GED Test Programs

NEEDED MINORITIES IN TEACHING

2010-03-18T20:52:13Z

By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"

I had planned to talk about the GED, but I pushed it aside, knowing that people who attended the conference in Dowling College could read my comments on ahorre.com. The Center for Minority Teacher Development and Training goals are consistent with my own. Among the goals of this initiative is to increase the current rate of minority graduates receiving a Bachelor's Degree in Education; reduce the dropout rate of minority students; and to educate, train and recruit more minority men into teaching of the lower grades of the public school systems on Long Island and elsewhere. The GED can be a great path to accomplishing this as well. Remember that my partnership with the Sean Bell Foundation is about "Justice, Jobs, and Education" for people.

Continuing its tradition and commitment to educating Long Island teachers, Dowling College is emerging as a national leader in educating minority teachers, placing over fifty teachers nationally.

I plan to ask the Department of Justice for funds to bring my GED initiative to gangs in Brentwood and across the United States.

To be or not to be diversity. That is the question. If a computer program could replace all teachers and school personnel , educating students better than people, we could eliminate the problem of diversity in the schools. As long as we have problems from teachers of all races (as it was revealed by people there), we can only make slight gains in the system. The system, I told the audience , is very imperfect. Whether it is charter school or non-charter school, it will be the same. Students are often to blame, too, as well as the home life. The panelists are invited to participate in an educational conference that I hope to do. They were very educated and articulate, greatly appreciated. The idea hit me in the middle of the conference that we do not need diversity, if we could just educate students. I did not speak about this because it was more important to share with the moderators, panelists, and attendees that what is going on in Brentwood is the key to turning school districts around. The potential for community involvement is incredible as 2,100 people have joined the BRAVE on Facebook. The violence has to stop and new resources can finally be brought into this school district.

]]> One of the highlights of the conference was meeting Roger Tilles, Regent of the State of New York. There is a lot of racism in New York City where I come from, but the Regent spoke about the Long Island's racism. He also told us that schools do not want to be interfered with by the Department of Education and these are failing districts that really do not stand a chance of improving things. I have friends that tell me some black leaders want to keep their people on the plantation and the failure (deliberate) to help children, parents, and community does just that. We spoke about the GED and Regent Tilles told me the GED is important to the Regents and I hope that Regent Tilles will be able to participate in the conference I am planning where he will speak about the GED.

Here is what I was referring to above and this is about forty years of permanent damage to minority communities. I informed Robert Gaffney, the President of Dowling College, that only one out of every hundred people earns a GED, not 55 out of every 100 or 90 out of every hundred. Taking into account that 40 million adults have no diploma and people choose to go into other professions, often better paying and less stressful ones, that is one of the key reasons that we do not have enough minority teachers. Of course Hispanics often have the language barrier. Sure there are racism and discrimination and all the things that were talked about, but the dropout-low GED rate has created a huge gap for minorities, a gap that can even lead to death (GED Gap-LIRR Platform Gap). Think about it. If you feel you can hide your head in the sand, things will only get worse. People in power have acted like the GED problem is only 4 million and not 40 million. Communities like Brentwood, Central Islip, Wyandanch, and Roosevelt suffer from this problem including not enough jobs in the community, poor parent involvement in the schools, and gang members that have dropped out of school teaching elementary school children how to be gang members. Next may be gang members teaching the developing fetus. Can't we call it racism when an African-American does not help a person of color earn his GED? My business card reads "No Person Left Behind" and not No Child Left Behind. Can you see why?

The photo captures a memory of the Melvin Douglas family, Douglas being the name given to the family during slavery. This memorabilia has been passed down to each generation and it serves as a reminder for all that the family has triumphed over an adversity that they had not created for themselves.

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

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

SALVADORANS MEET TO IMPROVE THE BRENTWOOD COMMUNITY

2010-03-16T23:36:30Z

By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"

Bring the police cars into Brentwood, but give the Practice Test to all of the youth who have dropped out of school. Lock up the gang members? Lock 'em up with the GED.

