SERGIO ARGUETA IN NEW YORK NEWSDAY WRITES ABOUT THE VIOLENCE
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
I want all of the community organizations that are hungry to get money to operate to do one thing. Bring a gang member or other youth hanging out on the streets into your program today and give that person the OPT or Official Practice Test for the GED. Show them that you care about them. Your community organizations have been as effective as the police, doing its job but not quite good enough. Where is the mention of the GED in Sergio Argueta's article? If the police themselves had administered the GED Practice Test to youth they arrested as part of their confinement process, we probably would not have had this great outburst of violence in Brentwood and other communities. I said probably not definitely. Why do people neglect to mention the GED for the youth in gangs and just focus on the youth in general in speaking to the community or writing articles? I do not get it except for this. It seems to be all about the money and the survival of organizations that people say are doing a great job when I know they are not. "Great" is a word we use too loosely. I, personally, have accomplished only a millionth of what I set out to do. Sergio, let us bring the GED to MS-13 members around the country and to their fellow gang members in El Salvador today. When I called for a youth conference about three years ago, where was the support for my idea from all of those community organizations?
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
New:
www.mygedhotline.com
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.ahorre.com
www.aspira.org
Profesor Martin Danenberg 08:37 AM
LOBBY DAY IN ALBANY
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
The newspapers reported slight increases for high school graduation for minorities in New York City and Long Island. There is no mayoral control of the schools on Long Island. Wyandanch (50 percent), Central Islip (63 percent), Greenport (64 percent), and Brentwood (74 percent) are lowest in 5 year graduation rates in Suffolk County. In Nassau County, Hempstead (59 percent), Roosevelt (66 percent), and Freeport (73 percent) were the lowest. Hispanics were up 2.5 percent in Suffolk and 2.9 percent in Nassau. Nothing spectacular, right? With a lot of room to improve, the schools are not getting the job done. Hempstead, Wyandanch, and Roosevelt saw graduation rates drop since last year and the authorities are concerned about this. I have tried to help two of those schools in the last couple of years and I tried to help Roosevelt years ago, but I was not invited in. Hispanic improvement resulted in New York City, jumping from 48.8 percent to 51.8 percent. Still way lower than both Suffolk and Nassau. I would love to measure the "Obama Effect" for African-Americans.
I met people in Albany that I had never met before. It started as a met UFT President Michael Mullgrew. My information has been going to the office of the President of the UFT for years. Then I met Senator John Sampson of Brooklyn, telling him that I am partnering with the Sean Bell Foundation and hoping to bring the French GED to Haiti. Speaker Sheldon Silver was next, shaking hands with him and telling him that I am the other Danenberg. It was a great day, meeting Romel Viel who is helping me with my GED for Committee for Haiti efforts. With a lot of room to improve, the schools are not getting the job done.
Profesor Martin Danenberg 08:35 AM
OBAMA AND HAITIAN PRESIDENT TO MEET WEDNESDAY
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Haiti is seeking money to get students back into school, it was reported in New York Newsday today. President Preval said jobs have to be brought to the provinces and that requires roads, electricity, education, and health. The United States, facing a great disaster called World War II, rose to the challenge by creating the GED for American youth who could not finish school as they chose to fight in that war. Adults who never had a chance to finish school did the same test to earn diplomas that improved there lives. I am told that former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger earned a GED. It is imperative that we bring the GED to Haiti with the total cooperation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama. Funds can be set aside to pay the costs of testing. We have had more than fifteen million graduates of the GED and I do not believe that Haiti has been participating at all in worldwide GED testing in English.
"OBAMA AND HAITIAN PRESIDENT TO MEET WEDNESDAY "
Profesor Martin Danenberg 07:14 PM
THE FUTURE OF BRENTWOOD BREAKING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
The GED Testing Center in the Sonderling was closed years ago. Does anyone in the community care about the GED, dropout prevention, and English language acquisition for the immigrants? Do you feel these initiatives are needed? As the school year winds down at Brentwood High School and it is clear that many students are not going to return to school to complete the high school diploma, is this community going to rest knowing that youth without a diploma may express themselves through violence? Don't you think the school should have a real dropout prevention program to bring those students back into high school and make the streets safer? Don't you want the youth to obtain the GED at nineteen instead of 29 or 39? What do you want? What do your elected officials want? What do Steve Levy and other county officials want? You are being shocked by the fact that there are not 200 more police to patrol Brentwood. Is that shock going to prevent you from making the commitment to educate every youth in your community?
