Dear ICOPE Newsletter Reader:
The independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) is gearing up to publish weekly updates on this blog. We strongly urge you to spread the word and to contribute commentary to the informative and often provocative material we will posting. So visit us often to see the latest news and analysis as we build the citywide movement to transform NYC's public education system into one that is truly public and educational for all of its student-citizens.

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Resource Material for Our Education Is a Human Right Struggles
From time to time, ICOPE will post resource material that we feel will help your and your organization advance "Education is a Human Right" struggle as we fight around our various sites of struggle. Below is the first of such compilation.

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Criminalizing the Classroom: The Over-Policing of New York City Schools
New York Civil Liberties Union Report, 2007

http://www.nyclu.org/files/criminalizing_the_classroom_report.pdf

Between 2005 and 2006, 4,625 School Safety Agents worked in New York City Public Schools. Although Student Safety officers are often inadequately trained to work in schools and do not fall under the supervision of school administrators, they have been charged with controlling school safety. In this report, NYCLU and the Racial Justice Program of the ACLU present evidence from 1,000 student surveys, as well as interviews from parents, teachers, school administrators, school safety agents, and officials for the Department of Education, United Federation of Teachers and the NYPD, that confirm School Safety Agents do not create a secure learning environment for students.

The inappropriate and unacceptable treatment of students by School Safety Agents, which are well documented in the report, violates the rights of students to a safe and positive educational environment. Findings show that students that are already some of the most vulnerable, including students of color and poor students who attend large and overcrowded schools with high suspension and drop-out rates, are disproportionately affected by the actions of Student Safety offices. Recommendations for reform call for the following: restoring authority over school safety to school administrators, training school safety personnel to function in accordance with sound educational practices, limiting the role of police personnel to legitimate the security concerns of children and educators, and giving students, families and educators meaningful mechanisms to report wrong-doing by school-based police personnel.
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Statement on Culturally Responsive Education

“The achievement of ethnic pride, self-sufficiency, equity wealth, and power for African-descended people in the United States will require a collective, although not monolithic, cultural and political worldview. This type of worldview can only be transmitted through a process of culturally responsive education, strategically guided by an African Cultural orientation and understanding of how societal power relations are maintained.”

Educators use socio-cultural backgrounds, prior experiences, and worldviews of their students together with their individual learning, behavioral and communication styles in all aspects of the teaching/learning process. Cultures of success are created by incorporating student cultural and social capital into education, making students feel respected and valued. “Rather than ignoring or denying the existence of cultural influences on student behavior and their own, the culturally competent educator uses cultural knowledge to design teaching and learning environments and interventions.” Culturally responsive education is necessary for the success of our students.

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Deprived of Dignity: Degrading Treatment and Abusive Discipline in New York City and Los Angeles Public Schools
National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, 2007.

http://www.nesri.org/programs/Executive_Summary_Dignity_Report.pdf

Students from low-income communities and students of color experience degrading treatment and abusive disciplinary measures in New York City and LA public schools. This report documents these unfair punishments and the threatening school environment which police presence contributes to. Excessive and unfair suspensions, un-recorded school removals that place students in detention rooms for days and weeks, along with the lack of counseling and supportive services are just a few examples that contribute to the low graduation rates of our youth. We support recommendations of the report that protect the right to education and dignity of all students. These include:
• whole school approaches • training and resources for school staff for mediation and cultural competence • creation of clear guidelines for enforcement policy • a focus on counseling services as opposed to zero-tolerance responses • removal of armed police officer and training for student safety officers • increasing student participation in implementing discipline in their schools • participation of parents and communities in the discipline of the child and the planning of school safety policies.

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STARS: WE KNOW WE HAD SOMETHING FROM THE BEGINNING:
by Doug Christensen, 2005

http://www.nde.state.ne.us/COMMISH/STARS_Beginning.htm

Locally Constructed Student Assessment Processes in Nebraska

Today school districts in Nebraska design their own system for assessing student learning. Their goals are simple: determine what students need to know and be able to do and then to figure out how to best teach and assess that learning. As the national mania for standardized tests with consequences has grown, Nebraska educators have concluded that standardized tests are insufficient and lacking. In response, Nebraska uses a school reform model with over a decade long positive history. The program, called STARS (Student-based, Teacher led, Assessment and Reporting System), includes portfolios of assessments used by teachers, district tests measuring locally developed learning standards, a state writing test, and a national standardized test as a reality check.