Salvadorans met to discuss programs and bring forth their ideas and feelings about the violence and aftermath in Brentwood. I was really pleased to see Luis Mendez and Sergio Argueta at the meeting. Why? Mendez has an organization of 5,000 soccer players and Argueta is a gang specialist. A member of the Argueta team wants me to help his friend who has recently arrived from El Salvador. Mendez has been helping youth to be rescued by supporting them in the courts and providing society with that all important community service project that turns lives around. Sure culture and pride in community are important because everyone has to play his role in helping the community, but we are not going to change the community by positive words and only helping people one by one (or even two by two as it says in the Bible). We are going to mobilize the community thirty by thirty or fifty by fifty. The same thing happened in Harlem last year, people were talking about Princeton and poetry and then a youth talked about the violence, the poverty, and the other major problems. This is what I want to hear from the youth. The youth are speaking out about the fear and violence in their communities and the meeting in Brentwood was not a disappointment, especially since I was able to present information on the GED on Wheels project I want to launch and tell the Brentwood community that we can successfully mobilize the community to lower the dropout rate from high school, help parent and child accelerate in the acquisition of English, and cut down on the gangs through the GED and other opportunities.

]]> My contacts in Washington. D.C. know that the gap is growing people ethnic groups. Unemployment among Hispanics and African-Americans is reaching the level of unemployment that existed during the Great Depression. Education is the solution and I will be partnering with the largest organizations in the country to produce change. This has been the problem. It took at least seven years for me to wake up the City Council of New York. It has been over five years since I started writing about bringing the Spanish GED to Latin America and the Caribbean. The disaster in Haiti and my recent work forming the GED Committee for Haiti have quickly brought me into contact with the highest level officials at the Organization of American States in Washington, D. C. and I will be attending the Haitians in the Diaspora Forum on March 21. I am connecting with Hispanic organizations that are helping to achieve Immigration Reform at the march the same day. If I succeed in helping Haiti by bringing the French GED and other programs there, the OAS will also cooperate with the Spanish speaking community by bringing the GED to Latin America.

I see some positive movement in Brentwood, but we are all concerned that nothing really will happen. The police have their plan. I see the Facebook of BRAVE and some people want to divide the community, asking for the ICE to come in to pick up the undocumented immigrants. This is what I want. Picture police cars driving into all sections of Brentwood to pick up gang members and other youth making trouble or causing violence, but think of the "GED on Wheels" helping all of those youth, sometimes giving the four hour OPT or Official Practice Test to those youth and advocating for their GED help if they get arrested and/or incarcerated.

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

GED TEA PARTY IS NEEDED

2010-03-15T14:22:33Z

By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"

GED=Adult Education=Education for Gang Members=Workforce Development. Yes GED happens to be education, essential education that helps parents eliminate their poverty, helping their children in school. This is a key to greater parental involvement and better communities. New York City and Brentwood-Central Islip need help badly and they will get it.

I personally thanked Yoav Gonen of the New York Post the other day for his articles on GED and education or is it education or GED or is it just education since GED is the orphan of education. Christine Quinn and everyone else can learn that this part of Gonen's article is critical and not the rest. The governor of Arizona is calling for the total elimination of adult education money and people fear this means eliminating the GED. I doubt that that will happen there since people pay $95 to take the GED. The good news for New York is that the system will stay afloat with the $2.4 million. There is lots of bad news. Brentwood is the home of several murders caused by gang violence. There were three stabbings the other day (George Washington H.S. and Newtown H.S. being accounting for two of the stabbings, and IS 302). Not all violence is caused by gang members inside and outside of the schools working together as gang members, but they are making things really bad throughout our nation. We need a "star search" to find the gap in GED funding and we are not going to find it on television. Now we can see what the city council is made up of. Can that city council work with state officials and find the funds from foundations and corporate America? Mayor Bloomberg allegedly put $20 million of his own money into fighting poverty in New York, working with the Robin Hood Foundation and others. Where is the private money for GED testing? Albany and New York City are both failing its people and there is never an end to this.

]]> We need new leadership. I have proposed that the federal government take over all GED testing and do things my way. Instead of $2.4 million for testing, we could get $22.4 million if we need it and get it each year until we make all Americans educated. The Brentwood community killed me when nobody came to the plate to help reopen the GED testing center in the Sonderling - Brentwood H.S (the GED testing staff wanted more money and did not get it) and nobody came to plate to help me do a youth conference. I knew what was coming and I know what is most likely going to happen all over New York City. Compounding matters is the great heroin problem on Long Island that the police are finally dealing with. Compounding things even worse is the fact New York City has spent about a $1 billion on workforce development and delivering a meager 11,000-13000 GED diplomas annually to the city's residents. We need more GED diplomas from the workforce money. The same thing has to be going on all over the United States and this is surely one of the biggest spending scandals I can think of.