"THE FUTURE OF BRENTWOOD BREAKING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:08 PM
BRENTWOOD TAKING BACK SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOOD
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Brentwood is ready to stop the violence. Please see my new website which is www.mygedhotline.com. My work is much more respected in New York City and around the country than in the communities where I live and eat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Jsdh2qlpo See the NYPD-Hip Hop Anti-Violence event in Andrew Jackson High School in Queens.
The crowd kept pouring in from the Brentwood Public Library parking lot and instead of sending the overflow home, the organizers opened up two additional rooms. Violence resulting from gangs and children bullying other children were discussed. There were around 600 people who came out and only 50 were expected. I told the audience that the White House is going to hear about this. This was, without a doubt , the most amazing meeting I have ever attended anywhere. Families of victims spoke out and they were supported by residents and business people demanding immediate results.
"BRENTWOOD TAKING BACK SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOOD"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 11:09 PM
BRENTWOOD, NEW YORK SHOOTINGS AND STABBINGS
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
If you need a GED program for yourself or someone you love, simply click on the ahorre page to the right of "America's GED Hotline and click where it says "clic aquí" in red letters. That takes you to my website and then go to the page that says "services" and you can order the program by pay pal.
Brentwood, New York has had, what police feel are, a series of gang related shootings and now there was a stabbing on the streets. Farmingville became infamous, then Patchogue-Medford for violence against immigrants. Brentwood is becoming infamous for its gang related activities. The GED Testing Center in Brentwood was closed down almost three years ago and nobody did a thing about it. The Central Islip Recreation Center nearby was asked to get my GED program for the youth in the community and that died. Over two years ago, I called for a youth conference, knowing that the violence happening in Europe would spread here. There are far fewer opportunities now on Long Island and the youth in gangs and around gangs are doing things that were predictable to me. That is one of the reasons that I agreed to become the vice-chairman of Operation SNUG, the anti-gun task force. Communities around the country can learn from the mistakes of Brentwood now. In Far Rockaway, recently, the focus at a meeting was on gangs and revitalizing the community through new GED initiatives.
"BRENTWOOD, NEW YORK SHOOTINGS AND STABBINGS"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:23 PM
CHRISTINE QUINN TALKS ABOUT GED IMPROVEMENT
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Christine Quinn has done what I urged Fernando Ferrer and William Thompson to do. This has been a long road to wake up elected officials. There are about three million adults affected by the GED in New York City alone. We just have to make sure that Christine Quinn gets the rest right. I thank Speaker Quinn for the comments in her speech.
I have been knocking my head against the wall in New York City since the Gifford Miller days and I am tired of most of the City Council. They have not done a good job at all. From political corruption to corruption of their minds, they have held New York City back. It is time for a change, but the Council needs to be better informed in order to make that change. I am not known as "Mr. GED for nothing!
"CHRISTINE QUINN TALKS ABOUT GED IMPROVEMENT"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 09:07 AM
NEW YORK TIMES THE WMD FOR THE GED IN NEW YORK
The New York Times, in its GED Editorial of February 21, 2010, missed its mark almost as badly as President George W. Bush did when he did not find the WMDs or Weapons of Mass Destruction. The Times keeps mentioning the "great" GED state of Iowa, a state where 2,000 out of 6,000 people do not finish the GED to be calculated into the statistics used by the American Council on Education. Any GED math student must learn that we use proportion to figure things out. There are 2000 out of 6000 for Iowa and 24,000 out of 57,000 who do not finish the GED test to be counted in statistics that show the total picture, not some glorious percent like 99 percent for Iowa. When you find the percent of dropouts for both states, you see 33 percent for Iowa and 42 percent for New York. Almost everyone in New York State completes the testing, because we encourage people to complete the testing (whether they are in GED preparation programs or not). The unusually high dropout rate from testing impacts on everyone except for the best qualified candidates (which the GED class may have little or no effect on). The attempt to correct the 9 percent difference is really based on the fact that New York State pays the money for the testing. If the people paid for the testing, there would be no real problem (especially since the DOE really does not know how to improve instruction that much). The New York Times must correct its mistake the way that President Bush did and so must any other person who claims to know GED. In looking over the states that do well that have very little GED attrition from the start of testing to the completion, Tennessee has 77.6 percent passing rate (which is noteworthy), but in assessing its progress, keep in mind that everyone has to take a lot of GED preparation and not only the GED practice test (which the Times keeps reporting on because it has been misled by people in the state).
