[poweroften] Candidates Forum Thursday - Power of Ten Facebook Group - One Million Views!

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Candidates Forum Thursday
2. Power of Ten Facebook Group
3. One Million Views!

1) Candidates Forum Thursday

Every year we gather together to give candidates the opportunity to present to the public. Power of Ten facilitates the process and connects the candidates with local organizations that want to help with their campaign. We also provide continuity from year to year, helping candidates with the logistics of running a campaign.This year we are getting a late start and it is extra important that you make this event on Thursday. There are already some people interested in running and they deserve our support. Please come, and be ready with questions!

The Details: Candidates Forum, Thursday March 14, at 7:00 PM, at the MLK Center 110 Bethune Blvd Spring Valley

If you are interested in being a candidate, fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/DOFFwRvt7iM2RBTz1

If you are not sure about being a candidate, contact steve@poweroften.us for more information.

2) Power of Ten Facebook Group

There are many more things happening in East Ramapo than are reported in this newsletter. If you would like to keep up with the latest, you might want to join the Power of Ten Facebook group. There you will see many posts about happenings in the district, including the many wonderful events put on by the students. School board member Sabrina Charles-Pierre does a fantastic job reporting on all the wonderful activities and achievements of our students.

Here's the link to the group page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/120338314981/4

3) One Million Views!

Congratulations to Tony Luciano, tireless videographer of East Ramapo board meetings. His YouTube page, Lucky Lou Production, has reached a major milestone: 1,000,000 views!

Some highlights Tony has captured over the years:

East Ramapo tries to stop videotaping

East Ramapo student Olivia Castor talks about D'Agostino

East Ramapo lack of education for Hasidic Students

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[poweroften] Call for Candidates - March 14 Forum - Monitoring the Monitors

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. Call for Candidates
2. Monitoring the Monitors

1) Call for Candidates - March 14 Forum.

The school board and budget vote will take place on May 21. Strong East Ramapo will be working hard to get the vote out to pass the budget. Power of Ten will work to identify and assist candidates for the school board positions.

There are certainly many people in East Ramapo who are qualified to serve on the board.

The Center for Public Education says an effective school board member should:

• • inspire parents and other stakeholders to have confidence in the local public schools
  • enhance the mix of skills and backgrounds on the board and help represent the diversity of the community
  • have the commitment to do what is right for all children, even in the face of opposition

Does this sound like someone you know? Or maybe you might be interested yourself?

Those interested in being a candidate should fill in this google form.

We will hold a forum at 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 14 at the MLK Center, 110 Bethune Blvd in Spring Valley for the public to hear from all those who are interested in being candidates.

2) Monitoring the Monitors

We as a community expect a lot from our schools. A job this big requires a plan, and East Ramapo has a plan.

East Ramapo also has a monitor, because the school board has had its own agenda which was not the official plan. The monitors produce reports about the district. The latest report is titled "Continuing Progress".

Any plan should have goals, and those goals should be measurable. The monitors report describes a plan with four "pillars". Each pillar has multiple bullet points. The report does not include a checklist as to how well each item has been implemented. Some we already know - for example, full day kindergarten exists. But for the rest there is no "report" in the report. Has the curriculum been "aligned"? Are instructional practices culturally responsive? How many students are and are not participating in the integrated arts?

The report does include a number of accomplishments which have benefited the students over the past three years. These include enhanced services for English language learners, restoration of some special education programs, repairs and improvements to buildings and grounds and restoration of the fund balance. These are areas in which the district had been in violation and has now made improvements to comply with laws and regulations.

While there is no doubt that added and improved programs are improving the lived experiences of the students, there's still a need for objective measurements of academic achievement to ensure accountability of the district to the community. The monitors note that it's difficult to assess progress over time due to changes in assessment methods, tests, and graduation requirements. Power of Ten has produced a short video reviewing the assessment measures which goes beyond the methods used by the monitors.

The monitors also reviewed "restorations" of positions which had been eliminated in past years. It is encouraging to know that there has been some increase in essential staff. According to the report, 185.5 out of 506.5 positions that were cut have been restored. There is some fuzzy math, as Music and Art positions are not listed in the cuts, but are counted as restored. The restorations are made possible by increases in state aid. As reported by Power of Ten, state aid increased by $14 million from 2014-2016.

