The Crack Team after all these years has finally mastered the Flux Capacitor and inserted it into a
1977 VW Beetle. We had decided to travel to the future to see what would happen if Governor Andy got his way with the draconian measures (5 years for tenure, 50% of evaluation tied to state exams, 35% tied to independent evaluator, 15% evaluated by principal, giving great teachers up to $20k, and more charters) he has proposed.

Even though we needed a carburetor in the Beetle we took it out on the Sprain Parkway at 1AM to be sure we had a enough room to get it up to 88 MPH. It took a few miles to do it but we did! We hit a few time periods over the ensuing ten years to see what will become of education in the formerly great State of New York.

2017

Having forsaken a run for president the previous year, Governor Andy readies himself for a third term run the following year and a possible presidential run in 2020. The New York Post has just reported that under Governor Andy's new evaluation system, 95% of teachers are rated effective or higher in New York City and statewide the total is 97%. One hundred thousand teachers across the state were considered excellent and each were awarded $20k, however not one teacher accepted the cash incentive, or those that did, donated it to their school districts to make up for the millions of dollars that Governor Andy has withheld.

The independent evaluators that Governor Andy touted so turned out to be college students found through CraigsList and were making $12/hr. When the New York Time reports this, Governor Andy misinterprets the fallout and decides that in the future that unpaid college interns will be the new independent evaluators saving districts across the state millions of dollars.

Eva Moskowitz opened her first Success Academy in tony Bronxville tweeting that rich, spoiled, white kids need saving #dontstealivyleaguepossible.

Early 2018

Getting ready to run for a third term as Governor Andy is yet again disappointed with his new state of the art education reformed he had announced the previous year. He decries that now 97% of NYC teachers and 98% of teachers statewide are rated effective or highly effective. Having substituted the $20k teaching bonus with $5 gift cards to Arby's for teachers of excellence he soon realizes it is all for naught. Teachers do not like Arby's. Also Governor Andy has decided that 80% of a teachers evaluation is to be based on state exams (Ten percent both for the outside evaluator and principal) and that there will be a new level of effective teacher. It will be known as "Really super duper effective."

However, a month after this is passed in the legislature a scandal erupts. Apparently, Educators4Excellence has morphed into a religious cult and it seems all the unpaid college interns are E4E members and worship Little Evan Stone. Little Evan soon skips the country with the interns in tow and they all arrive in Jonestown, Guyana where no one ever heard from them again.

Faced with no outside evaluators Governor Andy decides that evaluators can be found huddled together outside of all Home Depot's and Lowe's and only need to be paid a day rate of $10 plus transportation and a slice and a Coke.

Eva Moskowitz has now opened up another Success Academy in Scarsdale calling the schools there failing because 5 students were not accepted at an Ivy and must settle for SUNY instead.

When asked about all these changes, UFT President Mike Mulgrew says, "Well it could have been worse. Thank God we have a seat at the table."


January 2019

Governor Andy ran for a third term in November 2018. In race against Republican candidate Senator Dean Skelos Governor Andy received 40% of the vote versus Skelos' 25% and write in candidate "Inanimate Object" received 34%. Sadly, Governor Andy mistakenly believes he has a mandate.

In his state of the state speech Governor Andy says enough is enough with the state of education in New York State. He threatens the assembly to pass his comprehensive education plan or they will face loss of bathroom privileges in the capitol building and will instead have to find a restaurant on Pearl St to relieve themselves.

He is upset because all teachers in New York State have been deemed Really Super Duper Effective. Henceforth he declared all evaluations will be based on 99.99% of state exams. Teachers will not get paid unless they can prove to an independent evaluator paid for by the state and hired though Pearson (Which has incidentally donated millions of dollars to Governor Andy in 2018) that they can answer every question correctly on a newly proposed yearly teaching licensing exam. If one question is wrong on the test the teacher will be immediately fired and his or her name and photo sent to the New York Post.

Teachers who miss two questions will be summarily interred along with their families to re-education camps sponsored by News Corp where they will learn to see Governor Andy as a deity.

Tenure has now been extended to 25 years of being Really Super Duper Effective.

Students will be tested (through a new $7 billion testing contract to Pearson) 2 times a week--Mondays and Fridays-- so progress can be checked weekly.

Teachers are quitting in droves. By June of 2019 all but one teacher in the Alfred-Almond School District has resigned or retired. Governor Andy will announce in July of 2019 that he plans to clone himself so that he and he alone, will teach all subjects in all schools across the state.

He soon dumps Sandra Lee and brings in Eva Moskowitz and his new consort until he finds out that she is just a heartless and soulless artificial life form.

He calls in the state police to arrest each and every member of the legislature. He declares martial law across the state and arrests all members every school district statewide.

Soon, alone and friendless, sitting in his den in Mount Kisco friendless he soon hears a knock at the door. It is the spirit of Mario. Mario does what he should have done years earlier.

They call for a taxi which takes them down 684 to White Plains. They head east on I-287 and get off at exit 8 and come to New York Hospital. Mario's spirit helps check Governor Andy in...for a very, very long stay.

Soon education is saved. Teachers return from exile. The sun rises again. The birds sing and most importantly, our children are back to learning.

Meanwhile at 52 Broadway, Mike Mulgrew when asked by reporters about Governor Andy's convalescing says, "I like him, at least we had a seat at the table."

By now we should all know who Errol Louis of NY1 and the Daily News works for. Not for truth, but for
those that distort the truth.

I at one time had thought the Errol was above the fray, that he had integrity and wished to give both sides of the education debate equal time. I will never forget when he had Julie Cavanagh on his NY1 show debating Little Evan Stone of E4E in 2011. I watched and felt that Errol had sifted through the BS of Evan and allowed Julie to give her side.

But lately he has become a shill of the deformers. A badly misinformed shrill. I guess this is par for the course for someone who grew up in New Rochelle, went to a great high school, went to Harvard, Yale, and Brooklyn Law, and mingles with the hipsters in Park Slope. Yes, Errol is just oozing educational cred. Do we dare say that Errol is an elitist?

Errol this past Thursday wrote a column for the Daily News in which he shows just how clueless and ignorant he is when it comes to education.