The Nebraska reform process has included citizen focus groups, town hall meetings, twists and turns through the state education system and state legislature, and negotiations with the federal government’s Department of Education to avoid non compliance with the No Child Left Behind legislation. State-wide conversations about education, learning, standards, assessments, and how to best prepare our young people for life in the 21st century have resulted in new thinking about education and helped to build community and efficacy. Teachers as leaders in this process have been empowered and report they themselves have grown and changed what and how they teach. And, most importantly, they see improvements in student learning.
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The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
2007 Report: Focus on the Whole Child

http://www.wholechildeducation.org/clearinghouse/

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) calls for a fundamental shift in educational efforts to focus on the whole child. Academic achievement is but one aspect of growth and learning. “We shortchange our young people and limit their future if we do not create places of learning that encourage and celebrate every aspect of each student’s capacity for learning.”

The report calls for increased attention to the conditions necessary for learning including safety, as well as physical and emotional health, and a student connection to a broad, challenging and engaging curriculum. The report defines the successful learner as “knowledgeable, emotionally and physically healthy, civically inspired, engaged in the arts, prepared for work and economic self sufficiency and ready for a (changing) world beyond formal schooling.” Educators, parents, health and social service providers, arts professionals, recreation leaders, businesses, and policy makers are all asked to work collaboratively and take responsibility for redefining education to focus on the whole child.

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http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-09-28dr.html
Diane Ravitch: New York State Test Scores: Who to Believe? National tests cast doubt on New York’s feel-good story
The City Journal, September 2007

In this article, Diane Ravitch argues for transparency and truth when New York City’s public school scores in reading and math are reported to the public. Not only is our education system failing to teach students of color, it is purporting to the public these very students’ successful achievements. With the release of national data statistics it became clear that there has been no significant improvement in reading and math for New York City public school kids from 2005 to 2007, with improvement in 4th grade math as the only exception. The achievement gap between white and Asian students and students of color remains the same. What we need is an independent agency to relay the truth to the public about the realities of our youth’s achievements in the public schools.







Race Realities in New York City, Human Rights Project of the Urban Justice Center, 2007.

http://www.urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/racerealities.pdf

This report documents the racial discrimination in the New York City public school system which is failing “to support children of color in their full and equal enjoyment of the right to education.” There is persistent segregation in our schools, racial disparities in educational attainment, and disparities in state funding for schools with students of color. This unequal resource distribution affects our class size, our textbooks and class materials, and how experienced our teachers are. We agree with the recommendations which state that racial disparities must be acknowledged, smaller class sizes must be implemented, security measures must be reformed and parents and guardians must have the opportunity to have substantial decision-making power in their children’s education and curricula. We need policies that will move away from high stakes testing and those that ensure that administrators and key decision-makers on educational policy in the City are experienced educators with a track record of understanding race and class disparities.


Teachers Talk: School Culture, Safety and Human Rights
A report produced by NESRI and Teacher’s Unite

http://www.nesri.org/Teachers_Talk.pdf

Based on surveys of more than 300 middle and high school teachers in over 136 public schools in New York City and data from focus groups with more than a dozen teachers, this report documents New York City schools’ punitive punishments, aggressive policing, suspensions, and other harsh approaches to discipline that undermine students’ human right to education. Students of color and students from low-income communities are disproportionately affected by these punitive measures and exclusionary suspension policies and that fail to address the root of the conflicts. The reliance on metal detectors and School Safety Agents (SSA) not only make students late for classes but undermine students’ safety within schools. 42% of the teachers who intervened in a conflict between students and SSA said they did so because of harassment or disrespectful behavior on the part of police personnel towards students, or because they felt SSAs or police were instigating or escalating a conflict. Teachers also cited overcrowding, lack of quality training for teachers, inadequate numbers of guidance counselors and social workers, and the lack of opportunities for teachers, students and parents to influence discipline policies as confounding factors that undermine the human right to education. “Teachers Talk” proposes a human rights framework as an approach to reforming discipline and improving school climate to create positive school cultures, teach behavior skills, and use conflict resolution. The report also highlights positive models being used in three New York City public schools.

