Missing, Drowned, Burned Students, Bloomberg's Leadership Policies / How Avonte's Case was a Disaster Waiting to Happen

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's leadership of New York City schools has had a disturbing number of students beset by tragedies. The New York Post has a story on how a chemistry teacher accidentally started a fire, burning two students. We educators, for the safety of students have to call out schools on the importance of having seasoned professionals at the top and in key positions. Bloomberg in his mania to do more with less has cut laboratory assistants along with other key positions in schools. Accidents such as the one at Beacon School on the Upper West Side are the result of corner cutting. Proper leadership means having department chairs in the given subject, a science chair overseeing science teachers and their courses. The Nicole Suriel drowning, tellingly happened with cutting corners on parental approval and in the fateful small school trip to Long Beach, which included a first year teacher and a 19 year old teaching intern as adult supervisors. Another analysis connects her death to the new leadership model. These accidents were preventable: just compare the record of drowned, disappeared or maimed students to before Bloomberg. May the new chancellor Carmen Farina pursue a different course.

Original title for article: Missing Avonte Case, Waiting to Happen Under Bloomberg's Reform
There are cases that individually call attention to larger ills beyond the individual case in question. Alfred Dreyfus, and anti-semitism in a modernizing France; Charles Guiteau's assassination of Garfield, and political spoils; Rosa Parks, and America's racist segregation. The disappearance of Avonte Oquendo, if properly recognized, will be noted for inherently raising several issues as to how schools are run in this city, in this era of the intrusion of commercialized prerogatives and institutional mindsets.

In sum, I view the case as representing institutional misconduct that could warrant criminal proceedings against those at the top.

Avonte Oquendo alert in Manhattan

New York City has had a number of missing child cases. Yet, the case of Avonte Oquendo is distinct by the fact that he slipped out of the direction of school authorities. Absolutely, there should be the amount of attention given to him. Indeed, there ought to be much, much more. I applaud the Metropolitan Transit Authority for assigning construction workers to support the search for Avonte. The fact that he slipped out while under school supervision is inherently an indictment of the leadership of mayor Michael Bloomberg. The unprecedented attention, the unprecedented reward (again, warranted, absolutely) make me a little suspicious that the mayor might be quivering in the idea that in the larger analysis there are grounds for a million dollar liability lawsuit against him and the New York City Department of Education. Alas, the media is starting to isolate the blame on the school-level staff, insulating the mayor from responsibility.

In loco parentis
Prime consideration in public schools, before metrics, and even before education itself, should be the physical welfare of the child. Under compulsory education parents yield control and oversight of their child with the understanding that their child will return to their care and supervision of the school day. In the case of Avonte Oquendo, that guarantee, that implicit contract, had been broken.

We must look to the institutional errors that run rampant in the system that in great likelihood played into his disappearance. This is not a vulgar attempt at politicization. Those of us that work in the city's schools, particularly those serving students of the socio-economically weaker part of society, know of the almost routine hazards that happen in school. Just as mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio opined that it is divisive not to speak about economic inequality problems that the city is having, it is an error for those of us with the daily bird's eye view of the situation of school administration, and how these errors pose potential risk, not to speak out.

Let us note the risk factors. And as we study these factors we should note how certain institutional mindset are at work behind these risk factors.

First off, there is the inadequate supervision of school exits. In far too many instances, there are school exits that are not monitored continuously. This, among the issues discussed here, is the greatest issue. Additionally, while not all agents do this, there are far too many school safety agents that spend too much time gazing at their cellphones. Oquendo's particular school building has just two standard entrances and two emergency exits. Certainly this is not that difficult a building to monitor. And just what kind of considerations were made in placing Oquendo in this school? Given that he had a train obsession, was it good judgment to place him in a school a couple of blocks from the Long Island Railroad train yard with plenty of open access points?

Capital New York in "Memo: Safety measures weren't in effect the day Avonte Oquendo disappeared" reported on specifically negligent features of Oquendo's school building monitoring practices on October 4:

The Queens school that a severely autistic teen walked out of earlier this month lacked key safety features that could have prevented him from leaving the building—including working video surveillance, alarmed panic bars and doors with windows, Capital has learned.

None of the administrators or staff at Public School 277 had passwords to access live security camera feeds on Oct. 4, the day Avonte Oquendo, 14, left the brand new Long Island City school through a side door, according to an internal memo written by a teachers' union official that was obtained by Capital.

According to the memo, school employees didn't have the codes to access security footage until after Oquendo's disappearance.

"One administrator said that none of the administrators had the password to log onto the cameras at the computers as of the 20th day of school," which was Oct. 4.

But getting to institutional decisions and institutional irresponsibility, we must identify and indict the city's parsimoniousness with staffing resources. School safety agents ideally serve, among other things, to monitor school exits. In far too many schools there are inadequate numbers of agents and every door is not constantly monitored.

Then, we have numbers of instructional staff: teachers, para-professionals and school aides. Their numbers are far too often inadequately low. Investigation into the case of Oquendo may well reveal that ratios for his classes were insufficiently low. We have already seen other instances illustrating the city's parsimoniousness with staffing. Look at the United Federation of Teachers (UFT's) having to lead a special education law compliance campaign, to agitate for proper staffing levels. What does it say about a school system when the teachers unions are needed to enforce compliance with education laws? Despite the UFT's initiative there are too many schools that drag their feet in making teachers aware of the Individual Education Plans (IEPs) of their students.

But the city's school administering prerogatives alone cannot be faulted. Added blame must be placed on federal policy makers of the last fifteen years that decided on the increased mainstreaming of special education students. True, there are some students that are better served with a level of mainstreaming. Yet, in the hands of excessively frugal city administrations mainstreaming in New York City too often means putting high ratios of special education students in classes taught by general education teachers. With gaps in staffing with properly licensed special education staff, improper education can result and improper handling of students can result.

This is part and parcel a core value that is in violation with the ethical obligation to protect and to educate children. The city, viewing staffing with more paras and school aide as a nuisance drag on the budget, inherently makes a definitive choice to staff on the cheap. And there are many known cases when there are school aides tending to children in contexts when a certified teacher should be filling the spot. It takes a tragedy such as the present instance to become aware of the ramifications of the profound safety risks that result from tight-fisted budgeting.

School administration improper handling of the discipline issue probably did not factor into the present case, but it could play into similar cases that might arise. Namely, some school leaders, reflexively blaming teachers for everything, actually take retribution against teachers that report students leaving. Too often there are fearful teachers that feel damned if they make such a report. School leaders should be collaborative, not predatory towards teachers. Alas, in Avonte's case, it appears that he slipped away during a transition between classes, suggesting short staffing and inadequate safety agent monitoing on the exits.