Errol blabbers forth; Thursday’s sure-to-be raucous education rally, to be held within shouting distance of the Tweed building and City Hall, is a timely reminder of a civic force that many of the city’s progressive leaders seem incapable of understanding...

We here at SBSB believe they understand it. These aren't the parents that are forming these protests, nor is it the communities. These protests are led by inane, self-absorbed, me first, **cough cough** EVA MOSKOWITZ **cough cough**. When we see these parents clamoring for a better education ON THEIR OWN ACCORD, as the people protesting for democracy are doing in Hong Kong, or the students in Colorado clamoring for a real AP social studies curriculum  in Colorado, then we'll talk.

Errol says; Wednesday’s speech by Chancellor Carmen Fariña, centered on an announcement that the Education Department will scrap the old method of assigning letter grades to individual schools, could be a step in the right direction 

We here at SBSB are proud of Errol for not flying off the shrilling from the mountain top like ignorant others over at Mona Davids Parents Union.

...but the administration appears to be dragging its feet on attacking the urgent problem of turning around schools that are badly broken

Broken? How so? Specifics. Real specifics. Yes, the test scores suck, but why? Is it just the teachers or is it the crappy curriculum teachers are forced to deal with? Is it the cycle of poverty and mental health issues that never get addressed that our students have to deal with every day? Is it crime? Is it a lack of funding? Is it a lack of leadership at Tweed and at the schools? Tell us Errol in your own words, using your own investigatory facts, WHY ARE THE SCHOOLS BROKEN??

While Thursday’s rally isn’t pushing specific demands, it’s clear the organizers are warming up for a battle to raise the current limit on charter schools in the city.

That's what it is all about. Not the broken schools, not the teachers, just more and more and more and more charter schools and more and more and more and more halves against the have nots.

But the main thrust of the gathering is to show that there is a large and vocal number of New Yorkers fed up with poorly-performing schools and impatient with the litany of excuses for why we can’t do better.

But Errol just said the rally was all about charter schools, so why is he contradicting himself? Again, is this movement organic? NO!

The chatter from those defenders on social media sites and letters to the editor usually includes talking points about how poverty is the true culprit

Yeah it is. See above, it is one of many. Think about this Errol. Take the teachers Albert Leonard Middle School in New Rochelle and switch them out with teacher from IS 162 on 149th and St Ann's Ave in the Bronx. What do you think will happen? 

But Errol has more to say on this and he feels he must insult teachers; Those old arguments, repeated year after year, have grown stale. Most airline passengers don’t know how to fuel and fly a jet or run an air-traffic control tower. But they do know when plane after plane is dirty and cramped, arriving late at the wrong destination and occasionally crashing.

This isn't fair. My cat can take apart this argument. But what the hell.

Please do not compare what teachers do to fueling a jet plane. Yes, these guys work hard and I am sure there is a learning curve, but really? Now, if we were compared to these guys fueling a plane than I might say, "touché."

But how about this? Does Errol want a pilot or an air traffic controller that has had only 50 hours and five weeks of training when he is jet setting around the USA? Doubt it. Does he want constant turnover of air traffic controllers and pilots? Doubt it as well. 

But his argument that the public does know when a plane is dirty or cramped or late has a lot to do with how an airline is run, yes, the MANAGEMENT! Why not then does Errol and his ilk kvetch about WHO IS RUNNING THE SCHOOLS? And Errol is being quite specious with his last argument. Seriously, how often does a plane land at the wrong destination? And crashes? How many crashes of American commercial jets have there been the last ten years and what is the ratio of mechanical vs pilot errors?

What Errol fails to point out is that the people who fly our planes, design our planes, and guide our planes have training in planes. Also, flying, designing and guiding is evaluated by OBJECTIVE MEASURES, not the whim of some untrained, irrational human being. 

Come on Errol, tell us all how to fly a jet, or guide a jet over LaGuardia, or design one. Yeah, I hear crickets too.

And let's not forget that pilots, air traffic controllers, and flight attendants are all proud union members.

Families for Excellent Schools, the group organizing Thursday’s demonstration, has compiled a number of damning reports 

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We know, and we care. But see above arguments. Again, FES is a front organization for FormelyMichelleRheeFirst. Yet refuses to put into context and show how it came to this statement; 

A school where nine out of 10 kids can’t proficiently read or do math does not simply ‘need improvement,’

A recent Associated Press report notes that the nation’s top 10% of income earners have increased spending on their kids by 35% in recent years — pouring a fortune into private-school tuition, bidding up home prices in districts with high-performing schools and paying so much money for extra help that some SAT tutors now make over $50 an hour.

SAT tutors are only making $50 an hour? I guess the ones making that kind of dough are getting hosed. But I will like to see this AP report. Where is it? But if true, I can guarantee that the parents sending their kids to private schools are doing it to keep the Common Core away from them, to keep them from testing, and for smaller class size. Why isn't Errol advocating for what parents really want? For what Errol wants for his own kids yet won't admit it to others. 

I used to have respect for Errol. I thought he was objective and can see and respect both sides. But he has drank from the Kool-Aid trough for too long and is useless. Nothing more than a shrieking shrill.

One more thing. The problems Errol is whining about are the same problems that permeated the 12 years of the Bloomberg reign. Where was he during those 12 years? Bought off by Bloomberg? 

Little Evan Stone from Educators 4 Excellence has a new mouth piece. He is Josh Goodman of the SKDKnickerbocker. Josh wrote a press release with the usual E4E propaganda deriding the New York State legislature from putting the brakes on the Common Core©.
communications firm,



So much wrong with this statement The Crack Team was roiling on the floor laughing that EMS came and carted them away.

The Assembly bill introduced late last night would unnecessarily delay the complete implementation of the Common Core©, undermining the teaching standards supported by the vast majority of teachers. 

Who are these vast majority of teachers out there? To paraphrase General Zod from Superman II; 

"Who are these teachers? Where are they?" 

Teachers also support a multi-measure evaluation system, but this bill would effectively eliminate the ‘multi-measure’ component of such a system.

Again, where and who are these teachers?  But elimination is a must.