You have read that the GED should be free and funded to the maximum. Short of that, the best method is for people to pay to take the GED, the way it was back in the day when the fee was $35. People on social services did not pay and we could certainly use the same system in a more effective way, but we should make sure that the current $2.4 million is used for people on welfare, people coming out of jail, gang members, AIDS victims, domestic violence victims, loved ones of veterans who have served in the wars, and people in depressed economic areas of the state. That would be a win-win situation if we cannot restore the GED funds now. Take care of this problem and I will do my best to take care of the rest. In fact, I can do it.
The state Board of Regents proposed this week to shrink New York's GED budget to $2.4 million in 2010-2011 -- a 40 percent cut in funding from 2008-2009.
Much of the $300,000 in newly proposed savings would come from eliminating a $20 reimbursement per test-taker given to groups that administer the exams.
This includes funding for 22 testing sites in New York City -- where program operators said they'd be forced to test fewer people.

Look at this. Who said what?

Who said this?

More than four million of our young people between 16 to 24 are out of school and out of work. The number of these disconnected youth has grown an alarming 18% between 2000 and 2005. The situation of the 1.4 million young African American and Hispanic men who are out-of-work and out-of-school today is particularly troubling. These young men are less likely to graduate high school, more likely to end up in prison and are often left jobless and poor.

Who said this?
Help Youth Connect with Growing Job Sectors: Barack Obama will create the 5-E (Energy Efficiency, Environmental Education and Employment) Disconnected Youth Service Corps. This program would directly engage disconnected and disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency and environmental service opportunities to strengthen their communities while also providing them with practical skills and experience in important career fields of expected high-growth employment. The program would engage private sector employers and unions to provide apprenticeship opportunities. The program also encourages summer high school students to stay in school, and provides GED help and other wrap-around social services for drop-outs.

Who said this?
Improving the City's GED Testing System
"Creating more jobs isn't enough. We have to make sure that New Yorkers have the skills and education they need to get those jobs. We still have 1.6 million New Yorkers who are out of school and don't have a high school diploma - and they're more than twice likely to be unemployed as someone with a college degree."
Speaker Quinn proposed concrete steps aimed at improving the city’s GED testing system, which is currently fragmented and inadequate in assisting New Yorkers lacking a high school diploma. The Speaker’s reforms address New Yorkers who are unemployed and face the greatest obstacles in finding a job. The three-tiered plan will help New Yorkers take the first crucial step towards employment.
• The Council, together with the Department of Education and the Department of Small Business Services, will create a citywide pilot at Workforce 1 Centers that will connect individuals without a high school diploma to GED testing and test preparation courses.
• In order to ensure that those who take the GED are adequately prepared, individuals who sign up to take the GED will first take an Official Practice Test to assess their preparedness.
• The Council will work closely with the Literacy Assistance Center, DOE and SBS to better coordinate the GED system, with a goal of streamlining access to services so that individuals can build skills, obtain a GED if needed and receive assistance in their job search.
The first one was Senator Hillary Clinton.
The second one was Senator Barack Obama.
The third one and only from this year was Councilwoman Christine Quinn (NYC). Wake up New York City and the White House. The GED Tea Party is needed.

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

SERGIO ARGUETA IN NEW YORK NEWSDAY WRITES ABOUT THE VIOLENCE

2010-03-12T13:37:48Z

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

LOBBY DAY IN ALBANY

2010-03-11T13:35:12Z

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.

]]> Many people in Albany now know about the "GED on Wheels" program that I can bring into their communities. They are working on the budget cuts and yes the budget cut is going to be big. Senator John Sampson told the thousand or so UFT members that he is solidly with the union because the teachers work hard to change lives every day. You would think the members of the legislature would like to find out what the "GED on Wheels" project is. Don't they want to save the taxpayer's money?

Most people who see me just think I am a teacher. I have done my own conferences (one in the Congress and one in the A.F. of L. Building in Washington, D.C. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton knows about my work. I have influenced presidents of countries and governors, and now the City Council of New York is doing much more for the GED and so are the New York State Regents. It is time for all members of the New York State Legislature to do much more for their constituents and we can work together on this. I feel we can reduce the high dropout rate from school by a new initiative, improve the English skills of school children and their parents, and double the number of GED diplomas among the 2.85 million adults. We can do this and protect the taxpayer's dollar at the same time. Hey, I have done various presentations in LOB that most members know nothing about. It is time to find out.

