My GED Hotline GED Practice Test

The next day, I was with the manager of Joe Frazier, a man who is in interested in improving the literacy of adults across the United States. He says “Considering the cluttered communications environment marketers have to deal with, there is a unique opportunity to stand out from the competition, generate a positive, caring image, and enhance the bottom line. It is taking socially responsible or corporate citizenship programming several generations beyond the nice, but ineffective PSA advertising of the past. Smart Marketing Group of Philadelphia has taken their expertise in integrated marketing strategy and has created a formula for programming that not only enhances profits but actually creates change by encompassing the target audience and all the "influencers" in the community where that change is desired. Social issues can cover a wide range of civic, family, and community concerns. One of the key "issuers" is illiteracy, as its impact is felt at every level of society. Corporate marketers need to focus on eliminating this problem as a larger educated talent pool of employees is needed and the improvement of literacy will have a positive impact on the economy.” We hope to bring corporate America and elected officials together to try new things to impact on communities everywhere.

The Reverend Al Sharpton had an appointment at the White House today, May 7, 2009, to discuss the educational gap that exists and to find out what can be done to bring about educational equality. Mayor Bloomberg will be there, but is he taking any of my information to President Obama? Vouchers in Washington were mentioned in the New York post and there are 1,700 poor students receiving vouchers and the article tells us that a three-year analysis of Washington, D. C. schools of students with vouchers shows that the students made a “modest” improvement in reading and “no measurable” gain in math. So much for that!

The high school graduation rate, Carl Campanile, says in The New York Post has shot up and I really do not think this is true. I believe that New York City schools are adding GED graduates to the list of high school graduates, which was not done in 2002. Nice try Carl!

Here are the numbers:

51 percent in 2002 according to city figures
46.5 percent in 2005 according to NY State Department of Education
52.5 percent in 2007 according to NY State Department of Education
62 percent in 2007 according the city figures

I would suggest that we find out if I am correct and that an average be taken to the years of mayoral control.

There was a hearing about charter school and State Senator Bill Perkins was quoted in the New York Post saying that mayoral control of the schools “has failed in terms of parent participation and racial polarization.” Chancellor Klein basically said that when options are created it become a “lifeline” for students.

It was also reported that there are no vacancies and hundreds of parents are being shut out of popular neighborhood schools. Parents are still getting frustrated by the system and how it is working.

Senator Perkins was blasted the following day for ignoring the success of charter schools in Harlem and Stephen Sanders (former New York State Assemblyman) was mentioned in another article in which he calls for continuation of mayoral control.