Educators would be subject to evaluation and termination almost entirely on the basis of their principals’ evaluation.

So teachers want the junk science that according to Newsday is FUBAR? Teachers, art teachers, gym teachers, etc... wish to be evaluated based on test scores of students they taught and in subjects in which they do not teach? Well I'll be darned!

Students, teachers, and principals have enough on their plates this year.

Funny, E4E never ever mentions the other stake holders in education, the parents. How about talking to Yvonne Gasperino of Westchester County? Good luck!

When E4E convened a group of teachers lackeys, sycophants, the ignorant to discuss this issue

Fixed. 

This Teacher Action Team will release a set of recommendations shortly that will detail how to support the implementation of the Common Core© without gutting it.

The team is awaiting to hear from it's lord and savior Bill Gates. Wants Bill speaks from the burning bush to direct his minions then the team shall release his words-on two tablets.

We are hopeful that the legislature and the Governor will continue to move forward on these needed changes

Nah. The assembly and senate are scared right now. They are looking to save their political butts. Governor Andy's approval rating is down to 42% and in all probability will get destroyed in Western New York, Upstate, and Long Island...where it just so happens the fight against the Common Core© is fiercest. Westchester might just go for Rob Astorino. What does Governor Andy have left? New York City. Why do you think he put on that shameless display Tuesday? 

Come to Westchester County. Travel to Buffalo. To Patchouge. To Saratoga. The parents do not want anything to do with the Common Core©! It is time to wake up and see and smell reality.

E4E, Little Evan Stone and his babe Princess Sydney Morris are addicts. They can't see what this addiction to Common Core© and the junk evaluation system is doing to them. As everything implodes around them all they can do is think that just one more hit, one more score, one more explanation will fix everything and all will be better. Bill Gates is their dealer and Governor Andy is their co-dependent.

It's time those that care for them have an intervention and send Little Evan and his babe Princess Sydney spend time at Dr Drew's for a very long time.

As Dr McCoy would say about the state of the Common Core©, "It's dead, Jim!"

Not only is Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence gracing these pages now for the third time this month, but he is being joined by his babe, Princes Sydney Morris. Why is Little Evan so
newsworthy of late?

Forbes Magazine named Little Evan and Princess Sydney two the 2014 list of wonderful, thoughtful, fake, stupendous 30 people under 30 in Education or something like that. Rah-rah.

According to the Forbes writer, or the PR hack in the employ of E4E; In 2010, these two former NYC public school teachers and Teach for America alumni founded this teacher-centric voice for public and policy debates in education

The question has yet to be asked. And won't as long as a compliant press continues not doing its job with these two. 

Simple, was this organic or was it created by those with the money? Yes, we all know that official E4E canon claims that the group was birthed over a kitchen table and sprang forth from those meetings. But was the group put together by agents of Bill Gates, Carnegie Foundation, and DFER? Little Evan Stone is still silent on this,

 E4E encourages... debates in education, including teacher evaluations and the Common Core State Standards. 

Yes, debates only with those that agree with it and won't rock the boat. All signs of dissent are scrubbed or not allowed.

But worse, a 50's era loyalty oath is required to be signed just to go a meeting!! Where are the debates??

It now has 13,000 members nationally

Big deal.  Badass Teachers as over 36,000 members. Mark Naison created it on his own volition without any money or outside influences. We don't see him in Prevention Magazine 70 under 70 Educators. And, there is no loyalty oath, except a bizarre initiation ritual that left me puzzled.

Little Evan blabs; "The future of education is dependent on our ability to elevate the role of the teacher as a leader in our schools, districts, and policy making conversations."

So the top down method of education reform that is so prevalent and which E4E's benefactors are encouraging is supposed to give teachers a voice? APPR and Common  Core being crammed down our throats is giving teachers a voice? We do have voices. We have collective bargaining. We have 36k Badass Teachers. We have New York BATs.

The opposite has happened. Name one teacher, a real teacher not some Ivy League TFA hack who has only taught two years, that has been involved in the shaping of any of the education disasters of the last ten years. None. Actually, kind of proof for why we need real teachers making policy. 

The jig is up for E4E. I don't blame Little Evan and his babe Princess Sydney. Each day that the sun rises they are becoming even more and more irrelevant than they have ever been.

The tide is turning out there and Little Evan and Princess Sydney are deaf to what THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK STATE want! As long as they get what they want; fame, fortune, and Forbes, that is all that matters to them. These two are more shallow than the left field line in the old Polo Grounds. 

I participated in the picketing of statewide news organizations today, showing my moxie along with
my educational brethren at News12 headquarters in Yonkers.

A goodly amount of educators, parents, and most importantly---children---were out in the near Arctic conditions letting those employed by News12 how we feel about the lack of media attention to the plight of nearly 20 million New Yorkers.

In the course of the picketing, I met a precocious set of siblings. I forget their names but the brother is 10 years old and his little sister is 7. After speaking with them for a bit I wanted to put forth to them a hypothesis queried on  these pages discussed yesterday. "Is Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence dumber than a middle school student?" or in this case, "Is a 10 year old boy and his 7 year old sister standing outside in near Arctic conditions smarter than a Yale educated, 30 year old elitist named Little Evan Stone?"

We began the experiment showing the brother and sister team the video in which Little Evan Stone blabbered these words:

"We've been talking a lot abut the common core standards and the new teacher evaluation system, which should be two of her (Farina) big priorities."

It is an understatement that brother and sister were aghast. The both questioned how a man, well he appears to be a man to them, who professes to put children first would want to be involved in something so damaging to children. It was at this point that the experiment went into its final stages. We needed proof that these two children were smarter than Little Evan Stone. Will our hypothesis pan out? Let's see.

There you have it, two more people are smarter than Little Evan Stone.

Wake up Little Evan, smell what the people of New York State demand. You're about to become even more irrelevant.

I originally wanted to mock Thomas Friedman and his inane, flat column in today's Times in which he stated the obvious, but not enough, on education. Seems to us here at SBSB that Tom is flip
flopping and trying to ride the wave away from what he has been spewing the last few years.

But unlike Friedman, and I will give him points for running from what he has written in the past, is everybody's favorite elitist, Little Evan Stone of Educators 4 Excellence. 