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Dear ICOPE Newsletter Reader: The independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) is gearing up to publish weekly updates on this blog. We strongly urge you to spread the word and to contribute commentary to the informative and often provocative material we will posting. So visit us often to see the latest news and analysis as we build the citywide movement to transform NYC's public education system into one that is truly public and educational for all of its student-citizens.
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Eva Moskowitz plowing through Harlem School Children at her Harlem Success Academy

What Kind of Solution Are Charter Schools?

A central feature of the Mayor's approach to improving public education in New York City, has been his support of Charter schools. His response to "failing" schools has been to close them and open charter schools in their place.

Harlem has seen the greatest growth in the number of charter schools, and on November 4, a New York Times featured an article about Eva S. Moskowitz in her role as the chief of the Harlem Success academies. Two paragraphs, toward the end of the lengthy article are of particular interest to us: "She (Eva Moskowitz) demands a lot from Harlem Success Parents: They must read their children six books a week, year round, and attend multiple school events, from soccer tournaments to Family Reading Nights. If children are repeatedly late, the parents must join them to do penance at Saturday Academy" writes Elissa Gootman.

"Nefertiti Washington, 28, whose son is a kindergartner, said some parents walked out of a springtime information session when Ms. Moskowitz made her expectations clear by saying, 'If you know you cannot commit to all that we ask of you this year, this is not the place for you.'" You may see the entire article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/nyregion/04eva.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=Eva%20s.%20Moskowitz&st=cse&oref=slogin

The question we should be asking of our Mayor is:
"What kind of solution are charter schools to failing public schools when charter schools select for students and parents who will cooperate with their program, as if they were a private school?"

Public school can't select their students, as private schools do! The public school administrator can't tell a parent that "this is not the place for you." The public school serves all comers, not just the easiest, the brightest, the most malleable parents and students.

If charter schools continue to be permitted to select students, to "skim for the cream," how will this help the public school students succeed? How will this help public school students whose parents can't get them into a charter, or don't have time to devote to the school?

If the Mayor cares about all students, he won't permit charters to skim for the students and families they want. (He'll probably say that charters admit students by lottery, but this article shows one of the many ways these schools select students after the lottery.)

More importantly we ask: Why after six years of Mayoral Control, hasn't the Mayor developed a plan to prevent the failure of schools in the first place? Why hasn't he enabled every school to enjoy the same kind of opportunities to serve their neighborhoods that charters enjoy? Why isn't he interested in equal access to educational opportunity for all our children?

What's Goin' On In the Schools of NYC?

Check out our animated version of our "Problems" Presentation. If it's too fast for you, just click on hte stop button to read slides at your leisure. Kudos go out to our Parent/Web guru Carmen Colon for setting up this youtube movie.

Carmen has also revamped our website: www.icope.org. Please visit it on 17 July to see the wealth of info we have there for your enlightenment.

It's for YOU to use to help get thousands of parents, educators and students to start not only envisioning a new Human Rights Based Educational System, but to also go out there in our neighborhoods and start organizing and moblizing to really make it happen for the 2009-10 school year!

A Human Rights Based Vision of Public Education An Alternative to Mayoral Control


Introduction

The Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE) believes that system transformation based on Human Rights principles, not merely a change in governance, is needed to create schools that meet the needs of every child and place greater power in the hands of parents, students, educators and school communities.

iCOPE is a volunteer, citywide collective and the founding organization of the Education is a Human Right campaign. Over the past two years, iCOPE, together with hundreds of parents, students, educators and community members, has developed an alternative vision of public education based on Human Rights.

Human rights ensure the equality and dignity of every human being. A human rights culture would mean that New York City schools are safe, nurturing learning environments where children fully develop their capabilities.

iCOPE contends that the New York City public education system, both under the current system of mayoral control and under previous regimes, has failed to meet human rights standards. Further, the causes of these persistent failures are systemic and can only be addressed if they are tackled collaboratively by those with the political will and courage to create an effective 21st Century system of public education.

The purpose of the Education is a Human Right campaign is twofold: 1) to show that a more just, democratic, and effective education system is possible; and 2) to encourage citywide dialogue before a legislative decision is made in Albany about the future governance system of the education system. We insist that this decision, affecting the education of 1.1 million students be made only after open public dialogue.

