Al Shanker
Teacher Unions
Ocean Hill-Brownsville
Community Control
Political Involvement
100
Why was Shanker disappointed with the feedback he received from an administrator about his teaching/classroom?(pg.134)
He was hoping to receive feedback and guidance about his instructional techniques but instead he only received complaints about his classroom being dirty. (pg.134)
100
What did the old communist Teachers Union never have?(pg. 155)
Collective bargaining rights. (pg. 155)
100
What district were the eight schools of ocean-hill brownsville absorbed into?( p. 158)
The city’s new district 23. ( p. 158)
100
What were the two major organizational backers of community control. (pg.139)
CORE (Congress for Racial Equality) and the Ford Foundation (pg.139)
100
What political philosophy turned policy-making powers over to state and municipal governments where possible?(pg. 145)
New Federalism (pg. 145)
200
9. What is one of Shanker's most-quoted statements?(pg. 157)
He said "Listen, I don't represent children. I represent the teachers." (pg. 157)
200
What program provided select schools in poor neighborhoods with extra funding for smaller classes, more support staff, and training teachers in how to work with "heterogeneous groups"?(p.144)
More Effective Schools (MES) (pg. 144)
200
What event sparked the dismissal of 19 white teachers and administrators in May 1968?(pg. 147)
When Bowen, a hall monitor, sat in on an unruly art class that could not be kept under control by the teacher Richard Douglass. (pg. 147)
200
What was the Teacher Corps Ideology that community activists set for teachers? ( p.138)
Teachers would visit children at home, stay after school to offer extra help, and even live in the ghetto communities in which they worked. (pg. 138)
200
What 3 things didn't improve educational outcomes and didn't change the lack of accountability throughout the school system?(pg. 158)
Cancelling the MES program, getting rid of community districts and decentralizing the school system. (pg. 158)
300
15. What was the significance of Al Shanker’s union movement?(p. 134)
The significance of Al Shanker’s union movement was that he left behind a legacy of school reform and hope in the dignity of public school educators. (p. 134)
300
What are “non-professional chores” classified as?(pg. 160)
Cafeteria duty, hall duty, and dismissal-time supervision. (pg. 160)
300
What happened after the remaining white residents in Ocean Hill-Brownsville had fled to the suburban areas in Long Island and New Jersey? (p.142-143)
The results of the White Flight led to the neighborhood and school district filled with poor immigrant residents, and with no grocery stores, movie theaters, or other basic amenities. The students population of the school in this community became over 98 percent African American and Hispanic (p.142-143)
300
What was Mario Fantini's scholarly work about and what influence did he have on McGeorge Bundy?(pg.139)
His scholarly work argued on behalf of multiculturalism in schools (more lessons in African music and history). Fantini convinced Bundy that if black parents and teachers worked together to create a more engaging Afrocentric curriculum for their children’s schools the liberal integrationist dream of Brown vs. Board of education would become a reality. (pg.139)
300
What was Mayor John Lindsay’s political aspirations behind supporting community control. (pg. 144)
It was about money, political alliances, power and presidential ambitions. He was also eager to avoid busing controversies and to ally with black civil rights leaders. (pg. 144)
400
Who is Kahlenberg and what does he mention about the great paradox of teacher unionism ? (pg. 161)
Kahlenberg is Shanker’s biographer and he states that the great paradox of teacher unionism is that as the movement increased in power, it declined in popularity. (pg. 161)
400
What happened when the Newark union had a confrontation with community activists?(p.160)
The resulting fourteen-week, 2,500- person strike left one teacher dead and led to the conviction and imprisonment of 185 more. (p.160)
400
What did the Eagle Academy emphasize and what were the results (pg. 159)
The program emphasized a longer school day and strict discipline, with required uniform and military-style routines. Deeply racially segregated, and only 13 percent of students are reading at grade level, and 6 percent are proficient in math. (pg.159)
400
18. How were the learning process of the district’s students under the community control approach during 1967 to 1969? (p. 157-158)
“The years from 1967 to 1969 had been educationally disastrous for the district's students. 3rd graders fell from 4 months behind before community control to 12 months behind after. Students’ reading skills barely budged from the end of 8th grade to the end of 9th grade, even though they had gain the equivalent of 15 months in reading skills over the course of their 8th -grade year under the previous administration” (p.157-158)
400
What did the Reagan Revolution do?(pg. 163)
It brought a new American school reform movement, adopted and sanitized the radical Left critique of teachers and unions, and promoted a view of teachers as professionally incompetent and insufficiently committed to closing racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps. (pg. 163)