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

OBAMA AND HAITIAN PRESIDENT TO MEET WEDNESDAY

2010-03-08T00:14:20Z

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.

]]> The GED test takes about eight hours and bright Haitians who have left school or who cannot return to their former high schools can pass the test quickly. No preparation will be required for those bright individuals. The funding for the GED test should be held in escrow by the Clinton Foundation, working with the United States government, other governments, foundations, and individuals who want to endow Haiti with this great financial gift that will help make the country progress, providing new leadership.
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

THE FUTURE OF BRENTWOOD BREAKING THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE

2010-03-05T03:08:05Z

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?

]]> As people (strangers) were finding out about me, I spent the last two days reaching out to the mayor of Central Falls where the school board voted to fire all the teachers in the high school. I spoke with the superintendent and she wants my help. I was on the phone uniting Haitians in Connecticut in my campaign to bring the French GED to Haiti. I called the office of Secretary of Education Melanio Paredes in Santo Domingo and emailed information about my efforts to bring the Spanish GED to the Dominican Republic, dropout prevention, and English language instruction to the entire country. I have time to help Brentwood and the rest of the world. It is time to do an educational conference in Brentwood, which I urged at Somos El Futuro last year, but I have not heard a thing about doing it. I expected that and I got it!
The residents of Brentwood know that there have been big changes in the last forty years or more. Each year the little and big negative things have taken their tolls on people and their lives, property values and taxes, and their hopes for their community. I have helped hundreds of people from Brentwood and Central Islip who either went to the Consulate of El Salvador, called me, or met me in the Brentwood Library or at a meeting. The school boards and superintendents have held back progress (for sure), but we have to work with them. Everyone has made mistakes. The teachers tell the community that the schools are good and gang activities are in check, but we hear a different story. The same apathy and bad decisions that led to the deaths in New Orleans after Katrina are apparent in the educational problems and community leadership in Brentwood as youth are killing youth. A much brighter future awaits Brentwood, but not just by good policing alone.
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

BRENTWOOD TAKING BACK SCHOOLS AND NEIGHBORHOOD

2010-03-04T04:09:27Z

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.

]]> There was definitely hostility against the immigrants (mention of Salvadoran gangs). More than one person spoke about the gangs and community activists that they say prevent the police from profiling the immigrants (a certain reverend was mentioned twice). That message was strong, loud and clear. There were many suggestions, including getting the children into the Boy Scouts, getting residents involved in patrolling their blocks, demanding accountability from the police as they beef up more police resources in the next thirty days and after things calm down, and bringing the police into schools. People were talking about drug deals, graffiti done by gangs, scaring business people on Fifth Avenue, and the conditions around Timberline Park where people were shot and killed nearby.

From an educational point of view, I privately told people that we have to get the drug sales out of the schools (this is happening everywhere). I told the audience about Hasidic-Latino principal Shimon Waronker, who I met in Chancellor Klein's meeting last year, was given one of the most dangerous assignments in the City of New York. As Mr. Waronker was entering the school for the first time, police arrested a student. These are critical things about the skills he possessed to turn the school around. The New York Times wrote, "For many students and parents, the real surprise was that like them, Mr. Waronker speaks Spanish; he grew up in South America, the son of a Chilean mother and an American father, and when he moved to Maryland at age 11, he spoke no English.
“I was like, ‘You speak Spanish?’ ” recalled Nathalie Reyes, 12, dropping her jaw at the memory.
He also has a background in the military. Mr. Waronker joined R.O.T.C. during college and served on active duty for two years, including six months studying tactical intelligence. After becoming an increasingly observant Jew, he began studying at a yeshiva, thinking he was leaving his military training behind."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKnRumG-GME Shimon Waronker turns JHS 22 around.