Below, iCOPE offers its vision of a Human Rights based system of public education. We urge others to make explicit their own vision of education, since we believe that the purpose question, “What kind of system do we want” must come before the implementation question, “How should the system be governed?” We did not ask the purpose question before the mayor was given control of NYC schools in 2002. This has negatively affected children, parents and educators. Over the next year we have another chance to ask this question. Let’s work to find common ground and build the consensus needed to change the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people in our city! iCOPE says we can and we must!

The two competing ideas about education iCOPE believes that the Mayor’s concept of education is flawed. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the mayor’s inappropriate use of a business model, with its misguided accountability system, has actually made matters worse not better.

A little history is needed here: The current educational system in New York City and in the rest of the country was designed over a century ago. In its early years, the goal of the system was to “sort out” only a small percentage of children for high school. Now it is expected that more students will graduate from high school, but the level of skills and knowledge that many achieve is still expected to be quite low, limiting them to work in low-wage jobs and to military service. Throughout the system’s history, up until the present, many students do not graduate. Built into the system is an expectation that not all children will reach their full potential or fully participate in society. This system fails to meet both human rights standards and the needs of New York City’s diverse communities. It fails to prepare students for the realities of our interconnected world.

In the current business model implemented by the mayor, education is seen as “services delivered” to students who, along with their parents, are considered “customers” of the system. The important role of parents and neighborhood communities has been virtually eliminated. So-called “choice” allows a few families to send their children to “better” schools. The rest have to settle for poorer quality education.

Under the mayor’s control, learning is measured by standardized, commercial tests. Schools have become “test prep” factories. To add insult to injury, many blame students and their families for the school’s failure to educate effectively. Students and their families who come from neighborhoods with poor housing, inadequate health care, high unemployment and poverty cannot easily compete for educational resources taken for granted by the middle class.

In short, the current “business model” of education fails our children. The concentration of power at the top keeps decision making out of the hands of parents, teachers, principals, students and community members. Overcrowded classrooms, inadequate school facilities, and inadequate support services create a chaotic environment that robs students of their humanity. The narrowed, test-centered curriculum denies students the knowledge and skills they need to develop their full human potential and claim their full human rights in a democratic society.

Finally, current disciplinary practices violate students’ right to basic human dignity. They do not ensure students’ safety. Inequitable resource distribution perpetuates a racially biased system that sorts students so that a few receive an adequate education while most receive such poor quality schooling that their options after school are limited to low-paying jobs, the military, or prison.


In sharp contrast to the current education system, a Human Rights Based system promotes education as a caring relationship between a teacher, a student and his/her family. A Human Rights Based education system builds on the knowledge of and respect for each student’s family, community, language and culture. Schools are the centers of their communities. Parents and their communities are essential resources for the schools, and the community and the city are an extension of the classroom.

In a Human Rights Based system, students learn to be citizens by making democratic decisions about their school and community life. The city administration, knowing that schools can’t solve social problem by themselves, works to eliminate the poverty and conditions that lead to feelings of hopelessness that affect many of our communities.

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A Human Rights based education system is built on the following 7 principles:

1. Every child has the individual right to a quality education, promoted through curricula, teaching methods and services that adapt to meet each child’s specific needs.

2. The purpose of education is to help children reach their full potential to participate in society, to do rewarding work for a living wage, and to continue learning throughout their lifetime.

3. Education develops each child’s respect for his or her family, language, and culture and simultaneously creates an environment that honors each child’s unique culture.

4. The dignity of every child is guaranteed by preventing practices and disciplinary policies that cause harm or humiliation to children, and promoting self-confidence and self-expression.

5. The equitable distribution of resources is guaranteed across communities according to need to ensure equality in educational outcomes.

6. Non-discrimination is ensured regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, language, religion, immigration status, disability or other factors.

7. The meaningful participation of students, parents and communities is guaranteed in decisions that affect their schools and their right to education.

