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.

I came thisclose to not writing about what I am going to write about tonight. In my ADD state of mind tonight I procrastinated quite profusely before I started to actually type these words that you, John and Jane Q. Public are reading right now. For some reason I went over to E4E's official Blog Monkey™ Ruben Brosbe's blog and was just about to comment on the drivel and the self serving tripe written by him today. But I shant be. If someone else cares to tackle this go for it. Just remember I get a royalty for "Blog Monkey™"

Wendy Kopp and Wilbur

So what has been on my mind? Teach For America has been on my mind ever since I interviewed the erstwhile, and debonair, David Green on my radio show on March 31. On this show, and I probably knew it beforehand, I learned, and was sickened that TFA candidates only had 50, yes 50 hours of training before they were sent into the classrooms in September. Yes, I know, they have this pinko, hippie, liberal, love one another, kumbaya, liberal love ins before, during, and after their training. But still, only 50 hours of training? Two hours a day, 5 days a week, for 5 weeks? This is what we want for our most precious commodities, our children?

If your heart was clogged up from all the grease and fat you have been eating for all those years and needed quadruple bypass surgery, would you feel confidant in the procedure knowing that your surgeon has only had only 50 hours of training in medicine and cardio bypass surgery?

Would anyone feel comfortable  when they get in a 747 to fly halfway around the world knowing that their pilot has only had only 50 hours of training?

How about that cop you need to protect you, or to investigate a crime? Would you or anyone feel safe knowing that that cop only 50 hours of training?

Would the Beatles be the Beatles if they only played a total of 50 hours in Hamburg?

Would parents feel comfortable knowing that the mohel they hired only had 50 hours of training before he clips and snips little Shlomo?

Would a Yankees fan want a pitcher on the mound with the scored tied in the 9th with the bases loaded, two out, and the 7th game of the World Series if this pitcher only had 50 hours in the minor leagues?

A firefighter with only 50 hours of training is this someone that you want to have save your life?

Who would hire a school bus driver if he, or she has only been driving a total of 50 hours in their lives?

Would citizens of the United States be content with soldiers and officers with only 50 hours of training?

Would citizens of the United States be content with a President with only 50 hours of training? Wait, cancel that.

Would citizens of the United Federation of Planets be content with a starship captain with only 50 hours of training?

Was Yoda satisfied with Luke Skywalker and his less than 50 hours of training? Luke was an anomaly. Besides, he had Obi-Wan beside him the entire time.

How would we feel seeing a big rig on the interstate knowing that the driver has only 50 hours of training behind the wheel?

I know everyone's answer to these questions. No one would accept any of these situations. So why is it some have no problem with putting our children, our future in the hands of those with only 50 hours of training? You know why? Because the deformers, the politicians, the billionaires are doing everything they can to destroy the nobility of teaching. To them, teaching is nothing more that flipping burgers.

Interesting column today by Valerie Strauss today in the Washington Post. Seems the sheen is off the KIPP apple. Oh, that's is just a shame. But let's give credit where credit is due. I give plenty of credit to Valerie Strauss for lifting up the KIPP rock and exposing what we all knew was under it.

An independent study was conducted by Assistant Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig of the University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Professor Su Jin Jez of California State University at Sacramento. Their studies found, and this was reported by Valerie Strauss, many things. Including;

More than 50 percent of Teach for America teachers leave after two years and more than 80 percent leave after three years.

This is obvious. I mean TFAer's are only in it for themselves. To receive a free masters degree and to, in their own warped way, make a difference for all the little boys and girls of color.

Teach for America proponents say that the program is aimed not only at supplying teachers to needy schools but also improving the teacher labor supply and shaping individuals who will care about education in their future jobs on Wall Street, in Washington, or elsewhere outside the classroom.

I call bullocks!!! This line is so bogus; "...and shaping individuals who will care about education in their future jobs on Wall Street, in Washington, or elsewhere outside the classroom." Please. Not true. They do it because it looks good on a resume.

Most studies find that those Teach for America teachers who stay long enough to become fully credentialed (typically after two years) appear to do about as well as other similarly experienced cedentialed teachers in teaching reading, and do as well as, and sometimes better than, a comparison group in teaching math.