I asked a contact at the United Federations of Teachers to provide me with something that is really powerful that was either said at the recent hearing on mayoral control or something that was left out and here it is directly from that source.
Maybe it is time to try a new approach; one that is similar to the way we run hospitals. Create a professional office staffed by educational administrators to run the schools the way that Health and Hospitals Corporations runs the City hospitals. They will get their budget from the City (and be independent enough to make a protest if they are under funded) but will have autonomy to make educational policy decisions based on the best research on what works. They can create a parent advisory board or many local boards to provide advice and, on some issues such as school closings, consent. The one thing that we haven’t tried is removing all politics from the schools and running them as a professional organization.
The week has ended and Mayor Bloomberg and Al Sharpton went to the White House to discuss the achievement gap with President Obama. I closed my eyes for a moment and thought that it was John Mc Cain who was praising the work of Mayor Bloomberg. Mayor Bloomberg, I have repeatedly written over the last several years, has failed the City of New York. We used to have more GED diplomas and adults each year have taken it on the chin while the Department of Education shows children’s reading and math scores. I am sure that even some of the higher scores are valid and some are not. Even in today’s newspapers, those scores are compared to the nation and not to comparable cities across our nation. An article in the New York Post says that everyone agreed in 2002 that we had “hit rock bottom” and it details the role of the United Federation of Teachers in bringing about change. Yes Mayor Bloomberg lagged behind at that time on the violence in our schools issue and he apologized. In an article about the new test scores on Long Island, John Hildebrand writes that Hempstead went from 32 to 50.5 percent and Roosevelt went from 41.5 to 60.3 and remember that those districts are not part of New York City and there is no mayoral control Hildebrand also writes that “scores are up in Island districts with high rates of poverty.” Just remember one thing and that is with all the talk bout mayoral control there is no mayoral control in Hempstead and Roosevelt.
I was with the Bloomberg staff when he ran for mayor the first. His first administration went in directions other than the one I want and when African-Americans and Hispanics state they cannot get construction jobs and other good jobs because they have no GED, this is clearly the fault of people connected with Mayor Bloomberg. President Obama can ask Adolfo Carrion about Hermes Caraballo (who was chief of staff to Bronx Borough President Carrion) who helped 243 adults in his church obtain the GED. This is the greatest GED-Faith Based Initiative that I have come across in my eight years of guiding our nation to help adults help their children in school by getting better jobs and being more pro-active in education. This has been Bloomberg’s failure and it will be Obama’s failure if he does not compute the importance of much greater parental involvement in schools and one of the main reasons why there are not enough jobs and promotions for minorities.
Al Sharpton was in the White House and Al knows about this big GED problem which USA Today calls “a national crisis.” Al Sharpton knows because I was there with him and the father of Sean Bell, yes the father of Sean Bell. I was talking about the violence in our city, violence caused by youth who are disconnected from the school system and police. I am sure both Michael Bloomberg and Al Sharpton will get this article soon. If they read it, I dare them to take this article to the White House to share with President Obama. I recently received a wonderful letter from Mayor Michael Bloomberg related to the study of Spanish and I want Al Sharpton to speak at my educational conference on May 23 in the “50 Cent” Community Garden in Jamaica. For some reason that I have not been able to figure out yet, a lot of people are hiding my message and they are conservatives and non-conservatives. I guess they do not want to help 40 million adults who do not have a GED and they believe only in “No Child Left Behind” and do not believe in “No Person Left Behind.”
By the way, New York Newsday quoted Newt Gingrich on charter schools and more teacher accountability. Remember that there are only about 10 teachers who have been fired from New York City schools in a year and the great gains were made without firing a lot of teachers. Something is wrong with Newt Gingrich. Principals get fired, too, and the principal is often the problem in the school.
A town meeting of the SNUG or anti-violence task force (I am the vice-chairman) has been announced. I know that in another county a district attorney made a deal with drug dealers and several of them have not gone to jail and are leading productive lives within the law. I urged that district attorney to get a GED project for the entire community and community residents agree with me. Doing what was done is better than putting a band-aide on a cancer, but a new generation of drug dealers may soon pop up if more people in that community do not get jobs. This kind of program is going on in other parts of our nation and it only contains communities instead of providing resources to make that community compete. This is another issue that an American president must decide on. Are we going to deprive adults in those communities education? Where is the civil right of those Nassau residents to get an education now?
I KNOW THAT THE NUMBER OF DROPOUTS WERE 20,000 IN 2005 AND 21,000 IN 2006. I ALSO KNOW THAT TWO YEARS AGO THE NEW YORK STATE BOARD OF REGENTS WAS ALARMED AT THE HIGH DROPOUT RATE ON LONG ISLAND. PERHAPS THE DROPOUT RATE HAS DECLINED. I REALLY DO NOT KNOW. BUT IF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM MAKES ONE AREA OF EDUCATION AT THE EXPENSE OF ANOTHER AREA AND JOB FORCE DEVELOPMENT IN NEW YORK CITY COSTS $900 MILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY AND THERE WERE FEWER THAN 14,000 GED DIPLOMAS IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK IN 2007, DOESN’T THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAVE TO JUMP IN AND HOLD THE CITY ACCOUNTABLE?
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
GEDHOTLINE@AOL.COM
www.ahorre.com
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.aspira.org