These seven Human Rights have been agreed upon by governmental bodies thoughout the world. More importantly for us in the US, these same principles are imbedded in our Declaration of Independence, our Constituion and our Bill of Rights. Our Founding Fathers boldly claimed that all men were created equal with the inalienable or human right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” . They limited these rights to free white men who owned property. It took decades of struggle for women and people of color to become full citizens with voting rights. While some progress has been made, iCOPE believes that real democracy is not possible until and unless all children receive an excellent education. As you reflect on these principles ask yourself:

• To what extent does the current system in NYC meet these standards?
• Should the public education system in NYC aspire to these standards?
• If yes, what can we do together to move toward these standards within the next 3-5 years?

What Will Governance Look Like in a Human Rights Based Education System?
iCOPE believes that a governance plan for a new human rights based education system should be founded on three pillars:
1) Human Rights for all (as outlined above);
2) Decision making partnership among parents, students, educators and the community;
3) Building the knowledge and opportunities necessary for the whole school community to sustain a workable democratic partnership.
Here are some specific aims, structures and mechanisms that would meet these human rights standards. We look forward to hearing your comments and suggestion to this emerging vision of a Human Rights based system of public education for NYC.

•The purpose of education is the full development of each child’s potential regardless of his/her family’s race, wealth, language or neighborhood.
• Decisions are made at the school level. Each school ‘s School Leadership Team (parents, students, educators, staff and community partners) hires its own principal as leader of the school community and then collaboratively makes decisions about curriculum, school policy and budget to ensure the full development of the whole child. The curriculum and teaching methods are adaptable to the needs of the children in the school community. In addition, the school becomes the center of the community. It is open evening and weekends to meet the needs of students, their families and communities for lifelong learning, recreation and fellowship. Health and wellness services are available on site in collaboration with health agencies and community based organizations.

• Each neighborhood is fully supported to offer excellent and coordinated pre-K to 16th grade education and to ensure that families and community members are fully engaged partners in their children’s education. Neighborhood School Councils (NSC), composed of representatives from each School Leadership Team in the neighborhood, meet with staff support several times a year. The NSC ensures that curriculum is coordinated from pre K to 12, children are exposed early on in their school careers to opportunities for post secondary academic and/or vocational education and real world internships.

• Districts support schools and their Neighborhood School Councils. Each of the 59 District Education Councils (co terminus with the existing Community Boards) hires a superintendent who, with a small professional staff, supports (as a “critical friend” not as a rating officer) the schools in his/her district. Districts coordinate with the existing 59 Community Planning Boards and their Service Councils to ensure that children and their families get needed health and social services to help children enter and stay in school ready to learn.

Diagram of a Human Rights based system of Public Education
(click on diagram to enlarge)


• A citywide Board of Education, selected by citizens, monitors each school’s progress toward Human Rights goals and hires a Chancellor who, with a central staff, develops human rights guidelines and benchmarks to monitor each school’s Human Rights Education plan. The plan ensures yearly progress towards academic excellence, the development of the whole child, improvement in school climate and organization, and student, parental and community involvement in the life of the school. The central staff manages human resource and audit functions and those services which are best managed centrally. The Board develops and implements a fair funding formula. The Board also works with the state to develop a broader range and more authentic assessment process.

• Independent and funded parent and student unions, with training academies, ensure that parents and students participate, with teacher and administrators, as informed and knowledgeable partners in all decision making processes.
•Borough Education Centers provide staff development and technical assistance to schools.
• There are checks and balances to ensure good government including: an independent research organization to study and evaluate the movement towards the Human Rights goals of education; independent financial audits to provide user-friendly, transparent information and to promote accountability for the use of public funds; and an independent education ombudsperson to resolve conflicts not handled at lower levels, to monitor the whole system and to provides timely remedies when rights are violated. Full deliberative democracy is an essential part of the education system.

• City elected officials are mandated to ensure that every child, regardless of the family’s wealth, race, language or zip code, attends school with his or her basic housing, health care and income needs met.

• City Council members monitor schools within their district to ensure additional local oversight.

