julia Richman HS in Manhattan. We offered arithmetic classes and business math classes and other classes that were geared towards a student’s ability and academic interests. We offered regents classes and did our best to get the students through. No one ever complained and blamed when the numbers were low. I just picked up a 1977 geometry regents and compared it to the regents of today and what I saw was sorrowful. In 1977 real knowledge of the material was required to receive a passing grade. You needed 65 points out of 100 to pass. You could not just randomly guess some multiple choice answers and get a passing grade. Yes, we had fewer passing then, but passing meant something. And the ones that did not take the regents still got an education, unlike the students of today, who are getting a diploma.

The business model, which people like you insist on applying to education is wrong. You are not creating a world of educated people, you are creating a world of illiterates, people who can’t think and people who are unprepared for anything.

If a teacher is not doing their job correctly and effectively, that teacher should not be in the classroom and there are ways to find this out. Test scores is not one of them. If you really care about education, take my words seriously and incorporate the things like this into your educational reform policy.

Beast Of Burden

Today is September 30 and three new students were added to my geometry class, the class that was only formed September 25. By the way, school reopened on September 9th, in case anyone out there has forgotten. Some of the students had been in different geometry classes but not all. As we are completing the logic unit, some are seeing these topics for the first time. All of this is due to poor programming and no open seats in geometry classes.

Now comes the hard part, what to do about the missing knowledge. Packemin is so big that no viable tutoring program is available. Oh, once C-6 assignments start, I will say "go to tutoring in the library" but I know that is a farce. The teachers are there to answer questions,. They do not have the time to teach topics. Even my hall tutoring won't help most of these kids because they are free while I am teaching.

Who is accountable for catching them up? Who is accountable for their regents grades? Is it the Principal or Mr. AP? Is it Bloomberg or Klein as their policies caused the overcrowding caused situation Or, is it the classroom teacher? We all know whose back this will fall on.

Aren't there any brilliant educational scientists out there willing to solve this problem?

Resource Room and the Twenty First Century

Until I started teaching at Packemin HS, I had no clue as to what a resource room was, what kind of students were involved in it and what went on in one.

I began my teaching career in the special education department of Packemin HS. In my previous school, I taught some very low functioning students and I always had special ed kids mainstreamed for my classes. (I was good with them and they liked me.) When I had the opportunity to teach these kids full time, I jumped at the chance.

Mrs. V was one of two resource room teachers at that time. Her room was situated in the middle of the special education floor and we chatted quite a bit. She tried to convince me to go teach main stream kids because her kids needed kind, caring teachers. At that time, I just wasn't interested.

Over the years I got to see first hand what Mrs. V and the other resource room teachers did with their students. I saw how they tracked down main stream teachers and got extra work for their students. They collected exams so their students could have the extra time they were entitled to. They worked with the kids on the basic skills they needed. They counseled, admonished and consoled when necessary. They advocated for these children without a voice when there was no one else to do so.

Now I would like to fast forward to resource room in the twenty first century. Things are different, very different. Back when I met Mrs. V, every resource teacher had five resource room classes. It was easy to find the teacher, talk to the teacher and give the teacher any materials they needed. Now, resource room is covered by many different teachers, some teaching one or two classes in this area, one in the gym and maybe another as an inclusion teacher in a history or English class. There is no continuity. It is hard for the student to get the extended time needed because no one is in one place long enough to provide it. Finding the teacher to deliver a test to is another disaster area. The teachers themselves are spread so thin they cannot do for the students what was done years ago.

In spite of all this, the students that have this resource room are far more fortunate than the ones that have resource as a "push in" for English or History. Yes, there is an extra teacher to give help in one of these subjects but the students are not getting any help in any other subjects. No one is helping them meet standards in math or reading. It is hard to find the time and space to give them extended time. The resource teacher may even go days without having a real conversation with the student.