Co-location at what cost?
Beyond city policies, the trend towards school funding stinginess is not merely a Bloomberg prerogative, it is a feature of national education trends. And aside from this trend there is the trend of co-location of schools with other schools in a single building. What on earth was a speechless autistic child doing in a school co-locating with a regular high school population? Just a week ago Chapter Leader John Elfrank-Dana spoke at a hearing on the safety risks of placing schools with entirely different age ranges in a single building.

In a breakthrough report by WNYC the anxieties over co-location were expressed. This is remarkable because the radio station usually just parrots the pronouncements of Bloomberg, Walcott and Suransky as though they were received gospel; for example, this summer Suransky revealed the truth to the public that new technologies make school libraries and librarians (dismissed as curators) obsolete, with no dissenter following for equal time to this outrageous claim. The local news reporters usually state "____________ [one of the above education "leaders"] tells us . . ." And these echoes of official pronouncements are rarely followed by community or union critiques of the policies.

I usually excerpt such pieces, but given the gravity of the situation I incorporate more. [Italics mine] I strongly differ from the last attorney cited. This case demonstrates the risks of co-locations. Additionally, I take issue with the teacher at the end. Even those these things can happen, policies ought to be in place to make sure that they do not happen.

For families of children with special needs, the week-long search for a missing 14-year-old boy with autism has many wondering what went wrong in a public school created to serve some of the city’s most vulnerable children. One of the concerns in the special education community is that his school – like many special education programs – shares space with another school, an arrangement that may make security more challenging.

Anyone with leads on Avonte Oquendo should call police at 1-800-577-TIPS.

Avonte Oquendo is a student at the Riverview School, a District 75 program for children with special needs. A high school, the Academy for Careers in Television and Film, also occupies the new building on 51st Street Avenue in Long Island City.

District 75 schools rarely get their own buildings. This is largely because the programs are required to provide individualized education plans, or IEPs, for the children which in turn means small classes and extra rooms for therapy and other services. With space as a premium, it is common for the children of one District 75 school to be scattered among several different public school buildings.

According to the family's attorney, David Perecman, a school security guard did not stop Oquendo from leaving on Oct. 4 because she may have confused him for one of the high school students. 

Joe Williams is the former president of the city’s District 75 parents council. He said almost all of these District 75 programs share space with other schools. His own 14-year-old son is autistic and attends the program located inside Sunset Park High School.

“Most of the time they’re on an entirely different floor,” he said. But they don’t have their own separate security guards. “The security guards are for the building,” he said.

Nonetheless, Williams said everyone in the building is supposed to know which students are where, and when the students from one school are using the gymnasium or cafeteria.

Williams said the schools are generally treated like "stepchildren" and that they are feeling more pressure now because the city is opening more schools inside existing buildings. One former school official agreed. Adding a school doesn’t mean the building gets an additional security guard, the official told WNYC, meaning security can be stretched “very, very thin.”

Safety agents are trained by the police department. Gregory Floyd, president of Teamsters Local 237, which represents the safety agents, issued a statement:

“Our school safety agents are highly trained and effective. Keeping our children safe while they are at school is always our top priority. We are heartbroken that Avonte left the school without notice and are determined to do everything we can to ensure he is found safe and sound.”

Chancellor Dennis Walcott said Thursday that he remains confident in the safety procedures, but that something went wrong in this case and the D.O.E. will investigate in conjunction with the police department. Neither the Chancellor nor anyone else interviewed by WNYC could recall a child who disappeared from school and remained missing for more than a few hours.

Walcott also said Avonte was supposed to be in a class setting of no more than six students per teacher, plus one paraprofessional (school aide). These settings are for students with the most serious disabilities.

But Williams said teachers or paraprofessionals are supposed to accompany the students to and from lunch, and other activities such as speech therapy.

"So that child should have not been out of the class alone,” he said, referring to the lawyer’s statement that the boy disappeared during a transition.

He said he wants to know whether the other children in Avonte’s class had their own paraprofessionals, and whether they were all present last Friday, in order to determine whether there were enough adults watching the boy in the hallway.

Gary Mayerson, an attorney who has represented many children with autism, said he has met many families who claimed their children were not safe in public school buildings and requested a transfer to a private school. However, he said this does not mean co-locations, or shared schools, are inherently unsafe.

He also said he supports the goal of inclusion, mixing children with special needs in the same building as general education students so they are not isolated in their own schools.

But Mayerson acknowledged children with autism are at risk of slipping away from school, because they have a tendency to wander. One special education teacher in a New York City public school, who did not want to be identified, agreed.

“Unfortunately, it’s a common occurrence with kids with autism,” the teacher said. “What frightens me is that this could happen to any teacher, in any school, no matter how many procedures are followed. These kids are quick and it does happen. What's important is to realize their missing quickly, so they can be located quickly."

There are additional factors we should consider. Teachers and staff working in "tough" schools are aware that even conscientious, pro-active principals can have their hands full. School leadership means not only supervising instruction but also meeting with parents and being a presence in the halls and being familiar with the students, taking a first had role in guiding the "school tone." So, already, principals have had enough to do. Now, with Race to the Top's beefed up evaluation dictates and the state level version of it, the new APPR law, principals' traditional role of school steward and leader is high-jacked by that of constant watchdog over teachers. And we have not even considered the time that it will take to write the summative analyses for the teachers in the school.

Just as we recognize Dwight D. Eisenhower's adviso in his 1953 speech now cited as his "Guns or butter" speech,

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

We ought to recognize the disservice we are doing by supplanting proper education objectives with the Danielson Frameworks and Bill Gates' Common Core prerogatives, goals that were not sought by parents and local community leaders but by a shock doctrine false emergency concocted by Gates, Broad and other malanthropists. Too many principals will have to scrimp on time meeting family and students needs and instead served Gates and their other commercial masters.

The teachers union must be faulted at some level also. With chapter leaders well distributed through the system they see these trends and must surely conceive of their risks. Conscientious teachers that express concerns such as those expressed on this page are treated as alarmists and are told by administrators and too often by union leaders to not "rock the boat." The union should play an important part in agitating for better staffing of the schools. Furthermore, the union should have put a sincere effort at fighting co-location which poses extreme risks to special needs students. It is the kind of adequate levels staffing to properly educate and to guard students that is the conception of what social justice means to many of us in the UFT's MORE caucus.