Other items that I was able to bring to the attention of people include: Central Falls, Rhode Island has had a curfew. This is the town that has been in the news for closing the school and firing the entire staff. In Albany, officials are finding jobs for gang members to wean them away from gang activities. I told people that we have to mobilize the youth toward the GED, practice testing hundreds at a time and then finding the resources to get them to the nearest test center that may be many miles away. We have to look outside the district to see how other communities are doing to reduce gang activities and violence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzs-JIhphSQ Alphonso Bonilla of Rikers' Correctional Facility (Christian Ministry).
I was shocked to hear that children are getting beaten up in or near the school and are going to the nurse for help. People mentioned the high teen pregnancy in Brentwood, which may be higher than I thought. I was upset to hear parents protest the fact that speaking Spanish was required to order food in fast food restaurants (this did not belong in the discussion). Elements of the community have to be calmed down as progress is made at improving conditions. I was not shocked to learn about the fear in the schools, fear exists in a high percentage of schools. Some pointed out that Brentwood is being mentioned with Wyandanch, Amityville, and other neighborhoods.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OO-RPeHynk Sean Bell's father.
Brentwood school performance from my articles shows the following data "Out of 60 high schools in Suffolk County, there are 4 high schools with a lower than 70% graduation rate and those schools are Brentwood, Central Islip, William Floyd, and Wyandanch. In Nassau, Freeport, Hempstead, Roosevelt, Regents diplomas under 70 % include the following high schools: Brentwood. In Nassau, Roosevelt, Westbury, Hempstead. Enrollment in college under 40% Brentwood, Central Islip, Copaigue, William Floyd, and Wyandanch.. Cold Spring Harbor has a 91% rate. In Nassau, Westbury 37%, Roosevelt 30%, Freeport 33%, Hempstead 39%. East Williston has a 96% enrollment rate."

I provided this information to hundreds of community organizations and people in Suffolk County. Now the truth is out and hopefully things will only get better. My work has been ignored by the schools mentioned, but change is in the wind and I thank 600 people who cared enough to come out to make a difference. One last thing, when you take into the account the low performance in the schools and the almost definite shortage of GED diplomas by dropouts and new community residents, the picture becomes much worse.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
New:
www.mygedhotline.com

BRENTWOOD, NEW YORK SHOOTINGS AND STABBINGS

2010-03-03T03:23:34Z

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, I guess, has lost lots of GED diplomas in the last three years, making it less competitive with surrounding communities. Central Islip has faced the same situation. My progress has been enormous in New York City among the members of the City Council of New York and in Suffolk County the message has failed to hit home. I have noticed too many community leaders who have not done enough to help their communities. There are solutions, but it may take new leadership to bring those solutions forward. What I fear are more killings as people continue to recklessly things the same way as before. How can you not have a GED program in a recreational center and who is that recreation center for? I would invite all the gang members into the center for GED practice testing and as soon as possible.

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
New:
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CHRISTINE QUINN TALKS ABOUT GED IMPROVEMENT

2010-02-24T14:07:48Z

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!

]]> In her State of the City address, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn spoke about the GED improvements needed. She has recently help fund the GED Compass, a small effort that may grow into something very important. The "Compass" needs proper guidance to get things done. The critical thing for New York City is to know this important detail. Expansion of GED services, including GED Practice testing comes with a cost and that cost can be low or high. The additional cost to the city may end up being higher than the cost of helping 9,000 more people earn the GED so that New York State can be proportionally on par with Iowa and its 99 percent (almost perfect ) score.

All over the United States, African-Americans and Hispanics have a lower passing rate on the GED than Whites. I have just prepared a report that I sent to the National Conference of Black Mayors detailing what is going on in all of their states (New York State is not a member). I could fix that problem within a year with my GED on Wheels project. I could do the same thing for New York City with the project and the GED on Wheels will cost more money than my program that I sell to New York City schools, but it is worth it. Below are the words of Speaker Christine Quinn.

More and more people are telling our nation that education is a civil right. There were roadblocks like segregation and Jim Crow. The roadblock now is the GED and it has been a roadblock for decades. The recent reports about GED may have affected Christine Quinn, but those reports do not even touch the truth behind the GED and how it has impacted on the African-Americans in New York City. Ferrer and Thompson failed badly and so have all the people around Mayor Bloomberg. Let us hope that Speaker Quinn ends up doing more than she ever realized she would do to help the people of New York. Practice test is the chief weapon needed and/or increasing GED test funds in New York State to $10 million now. I am not going to go into what the legislators in Albany have done to create the mess right.