Mrs. V taught me that the students in resource room were for the most part bright kids with some disabilities. They were kids that just needed that "little extra " and then they would be able to succeed. Under the Bloomberg-Klein era, the Mrs. Vs of the world can no longer do this job. Resource room is not the same and in some cases, it is just a room, minus the resource.

It is time for the education mayor to start doing something about education. And, resource room is a good thing for him to fix. After all, he is the one that broke it.

Enjoying My Last Few Days

Riding home on the subway, my friend encountered a former assistant principal from her school who is now a principal. When he hugged her I cried "Principal Cooties!" Everyone who knows me knows I have poor verbal control. Luckily, this guy laughed at my comment.

It turns out that this guy is retiring soon. His job has consists of doing things to make Bloomberg and Klein look good and he just can't take it anymore.

I immediately retracted my comment.

Pictures taken while walking through Central Park, near the lake at 110th St on one of my last vacation days. We were on our way to a walking tour of Harlem. I'll post those pictures soon. Sorry the pictures are not as sharp as usual. I forgot my Nikon at home.

Seeing Red

I just have to answer this Daily News article. Since I know they would never print my response, I will just post it here. My comments are in red because that is what I saw when I read this article. The black is from the News.

With the new school year nearly here, with principals bracing for budget cuts, almost 2,000 teachers are getting ready to pass their days at full salary - doing nothing.

DO NOTHING!!!!!! The author of this article has not seen an ATR at work or he would never write this. One of the ATRs in my school taught 5 classes (some not even in her license area) one term and the other term she taught 4 classes and mentored two new teachers. Yes, the teacher that is deemed too unfit to be in a classroom was asked to help two young newbies. She was also asked to run staff development. Another ATR worked in the college office and spent almost every period counseling students, helping them fill out college applications and all the other stuff that goes with applying for the universities. Still another one worked as a daily sub (not her choice.) She got to know some of the most difficult students in the school and was able to help them. They are more than earning their salaries and if there are schools where they aren't, the administration is to blame, not the teacher.

They have no place to go because the city's more than 1,100 principals have not offered positions. Which is a biting commentary on how well-suited many seem to be for the classroom.

HOW WELL SUITED!!! The problem is not the ATR, it is the fair funding policy and the fact that principals want the young, moldable teachers. The mentor program no longer exists so quite a few ATRs are former mentors. Klein told them they were the cream of the crop. Now they are undesirable. Take a 30 something principal who is lucky he can wipe his own bottom and take his word on suitability. Give me a break!

The roster is now a couple thousand long, at a cost of $200 million a year. The Education Department has offered résumé-writing help and other job-hunting aid. And Chancellor Joel Klein has assured principals their budgets will not take a hit if they hire pricier, more experienced teachers rather than younger peers.

All the help mentioned is true however most of these people don't need the help. They are experienced, qualified people who know how to present themselves. And, schools will take hits in the long run. Principals don't want teachers who might ask why instead of answering "Yes sir, may I have another."

The longer teachers stay idle, the smaller their chances of finding work. Long timers are more likely to have unsatisfactory performance ratings than colleagues outside the pool. More than 325 have sat for over a year.

Isn't it interesting that only older teachers are undesirable and have unsatisfactory ratings. I smell a rat here. The three ATRs I know all have satisfactory rating for their entire careers and they still cannot get teaching positions.

The waste is unconscionable.

IT SURE IS. Klein ought to force principals to hire these wonderful teachers.

I know I am rambling on a problem that is not mine. But, it could be. Besides, I grew up in an era where people stood up for others, we weren't afraid of consequences. We stood up for what is right.

This is only a little blog but when I look at the counter in the sidebar, I know it is well read. I would be just as guilty as Klein, Bloomberg, the principals out there who won't hire ATRs, and the writer of this article if I kept silent. My message has to be heard and it has to be repeated over and over again. We can't let ATRs lose their job because of the negative propaganda being spread.