At the school supervision level we have the problems of the bureaucratic competency. Veterans of the school system, from the days before the Board became the Department of Education, recall that school leaders rose through the ranks, from master teacher, to assistant principal, to principal. These professionals took supervision courses at actual academic institutions, not Eli Broad's "leadership academies" for quick training of hardly seasoned educators to become principals. Before Bloomberg's mayoral control superintendents, themselves veterans in the same fashion as principals of yore, had to approve principal appointments. Now, these are a new kind of political appointments, where pretenses of ambitious plans for meeting statistical goals are the main hiring criterion.

How, then have we reached this situation? We have a union that is afraid to cross hairs with school administrators and with the city's school leadership as a whole. Forget for a minute about squabbles over Common Core. Children's safety is at stake. (I am not blaming the union overall. Dissidents, and even some members of the dominant caucus do sincerely endeavor towards proper school-level policies and broader school funding. What I do fault is the union leadership's consciousness of the risk level in the schools and its failure to aggressively challenge the city on this.)

Moreover, we have the conscious decision of the political class and all of the commercial media to support the negation of the public voice in school administration. In the absence of any parent or community voice, the kinds of concerns or question raised in this article never get raised. The factors raised in this article and others never get raised or listened to in the current autocratic regime. Both candidates Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota are committed to perpetuating mayoral control. They must shed this attachment to personal power and must give up their opposition to democratic governance. The Panel for Educational Policy is as democratic as the Electoral College. Are we still in the 18th century with its ambivalence about popular power?

If this were a situation that could be pinned on one teacher, we can bet that that teacher would be in the rubber room. It will be a tragedy if in this case, the only media consciousness in this case were in the blogosphere, and if the commercial media and the politicians did not consider how the city's top administrators bore responsibility and betrayed their responsibility. Michael Bloomberg will never be in a rubber room.

May this situation turn out well for Avonte and his family. UPDATE: Village Voice: School principal was out of building on day of Oquendo's disappearance. Mother had unsuccessfully requested for Avonte to have one-on-one supervision; and we might add that this is something that New York City schoolteachers know is a commonplace provision available for students. Link for the New York Times report on release of investigation of his disappearance.

Will the UFT Get Some Spine and Address the Shadow Constitutional Mandate of Playing Coy with Snow Day Announcements?

Let's get real. This is an obvious pattern: New York City mayors don't announce snow school closures 'til the last possible minute; Bill de Blasio did it again with a closure that went announced only at 5:00.

De Blasio has shown himself to be same as de Blasio: wait til last minute to tell people that there's no school.

Look at all the factors that make outer boro folks get up and out EARLY:

*Long Island Expressway ENTIRELY closed east to the Queens/Nassau boundary, until 8 AM.
*Rail and MTA on a Saturday schedule.

*This non-Manhattan location: 14 degrees F, feels like -4 degrees. Overnight the windchill put the temperature 10 degrees colder with 30 mph winds.
*News folks telling people to stay in, unless you are an emergency worker.

*Newark, Hoboken and Jersey City, just over the river, announced their closures hours earlier

So, why the general move to not close, or to hold off to last possible minute? Why is Gov. Cuomo's travel ban/state of emergency non-applicable in NYC?

Here's the conspiratorial view: employers don't want too many parents to be absent, tending their little ones. Ergo, they put the heat on the mayors: don't close NYC schools unless the roads and transit commutes are REALLY horrendous. BTW, if the school system really cared about kids and parents it would put an immediate moratorium on the Common Core test prep madness.

So the coy wait-til-last-minute game goes on. Us non-Manhattan folks had to wake up extra early to get ready for extra 45 minutes added to the commute, and BDB in his decisiveness waits until 5:00 AM to break the word. Great. And the UFT bigs, with their cushy, don't-show-up-to-boro-offices-til-10:00 jobs don't understand what preparations regular working Janes and Joes have to take. They won't speak up; they don't don't know what the real commuting, working conditions are.

For those expecting real change with this administration, this was not a good omen.

Update: "Elections are never the culmination of creating change" - Transcript, NYC Mayor deBlasio, Public Advocate James' Inaugural Speeches, January 1, 2014

Postscript: The Nation acknowledges James' hint of challenge to de Blasio

*"Elections are never the culmination of creating change" --Letitia James *The challenge to New York City's leaders in these years, going forward