Today, on E4E's Facebook page, Little Evan announced to the world two opportunities for Carmen Farina;

 


Yes, Little Evan Stone, who had taught for about 3 years, is about 30 years old, and has had everything handed to him his entire life, is telling Chancellor Farina who has been in education for over 40 years how to run the NYCDOE. That my friends is chutzpah.




Please take note that Little Evan appears at about 2 minutes and 10 seconds into the video. Eyewitness News education reporter somehow was able to track Evan down (Or was it the other way) and probably had to twist Little Evan's arm to get a statement of him. Little Evan thus blabbered threateningly to Chancellor Farina;

"We've been talking a lot abut the common core standards and the new teacher evaluation system, which should be two of her (Farina) big priorities."

Little Evan, isn't that boat sinking? Do you have any other ideas? Be they original or someone paying you to parrot their ideas?

Look around New York State. The tide is turning against the Common Core and soon will be against the APPR (evaluation system). Does not Carol Burris know more than you and your ilk when it comes to teacher evaluating?

But I don't blame you. You are the messenger in actuality. As long as you accept monies from Bill Gates you are nothing more than a dumb, mindless little boy that will do anything, say anything, or believe anything that Billy Boy wants. Of the two of you, he is the smart one (But that is like saying Moe is the smartest of the 3 Stooges). He is your boss.

Why would dumb down yourself for this man who has said in the past,"we won't know if Common Core will work for at least ten years"? Does it not bother you that our children, my child, my neighbor's children are being experimented on? How would you like it when Princess Sydney Morris pushes out a few of your reproductions and the boarding school they attend is experimenting on them? Would you like it? Probably.

There is a groundswell of outrage by the parents of New York State, and across the country, against the Common Core. Wake up. We don't want you or yours involved in our children's education anymore. We, the parents and the communities of this state and this great nation, wish to decide what is best for our children. And we have no place for a juvenile mouthpiece of Bill Gates telling us what is best.

The same with APPR. Why is something being foisted upon the teachers of NYC and New York State that has been an unmitigated disaster for Microsoft? Tell us all Little Evan, how is this benefiting our children?

But there is hope out there. Like the TV show that asked if you are smarter than a 5th grader in the same video as Little Evan, in fact just before he blabbered, there was a middle school student that showed she is much, much, much smarter than Dumb Little Evan Stone. We shan't give her name, but will share her quote. When asked by Art McFarland about her views of Carmen Farina and testing;

"She's trying to stop the tests because she doesn't think it's right."

When asked how she feels about testing, the little girl responds;

"I don't like it."

Sorry little girl, Little Evan Stone does not care about you. Little Evan Stone is all about himself, his babe Princess Sydney Morris, E4E, and most important, Bill Gates. The little boy and girls of NYCDOE mean jack to him.

Little Evan Stone just gets dumberized time after time.

Remember last Thursday when yet again on these pages we exposed the sycophancy of Little Evan Stone and his support for the Common Core? After a few short hours after that post was put up, a dedicated reader of this blog sent The Crack Team some samples of her daughter's 3rd grade work from Go Math. This mom shared with The Crack Team, as only mother could, the pain, the suffering, and the hatred of school permeating through her daughter as she is forced to adhere to standards so insidiously stupid that only those making a buck benefit. 

Let's take a look at Little Evan's handiwork (Yes, we know that Evan alone had nothing to do with Common Core, yet we know that Evan and his type have enabled the shoving down our throats of Common Core), shall we (You might have to click to enlarge)?







Gee, so many answers, so frustrating for a little 8 year old girl. Different ways? The passage already gives 2 ways to write the journal entries. I, as a older person, am confused.

How many times did Justin face palm before the trip?

Are your jaw dropping?

Hey, we as teachers have no problem with wanting our students and our own children to think critically and be good problem solvers, but this, this is just, just, really dumb.

But again nothing that a 2 1/2 year 6th grade teacher like Little Evan won't like. That is as long as his organization's pockets are being lined with cash by Billy Gates and his ilk. For that is what Evan is about.

Hey, let's see if anyone can answer this rejected problem from Go Math.

Little Evan Stone was all alone on the street corner under a street lamp. He wanted a money to start an "grass roots" education advocacy group. Suddenly a man in a Porsche drove up and asked Little Evan to get in. Little Evan did and the man introduced himself as Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Little Evan was impressed. Ten minutes later Evan left the car with $250,000 in unmarked bills.

What were the denominations of the bills?

He's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!! Like your mother in law coming to visit, like that huge blackhead on the back of your neck that is in a horrible spot to squeeze and stays there for years. Or worse, like that old Saturday Night Live skit with John Belushi, "The Thing That Wouldn't Leave," Little Evan Stone just won't go away.

Imagine New York City's shock when all 25 people (Myself included, but just for the sports section) that read the New York Post opened up to the op-ed section and saw a supposedly coincidentally timed to John King being in NYC opinion piece about the Common Core written by that "independent" mind of Little Evan's.

Now for those who don't know who Evan is, he has been a comedic source on these pages for years, an average 6th grade teacher, while his babe, Princess Sydney Morris was worse, and has not taught in over 4 years. 

After I stopped laughing whilst rolling on the floor I decided to share what Evan blabbered with The Crack Team. They laughed so hard that one member of the team, Throckmorton, died. For those who are interested, the funeral is tomorrow and we will be sitting Shiva through Tuesday.

Little Evan of course had to inject himself immediately; This week’s town halls on the Common Core with State Education Commissioner John King and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tish, which I attended, did little to calm the circus-like atmosphere that has surrounded the implementation of the standards from Day One.

Circus like atmosphere? Where? In Port Chester? In Western New York? Where was the circus like atmosphere. The only two places that turned into a circus was in Poughkeepsie and the so called supporters of the Common Core that showed in Brooklyn on Tuesday night. 

By lumping these new standards in with other hot-button issues,

Like the APPR? Race to the Top? Testing? It's all intertwined. One begets the others. One can't survive without its hosts. It's all the same no matter how it is sliced.

What Little Evan is doing is worse. He is throwing up the proverbial red herring to distract the readers into believing that only the Common Core is isolated change and that it has no effect on other deforms.