How do we get from here to there?
The civil rights, women’s rights, and environmental justice movements resulted from the collective efforts of ordinary people becoming an extraordinary force for positive social change. Quality education based on Human Rights is our 21st century struggle. It will become the Human Right’s Based Education Movement when we unite to claim our human rights and demand that the government fulfill these obligations.

iCOPE believes we can begin the Human Right’s Based Education Movement by working for passage of a state law to authorize the new Human Rights Based Education system for NYC. This law will include a Transition Commission charged to develop a strategic, multi-year Human Rights Implementation plan. An interim acting chancellor and a Board of Education will keep the current system running until the Transition Commission completes its work and the new Human Rights Based plan is endorsed by parents, students, teachers, administrators and community members.
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To endorse the plan, join the Education is a Human Right campaign, invite iCOPE to speak to your group or for more information contact:
Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE)
www.iCOPE.org or icopenyc.blogspot.com
718 499- 3756

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FROM The Youth Researchers for a New Educational System (YRNES) Report---

--CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE--

The Problem Tree

During our project design process, the Collective of Researchers on Educational
Disappointment and Desire (CREDD) utilized the “Problem Tree” with our
group to aid us in identifying our research questions. CREDD borrowed the
problem tree technique from popular education and used it to both help
conceptualize and plan our project, and as part of our data. The problem tree is
an approach to mapping (creating a visual representation) a specific problem
determined by a group.

In this method, we began with the question, “What concerns us about our
school system?” and used a tree shaped outline to map the symptoms, intermediate
causes and roots of this problem. Then, we deconstructed or pulled
apart our tree in order to think about how to address this old problem in new
ways. (An extended discussion of this method, along with images of our
Problem Tree and the deconstructed Tree appear at the end of the full report. Also
see Ferreira and Ferreira, 1997; Tuck, 2007; and Tuck et. al. 2008.)

Later in our project, we returned to the tree to help us analyze the results of our
other methods. Now, we have shared our Problem Tree with a range of audiences
to show the relationships between the everyday experiences of a broken
school system and the larger ideological and systematic roots of the problems.
--YRNES Student Researchers

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YRNES STATS
(culled from the students' research)

• Percent of NYC High School Graduation after four years: 48
• Percent of low-income students who feel their getting a good education: 48
• Percent of middle-high-income students who feel that way: 70
• Percent of low-income students who feel they have little resources: 49
• Percent of students who want to help set school rules and policies: 80
• Percent of students who believe they know how to make their schools better: 76
• Percent of students who want a community voice in school policy: 65
• Percent of students who feel police in schools have negative impact: 47
• Percent of students who feel the mayor knows best about schools: 13
• Percent of students who feel mayoral control has been negative: 53

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For PDF copies of The YRNES Report, to schedule a press interview, or to request a group presentation, or more information on the “Education is a Human Right Campaign,” please contact Ellen Raider at the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE) (718) 499-3756 or Ellen.Raider@gmail.com

NYC Students' Report08: “The current New York City school system isn’t working”

NEW YORK, New York-June 6, 2008— Lead by an impassioned charge; “The current New York City school system isn’t working,” a diverse group of current and former public high school students took to the streets (and computers) of this city with a common goal: to be instruments of change in the NYC public school system. Named the Youth Researchers for a New Educational System (YRNES) the group designed a participatory action research project that has resulted in a scathing, yet decidedly hopeful analysis of the public school system, published as “The YRNES Report.”

The researchers, aged 17-21, conducted a city-wide survey of more than 500 youth, and their findings call attention to issues of mayoral control, school decision making and community participation, maldistributed resources and educational opportunities, and the need to recalibrate the purposes of schooling.


Unlike most education-reform white papers, The YRNES Report provides youth perspectives on the barriers to learning, including a compelling graphic “Problem Tree” that maps the everyday symptoms and structural roots of a flawed school system. Youth perspectives on racist school practices, closed access to needed opportunities, school crowding, testing, school safety, and humiliating conditions are presented.

The YRNES researchers found that youth of color, low-income youth, and youth from large and/or recently converted schools experience more inequities in school. Many youth reported that they do not get the resources they need to learn, and that they do not get the help they need to make their education work for them. Youth report that they feel that they need to compete for things in school to which they actually posses rights. Youth critique the current model of mayoral control, and argue for opportunities for meaningful participation in school decision making.

The report features a clear portrayal of the research findings, with dynamic images (like the Problem Tree below) and easy-to-read charts. The report will serve the work of youth and adult education activists, concerned citizens, school leaders and educators, and anyone working toward more fair and more meaningful schooling. The report concludes with a platform of recommendations for change.

The YRNES Project was completed in collaboration with the Collective of Researchers on Educational Disappointment and Desire (CREDD), Fordham University’s National Center for Schools and Communities, and the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE).