Prepared inaugural speech of New York City mayor Bill de Blasio, from WNYC.org:
Thank you, President Clinton, for your kind words. It was an honor to serve in your administration, and we’re all honored by your presence. I have to note that, over 20 years ago, when a conservative philosophy seemed dominant, you broke through – and told us to still believe in a place called Hope.
Thank you, Secretary Clinton. I was inspired by the time I spent on your first campaign. Your groundbreaking commitment to nurturing our children and families manifested itself in a phrase that is now a part of our American culture – and something we believe in deeply in this city. It Takes A Village.
Thank you, Reverend Fred Lucas Jr., Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Monsignor Robert Romano, and Imam Askia Muhammad for your words of prayer.
Thank you, Governor Cuomo. Working with you at HUD, I saw how big ideas can overcome big obstacles. And it will be my honor to serve shoulder-to-shoulder with you again.
Thank you, Mayor Bloomberg. To say the least, you led our city through some extremely difficult times. And for that, we are all grateful. Your passion on issues such as environmental protection and public health has built a noble legacy. We pledge today to continue the great progress you made in these critically important areas.
Thank you, Mayor Dinkins, for starting us on the road to a safer city, and for always uplifting our youth – and I must say personally, for giving me my start in New York City government. You also had the wisdom to hire a strong and beautiful young woman who walked up to me one day in City Hall and changed my life forever.
Chirlane, you are my soulmate -- and my best friend. My partner in all I do. My love for you grows with each passing year. Chiara and Dante, I cannot put into words the joy and the pride that you bring your mother and me. You are the best thing that’s ever happened to us, and we love you very much.
And finally, thank you to my brothers Steve and Don, and all my family assembled today -- from all around this country, and from Italy. You have always guided and sustained me.
Thank you, my fellow New Yorkers - my brothers and sisters -- for joining Chirlane, Chiara, Dante and me on this chilly winter day.
De parte de Chirlane, Chiara, Dante y yo, les extiendo las gracias a ustedes, mis hermanas y hermanos niuyorquinos, por acompañarnos en este dia tan especial.
Like it is for so many of you, my family is my rock. Their wisdom, their compassion, and their sense of humor make each day a gift to cherish.
But, what makes today so special isn’t just my family, but our larger New York family. We see what binds all New Yorkers together: an understanding that big dreams are not a luxury reserved for a privileged few, but the animating force behind every community, in every borough.
The spark that ignites our unwavering resolve to do everything possible to ensure that every girl and boy, no matter what language they speak, what subway line they ride, what neighborhood they call home — that every child has the chance to succeed.
We recognize a city government’s first duties: to keep our neighborhoods safe; to keep our streets clean; to ensure that those who live here – and those who visit – can get where they need to go in all five boroughs. But we know that our mission reaches deeper. We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love. And so today, we commit to a new progressive direction in New York. And that same progressive impulse has written our city’s history. It’s in our DNA.
Nearly a century ago, it was Al Smith who waged war on unsafe working conditions and child labor. It was Franklin Roosevelt and Frances Perkins who led the charge for the basic bargain of unemployment insurance and the minimum wage. It was Fiorello La Guardia who enacted the New Deal on the city level, battled the excesses of Wall Street, and championed a progressive income tax.
From Jacob Riis to Eleanor Roosevelt to Harry Belafonte — who we are honored to have with us here today — it was New Yorkers who challenged the status quo, who blazed a trail of progressive reform and political action, who took on the elite, who stood up to say that social and economic justice will start here and will start now.
It’s that tradition that inspires the work we now begin. A movement that sees the inequality crisis we face today, and resolves that it will not define our future. Now I know there are those who think that what I said during the campaign was just rhetoric, just “political talk” in the interest of getting elected. There are some who think now, as we turn to governing – well, things will continue pretty much like they always have.
So let me be clear. When I said we would take dead aim at the Tale of Two Cities, I meant it. And we will do it. I will honor the faith and trust you have placed in me. And we will give life to the hope of so many in our city. We will succeed as One City. We know this won’t be easy; It will require all that we can muster. And it won’t be accomplished only by me; It will be accomplished by all of us — those of us here today, and millions of everyday New Yorkers in every corner of our city.
You must continue to make your voices heard. You must be at the center of this debate. And our work begins now. We will expand the Paid Sick Leave law -- because no one should be forced to lose a day’s pay, or even a week’s pay, simply because illness strikes. And by this time next year, fully 300,000 additional New Yorkers will be protected by that law. We won’t wait.
We’ll do it now. We will require big developers to build more affordable housing. We’ll fight to stem the tide of hospital closures. And we’ll expand community health centers into neighborhoods in need, so that New Yorkers see our city not as the exclusive domain of the One Percent, but a place where everyday people can afford to live, work, and raise a family. We won’t wait. We’ll do it now.
We will reform a broken stop-and-frisk policy, both to protect the dignity and rights of young men of color, and to give our brave police officers the partnership they need to continue their success in driving down crime. We won’t wait. We’ll do it now.
We will ask the very wealthy to pay a little more in taxes so that we can offer full-day universal pre-K and after-school programs for every middle school student. And when we say “a little more,” we can rightly emphasize the “little.”
Those earning between $500,000 and one million dollars a year, for instance, would see their taxes increase by an average of $973 a year. That’s less than three bucks a day – about the cost of a small soy latte at your local Starbucks.
Think about it. A 5-year tax on the wealthiest among us – with every dollar dedicated to pre-K and after-school. Asking those at the top to help our kids get on the right path and stay there. That’s our mission. And on that, we will not wait. We will do it now.
Of course, I know that our progressive vision isn’t universally shared. Some on the far right continue to preach the virtue of trickle-down economics. They believe that the way to move forward is to give more to the most fortunate, and that somehow the benefits will work their way down to everyone else. They sell their approach as the path of “rugged individualism.”
But Fiorello La Guardia — the man I consider to be the greatest Mayor this city has ever known — put it best. He said: “I, too, admire the 'rugged individual,’ but no ‘rugged individual' can survive in the midst of collective starvation.”
So please remember: we do not ask more of the wealthy to punish success. We do it to create more success stories. And we do it to honor a basic truth: that a strong economy is dependent on a thriving school system. We do it to give every kid a chance to get their education off on the right foot, from the earliest age, which study after study has shown leads to greater economic success, healthier lives, and a better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty.
We do it to give peace of mind to working parents, who suffer the anxiety of not knowing whether their child is safe and supervised during those critical hours after the school day ends, but before the workday is done. And we do it because we know that we must invest in our city, in the future inventors and CEOs and teachers and scientists, so that our generation – like every generation before us – can leave this city even stronger than we found it.
Our city is no stranger to big struggles -- and no stranger to overcoming them.
New York has faced fiscal collapse, a crime epidemic, terrorist attacks, and natural disasters. But now, in our time, we face a different crisis – an inequality crisis. It’s not often the stuff of banner headlines in our daily newspapers. It’s a quiet crisis, but one no less pernicious than those that have come before.
Its urgency is read on the faces of our neighbors and their children, as families struggle to make it against increasingly long odds. To tackle a challenge this daunting, we need a dramatic new approach — rebuilding our communities from the bottom-up, from the neighborhoods up. And just like before, the world will watch as we succeed. All along the way, we will remember what makes New York, New York.
A city that fights injustice and inequality — not just because it honors our values, but because it strengthens our people. A city of five boroughs — all created equal. Black, white, Latino, Asian, gay, straight, old, young, rich, middle class, and poor. A city that remembers our responsibility to each other — our common cause — is to leave no New Yorker behind.
That’s the city that you and I believe in. It’s the city to which my grandparents were welcomed from the hills of Southern Italy, the city in which I was born, where I met the love of my life, where Chiara and Dante were raised.
It’s a place that celebrates a very simple notion: that no matter what your story is – this is your city. Our strength is derived from you. Working together, we will make this One City. And that mission — our march toward a fairer, more just, more progressive place, our march to keep the promise of New York alive for the next generation. It begins today.
Thank you, and God bless the people of New York City!

Inaugural speech of New York City public advocate Letitia James from another's video:

I never expected to make history as the first woman of color to hold city-wide office. And I stand here in this space, filled with anticipation, anchored by the strength and will of parents smiling down from heaven, parents without credentials, humbled individuals, more accustomed to back-breaking work than dinner parties. They taught me to set an example, and to serve as an inspiration to others, to fight for something greater than oneself. And that sense of purpose was sharpened throughout my public school and later at the laboratory of civil rights struggle, Howard University School of Law, which set in motion a public service career.
I joined public service because I felt it was the single most effect way to change the outcome of exclusion and marginalization that has left its mark on so many New Yorkers at one time or another. The wave of progressive victories our city has enjoyed thanks to the city council was in some ways inevitable.
The fabric of our city, of our nation, is made strong by untold sacrifices of so many who are left defenseless, unrepresented, unspoken for. But at some point in history the tide must turn. The policies that makes them voiceless must give way to a government that speaks for them that cares more about child going hungry than a new stadium or a new tax credit for a luxury development.
To live up to that challenge and be morally centered in our decisions is the task before those of us who think of ourselves as the progressive wing of our city. Even as the tide turns towards progress we do not have the luxury to rest.
You see the growing gap between the haves and have-nots undermines our city and tears at the fabric of our democracy. We live in a gilded age of inequality with decrepit homeless shelters that stand shadow of million dollar condos.
Where long term residents are priced out of their own neighborhoods by rising rent and stagnated incomes, where stop and frisk abuse and unwarranted surveillance have been touted as success stories, as though crime can only be reduced by infringing on the civil liberties of people of color. Where what should be the race for the bottom for high quality education has turned into race to the bottom of standardized test scores. And where hospital closures serve as an existential threat to the health of our community and library privatization are little more than land grabs for more luxury condos. Most disturbingly we live in a city where a New York City worker can work full time and still need food stamps to feed her family.
Where more and more jobs pay lower and lower wages until we find ourselves in a place where half of all New Yorkers are living at or near the poverty line. You see, I've heard the stories from fast food workers who are not working one but two or three jobs and helplessly sinking into the poverty of this over the past year of campaigning and organizing I have met the individuals who have made a science of stretching a paltry $7.25 an hour, an act of magic I call it. Trying to survive in one of the most expensive cities in the world. I have joined them at their walk-outs and pickets and seen in their eyes and constant fear of losing their last economic lifeline but in those eyes I've also seen hope, enduring hope the eternal optimism light in their eyes and it's that same life that I saw today in Dasani's eyes.

Dasani, please join me. Dasani has joined us with her family their family please stand. This is the Dasani Coates you've all read about her in the New York Times and this is my new BFF.
And so, together in seemingly endless recession and an unsparing economic system, working people in this city don't give up. Their spirits have not been broken. New Yorkers get up each day and fight. And when they're knocked down they get up again and fight some more. This is the spirit of our city.
This is the tenacity it will take for our government to strike a blow against inequality and injustice and make our city work for working people again.
It's why those of us taking the oath of office today were elected to serve because as with each ending comes a new beginning. As we recognize the challenges I laid out we must also capitalize on the unique opportunities only a city as amazing as New York City can offer.
We still have one of the most diverse and talented work-forces in the world. New industries continue to arrive and thrive in New York and our city remains the unquestioned hub of creativity commerce and innovation in our region and maybe the world. These challenges and opportunities can only met effectively if we work together.
Let this be our lasting resolution on this new day, I congratulate mayor de Blasio and comptroller Scott Stringer as we come together to join to celebrate this historic day and launching journey that will move our entire city forward. All of us share a progressive vision for this city's rejuvenation.
I pledge to work cooperatively with all of my colleagues and build real consensus. Indeed, moving New York forward will take hard work and a joined determination.
Of course, if working people aren't getting their fair share, if government isn't securing the reforms New Yorkers were promised, you'd better believe that Dasani and I will stand up, that all of us will stand up and call out anyone and anything that stands in the way of our progress.
Elections are never the culmination of creating change, but simply a first step. New Yorkers should judge their government by whether we make improvements in the education system our children rely upon, whether we improve healthcare access for our patients, whether we help create jobs that pay more than the minimum wage, whether we make our city one that's safer even as we respect the civil rights of all New Yorkers and whether we focus on building more sports arenas or more affordable housing. Above all, our government must maintain an unflinching focus on the spirit of these benchmarks. So, today we celebrate and work to make the promises we have made to New Yorkers motivated by the challenges before us and inspired by the greatness of our cause. I thank you for your trust and I am more determined than ever to roll up my sleeves and seize the opportunities presented by the dawn of a new day. God bless you and god bless our great city.

--Bolding of text by blogger transcriber.
Blogger's note:
This is mayor de Blasio's challenge, if he cannot abide by the Dasanis among New York City's children, if he cannot reopen the shuttered hospitals, if he cannot reverse the apartheid trend --in this city that has the third most segregated urban school system in the nation-- that allows for a rich curriculum of diverse language choices and arts for some and for a bare bones education of just English and math for others, then he stands to be replaced by a true progressive leader.

Postscript:
The Nation has acknowledged James' implicit challenge to de Blasio to stand by a progressive commitment. Jarrett Murphy noted,

What’s received less attention [in media analyses of James' inaugural address], but might be more interesting, was the warning James issued toward the end of her speech.

"All of us share a progressive vision for this city’s future," she said as she congratulated de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer. She pledged to work with her two fellow city officials. Then she said, “Of course, if working people aren’t getting their fair share, if our government isn’t securing the reforms New Yorkers were promised, you better believe Dasani and I will stand up—that all of us will stand up—and call out anyone and anything that stands in the way of our progress.”

The question is, Who did the public advocate mean by “all of us” who are going to stand up, and who are the “anyone” who might stand in the path of progress? Could the new mayor himself get called out at some point?

In theory, at least, that’s James’s new job. The city’s number-two official, the public advocate takes over temporarily if the mayor cannot serve, presides over full City Council meetings, can gather information from city agencies, has the right to propose legislation and makes appointments to some city boards. Its role is sometimes defined as that of an ombudsman: someone to look out for the little guy and monitor the operation of city government. But in New York’s strong-mayor system, the advocate is also positioned as a check and balance on the mayor. . . . . With her reference to calling people out, does James have something a little more aggressive in mind? Progressives love the FDR quote about the importance of pressuring the pols we agree with. “I agree with you, I want to do it, now make me do it,” the late prez said; President Obama paraphrased it seventy years later, and progressives in New York recognize they’ll sometimes need to have de Blasio’s back, and sometimes need to shove it.

Lack of power and shaky media reputation or not. James could be the shover in chief. She’s no stranger to combat—winning a vacant Council seat in 2003 by beating the brother of the assassinated councilman who vacated it, and doing so with only the backing of the Working Families Party; jousting (often breathless with what seemed like barely suppressed rage) with Bloomberg commissioners for years as a councilwoman; winning a public advocate’s race that she was counted out of early on. It will be interesting to see whether James can go from throwing body blows to the more nuanced art of grappling. As de Blasio watched James return to her seat—hand-in-hand with her new “BFF”—after her final fusillade at the Bloomberg administration, a page was turned: the next mayor in James’s cross hairs, if it ever comes to that, will be Bill de Blasio.

Video: Coleman, Common Core Supporters, Publicly Joke About the Authors' Lack of School Teaching Experience

Paul Thomas at the Chalk Face blog has shared this latest Common Core States Standards outrage: David Coleman and others glibly joked about the standards authors' lack of experience teaching in schools. Read here about Coleman's inability to get a teaching job. Coleman as you will recall is the person that was the lead author among the five that wrote the CCSS. The person introducing Coleman is Lauren Resnick.
Bravo to Prof. Thomas for posting the video and excerpts of the transcript, the full transcript of which is here.