The new standards are more rigorous and promote the very skills teachers and parents have been calling for — critical thinking and problem-solving — skills that colleges and jobs will require.

I'm a parent and I never called for such skills in the schools and no one ever asked me. I'm also a teacher and no one and none of the teachers (Of course only the cool ones) I know, ever asked for such skills. Don't critical thinking skills and problem solving start in the home by fostering a childs natural ability to learn? That's why I have always expected my son, and my students, to come to their skills on their own. I am just there to facilitate.

But which colleges and which jobs are suddenly now requiring such skills? Haven't these skills always been required in college and the work place? 

When I taught sixth grade, I used to have to teach 127 unique math standards or topics. Now I’d be able to focus on 27 standards, giving me the time needed to make sure all of my students understood the underlying concepts.

One hundred and twenty seven math standards?? You don't say! You mean these? This was difficult for you? Yikes! Why memorize? Heck, Massachusetts had the gold standard of standards. Is this too difficult for you?

For example, I used to teach the equation for the area of a square in a 50-minute lesson, simply memorizing the equation and applying it to problems.

You did? Then you sucked as a teacher! You didn't have them take the area of the classroom, the cafeteria, the hallway, the office, their home, Sydney's family's home in East Hampton? Then they could write about how they came about their findings. Simple, eh? 

Now I could teach real-world mathematical problems involving area over the course of a week, allowing my students to uncover multiple ways to solve for the answer and truly understand the concept.

Please see my response above. 

But parents send their children to school to prepare them for the real world, and we haven’t been doing as well as we can.

Not in Kindergarten. Or 1st grade, or elementary school. We all don't get to prep Choate.

As The Post pointed out recently, just a third of New York City public-school students graduate high school ready for college, thus denying many students the opportunity to succeed. 

Yes, the Post, the bastion of journalistic morals and integrity, with no axe to grind on either side of the education debate pointed such a fact out. But wait, what about credit recovery? Does that not prepare students by just letting them graduate and letting them out in the real world?  <----sarcasm i="">


For example, in focus groups we have conducted all around the city, Educators for Excellence is hearing positive feedback from reading and writing teachers, many of whom are praising the focus on both fiction and nonfiction reading, as well as the new emphasis on text-based evidence.

Who participates in these surveys? Can we see the surveys? Are only card carrying members of E4E allowed to participate in such surveys? Are these surveys taken at E4E youth rallies? Are these surveys done scientifically?

In a recent poll, the National Education Association found nearly 75 percent of teachers said they support the Common Core.

Sources please. 

But what is most disturbing about Little Evan's spew in the Post today is his dishonesty. You see, what Little Evan doesn't want anyone to know is that the face of technological failure, Bill Gates funds Educators4Excellence while at the same time funding Common Core. Again, Little Evan is a liar. And according to the same article, Common Core is a curriculum, though Little Evan claimed it is not. Little Evan also fails to mention that his hero and mentor Bill Gates said that we won't know for ten years if Common Core will work or not. Will this be acceptable for the offspring of Little Evan and Princess Sydney?

What Common Core is just a repackaging of what was being done already for the purpose of creating new profits for corporations. It's all about the money. It's all about who will out whore whom and Little Evan, you are in the top three.

I put it to Evan, let's you and I walk the streets of Harrison, NY together and survey the parents of this great community together.

Let's face it. Little Evan is Bill Gates little b**** boy.

So here I am on Saturday on I-81 driving north just outside of Binghamton on my way to Skaneateles. My wife is on her iPhone doing whatever as is my son. I am left alone to listen to flip between the Sirius channels.

One can do a lot of pondering in such a situation. I did. I pondered, or was it wondered, or was it
daydreaming, that the Godfather movie (or even organized crime) is a lot like what we are seeing now in education amongst the deformers. Think about it, we're fighting against a crime family.

So what if the Godfather movie and the Corleone's were involved in education reform. Let's take a look.

Be sure to read the last fantasy or parody all the way at the bottom.

Michael: My credit good enough to buy you out?
Moe Greene: Buy me out?  [Fredo laughs nervously] 
Michael: The school, the playground. The Corleone Family wants to buy you out. 
Moe Greene: The Corleone Family wants to buy me out? No, I buy you out, you don't buy me out.  Michael: Your school loses money, maybe we can do better. 
Moe Greene: You think I'm skimmin off the top, Mike? 
Michael: [Michael shakes his head] You're unlucky. 
Moe Greene: You goddamn guineas you really make me laugh. I do you a favor and take Freddie in when you're having a bad time, and now you're gonna try and push me out! 
Michael: You took Freddie in because the Corleone Family bankrolled your charter school, and the Molinari Family on the Coast guaranteed his teaching position. Now we're talking business, let's talk business. 
Moe Greene: Yeah, let's talk business, Mike. First of all, you're all done. The Corleone Family don't even have that kind of muscle anymore. The Godfather's sick, right? You're getting chased out of New York by Barzini Charter School and the other Families charters. What do you think is going on here? You think you can come to my charter school and take over? I talked to Barzini - I can make a deal with him, and still keep my charter school! 
Michael: Is that why you slapped my brother around in public? 
Fredo: Aw, now that, that was nothin', Mike. Moe didn't mean nothin' by that. Yeah, sure he flies off the handle every once in a while, but me and him, we're good friends, right Moe? 
Moe Greene: I got a business to run. I gotta kick asses sometimes to make it run right. We had a little argument, Freddy and me, so I had to straighten him out. 
Michael: You straightened my brother out?  Moe Greene: He was banging erasers against the board two at a time! Students couldn't get any work at the table! What's the matter with you? 
Michael: I leave for New York tomorrow, think about a price. 
Moe Greene: Sonofabitch! Do you know who I am? I'm Moe Greene! I made my bones when you were going out with cheerleaders! 
Fredo: Wait a minute, Moe, Moe, I got an idea. Tom, you're the Consiglieri and you can talk to the Don, you can explain... 
Tom Hagen: Now hold it right there. The Don is semi-retired and Mike is in charge of the Family business now. If you have anything to say, say it to Michael. 
Fredo: [Moe Greene leaves] Mike! You do not come to Las Vegas and talk to a man like Moe Greene like that! 
Michael: Fredo, you're my older brother, and I love you. But don't ever take sides with anyone against the Family again. Ever.