You might be safe in your job today, but you never know what tomorrow will hold. Your "A" school today might be an F school next year and Klein will decide to shut it down. You will then be an ATR. The principal that loves you now might be replaced by a teenie bobber leadership academy one next year. You might then become an ATR. You might be young now but trust me, if you are fortunate, you too will be old and the system will want to put you out to pasture as well.

Robert Hall

Robert Hall was a discount clothing store which flourished from 1938 - 1966. In fact, this store was a pioneer of the low overhead, large facility operation. Cheaply made goods, together with extensive advertising on television and radio led to the success of this operation. Their ads were catchy. Just thinking about how Bloomberg and Klein are touting increased graduation rates brought one of them to mind.

When the prices go down down down
And the values go up up up
Robert Hall this season
Will show you the reason
High quality! Economy

I just changed a few words and dedicate it to them:

When graduation rates go up up up
And learning goes down down down
Joel Klein will show you
The reason he gives you
Low quality! Economy

Yes, Klein and Bloomberg have economized on the education of the students of New York by:
1. Pushing credit recovery classes in place of real classes to make students repeat what they have not learned.
2. Boot camps and seat time to do the same as #1
3. Tests with passing grades so low no actual knowledge is required to pass them (actually, this comes from the state, not them--Merryl Tisch, you might want to look into this.)
4. Non-stop test prep so no real learning can take place.
5. Closing instead of fixing troubled schools causing other schools to be overcrowded.
6. Valuable resources and space given to charter schools.
7. The largest class size in the state
8. Continued harassment (rubber rooms and ATR treatments) of senior teachers.
9. Trailer classrooms in desperate need of repair.
10. Austerity budgets.
11. Aris
12. Tweed staff


Robert Hall closed its doors in 1966. Will Bloomberg and Klein be closing the doors on our children in the future? Will their education continue to be a huge warehouse of cheaply made goods and catchy phrases such as Keep It Going NYC Public Schools and this report from Gotham Schools?

No Survivors

The mayor and the chancellor claim class size should not matter and that a quality teacher is all that is needed. Boy, can I prove them wrong this year.

My geometry classes consist of 34 kids each. Out of the 34 kids, at least 28 of them have some sort of attention deficit and have trouble focusing. This is not a good combination. They feed off of each other and it doesn't matter how they are seated. I have kids that would make friends with the cobwebs if there was no one around to talk to.

Having these problems doesn't make these kids bad kids or dumb kids but it does make it hard to teach them and it is hard for them to learn. But, the majority of them do want to succeed, although you would never believe this if you walked into my classroom and saw the cell phones and i-pods that I am constantly yelling about and listened to the mouths that do not stop yakking away.

Since the AP exam is over and my college now class is over, I feel like I am on vacation and have been able to put all my effort into these two classes. I've been grabbing the kids wherever I find them and making them work, even if it is only for ten minutes at a time. In this one-to one or small group situation, they are learning and succeeding. I can get them to do more in this mini session than I can in class in 45 minutes. (I just marked their finals and almost all passed!)

The quality of my teaching is immensely better in the small group situation. That is the one thing that works. The Bloombergs, Kleins and Obamas of the world know this. Their own children attended or attend schools with small classes. The UFT knows this. They spend thousands of our hard earned dollars going on television talking about how they got smaller classes yet my classes and those of my colleagues are still packed to the gills. Charter schools know this and they do have smaller class sizes.

Years ago I had a big aquarium. I knew that number of fish that would survive based on the size of the tank. Too many and they would all die. NYC students are like the fish in the over stocked aquarium and they are dying by the minute.

The Tree Of Hope

There was a tree in Harlem that entertainers used to stand under while trying to get work. Many sang and played instruments there and people stopped and gave them money. The tree was their good luck omen.


In the name of progress, the tree was cut down. People gathered parts of the tree to try to hold on to their luck. Some collected bark and twigs. Others collected leaves. The piece of the trunk pictured above was placed on the stage of the Apollo Theater. This is the Tree of Hope and performers rubbed the tree before going on stage. The Apollo audience was one of the toughest audiences around and performing there was scary. Many believed the tree helped them to succeed.