This Is the Common Core You Support?

December 23, 2013 by plthomasedd 11 Comments

You have plenty of Urban Legend and baseless conspiracy theories swirling around the Common Core, and none of that really serves anyone well.
But you also have evidence (and from what I can tell, that doesn’t carry much weight).
So for all those who support the Common Core, and tend to ignore the evidence-based arguments against CC, I really want you to respond to this from David Coleman 2 Years Ago: We Were a Collection of Unqualified People (from Truth in American Education):

Let me help you since the video is long.

Introduction of David Coleman, architect of CC (see full transcript):

And he was invited to a sort of staff meeting where we were beginning in the Institute to think about what our stance was gonna be on the fact that new standards were maybe going to come our way. It was before the Common Core State Standards effort announced, and another person we were working with, whom I won‟t name tonight, asked if maybe at our next meeting he could bring David Coleman with him. And I said, “Who’s David Coleman?” and he gave me something like what I have in my hand. Those characteristics didn't seem particularly relevant to what we were gonna do, you know, like being a Rhodes Scholar and having both Cambridge and Oxford degrees – all that kind of stuff. That’s nice, but it’s really not so relevant. …

Okay, so this is the kind of person we are gonna be privileged to here tonight. He has been involved in virtually every step of setting the national standards, and he doesn’t have a single credential for it. He‟s never taught in an elementary school – I think. You know, I actually don‟t know. He’s never edited a scholarly journal, but I think he has written scholarly papers. And a variety of other things that have – you know, everybody here has done some of, he hasn’t done. [Laughter] You told me you didn't want to do a standard – [Laughter] so he hasn’t done the standard things, and now he‟s gonna tell you what he has done, or what he probably will say he has not done others have done, but which he has helped others to want to do and to ______ do. And we’re all gonna be living with the fruits of that, for the next five years, so listen carefully.

I never knew no experience and no expertise was so funny!

And now, some remarks from David Coleman:

You know, you’d think someone with Lauren’s experience would understand you never tell the truth when you’re introducing someone. It’s kind of like a eulogy in reverse. I think the clear lesson from tonight is don’t ask Lauren to speak at your funeral. [Laughter] She clearly doesn’t understand what eulogy stands for….

One of them is the kind of humility she talked about, about qualifications. I actually think it’s really  important to try to base what I’m about to say to you on evidence I share with you rather than on the sands of my qualifications. So if I ask you or talk to you about doing something it should be evident that it makes sense to you to do, ’cause I have no other authority….

One of them is that these standards are worthy of nothing if the assessments built on them are not worthy of teaching to, period. This is quite a demanding charge, I might add to you, because it has within it the kind of statement – you know, “Oh, the standards were just fine, but the real work begins now in defining the assessment,” which if you were involved in the standards is a slightly exhausting statement to make.

But let’s be rather clear: we’re at the start of something here, and its promise – our top priorities in our organization, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about our organization, is to do our darnedest to ensure that the assessment is worthy of your time, is worthy of imitation. It was Lauren who propounded the great rule that I think is a statement of reality, though not a pretty one, which is teachers will teach towards the test. There is no force strong enough on this earth to prevent that. There is no amount of hand-waving, there’s no amount of saying, “They teach to the standards, not the test; we don’t do that here.” Whatever. The truth is – and if I misrepresent you, you are welcome to take the mic back. But the truth is teachers do. Tests exert an enormous effect on instructional practice, direct and indirect, and it‟s hence our obligation to make tests that are worthy of that kind of attention. It is in my judgment the single most important work we have to do over the next two years to ensure that that is so, period. So when you ask me, “What do we have to do over the next years?” we gotta do that. If we do anything else over the next two years and don’t do that, we are stupid and shall be betrayed again by shallow tests that demean the quality of classroom practice, period….

Student Achievement Partners, all you need to know about us are a couple things. One is we’re composed of that collection of unqualified people who were involved in developing the common standards….

This is a long talk, and it is always dangerous to offer excerpts of anyone’s speech. I do urge that you read or listen to this completely, but I want to stress that two key points are repeated in this from Coleman himself: the foundational architects of CC admit to no experience or expertise (causing me to wonder why I should consider any of this) and testing is central from the beginning (thus, claims that CC can be separated from the high-stakes tests is, again, without credibility; testing is part of the CC plan).

Coleman tends to run with common sense claims about education, such as faulty international comparisons, and appears to offer no acknowledgement of issues related to poverty and inequity. As a 31-year educator specializing in literacy and writing, I notice that his claims and supposed evidence-base are wildly off. Just as one example, his sweeping generalizations about what students write are powerfully refuted by the most recent analysis of student writing by Applebee and Langer, who clearly show with data that students write very little in middle and high schools primarily because of the negative influence of standards and testing (raising the question: How are new standards and testing going to alleviate that when the designers of those standards and tests themselves forefront the unavoidable influence of testing?).

Finally, all the laughter is important I think. Yes, CC is one big joke—but it has been pulled on politicians, the public, teachers, and students. And I find that not funny at all. And despite Coleman’s principles that appear to suggest CC isn’t intended to line anyone’s pockets, to use his own paradigm, we have abundant evidence that Coleman*, Pearson, test designers, and the like are themselves laughing all the way to the bank.

* Turn CC notoriety into position with College Board where you redesign and grow College Board built on the rise in importance of CC:

In 2007, David left McGraw-Hill and cofounded Student Achievement Partners, a nonprofit that assembles educators and researchers to design actions based on evidence to improve student outcomes. Student Achievement Partners played a leading role in developing the Common Core State Standards in math and literacy. David left Student Achievement Partners in the fall of 2012 to become president of the College Board.

Go to the original ChalkFace post for the ongoing comments.

Update: ALEC & New Student Data Program, inBloom Parallel; Relevance of Target Card Security Breaches

Postscript: L.I. principal Carol Burris pens student data critique for Washington Post, see her critique, at the end below, "Student privacy concerns grow over 'data in a cloud'"
*NYSED's John King: "There can be no opt-out because we are required to aggregate that information." *ALEC legislation to sell public education to privately run edu-tech empire and children’s data to private interests
In this still fresh and pertinent post from another education blog a month ago we see a parallel to inBloom, the plague on New York State parents and children: a program innocuously given the name "Student Achievement Backpack Act."
And with all the news of debit and credit card security breaches in the Target Corporation system can parents really feel that they can put all of their trust in New York State Education Department Commissioner John King, who says "We’ll do everything possible to keep it [inBloom] secure"???? (By the way, this comment drew boos from the parent audience.) A commenter on the news site noted, "Once the lawsuits start flying, it will be New York State taxpayers who get stuck with the bill." Or do these constituents not figure as stakeholders in King's mind?
And more King cavalier comments:

New York State Education Commissioner John King got a loud laugh from the mostly-hostile crowd at Mineola High School on Nov. 13 when he admitted that the new data site being rolled out by the state and several non-profits —called InBloom — was as secure as they could make it, but there was never a guarantee that online data couldn’t be hacked.
“Tell that to the national security agency,” one man yelled out, referring to the breach in the super-secret agencies data last year.
One participant took up the question head on, asking King if she could opt-out of the program for her elementary school student.
“I am concerned about protecting the privacy of my student,” she said. “As he is a minor, I should be the one to decide which information about him goes into the cloud and which does not.”
King told her that the state needed the information to make decisions and that federal law required that the state collect that information. "There can be no opt-out because we are required to aggregate that information."