Michael: Well, when Johnny was first starting out as a teacher, he was signed to a personal services contract with this big high school. And as his career got better and better, he wanted to get out of it. But the principal wouldn't let him. Now, Johnny is my father's godson. So my father went to see this bandleader and offered him $10,000 to let Johnny go, but the principal said no. So the next day, my father went back, only this time with Luca Brasi. Within an hour, he had a signed release for a certified check of $1000.
Kay Adams: How did he do that?
Michael: My father made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
Kay Adams: What was that?
Michael: Luca Brasi held a gun to his head, and my father assured him that either his brains or his signature would be on the contract.
Kay Adams: ...
Michael: ...That's a true story.
Michael: That's my family Kay, that's not me.

Tom Hagen: Sollozo is known as the Turk. He's supposed to be very good with a number 2 pencil . But only in matters of business, or of some sort of reasonable complaint. His business is testing. He has the field testing in Turkey, where they create the tests. In Sicily he has the plant to print the tets. He needs cash and he needs protection from the communities for which he gives a piece of the action, I couldn't find out how much. The Tattaglia Family is behind him here in New York so they have to be in it for something.
Don Corleone: What about his prison record?
Tom Hagen: Two terms, one in Italy, and one here. He's known as a top testing man.
Don Corleone: Santino, what do you think?
Sonny: There's a lot of money in that testing.
Don Corleone: Tom?
Tom Hagen: Well, I say yes. There is more money potential in testing than anything else we're looking at now. If we don't get into it, somebody else will, maybe one of the Five Families, maybe all of them. And with the money they earn they'll be able to buy more deformers and political power. Then they come after us. Right now we have the unions under control and we have the charters and those are the best things to have. But testing is a thing of the future. If we don't get a piece of that action we risk everything we have. Not now, but ten years from now.
Sonny: Well, what's your answer gonna be, Pop?

Don Zaluchi really hits the nail on the head in what the deformers, the politicians, the principals without souls, the TFA's, the TC's really think and believe. 

Don Zaluchi could be anybody we know. Uncle Mike, Sock Puppet Walcott, Governor Andy, Lucy Calkins, a pretentious principal, Whitney Tilson, Evan Stone. The list can go on and on...

Don Zaluchi: I also don't believe in Ed Reform. For years I paid my people extra so they wouldn't do that kind of business. Somebody comes to them and says, "I have Ed Reform; if you put up three, four thousand dollar investment, we can make fifty thousand distributing their programs." So they can't resist. I want to control it as a business, to keep it respectable.
[slams his hand on the table and shouts]
Don Zaluchi: I don't want it near charter schools! I don't want it sold to affluent communities! That's an infamia. In my city, we would keep the traffic in the dark people, the coloreds. They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls.

With the last two days off because of Hurricane Sandy, so many thoughts raced through my mind. One of them was how after watching the Tigers get swept by the Giants how did the Yankees get swept by the same team. Another thought took me back to the last hurricane to hit here, Irene and how Educators4Excellence made the death and destruction all about them. 

L-R Little Evan Stone, Hand Puppet Jonathan Schleifer

I wondered if this time would E4E show some humility and somehow not take to attention whoring themselves into the death and destruction of Hurricane Sandy that has permeated the area the last 48 hours. That hopefully, there would be silence on their parts and be mature and smart enough to be silent.

Checking my email this morning, sadly my best hopes went down the drain. Though, I do give them credit. In their sneaky way they left the statement off their Facebook page and their website. But nonetheless, they felt the need to ingratiate themselves into a tragedy.

The E4E team fared pretty well, but like many of you, some continue to deal with flooding and power outages. 

Praise the Lord!!!! I now can sleep. The E4E team fared pretty well. In fact I am sure Little Evan Stone and Princess Sydney fared better than the families in North Salem NY in northern Westchester that lost their sons, ages 11 and 13 when a tree came crashing down on the house. Perhaps Little Evan and Princess Sydney fared better than the Pearl River NY man watching TV with his family in which he was killed by a falling tree, and his wife and daughter are in critical condition at Nyack Hospital. Bet they did better than the man who was killed driving into a fallen tree on the Sprain Parkway in Greenburgh. And let's not forget all those who lost their homes in Breezy Point and all the others that had lost their lives. All that matter is the Little Evan and Princess Sydney are OK. 

Can you believe this? Two families lost their sons. They are dead at the ages of 11 and 13. As a father I shudder to think what these families are going through. I can't imagine what the all the other families are going through. But not once in the email did Little Evan or Princess Sydney give any word, or even a sense, of condolence or sympathy. It is all about them, themselves, and not others. Whatever they can do to leach onto others and make Little Evan and Princess Sydney look good is all that matters. 

In the days that passed and the days to come we’ve seen how our first responders, city and utility workers, and public leaders work together to do incredible things.

Guess what? Those first responders, city and utility workers are UNION WORKERS! They are subject to a pay scale, due process, pensions, and seniority rights. Why not tell these union workers what you really think about unions and workers rights? I dare you. But neither Little Evan or Princess Sydney will. As far as the shout out to the public leaders, please, remove your lips from the butts.

And we’ve seen neighbors lending a hand and caring for one another. We are proud to be a part of such remarkable communities.

Oh, please. Give examples of where you have seen neighbors lending a hand. I doubt if these "communities" knew of your agenda, your subterfuge, your back stabbing, would wish you to be amongst them. 

Thank you to those of you who have gone to help in the shelters, to those of you who are taking care of loved ones, and to those who are risking their lives to care for others.

Oh, you are welcome. Without the official approval of E4E, all what has been done and will be done will all be for naught. 

This is so typical of E4E, Little Evan Stone, Princess Sydney Morris, and their newest, clueless lackey, new executive director, Hand Puppet Jonathan Schleifer. Whatever the reason, whatever the cause, it all comes down to them. To furthering themselves, to furthering their brand, to furthering their ignorance.