Organizations co-sponsoring the report include Advocates for Children; the Participatory Action Research Collective at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

For PDF copies of The YRNES Report, to schedule a press interview, or to request a group presentation, or more information on the “Education is a Human Right Campaign,” please contact Ellen Raider at the Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE) (718) 499-3756 or Ellen.Raider@gmail.com

Watts School rallies around dismissed Watts "Malcolm X" teacher

Fired Teacher, Karen Salazar, surrounded by her students at rally

NOTE: The work that ICOPE has being doing over the past 3 years has been centered around creating a new neighborhood-student-parent-teacher based public education system grounded in Education is a Human Right. In these past years, we have seen and heard from many parents and teachers within the Los Angeles Unified School District as they fought successfully against mayoral control. We have also watched as their school system- along with ours and ALL other urban school systems degenerate into systems of pre-prison centers making billions for the hi-stakes testing privateers and the prison-industrial complex.

Now, we are seeing hundreds of mainly Black & Latino high school students rebellion against this mis-education process: from DeWitt Clinton Hi School and IS 318 in the South Bronx to Jordan Hi in Watts, Los Angeles. These are great moments that need to be supported by those of us who deem ourselves FOR democracy and progressive education.

Listen to these youngfolk and their teachers on these two videodocs... and you'll hear them talk of their HUMAN RIGHTS. They know that these are inalienable rights that we have to hold onto in a nation that is increasingly becoming a fascist state where schools are militarized and students are automatically seen as "perps" prime for military recruitment or becoming inmates.

Watts School rallies around dismissed Watts "Malcolm X" teacher

Jordan High School students lead a protest for Jordan English Teacher, Karen Salazar, who was recently fired for allegedly espousing "extremist views" in her class room. Students for Salazar were accompanied by Jordan H.S. Teacher and Poet, Mark Gonzales, Jose Lara and other members of the Association of Raza Educators (A.R.E.), as well as members of the community and of the independent press. The protest took place Thursday, June 5, 2008, during after-school hours. Amongst many of the heartfelt words Ms. Salazar shared with people regarding her students, she expressed deep appreciation for their bold acts of self-sacrifice. "I feel humble that they were here because a lot of students know that it's risky to walk home after the school crowd has left....Walking home alone, things can happen to them," Salazar said. For more information, contact Students for Salazar C/O The Sixth Sun Productions: sixsun@mac.com To get directly involved with the campaign to force the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to renew Ms. Salazar's contract, contact Jose Lara at the Association for Raza Educators (A.R.E.) at razaeducators@yahoogroups.com Also, professional poet and Jordan Teacher, Mark Gonzales, can be reached at humanwrites@gmail.com
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Welcome to the ICOPE eZINE!!

The Independent Commission on Public Education of NYC (iCOPE) has started this online newsletter to chronicle our fight to create a free public education system in New York City that is in the hands of parents, students and teachers and is grounded in the internationally recognized policies of education as a human right.

We will periodically post iCOPE commentary on a host of education issues and crises currently confronting us on almost a daily basis. YOU are welcome to reply to our commentary and alanlysis.

We will also post what we feel are key weblinks and key documents that help us successfully achieve total system-change for parent-teacher-student power over New York's public education.

Also, feel free to visit our website: www.icope.org

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ICOPE's Human Rights Based Education System:

A New System of Public Education and Governance for New York City

Executive Summary

The Independent Commission on Public Education (ICOPE) offers an alternative vision of public education in New York City from which emerges a proposal for a new governance structure. Whether explicitly stated or not, all systems of governance encode values, apprehensions, philosophies, and purposes. For purposes of clarity and accountability ICOPE calls upon elected officials and the public to place these underlying concepts in the foreground of any discussion of governance.

ICOPE’s purpose in offering this draft plan is twofold:

1) to show that indeed another more just, democratic, and effective education system is possible through a Human Rights framework, and

2) to start a citywide dialogue so that all New Yorkers can knowledgably share their views before a legislative decision is made in Albany affecting the educational future of the 1.1 million children in NYC.

A strong belief in the inherent value of education, deliberative democracy, and human rights form the warp and woof of the ICOPE plan. Moreover, ICOPE believes them essential to the effectiveness of any plan to fulfill New York City’s children right to education.