Education today needs its own Tree of Hope. Children are graduating high school unprepared for college and unprepared for employment. People like Bloomberg and Klein are touting their statistics, bragging about improvements but our students are in worse shape than they have ever been in.


We need a Tree of Hope but a Tree of Hope is not enough. We need a revamped system of education that will actually educate the children of today and prepare them for the careers they will follow tomorrow.

UFT Dues

From every paycheck our union takes $47.27.

What are we getting for this?

The union is running ads on prime time television showing an art teacher in a well equipped room working with two students. Is this reality? I think not. How does this commercial improve my working conditions? Doesn't a lie like this feed into Bloomberg and Klein's Keep It Going NYC Public Schools campaign? Doesn't this support them instead of us?

The union is running worthless and insulting workshops for ATRs. These bright, intelligent and experienced people being told they cannot find a job because of what they are doing, not because of how the union sold them out. My dues is being used for this nonsense too.

I know we need a union but, we need a union that works for us, not against us. The UFT of today is not that union.

Thanks to Mrs. Tsouris, the inspiration for this post.

Different Day, Same Issues

Ednotes posed a question from a math teacher. Another teacher, Saddleshoe, Although I commented there, I had to vent here as well. If we don't do something soon there will be no hope for future generations.

(Pictures from an earlier post)

No matter what I do, half the kids in my geometry class are clueless. I'm not talking about the kids that do nothing, I'm talking about the kids that try.

I decided to take the suggestion of an administrator and talk to the kids about their problems. One of the kids I work with a lot just showed me his PSAT scores. He only scored 34% in the critical reading category. If the child can't read and pick out details, he can't put clues together to solve a geometry proof. Figuring out whether he has consecutive angles or opposite angles in a parallelogram is beyond his scope of understanding. They know that the distance formula is used to show line segments are congruent, they repeat this over and over. They know that a triangle is isosceles if two sides are equal. On exams, they use the slope formula to do proofs involving these concepts. Another kid showed me his math score which was 29%. How can this kid be expected to learn geometry either?

The administrator suggested I talk to other teachers and see if they are having the same problems. I asked Mr. P how his class was doing. He said "Fine". I asked, "Approximately what percent of your class is passing?" He answered, "I have no idea. I don't look at those things." I did hear him and another teacher agonizing as they marked the first part of the midterms about the same mistakes my students make.

One boy told me it would have been better if he had paid attention in the beginning of the term. While that would have made a tremendous difference, it still would not have compensated for his inability to solve word problems. I am at a loss as to how to reteach him all the things he might have learned if he had paid attention.

The DOE is running a big campaign, Keep It Moving NYC Schools, touting the success of our schools under the reign of Klein and Bloomberg. Why aren't there any real reporters out there showing what is really going on in math education today?

I Almost Barfed

These signs sickened me as I rode the E train this morning. In a time when money is so tight, the city is spending money on advertising how wonderful our schools are. There might not be enough money for smaller classes, tutoring programs or even custodians but there is plenty of money for Bloomberg and Klein to blow their own horns. Keep It Going NYC Public Schools, in red.

Increased graduation rates by what method? By teaching kids what they need to survive college or life or by lowering standards so much that almost everyone gets by but know nothing.

Yes, Keep It Going, NYC Public Schools, in yellow.

NYC has also increased the number of days a year a teacher must work by adding mindless, waste of time staff development days in August, on Election Day and on Brooklyn-Queens Day. NYC has also lengthened the school day. It is now easy to remove a disgruntled teacher to the rubber room. Thousands of teachers are without classrooms.

We have schools that were built to hold 1800 holding 5000 students. Students are learning in substandard trailers, closets and bathrooms. Schools start before sunrise and end after sunset to accommodate the huge crowds.

Encourage your students to not report any incidences that might occur in your school. Crime is only a crime if someone knows about it.

Keep It Going In NYC Public Schools, in green.