E4E is a toothless paper tiger in constant search of relevance and attention. They have done nothing for education as teachers and continue to do nothing for education as whatever it is they are now.

In the fall of 1962 Faber College senior and pre-med student Eric "Otter"Stratton received a phone call to from Babs Jansen that Mandy Peperidge wished to meet him at the Rainbow Hotel late in the afternoon. Sadly, Doug Niedermyer, Greg Marmalard, and the rest of Omega House were waiting for him and subsequently beat him, and the dozen roses, to a pulp.

Meanwhile across town in Dean Wormer's office, Flounder, Bluto, D-Day, Hoover, and Larry were being told that they, and all of Delta House, were being expelled and were to leave Faber on Monday morning. Exacerbating their woes they were informed that their local draft boards were to be notified that they were now all eligible for military service. Flounder then vomited on Dean Wormer.

Back at Delta House as Flounder was being comforted that he threw up on Dean Wormer, not in front of him by Boon, Otter walked in bruised and beaten with D-Day helping him to the couch. Upon sitting down Otter when asked who did that number to his face said,

"It was Greggie and Douggie... and some of the other Hitler youth."

And he then found out they were all kicked out of school. 

Get the analogy? Yes, teachers, we are Delta House. Dean Wormer is Mayor Bloomberg. Marmalard is Little Evan (Is it supposed to be this soft?) Stone, and Niedermyer is Whitney Tilson. Oh, and I am Bluto with the 0.0 GPA and 7 years of college down the drain. But I have digressed. Shall we continue? Oh, I wrote something like this a while back if I recall. Back to the meanderings of my mind.

At this point Bluto gets up and screams,

Hey, what's this lying around shit?!?!?!

To which he was told that the war is over and Wormer dropped the big one. He went on a lovely soliloquy asking was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor and that it is not over now. He asked,

"Who's with me?"

And ran out the door excited only to come back and ask what happened to the Delta House he had known.

"We're too afraid Bluto, we might get in trouble."

It was Otter who stood up and supported Bluto. Otter told everyone it would take many lives, many years, but that only a real stupid act by Delta House would win the war. At this point Bluto exclaimed some choice words for Wormer, Marmalard, and Niedermyer. D-Day and Boon said they were in, and Bluto encouraged the charge to arms.

Now, I am not advocating any stupid acts as were done in Animal House, but looking at Chicago we need to get our act together, stop being reactive and being proactive.

Yes, it is nice to start a group, give itself an acronym name and meet, but there is so much more to do.

For quite a while I have been advocating the informational picketing of Whitney Tilson 5th Avenue mansion and/or office and the E4E offices. But do not leave the picketing to their homes or offices, but wherever that might appear. Yes, I keep hearing from well meaning people who I have the utmost of respect for that these two (among many others) are just the symptoms. Yes, they are the symptoms, but so were Marmalard and Niedermyer and they were targeted, along with Dean Wormer.

If one has a cold, does one not treat the symptoms? I had root canal several weeks ago. The pain I experienced before and after the procedure were symptoms, yet they were not ignored. They were treated appropriately with pain pills. That's what must be done with both E4E and Whitney. Take care of the symptoms. When these two symptoms are done with moved on to other symptoms.

Yet, for some reason we allow these two to continue to do what they do. Is it possible that if we shine the light on these two symptoms that like roaches when the lights come on they will scurry away and never come out again? I don't know, but it is worth a try.

What is another lesson advocacy groups can learn from Animal House?

Delta House took their act on the road. They went to check get dates at Emily Dickinson College, they went to a supermarket, they included dorks like Flounder in their fraternity, Flounder's girlfriend Cissy drove up from Lancaster to visit him, and they even had a fun filled toga party. They were a diverse and well traveled fraternity

The acronyms see lower Manhattan as a base for some reason. Lower Manhattan is nice if you live down there, or Brooklyn, or don't have a car. Has anyone tried to drive downtown on a weekday at 4 PM, or having to head back to Jersey, Westchester, or LI at 6 or 7 PM.

There is a life beyond the LES and Brooklyn. The Bronx is up, the Bronx, Queens, and Westchester, anywhere above 125th St is ripe for picking, yet gets ignored constantly. This is where people live. This is where people have their families, children, etc... Sometimes we are too busy in our lives after school. There is such a thing known as weekends.

Meetings don't need to be seemingly so convert or seem like a late 50's Beatnik poetry reading while everyone is sweating their balls off.

It is time to truly reach out beyond the "base of operations" and be more inclusive. This means recruiting more from elementary schools and the outer boroughs and suburbs.

This is no way an indictment against those that are spearheading the acronym advocacy groups. I know these people are well meaning, have our best interests at heart, and work their butts off. But, it is time to hear others out.

It's nice to picket with Con Ed, but Con Ed is not putting food on my table or putting my son through college or baseball training.

Not too long ago, in fact earlier this month, Whitney Tilson was involved in some sort of funny business with Barnes and Noble stock. We here at SBSB reported on it and called for an SEC investigation.

Today the Crack Team here at SBSB has learned through sources that Whitney Tilson is under federal investigation. We do not know if it is because of his imbroglio with Barnes and Noble, or his other famously inept Netflix issues, but the sources have confirmed that Whitney is being investigated.

Yes, it can be anything, it can be standard operating practices, and the Crack Team is working 24/7 to get more information. Perhaps the information we wish for will be revealed in 6 months? However, we here at SBSB can put 1 and 1 together and the pieces of the puzzle do seem to fit. We look forward to the day that Whitney Tilson is hauled off in handcuffs and being passed gen pop around for a pack of Newports.

But something else piqued the interest of the Crack Team. As reported back in October, Little Evan Stone shared with a mole sent in by the Crack Team at one of E4E's parties that;

funding from the Gates Foundation, Little Evan told the mole that funding comes from The Robing Hood Foundation and Carnagie.

Ah, but there is more, more that Little Evan did not share. A certain hedge fund has laid a lot of money on those self anointed defenders of education. Care to guess? Yes, none other than T2 Partners LLC. Oh yes it be Whitney Tilson.