There continues to be inadequate attention by the district and the monitors to the three most vulnerable groups of children. Students with interrupted formal education need wraparound services. There continues to be racial disparity in Pre-Kindergarten enrollment. The biggest non-public schools in the district continue to provide appallingly substandard education. There is no mention in the monitors report of the new state guidelines for non-public schools, how they will be implemented or paid for.

The final section of the report is mildly labelled "concerns". These include failed budgets, impending financial collapse and massive cuts to essential programs. The monitors plan to address this catastrophe is for the Board and the Superintendent to "reach out to the community to explain how strong public schools can benefit everyone in the community." This report is titled "Continuing Progress", but the takeaway for those who read carefully is "Impending Catastrophe".

There is no mention of the State of New York's constitutional responsibility to the children. The monitor is the official representative of the State, which is the body that has a legal responsibility. The school board and superintendent's responsibilities are derivative; their authority and responsibility are delegated to them from the state. Given that the current arrangement is providing so little protection for this vital community resource, it is absolutely necessary for our representatives in Albany to do something NOW, before the next budget fails and the "concerns" of the monitor become reality.

 

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[poweroften] Special Edition: Foundation Aid

Power of Ten Update
Special Edition: Foundation Aid

What is the Foundation Aid Formula?
This formula was created in response to the Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling to distribute state aid based on the ability of public schools to raise money from local property taxes, and student need. It is intended to close the spending gap between districts and create an equitable education system for all students in NYS.

Today, the state has yet to comply with the ruling and owes schools $4.1 billion in foundation aid. $25 million is owed to East Ramapo.

Strong East Ramapo is sponsoring an event with the Alliance for Quality Education, Spring Valley NAACP, Rockland Citizens Action Network, The Coalition to End the New Jim Crow, and The Rockland Immigration Coalition where you can learn what you can do to help finally get these desperately needed funds restored to the public schools.

When: Saturday, Feb 9 from 2:30 - 3:30

Where: Finklestein Library, 3rd Floor Fielding Room

RSVP on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/614361522351251/

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[poweroften] MLK Day Celebration Tomorrow (Jan 21) is NOT Canceled

Power of Ten Update
In This Issue:
1. MLK Day Celebration Tomorrow (Jan 21) is NOT Canceled
2. New Accountability Measurements
3. On Tolerance

1) MLK Day Celebration Tomorrow (Jan 21) is NOT Canceled

Thanks to the hard-working staff at Ramapo HS, tomorrow's event will happen as planned, despite today's snow and ice storms.

Details:

Monday, January 21st at Ramapo High School from 3:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Honor the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with us at our Unity Celebration!

Our 2019 Theme: The African Diaspora, Resistance Through Music and Poetry

RSVP ON FACEBOOK

Keynote Speaker: Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, New York Times Bestselling Author of 'Friday Black'

Master of Ceremonies: Jim Fyfe, East Ramapo Color Guard

Poster and Poetry Contest for all 1st - 12th grade students in Rockland County. 1 poem and 1 poster entry per grade will win a prize. Winners announced at event.

This event is presented by the Martin Luther King Multi-Purpose Center in collaboration with The East Ramapo Central School District and Gordon Center for Black Culture and Arts

2) New Accountability Measurements

NYSED (the state education department) has released new accountability determinations based on the new Federal law ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) which replaces the NCLB (No Child Left Behind) law.
These measurements are important because it is hard to get an objective review of something as complicated as education and as big as a school district, or even a single school.

There are many anecdotes and reports of individuals or groups of students who are doing well or poorly, but very few objective measures of the quality of education in our district, or any district as a whole.

The state measurements are better than nothing, but they are inconsistent and incomplete. Even under the old NCLB law, tests, which were the main tool used to evaluate, changed from year to year.

Even so, objective measures that look at the fate of every student are absolutely essential. It is important to look at the members of the football team and admire the athletic prowess of our children, or the members of the chess club, or the band. These are all important parts of any educational system. However, producing a few talented individuals is not the mission of a public school district. The mission is to make sure that every single child grows to their full potential, participating in the economic, civic and intellectual life of the community.