Alaska is much more interesting, even though its number have fallen from record breaking numbers. Alaska mobilizes 5.1 percent of its population toward the GED and Iowa mobilizes only 2.1 percent. The completion rate for each 3.6 percent and 1.4 percent. Iowa is mediocre compared to Alaska and at 32 percent its incompletion is comparable to Iowa's incompletion. All the news that's fit to print? Huh? I think not.
"NEW YORK TIMES THE WMD FOR THE GED IN NEW YORK"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 12:10 PM
NAACP ELECTS NEW BOARD WAKE UP EVERYBODY
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Here it is again for the entire NAACP to read. Teddy Pendergrast is gone, but the work needed is not, unfortunately.
Wake up everybody no more sleepin in bed
No more backward thinkin time for thinkin ahead
The world has changed so very much
From what it used to be so
there is so much hatred war an' poverty
Wake up all the teachers time to teach a new way
Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say
Cause they're the ones who's coming up and the world is in their hands
when you teach the children teach em the very best you can.
You can view three of my videos on You Tube (simply go to You Tube and type mygedhotline in the search area). Go to You Tube and view the Jackie Wilson video, the Hip-Hop-NYPD video, and the Sean Bell's father's pain video.
Sean Bell's father, William Bell, and I met with people attending the NAACP meetings in New York City on Friday. We loved the support that we were given there. The announcement was made that there is a new Chairperson and that person is Roslyn M. Brock who is 44 years old. She will be working with Benjamin Todd Jealous, who is 37, in leading the 500,000 member organization.
"NAACP ELECTS NEW BOARD WAKE UP EVERYBODY"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:23 PM
A-OK ON ADVANCE PLACEMENT TESTS IN NYC SCHOOLS...REALLY?
By Profesor Martin Danenberg
The old Board of Education may be responsible for many of the success shown below.
First the good news. There were 1,400 more Advanced Placement exams passed in 2009 than in 2008.
New York State students who passed made New York State number two in the country behind Maryland.
Black youth saw an increase in one year from 4,560 to 4,933. This number is way up from 2002 when it was 2,902.
New York City has a much higher percent of students taking at least one Advanced Placement exam in science and math. The figures are 14.5 percent in science and 13 percent in math compared to 8.8 percent in science and 9.7 percent in math across the nation.
"A-OK ON ADVANCE PLACEMENT TESTS IN NYC SCHOOLS...REALLY?"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 04:31 PM
NO IMPROVEMENT FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND HISPANICS UNDER THE DOE
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
There is a scandal brewing about Toyota and its reputation and we have to find out what is really going on at the DOE. We have a competitive system and some minorities can compete effectively because of the huge outlay of resources provided by their families and the strong background that they brought into this country from abroad. The cut-off into the elite high schools hurts the chances of African-Americans and Hispanics. The answer should be to expand the programs. I met a young man selling travel in the Dominican Republic eight years ago. That young man was Haitian and he placed 101 on a list of 100 students selected for the medical programs in Haiti. Maybe his life was recently saved by not being in Haiti, but what about his dream of being a doctor? African-Americans and Hispanics have seen their opportunities limited both by GED access and high school selection to the elite three schools. If we had not had this immigration to New York, clearly more African-Americans and Hispanics would have had more opportunities in Stuyvesant and the other elite schools. Have the charter schools boosted the limited opportunities of these students? This question goes unanswered, especially for African-American and Hispanic students. Where are the numbers?