36.9 percent of test takers in New York State were African-Americans
27 percent of test takers in New York State were Hispanics

29.6 percent of passers in New York State were African-Americans
24.4 percent of passers in New York State were Hispanics

Improving the City's GED Testing System

"Creating more jobs isn't enough. We have to make sure that New Yorkers have the skills and education they need to get those jobs. We still have 1.6 million New Yorkers who are out of school and don't have a high school diploma - and they're more than twice likely to be unemployed as someone with a college degree."
Speaker Quinn proposed concrete steps aimed at improving the city’s GED testing system, which is currently fragmented and inadequate in assisting New Yorkers lacking a high school diploma. The Speaker’s reforms address New Yorkers who are unemployed and face the greatest obstacles in finding a job. The three-tiered plan will help New Yorkers take the first crucial step towards employment.
• The Council, together with the Department of Education and the Department of Small Business Services, will create a citywide pilot at Workforce 1 Centers that will connect individuals without a high school diploma to GED testing and test preparation courses.
• In order to ensure that those who take the GED are adequately prepared, individuals who sign up to take the GED will first take an Official Practice Test to assess their preparedness.
• The Council will work closely with the Literacy Assistance Center, DOE and SBS to better coordinate the GED system, with a goal of streamlining access to services so that individuals can build skills, obtain a GED if needed and receive assistance in their job search.

I have read the words, just as you have. There is some merit in her plan of action, but...but...but I tell certain people who know their stuff to just go take the GED. Some people just go to a library, pick up a book for a couple of days, take the real test, and pass it. African-Americans have had segregation and Jim Crow. The GED is now one of their biggest obstacles. We do not need another road block called required GED Practice Testing. Yes we need GED Practice Testing My Way. If I had my way, I would just send everyone in the nation to take the real GED (New York City is still part of the nation). There is a new GED Practice Test program in New York City, but I offer practice testing in English, Spanish, and French and the aforementioned program is only in English. I have been helping people in English, Spanish, and French for nine years.
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

NEW YORK TIMES THE WMD FOR THE GED IN NEW YORK

2010-02-22T17:10:35Z

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.

]]> 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

NAACP ELECTS NEW BOARD WAKE UP EVERYBODY

2010-02-22T03:23:22Z

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.

]]>
The key objectives are consistent with my own views about organizing communities. The local NAACP branches need to do much more and the National NAACP can provide the branches with the initiatives that they need. Brock was quoted in New York Newsday as saying, "It is not always what someone is doing to us, but what we are doing to ourselves." I agree. William Bell and I got great ideas from the NAACP people we met with and we will move forward to help people obtain Justice, Jobs, and Education and we can do that in every community in the United States.

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

A-OK ON ADVANCE PLACEMENT TESTS IN NYC SCHOOLS...REALLY?

2010-02-17T21:31:36Z

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.

]]> Okay let us get back to important matters. In 2002, when there was a Department of Education and fewer charter schools, 54.1 percent of the students (who took the Advanced Placement exams) passed as opposed to 51.1 percent of students (who took the Advanced Placement exams) in 2002. Yoav Gonen does not provide the numbers for 2002 and it is important to have the numbers (because it is possible that most students did not take the exams who were expected to take them). There was no mention of statistics, at all in his article, for Hispanic students, although education officials applauded their improvement. Usually when there is an increase in something, the percentage should go up. So there is something fishy here going on that has to be cleared up. Based on what I read, I cannot conclude that things are A-OK. I have been saying that our high school students may be less prepared than they were in 2002 or 1992 and the low percentage may be an indicator of that.
Education officials, it says (I repeat), applauded the increases, but we also know that 20 schools were slated to be closed and perhaps those schools had substantial increases in students passing the placement exams, but did not meet up to other standards that appear to determine their future status. I wonder what the improvement rate in those schools was on the Advanced Placement exams. What was the increase among their students who took Advanced Placement courses? If those schools did not promote taking the Advanced Placement exams and bring up their numbers, doesn't the Department of Education have a role in that.