The character of the school system is not the only factor that impacts the achievement of the students. However, school systems are by definition change agents. Their mission is not to advance the status quo. If other economic or social conditions are impacting the children, for instance the cycle of poverty, it's the obligation of the school system to understand and address these other forces so that the children will overcome.

Measurements of the quality of education in East Ramapo have become a political football. That means people will try to twist the meaning of the measurements to advance their political agenda.

The control of the East Ramapo schools has been in the hands of the nonpublic school users for over a decade now. The political conflict arises from this breaking of one of the central tenets of democracy "governance with the consent of the governed". The conflict has a racial dimension, because almost all of the nonpublic community that controls public education are white, and almost all of the families that use the public schools are not. The conflict has a religious dimension, because those who control the public schools have been found to have been diverting funds to religious schools.

There's also a strong desire by everyone in the community to see our children doing better. It's important for the children to have a positive outlook on their education. It's important to celebrate their victories.

The NCLB law was described by many as overly punitive. It was overly focused on high stakes testing. The new ESSA law attempts to be more helpful and more comprehensive. Because of their different goals and methods, comparing the two is like comparing apples and oranges.

Under the old law, East Ramapo was a "Focus District", under the new law it is a "Target District". Under the old law, some elementary and middle schools have been designated "focus" or "in need of improvement". Under the new law all the elementary and middle schools are designated "in good standing".

These changes to the nomenclature should not be interpreted as indicating that there has been some kind of quantum leap in measured performance of the schools or the students. It should also not be interpreted to say there has been a decline. They are different because they measure different things, or because they're measuring the same thing in a different way. You would not measure an orange by its crispness or an apple by being easy to peel.

The majority of the evidence available today seems to indicate that the school system is making small year over year improvements. This is not surprising, considering all the attention and assistance from the state education department and millions of dollars of increased state aid.

However, the new state measurement system is much less rigid and looks at factors such as improvement with more weight than the old system which focused on absolute measures. At the end of the day, "in good standing" is not equivalent to success at the mission of the school district. It also does nothing to address the underlying political and social conflicts which extend beyond the school doors.

Now's the time for all stakeholders - students, teachers, parents and the wider community to come to a better understanding of what is happening and what is not happening in the schools. We can celebrate successes while addressing problems such as bullying, poverty, and racial disparities in education. There is hope that with a new government in New York State there will be an increase in state aid to our district. We need to expect that every child in our district will have equal opportunity and similar outcomes to children in neighboring districts. We need for our district not to forget the most vulnerable. We need for all residents to feel that they have a voice in the process.

3) On Tolerance

There was a time when there was a state religion. People who held different belief or no belief were treated as criminals.

Starting about two or three hundred years ago, the idea of tolerance became more or less popular. Holding beliefs other than the official state belief became more or less decriminalized.

Under this new arrangement, it soon became obvious that having an official state religion was incompatible with achieving the popular goal of tolerance.

Tolerance was originally extended only to some of the various sects of the Christian faith. Over time it expanded to include other religions, more or less.

The impact of the concept of tolerance is that within certain spheres people can live their lives more or less the same as their neighbors regardless of their religious belief system or lack thereof. This is similar to and connected to increasing ability of people to live their lives regardless of their race or gender or sexual orientation.

There has always been a paradoxical element within the concept of tolerance, that is the problem of being tolerant of those who are intolerant. This is perhaps most commonly seen in current events in the complaints of some religious sects who are asking that their intolerance of sexual orientation be tolerated, and claiming persecution if it is not.

Multiculturalism also presents problems for tolerance. Accepting that other groups' beliefs are equally valid can be viewed as an existential threat to in-group members. Viewing others' beliefs as inferior invariably leads to viewing other people as inferior.

Given how far tolerance has been an improvement on "western civilization", it's important that it be recognized and promoted. States should not treat people differently based on their belief system, or lack thereof, just as they should not treat people differently based on the color of their skin or their sexual orientation or their gender.