Unfortunately people in power make decisions based on limited knowledge and faulty information. Florida decided to give, what they call, a high school diploma to GED graduates who earned a minimum score overall and a 45 on each part of the test (their minimum passing score). New York only gave a GED to all of the those who achieved those scores and much higher scores. Offsite Educational Services was allowing students in GED programs to graduate with people who passed the GED test, people who never actually passed the test. The people of New York deserve more expanded programs, but the DOE is just giving us the same...same...same...with slight changes. Yes the 19 schools slated for closing should have expanded vocational training programs and stay open.
"NO IMPROVEMENT FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND HISPANICS UNDER THE DOE"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 02:47 PM
GED COMMITTEE FOR HAITI
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
A Haitian friend asked me how will the GED help people in Haiti. I am calling for all universities in the United States to open their doors to Haitians who want to study in the United States and Puerto Rico. France and other countries can do the same thing. Are we going to help Haiti long term or abandon it soon? Five seats in each university and community college can produce a different leadership and a different future for Haiti. The GED is so badly needed in Haiti because intelligent people have ended their formal education long before their high school years. Intelligent people, des gens intelligents, mounn inteligent! There is great governmental, corporate, and private support for Haiti. The GED plan really cannot fail and there will be no corruption tolerated in achieving the goals to help the people. There are many other applications for the GED in Haiti. Trust me on it!
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:00 AM
MINORITY EDUCATION NEWS ABOUT ELITE HIGH SCHOOLS.
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
People sing New York, New York and My Kind of Town Chicago Is, and When the Saints Go Marching In, but if you are going to digest this article you should know the song we need to sing is "Wake Up Everybody." New Orleans has not been restored properly. Crime seems to be a big problem there. See what is going on in New York and Chicago.
Minorities accepted at "elite public high schools" has dropped from 14 percent to 13 percent. At Stuyvesant High School the numbers fell from 12 to 7 percent for African Americans and from 24 to 17 for Hispanics. Yoav Gonen reported this in the New York Post today. He cites a former PTA president who called this news "shocking." Since the numbers are quite small to begin with, it is not "shocking" to me. Out of 5,000 students in the city, it may be "shocking" to many people or should be shocking. It is probable that other minorities in New York City have children that are highly qualified and they can compete more effectively. I have been writing lately about checking out what is going on in colleges, but is might also be clear that African-Americans and Hispanics are not getting enough education to qualify for Stuyvesant. Let us find out just how well prepared the high school graduates are overall and for minorities also and compare those anecdotal records and data with how well students did before the Department of Education replaced the Board of Education. Teaching to the test may have resulted in more students graduating from high school and this whole concept may be a kind of social promotion when compared to the kind of teaching that makes a student more rounded.
"MINORITY EDUCATION NEWS ABOUT ELITE HIGH SCHOOLS."
Profesor Martin Danenberg 01:23 PM
CLOSING BAD SCHOOLS...CIVIL RIGHT OR CIVIL WRONG?
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Education is the civil rights issue of our time, Dennis Walcott wrote in the New York Post, repeating what we heard from John Mc Cain in his run for president. But the rights of students in GED programs go uncontested by the Deputy Mayor. The rights of Spanish and French speaking adults fighting to make progress during the worst recession in our recent history, actually a depression for Hispanics and African-Americans, go unmentioned. I have been fighting since my teaching days and my ideas have been ignored in favor of No Child Left Behind and limited access to the GED. This problem continues as Walcott promotes the closing of nineteen schools by the Department of Education. I seem to recall that there were twenty schools on the list, but Alfred E. Smith remains open. Why? We were told it has an automotive program and it is unique. I, now, strongly suggest the following. Convert space in all nineteen schools designated to be closed and set up automotive programs and keep them open, too. Expand opportunities in New York City. We need automotive and aviation technicians and a dozen other things to provide good jobs to minorities. The real problem may not be the schools themselves, but the people in charge of the city administration. Think of what the mayor could have done all these years by expanding these services. Alfred E. Smith was almost closed and it seems there was really very little parental involvement in the school. This led to a bad report card for the school. If I had a choice between closing the schools and closing out the Bloomberg administration, it would be the latter.
"CLOSING BAD SCHOOLS...CIVIL RIGHT OR CIVIL WRONG?"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 09:33 AM