The above is from the Valley Stream Herald. Hey, how come these articles are always in upstate, Hudson Valley or Long Island newspapers and the New York City papers are mute???
Postscript: 4.5 million Snapchat accounts hacked, usernames, phone numbers leaked. You still have total faith in Commissioner King's ability to keep inBloom secure?

From EducationalAlchemy blog:

“Big Brother” Has an Ugly Corporate “Big Stepsister”!

Posted: November 27, 2013 in Uncategorized

ALEC legislation to sell public education to privately run edu-tech empire and children’s data to private interests

There’s a lot wrong with ALEC legislation, now, in the past, and undoubtedly into the future. I could fill volumes of pages of such concerns. But for the sake of focus, today’s blog drills down into their most recent “model” legislation aimed at selling our schools to the edu-tech industry. It’s so blatant it’s painful. I would have expected more subterfuge from ALEC. They’re getting lazy. Or their getting bold. Their agenda is too clear. Kind of disappointing really. They took all the fun out of having to dig for it.

I am pasting snap shots of their latest rounds of policies. The rest speaks for itself. But if you’d like to add your two cents, ALEC will be convening to discuss these legislative matters on December 6^th in Washington DC.  See full dockethere: 

This latest round of ALEC agenda caught the eye and ear of Diane Ravitch’s post.

If we don’t raise our voices, no one will do it for us.

From the “Early Intervention Act”

“…to provide interactive computer software for literacy or numeracy instruction, or both, and assessments for students in kindergarten through grade 3.”

Really? Because nothing screams “developmentally inappropriate” like putting a five year old in front of a computer in lieu of a real live caring and experienced teacher during the most vulnerable and formative stages of cognitive development. But of course, this is a boon for the software industry!

In order to receive the early intervention funds for the “enhanced kindergarten program” described in this model bill, a school district must agree to contract with software companies to provide online learning programs.

“In addition to an enhanced kindergarten program described in Subsection (B), the early intervention program includes a component to address early intervention through the use of an interactive computer software program.”

Immigrant Tracking System?

But the technology driven agenda does not stop with toddlers. There is also the “K-1 Technology-Based Reading Intervention for English Learners Act” which calls on “the State Department of Education to implement a language development software program in grades K-1 to assist those identified as English Language Learners.”

Can you imagine a better way to track students, who as ELL students, most likely come from first generation immigrant backgrounds? And what about children (or their parents) who may be undocumented?

There seems to be no effort to indicate whether or not these software companies they hire to teach students phonemic awareness, vocabulary, or other linguistic skills itemized in this bill, are even grounded in sound literacy research for ELL students. Or does that even matter so long as they receive their check for goods and services delivered?

Here’s my favorite: The Student Achievement Backpack Act.

Yes. I am not drunk on Thanksgiving libations. That’s actually what they named it.

Its data collection and tracking ALEC style. I hope Tea Party advocates against the Common Core and testing are reading this. Even in the absence of Obama or the “progressive” agenda—here’s a conservative- led free- market loving entity promoting the collection of private data to data collection agencies. I’ve been saying it all along. It’s the ideology of greed and control-from BOTH sides of aisle.

The Act reads: “This bill provides access by a student’s parent or guardian or an authorized LEA user to the learning profile of a student from kindergarten through grade 12 in an electronic format known as a Student Achievement Backpack.”

Ok…..so who the hell is the LEA????

(A)   “Authorized LEA user” means a teacher or other person who is: (1) employed by an LEA that provides instruction to a student; and (2) authorized to access data in a Student Achievement Backpack through the {insert state} Student Record Store. (B) “LEA” means a school district, charter school, or the {schooling options in the state specific to the deaf and blind}

Honestly I have no issue with my child’s records or data being shared with his school or teachers. BUT…when you get to the next round of ALEC legislation remember this phrasing “or employed by the LEA to provide instruction.”Corporations and other private entities will also have full access to your child’s records once they’ve become employed by the school district through the “Choice” Act (see next section).

The Backpack legislation adds:

“The State Board of Education shall use the robust, comprehensive data collection system maintained by the {insert state} State Office of Education, which collects longitudinal student transcript data from LEAs and the unique student identifiers as described in {insert applicable state code}, to allow the following to access a student’s Student Achievement Backpack: (1) the student’s parent or guardian; and (2) each LEA that provides instruction to the student.”

ALEC seems to have no qualms about storing student data in the “cloud” despite massive threats to data security (not to mention abuses of such information). Their model legislation varies very little from the massive data collection we are currently seeing under the federal imposition of Race to the Top. This legislation promises to collect “a completelearner history for postsecondary planning.”

ALEC’s legislation will be able to collect data on and track as much if not more than Race to the Top legislation (and we didn’t imagine it could get any worse…that is until ALEC takes a crack at it..)

Section 8. Access to Student Data

(A) No later than {insert date}, an authorized LEA user shall be able to access student data  in a Student Achievement Backpack, which shall include the data listed in Section 7 (A) (1) through (4) and the following data, or request the data be transferred from one LEA to another:  (1) section attendance; (2) the name of a student’s teacher for classes or courses the student takes;  (3) teacher qualifications for a student’s teacher, including years of experience, degree, license, and endorsement; (4) results of formative, interim, and summative computer adaptive assessments administered pursuant to {insert applicable state code};  (5) detailed data demonstrating a student’s mastery of core standards and objectives as measured by computer adaptive assessments administered pursuant to {insert  applicable state code}; (6) a student’s writing sample written for an online writing assessment administered pursuant to {insert applicable state code}; (7) student growth scores for {insert state} performance assessment; (8) a school’s grade assigned pursuant to {insert applicable state code}; (9) results of benchmark assessments of reading administered pursuant to {insert applicable state code}; and  (10) a student’s reading level at the end of grade 3.