The challenge for the advancement of tolerance in today's world is not only to expand the number of states which officially treat people the same regardless of their belief system, or lack thereof. Much of today's discrimination is not state discrimination. Freedom of conscience can't fill your belly if you've been denied an education, or a job. It can be poor consolation when you are ostracized socially. For this reason, there are still many who suffer in the closet. There are still more who close their minds in unspoken fear, who don't even allow themselves to imagine what it would be like to think differently.

Societies that adopt tolerance have great advantages socially and economically. People know they're better off when their free, and they can see the economic advantage of other people being better off as well. This explains why tolerance has been so popular. Whether reactionary forces or inherent paradoxes will slow or stop the expansion of tolerance is not known. It's possible that other concepts such as reciprocity will eventually replace tolerance. In the meanwhile, some of us have the freedom to speak on the topic and organize and effect change.

 

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[poweroften] NYSED announces new accountability standards

Power of Ten Extra Edition:

Chalkbeat announced today that NYSED is about to release it's first set of accountability reports based on ESSA, which replaces NCLB as the law governing school accountability.

According to Chalkbeat:

Now, after years of planning and incorporating feedback from educators, parents, and policy experts, state officials are finally about to say which schools are considered struggling under the new framework.

So, NYSED is doing away with all the old nomenclature, and adopting new categories and new methods of assessment. How will this affect oversight of East Ramapo? Will there be more help focused on the groups most at risk? Expect to hear much more about this in the near future!

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[poweroften] The War on Education

Wait … What?

Yes, you read right. You have heard of The War on Poverty, The War on Terror, The War on Drugs, but … The War on Education???

Former East Ramapo school board president Wieder was once accused (by Asst. Supt. Joe Farmer) of starting a war on public education

Now he has formally declared war on the NY State Education Department. This is in response to the updated guidelines on equivalency of education in non-public schools.

The Casus Belli 

There is no doubt that thousands of children are getting almost no education in many yeshivas in East Ramapo and other parts of NY. The Satmar Rabbi has admitted "we all know the truth, that in our primary Torah schools for boys [before Bar Mitzvah] they studied at most an hour and a half, and in the advanced yeshivas [high schools] there were no secular studies at all"

According to the Rabbi, EDUCATION produces "criminals, who commit all sorts of violence and savagery, murder, theft, drug crimes, and so forth", whereas NOT EDUCATING produces "beautifully ordered families". He specifically refers to "public school students in New York City", which appears to be a racist dog-whistle, appealing to the worst stereotypes of young people of color.

Using the Nuclear Option

What weapons will be used in this war? The Rabbi has urged his followers to "employ all connections that we have to those in places of influence" and to take aim at "the leaders of the Democratic party … to explain to them that it isn't worth it for them. It wouldn't pay for them to start a war" with ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York.

How You can Support Peace

Of course, you know that education does not increase crime. Quite the opposite. And our elected officials know it too. But they shouldn't have to stand up to this onslaught alone. They need to know you have their back.

So Power of Ten has created a simple tool that you can use to tell the leadership in Albany that you support the new guidelines, that you support quality education for all children, in every setting, and that you expect the government of the state of New York to honor our constitution's pledge that every child has a civil right to a sound, basic education. Just click "Send a Message" to get started.

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[poweroften] Who's Next?

Power of Ten Special Update:

New East Ramapo Monitor Announced

With the announcement of a new monitor for the East Ramapo school board, it seems to be an appropriate time to review what has been happening in the district.

Notable Accomplishments

The announcement by the state education department about the new monitor contains a review of "notable accomplishments by the district":

• improved fund balance and improved reports from auditors and comptroller
• capital improvement projects underway
• full-day kindergarten for all students
• elementary arts programming

The impact of these accomplishments on the lives of children in the district is admirable and should be applauded.

Information about the work of the monitors is available at: https://eastramapomonitorupdate.wordpress.com/

None of these accomplishments would have been possible without the work of hundreds of activists. Students, parents, clergy, education professionals all worked to demand action from Albany. They formed groups such as the Rockland Clergy for Social Justice, Save Our Schools, Padres Unidos, and Strong East Ramapo. They're the ones who caused monitors to be appointed, they're the ones who caused a new superintendent to be hired, they're the ones who caused the state to increase aid.