Education officials seem to always applaud the increased numbers and spread the word across the city to boost the perception of their performance. There are time when there are most students graduating, for example, but the dropout rate has gone up at the same time. This is the caveat that the public has to pay attention to. Things may seem to be getting better and not A-OK at all. It is also essential to look at the years before 2002 and see what kind of growth was taking place at that time, too. Was the old Board of Education making the same kind of progress without teaching to the test or were things stagnant. I would love to see what was going on. So you see we need all kinds of numbers to tell us just how effective the system really is. Take into account how many English Language learners were moving into the city at that time, too, and the level of poverty they were at compared with previous generations. Also take into account just where they started out as a true indicator of progress made by the schools. Many children come here well advanced in math and science and fall behind in their individual progress in New York City and tell me if that was calculated at all. A few years ago, the head of ASPRIRA told me that seventy-percent of Puerto Ricans were dropping out of school in Cleveland, Ohio. What would the impact be on New York City's school results if it had to deal with a huge problem like that? The growth in Hispanics taking the Advanced Placement exams may be largely an outgrowth of increasing Hispanic immigrants and newly arrived Puerto Ricans, who were better prepared from the start to move up the ladder to Advanced Placement exams, where previously there was a slight increase or even a decline. Are these children as economically disadvantaged as previous generations have been? We talk about the third grade reading results leading to the pipeline to prison and I am sure that third grade reading results could lead us to conclude who will take the Advanced Placement exams. If that is true, the Board of Education is as much responsible as the Department of Education because the Board of Education started many of those youth on the right track about ten years ago. As you can see much more research is needed to come to the "right" conclusions. A comparison of the reading scores from low to high and the passing of Advanced Placement exams could be assessed based on that information.

Look for a moment at the GED picture which is controlled by the same Department of Education. GED students in GED ACCESS are arbitrarily held back from taking the GED. This is being done by the leadership of the Department of Education. A practice test score of 2.400 is being used to hold young people back from passing a test where the passing score is 2,250. If the parents found out that the same thing were going on with their children and the advanced placement exams, they would be up in arms about this matter and I do not care what kind of support those schools were providing in terms of other things going on in the school. I wonder if students are being kept back from taking the Advanced Placement exams by the administrators of the schools? The school system does not want to look bad ever, but it is doing bad things that are not being addressed properly and that hurts its success rate.

ONLY A FEW YEARS AGO THE DROPOUT NUMBER WAS AROUND 21,000. WHAT IS THAT NUMBER FOR 2008?

MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
New:
www.mygedhotline.com

www.geocities.com/gedhotline
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NO IMPROVEMENT FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS AND HISPANICS UNDER THE DOE

2010-02-17T19:47:22Z

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.

]]> Hispanics in New York City's schools 40 percent
African-Americans in New York City's schools 31 percent
White's in New York City's schools 15 percent
Asians in New York City's schools 14 percent
Asians went from

African-Americans were 23 percent of the test takers
Hispanics were 20 percent of the test takers
Whites were 15 percent of the test takers
Asians were 14 percent of the test takers

Conclusion: African-Americans and Hispanics continue to lag behind whites and Asians in gaining access to the elite schools in New York City. There were warnings in 2006 and things have not gotten better and the numbers declined this year. Asian student went from 1,945 admissions in one year to 2,400. The New York Times made it clear that the Department of Education has done a significant outreach (by interviewing the chancellor), but the schools are not getting the job done and apparently even Chancellor Klein feels that “The story is the number of Asian students who are coming to the city, taking this test and passing it at a very high rate,” he continued. “I think it reflects a real commitment and a real ethic in terms of preparing.” Does that mean that all or most of the efforts of the Department of Education have been wasted or the DOE has not achieved its goals for African-Americans and Hispanics? Of course if opportunities are expanded (let us say by twenty percent) and African-Americans and Hispanics do not or cannot take advantage of them, this would indicate an even greater failure for the DOE.

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

GED COMMITTEE FOR HAITI

2010-02-11T15:00:49Z

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!

]]> GED COMMITTEE FOR HAITI
Martin N. Danenberg
Arnaldo Salinas
Luis Montes-Brito
George Hulse
William Bell
Bobby Hunter
Ahmad "Armando" Quazi, Jr.
Herman Mendoza
Krystal Serrano
Gladys Florestan
Jerry Calonge
Charles Fisher
Roz Shepard
Alphonso Bonilla
Jose Marquez
Thomas Humphrey
Sanford Hinden
R. Lee Gordon
Les Wolff
Larry "Love" Moore
Leonard Fillyaw
Domingo Flores
Clyde Davis
Sam Massol
Betty Rosa
Angel L. Martinez III
Queen Makkada
Terri Ham
Enero "Tony" Barros
Shar-ron Corley
Sharon Richardson
Denold Louis
Abdul Hye

The list is growing, but we have room to place your name on it. Give this cause your support.

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