Whether it’s federally, state, or privately managed—it all goes to the same place and for the same dubious reasons. Thanks Gates. Thanks Murdoch.

Student Futures Program Act

In shorthand, this Act provides private corporations and education delivery systems access to student data in order to market to those students and promote their products. It’s like “cookies” via K-12 education. Companies can track those students who they think will be interested in their products.

It says the Act will: “allow an education provider to (a) research and find student users who are interested in various educational outcomes; (b) promote the education provider’s programs and schools to student users;  and (c) connect with student users within the Student Futures website;  (3) allow a {insert state} business to: (a) research and find student users who are pursuing educational outcomes that are consistent with jobs the {insert state} business is trying to fill now or in the future; and  (b) market jobs and communicate with student users through the Student Futures website as allowed by law..”

This act also leads us down the slippery slope to education and career tracking. Using the data collection systems under the guise of career and college ready, children can be “steered” into programs or career opportunities.

I am all for vocational training. I am all for providing information to students about career possibilities! (not providing student information to private interests) I am all for encouraging children early on to dream about what they want to be when they grow up and helping them to get there.

This ain’t that program. The is Act also: “allow the Department of Workforce Services to analyze and report on student user Student Futures Program interests, education paths, and behaviors within the education systemso as to predictively determine appropriate career and educational outcomes and results” (we see Big Brothers Big Corporate Sister rearing her ugly head here don’t we?)

Remember that caution I gave you about the Data Collection Act?

Course Choice Program Act

Meet the new education LEA’s. Corporations and edutech companies privatizing public education. Perhaps ALEC has realized that they cannot fully take the public out of public education. But they can bring the private into the public sphere.

“The Course Choice Program created by this Act would allow students in public schools and public charter schools to enroll in online, blended, and face-to-face courses not offered by the student’s school, and would allow a portion of that student’s funding to flow to the course provider. This Act creates an authorization process for providers and identifies provider and course eligibility criteria. This Act requires course providers and the State Department of Education to regularly report on the key measurements of student success and enrollment. This Act gives the State Department of Education authority to enter into an interstate course reciprocity agreement, allowing students within the state to take courses from providers domiciled in other states.”

Given Connections Academy, the country’s largest for- profit provider of online education, membership in ALEC and the ALEC education subcommittee, we should not be shocked. Other ALEC associated partners will undoubtedly include K-12 inc and University of Phoenix.

Subsection 6 reads: “Online or virtual course providers can serve as quality course providers for students who desire additional access to high quality courses ….”

Who are “course providers?”

“Course Provider” shall mean “an entity that offers individual courses in person or online, including but not limited to online or virtual education providers, public or private elementary and secondary education institutions, education service agencies, private or nonprofit providers, postsecondary education institutions, and vocational or technical course providers, and have been authorized to provide such courses by the State Department of Education.”

So basically, public education courses taught by public education teachers in physical public education settings will be parsed out, course by course, to private providers. And remember that data collection section-pre-K through grade 12, to be stored by a private provider, in the cloud somewhere…to be accessed by LEA’s? Well, here are the LEA’s. The private, non-profit, virtual, or for profit organizations that, as providers of instruction WILL NOW ALSO HAVE ACCESS to data collection 2.0 ALEC style.

While ALEC ideology despises federal regulation, they have no problem trading in Big Brother for Corporate Big Sister.

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, there’s ALEC, shattering your disbelief. Don’t be fooled by ALEC rhetoric. Their reform efforts are part and parcel of the reform efforts so many of us are fighting.

There’s a whole lot more to this ALEC legislative document. Over 30 pages of it.  But I’ve got kids to pick up from school and a turkey to cook. So I’ll leave it off here. For now …

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Carol Burris, "Student privacy concerns grow over 'data in a cloud'" at Valerie Strauss' Answer Sheet column at The Washington Post:

By Carol Burris

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is indecisive when it comes to uploading student information into inBloom, the cloud-based system designed to provide student data to vendors. He says that he is waiting for Commissioner John King’s report on privacy, even as the upload begins. Cuomo claims that massive student data collection is “necessary.” Meanwhile, eight other states that originally committed to inBloom have pulled out, or put their plans on hold.

The collection and reporting of school data is nothing new. We used to send data on scan sheets; test scores, drop out rates, the percentage of students with disabilities, etc., were all reported in the aggregate. As technology progressed, we began to electronically send data, not in the aggregate, but by student. Students were assigned a unique identifying number so that their privacy was protected, with identity guarded at the school or district level. More data, including race, ethnicity and socio-economic status, were added to what we sent. This allowed the state to disaggregate data by student group, while still preserving anonymity. Now that wall of privacy is shattered. Names, addresses (e-mail and street) and phone numbers are to be sent. Schools are required to upload student attendance, along with attendance codes, which indicate far more than whether or not the student was absent or present. Codes indicate whether a student is ill, truant, late to school or suspended. Details about the lives of students are moving beyond the school walls to reside in the inBloom cloud.

As a high school principal, I am worried by the state’s ever growing demands for student information. I believe that all disciplinary records should be known only to families and the school. All teens are under tremendous strain to perform — sometimes for adults, other times for peers. Some live on the emotional breaking point — others visit that point now and again. Kids make mistakes. Some make bad decisions. Others lose their temper and get out of control. Such serious infractions result in suspensions. We have to keep our schools safe, even as we are concerned about the well being of the offender.

When I suspend a student, I frame it within the context of learning. I also assure students and parents that discipline records are only known to us. Once that information is in the state database or the inBloom cloud, I can no longer give that reassurance.

What, then is the rationale for shipping personal data beyond the school? The New York State Education Department defends the collection of individual attendance and suspension data, claiming that it must be collected and uploaded to inBloom because it is one of several “early warning indicators” of dropping out. That rationale is insufficient. The identification of students with those indicators can be done at the school level. What is needed are the resources and supports so that schools can better intervene. Schools also need community support for dealing with problems such as student truancy. We do not need data in a cloud.

An additional justification is that inBloom data dashboards will allow parents to check to make sure that a suspension was removed from their child’s record if the commissioner overturns a suspension on appeal. In those rare cases, if a parent wants reassurance that the suspension was expunged, parents should visit the school. Schools are obliged to produce every written record, as well as give parents access to computer records. Disciplinary records are kept in both hard copy as well as in school data systems. Looking at a data dashboard would give an incomplete picture at best.

There is simply no justifiable reason for a state education department to know whether an individual student was ever suspended. It is an intrusion into the privacy of kids.

Read rest of Burris' column at The Washington Post.

(A reminder: the Common Core - student data linkage is essential, according to main architect, David Coleman. Read the article, "David Coleman Lauds the Use of Student Data.")