The school board fought these changes tooth and nail, just as they fought the NYS Education Department's oversight of illegal special education placements and the NY Attorney General's criminal investigation into fraud in the sale of the Hillcrest elementary school.

Increased State Aid

Increasing educational programming costs money, and the accomplishments that the monitors report could not have been realized without increased state aid. The following table illustrates changes to district revenue from the 2014-15 school year (before the monitor law) to the 2016-17 school year (the latest data available from the state website)

(in millions)	2014	2016	% Change
State	85	99	16%
Local	145	140	- 4%
Federal	22	25	12%
Total Revenue	252	263	4%

Measuring Results

One of the objectives the monitors set for themselves in 2016 was to "set clear performance objectives for students". It does not seem unreasonable that an organization with a budget of a quarter billion dollars per year, and whose mission is so vital to the community, should be able to demonstrate quantitatively and qualitatively that it's fulfilling its mission. However, after this one mention in September of 2016, the word "performance" does not appear again in the monitor's blog.

The statistics available on the state education department web site present a mixed picture:

• Scores on state tests have been improving overall, with the exception of math scores of Latino students, which have remained flat compared to the state average since 2014.
• Even after modest improvements, only about one quarter of our students are deemed "proficient" by the state, as compared to about half of students statewide.

Graduation rates are not yet available for the school year ending in 2018; they dropped overall between 2014 and 2017:

• African American students in East Ramapo graduated at about the same rate as others in New York State.
• The graduation rate for Latino students has fallen further behind, down to 37 percent in 2017!

Factors which are known to be associated with lower educational outcomes:

• Elementary class size in East Ramapo is higher than the average in New York State.
• Children with special needs are less likely to be placed in a regular classroom in East Ramapo than the state average.
• Children in East Ramapo often lead separate lives from their peers of other races (de facto segregation).

The Most Vulnerable

A public education system cannot be measured only by the achievements and opportunities available to those who excel. It can't offer math only to those who excel at math or art to those who display talent or gym to those who are physically fit.

There are laws in place which force educational institutions to provide education for all, because there is a long sordid history of educational institutions neglecting students with disabilities, those in need of remedial services, female students and students of color.

There are three groups of students who are the most vulnerable to educational neglect in East Ramapo today. These are: preschool children, students with interrupted formal education, and students in some yeshivas (Jewish private schools).

• Many preschool children in East Ramapo are not exposed to a modern early childhood development environment. The main barrier is economic. Parents do not earn enough to pay for quality, licensed childcare or for transportation to pre-K programs. The children don't understand that this is not their fault. The result is that the district will spend years trying to undo the damage to the child's self-esteem. Knowing the tremendous impact that lack of preschool education is having, the district (and the monitors) should be addressing this issue, starting by stating publicly that it is a problem and proposing plans to address it.
• Every year, families move into East Ramapo with school age children. Some of these children have experienced difficulty and hardship, including missing school, sometimes for years. The technical term is "students with interrupted formal education". The district has just as much responsibility to these children as to any other child in the district. The failure of the district to adequately address the special needs of this group is a major factor in the higher dropout rate over the past two years. Many of the dropouts are going to work in the same underground economy as the parents who can't afford early childhood education, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty in our district.
• Years ago, the administration of the East Ramapo school district made a deal with the operators of some of the yeshivas. The school district would not enforce the state truancy law which requires that all children receive an education regardless of placement, and the yeshiva parents would stay home on school budget day and not vote the public school budget down. This secret arrangement was covered up for decades until some of the children who had attended yeshivas began to realize they had been cheated out of an education. They found themselves unprepared for the job market and unable to provide for their families.

Reading Between the Lines

What do you see between the lines when you read reports from the NYSED monitors? What are they not saying about the most vulnerable? What are they not saying about the governance of a public school system where most children attend private school?

The monitors will either serve the children or they will serve those who profit from the status quo. They do not have veto power over the school board, but you, dear reader, have veto power over the monitors through your elected representatives in Albany.

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