ICOPE’s plan for a new public education system in New York City addresses the persistent causes of failure in the business model of public education. The business model of education has been in place, albeit “reformed”, for over a century. The persistent causes of failure are: Conflicting, Unstable, and Inadequate Definitions of Education and the Mission of the Public Education System; A Dysfunctional, Impersonal View of the Nature of Teaching and Learning; Pervasive Silence on the Issues of Structural and Institutional Racism; Weak Connections with Public School Families and Communities; and Corruption, Patronage, and Waste.

ICOPE’s plan recognizes the unique role schools play in the lives of families in exercising significant custodial care of their children over a significant span of years. ICOPE believes that the custodial character of schools makes them anomalous to the standard bureaucratic model of city and state agencies. ICOPE recognizes that this custodial relationship requires a governance structure that is separate and distinct from municipal administration controlled by the mayor: one that is more open, responsive, accountable, and democratic.


The three pillars of the ICOPE plan are: a human rights framework, democratic partnership, and capacity building.

1. Human rights framework: Human rights are the natural rights of any human being and which governments are obligated to recognize, protect, and fulfill. For public education, human rights principles bring a much needed coherence to all facets of a public school system in a manner which dignifies education itself.

The goal of education, and thus part of the mission of a school and an education system is, in a human rights framework, the education of the whole child. Human rights principles also require deliberative mechanisms which fulfill parental rights to shape their children’s upbringing, the civil and political rights of community members to participate in decisions concerning their communities, and the rights of teachers and other civil servants employed in the education system to have a voice in decisions concerning their work, among other labor rights. As one means by which to hold the system accountable ICOPE proposes an independent ombudsman office along with an enhanced oversight role for City Council.

2. Democratic partnership: ICOPE proposes a democratic partnership model for decision-making and oversight in the public education system. By partnership ICOPE means “the relation of joint principals in a common undertaking”. Democratic means equitable principles and mechanisms by which all constituents have a view over and a voice in the functioning of a system.

The plan envisions a system of governance in which the school community, through an entity like the School Leadership Team, makes collaborative decisions on principal hiring, evaluation and retention; curriculum & pedagogy; school day and budget. The district office supports school level decision-making with professional and administrative expertise and is overseen by a publicly elected District Education Council. The city level Board holds together the human rights framework for the education system by developing standards and benchmarks for school progress towards the human rights standards in education and by ensuring the transparency of the system. The Board of Education is selected by electors sent from each District Education Council.

3. Capacity building: Capacity building entails both opportunities and mechanisms for decision-making on the one hand and timely information and training on the other. ICOPE calls for a Parent Union and a Student Union to be collective support and voices for their members. ICOPE also calls for a Parent Academy and a Student Academy to be publicly funded but constituted independently of the Board. Rebuilding the neighborhood school and making school districts co-terminus with the Community Planning Boards enhances local capacity for school governance.

The transition from the current system into a human rights based system of education will require substantial planning and training. ICOPE proposes a Transition Committee to guide the process.


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About The Independent Commission on Public Education
The Independent Commission on Public Education (iCOPE), is a volunteer citywide collective of parents, students, educators and activists, and founding organization of the “Education is a Human Right” Campaign. Over the past two years, iCOPE has developed an alternative Human Rights based vision of public education for NYC. iCOPE believes that system transformation based on Human Rights principles, not merely a change in governance, is needed to create schools that meet the needs of every child and place greater power in the hands of parents, students, educators and school communities. See our web site for more information www.icope.org

For a copy of the entire plan contact iCOPE 718 499 3756
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Part IV: The Lst Segment of Jitu Weusi's April 2007 Testimony at Ed Tribunal

Part IV- the last of a powerful testimony by longtime Brooklyn educator and activist, Jitu Weusi. he continues to breakdown he structurally racist public education system of NYC....
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TRIBUNAL-J.WEUSI 4
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Jitu Weusi's Testimony at NYC Education Tribunal April 2007: Part III

Part III of a powerful testimony by longtime Brooklyn educator and activist, Jitu Weusi. he continues to breakdown he structurally racist public education system of NYC....
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BROOKLYN IBEC ED TRIBUNAL-Jitu.WEUSI 3
Video sent by icope