Curious, why neither Whitney, Little Evan, or Princess Sydney have ever shared this info. But it does lead one to wonder if Whitney Tilson and his partner over at T2, Glenn Tongue (any wonder that Whitney chooses a tongue?) have been doing some funny things with insider trading, then it would make sense that any monies they derived are not only tainted, but the same goes with any donations they might make to a "grass roots" education organization.

The Crack Team calls on the federal authorities to quickly and forthrightly investigate any dealings between T2, Whitney Tilson, and the children of Educators 4 Excellence. Only once a full investigation is completed can justice be truly served.

For those that wish to know, the Crack Team will be doing all it can in the upcoming summer months to find learn how much monies T2 and Whitney have donated to E4E. The public wishes to know.

I have had it. Enough of the kvetching, the bellyaching, the whining, the blaming. We are directing out anger, out outrage, our concern over the new evaluation system at the wrong people. Governor Andy, Uncle Mike, Mulgrew, Randi, they are all just pawns of some bigger entity, a bigger force.

We must bequeath our anger, our collective anger at the person behind it all. The true Svengali, the ultimate puppet master in this abhorrent agreement. We must all direct our anger and scorn to Little Evan Stone of Educators4Excellence. He is the one to show vengeance and dislike towards. Little Evan is the one to give an atomic wedgie to. Little Evan is too blame.

How do we know this? Simple. Little Evan Stone told us so. Yes, he told us that in his latest video in which he more or less shares his happiness and joy in the new evaluation system.

Little Evan said, "This entire policy proposal is based on last years E4E policy team."


So, we have Little Evan to thank for this? He said so himself. So for all the teachers out there that will be screwed by this new evaluation system, please drop a line to Little Evan Stone at 212-279-8510 ext 11 or email Little Evan and let him know how you feel!


We here at SBSB find it rather presumptuous that Little Evan is taking credit for this. Yes, he is all smug that what E4E policy dweebs created. But seriously, do you think that any time anything other than what Little Evan was directed to do by his handlers was going to get passed?  It's like on the first day of school when we make the class rules. We let the students think they are creating the rules, when in reality we are guiding them to what we as teachers wish the rules to be.


Little Evan starts off the video by letting us know that it is now a great day for educators. He says that everyone put politics aside to do "what's right for the students and the teachers of New York."

How was what's right being done for the students? With yet another level of tests and/or assessments that means that more time, much more time, will be taken away from instruction and be funneled into time taking tests. More reason for students to have anxiety and a sense of worthlessness. Do we really need to judge students art work, music, physical abilities?


What about teachers? How do we judge the art teacher, the phys ed. teacher, the music teacher? What happens when, and this will happen, a veteran teacher who has had years upon years of accolades, honors from students, parents, and the school community year after year has her VAM go down 2 years in a row due to outside influences that teacher has ZERO control over? This teacher no matter what will be deemed ineffective and be terminated. That teacher will have Little Evan Stone to thank.


Little Evan says, "that for the last two years we have been waiting for a system that gives us meaningful feedback,"

Well, dude we are still waiting. When is it going to happen?

Little Evan seems so happy when he says, "any teacher that is rated ineffective that will get an outside observer."

The devil will be in the details. To whose allegiance will this outside observer be? Who will be paying this outside observer? Aren't there better ways to spend the money than on outside observers?

The cheating scandals coming down the pike will be nothing like we have never seen in the past. When a teacher is cornered into risking feeding their families or risking manipulating students test scores, the latter will win out. No one will benefit from this. But it doesn't matter. The little worm, parasite, Little Evan Stone got what he wanted. He manipulated and cajoled and lied.

Remember, so many people to blame in this mess. But as he says, Little Evan Stone is most responsible for this evaluation system. When a teacher is on the unemployment line, struggling to feed their family, look no further than Little Evan Stone to blame.

Oh, one more thing. This week the TDR's will be released. Let's see how Little Evan, Princess Sydney, and the rest of the E4E jackboots do.

Every time I see a Little Evan Stone and Princess Sydney Morris propaganda column in The New York Post or in fact anywhere I feel that it must be treated as if one were looking directly at Kollos, the Medusan ambassador.  But in reality, Little Evan and Princess Sydney are not Kollos, but more like Twiddle-Dee and Twiddle-Dum and just looking at them and reading what they wrote, or at the very least, what they were told to write invites laughter and derision.

In their latest mindless missive in the official propaganda publication of the NYC DOE, The New York Post, Little Evan and Princess Sydney start my sucking up mightily to Governor Andy's colon when they say, "Gov. Cuomo recently called himself “the students lobbyist.” In fact, he just may be the only effective lobbyist that teachers have right now, too.

Hello teachers of Los Angeles! Do you ever get tired from the same old boring Friday nights? Are you looking for something to do other than attend another boring Clippers or Kings game? Well, look no more. We here at SBSB have a most exciting suggestion for a Friday night in the history of mankind.

As many of you out there in the City of Angels are aware, or not aware, a new Aryan youth group, Educators4Excellence has pitched a tent within your fair city. Seems that E4E has failed here in New York and like the Corleone family has been run off in the attempt to influence, and certainly degrade, education at the LAUSD. What does this have to do with you?

Well, at the behest of E4E, and its co-founders and co-executive directors Little Evan Stone and Princess Sydney Morris in conjunction with their newly recruited de facto Los Angeles leader, Ama Nyamekye (who comes to LA by way of NYC) the crack team wishes to invite you to E4E welcome kegger on Friday, January 20, 2012 at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. Actually it is a dinner, with guest speaker your leader, Superintendent John Deasy. Rumor has it that preppy casual is the dress code.


How you may ask does one get their name on the exclusive guest list? Simple. Go to this link and sign up. If you have any issues with giving you name, be sure to check the official SBSB list of pseudonym's that one can sign up with. Once you are signed up to E4E, and of course sign the loyalty oath, not only will you be able to sign up for this gala event, but will be able to view all upcoming E4E events.

But not to worry. E4E is so full of themselves and their righteousness they will not even notice that there are moles at the event. Best of all the food and alcohol will be flowing and you will be able to drink and eat on E4E's dime. In fact, a little birdie has shared with the crack team that there is a strong possibility of a mic night! Oooh.

So sign up early and often and have fun.