Thursday, October 01, 2015

The Out Of Time Schools Are Out Of Luck When It Comes To Getting Effective Teachers.


Chancellor Carmen Farina made a great show of propaganda by claiming the renewal schools will be recruiting "effective teachers" for their schools and improve student performance.  However, anecdotal evidence from staff at these schools saw only young and inexperienced teachers being hired at those schools not the "highly effective teachers" that the DOE had vetted and gave to the principals to hire.  Few, if any, actually were offered or took a teaching position in the renewal schools.

Now we have the first real data from one renewal high school, the "out-of-time" Brooklyn Automotive high school.  Of the 32 teaching positions at Automotive, 14 were filled by teachers who were never in the classroom before that is an astounding 44% of the teaching staff with zero classroom experience!  Furthermore, if you eliminate the eight highly specialized CTE teachers in hard to fill or hard to replace occupations, approximately 60% of the academic staff are "newbies'.  Who in their right mind believes that these struggling students will improve academically with inexperienced teachers who have a steep learning curve and poor classroom management skills themselves?   No real educator believes that this is a recipe for success.

While the renewal schools are being given additional resources and support, the bottom line is that the lack of "effective teachers" will result in continued poor academic achievement and I strongly believe that the Mayor's and Chancellor's renewal school policy will be a failure.   A final issue is that the renewal schools have an extra hour built into their student schedules and teachers who are working the extra hour have not been paid by the DOE as of yet,  This should have been resolved before the school year stated.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Several "out of time" schools have BRAND NEW INEXPERIENCED PRINCIPALS CHAZ. Teachers are one thing BUT these principals TOO? Built to fail. Do a search of how many principals are 1st timers. I'm working for one at Lehman HS. Nice guy, but inexperienced for a school like ours.

From Under The Bus said...

Chaz,

What we really need is a Renewal Chancellor, Mayor, and UFT President. It is never "about the kids."

Anonymous said...

I truly feel that this video must go viral asap.

Jim Callaghan, former NY Teacher Journalist, Speaks Out About UFT Unity Corruption & Collusion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkDmcCpfcFM

Anonymous said...

Laughing all the way to the bank $$$$$. My mini school has a 91% grad rate with regents scores that are tops. I'm not a very good teacher but the scores on my MOSL were 19 and 19 since I'm tied to ELA. I was rated Effective, again. I guess my school will never be a renewal school. My Puerto Rican female principal is very nice, enjoys elaborate gifts. Anyway, looking forward to Thanksgiving which is right around the corner.

Anonymous said...

Systemic discrimination against veteran teachers continues in the DOE. They really do not want the ATR crisis to end.

Anonymous said...

There is a pattern of pushing older teachers out and making them ATRs, while they hire younger teachers. This is against the law.

Anonymous said...

How funny and true is anon 6:30? LOL. Plenty of those schools.

Anonymous said...

Anon 6:30--- I too am a happy teacher. I'm the world's worst elementary school social studies cluster but my school does well with testing because the upper middle class parents hire multiple testing tutors every year. The kids are miserable and don't enjoy learning anymore but hey I'm "effective" according to the data so who cares. I also have a cousin who's a tone deaf music teacher.....

Anonymous said...

I watched the Callahan video. Biggest hoot was when he tsk tsked that UFT served wine at Exec Bd in June. This coming from the biggest known lush at UFT. Primary reason he was fired was for drunkenness. The rest is a series of half truths and third (or 5th) party allegations that even the friendly audience called him on. A pathetic performance.

Anonymous said...

I don't think it's a hoot. I think it's a detailed indictment of the UFT. So he was fired for drunkenness- that's news to us all. I don't believe it. What happened to Mulgrew after he was caught having sex in a classroom? Nothing, and that I know is true.

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