This is because they age. Because as they stay longer they get married, have families, have lives. Of course it is nice to have a 23 year old teacher that is unencumbered by spouses and children. They can devote all their time, except the drinking and partying, to education. Much as all teachers were able to do before they were in similar situations. Sorry, family always should and does come first.

The analysis concludes that proponents who see the program as providing urban and rural schools with “outstanding recent college graduates,” and opponents who see it as only a short-term remedy that “may not even be better than what it aims to fix” are both correct. It says:

“The studies reviewed in the previous section indicate that, in the short-term, when compared to other underprepared teachers hired into many high-need schools, they may compete well with similarly trained and situated non-TFA teachers (even if just marginally better and only in mathematics)."

This cracks me up. Doesn't seem to matter. But as Strauss pointed out at the beginning of her column; The recruits (TFA) are recent graduates from elite colleges...

So what is an elite college? Only elitists can work as a TFAer? What about a graduate at the top of their class from SUNY-Geneseo, or SUNY-New Paltz? Do these students have what it takes to be in TFA?

One conclusion that is spot on and perhaps Bill Gates should take to heart is, "Invest strategically in evidence-based educational reform options that build long-term capacity in schools." See the key words there? "Evidence-based" This means something that is know to work. Not something on a whim whilst on the toilet.

What a cool sounding acronym. ATR (Absent Teacher Reserve). It just oozes coolness like some old rock band. In fact that is that some of these teachers should do, form a rock band and call themselves ATR. They will be up there in the pantheon of acronyms with CSN, ELO, ELP, GTR. I mean they certainly do have the time to rehearse and tour.

In the old days there was the seniority transfer. Basically a list came out in the spring of anticipated openings that were not filled by appointed or tenured teachers and presto, you could just take the job away from that teacher. The contract of 2005 I believe eliminated that and gave us the Open Market Transfer. OK fair enough. I could see the principals point of view on this. You do not want someone you don't know or want in your school.

So how does this Open Market Transfer work? Between April and the beginning of August you go online to the DOE website and find openings that are anticipated in the entire city. You can look by district, school, borough, specialty, license area, etc... Once you find the schools you are interested in there is a form in which to send by email your resume and a cover letter and then you wait. And wait. And wait. And wait. And wait some more.

But only if you have many years in the system. I don't know what the cut off point is in years in which you won't even be acknowledged by the recipient principal. Two years ago a colleague of mine applied to about eight schools through the OMT. What he teaches very few in the city could teach well, he has a Masters in this field, and came with many recommendations. Guess how many responses he got? If you say more than zero you are wrong. He got nothing, nada, zippo. But not just because he makes too much money.

Oops, added CCR to the list above!

The problem is, and this is for most teachers who are ATR's, is that these teachers think to independently. To paraphrase Ayn Rand, "hold your head above the crowd, they going to bring you down." You really think a principal wants to deal with someone who is confident in themselves? NO WAY! They want someone young, someone they can mold, someone they can manipulate, someone they can instill fear in.

Where are these types of teachers found? Through Teach for America and the Teaching Fellows. Hey don't get me wrong, a lot of these teachers are excellent. But I see a lot from East Nowheresville, USA and all they want to do is come and live in Manhattan with 4 roommates, and leave after their three years. Gosh, the NYC schools are like the Kansas City Royals. We develop them and they leave to the Yankees (suburbs).

Or you get someone like I encountered several years ago who looked like Dudley Moore, left banking and was placed in a middle school. By the middle of October he was in the corner sucking his thumb and rocking back and forth. Oh but he was a Fellow, he must be good. You know, if memory serves, the students were doing a Native American war dance around him as well. I don't think there was a fire ring though. But don't quote me on this.

Just as aside. My second year teaching we had a teacher who had a Harvard undergrad degree and went to Bank Street College. My principal was so enamored with her pedigree she wanted us to learn from her. She couldn't handle the students, she was gone after Veteran's Day. The teacher, not the principal.

There has to be some middle ground. The contract clearly spells out what must be done with excessed teachers. But change has to come from Tweed. Tweed has to stop teaching the principals on how to skirt rules and regulations.

Hey thought of a great name for a rock band for the people at Tweed. In the spirit of great acronym names I give you FUBAR.