I'm sure this will not surprise my many readers or ATRs but I was told by a very smart and motivated summer school student that he failed second semester Living Environment (Biology lite) because his teacher was in a car accident and never returned. Apparently, the school, Metropolitan High School, didn't bother to interview ATR Living Environment teachers to cover the class and help the students pass not only the class but the Regents. Instead the school administration decided to have day to day substitute teachers cover the class and the result was predictable, lots of failures.
My question, if the student is being truthful, and I believe he is. Why didn't Metropolitan High School hire an ATR certified to teach Living Environment? Moreover, where were the school's Chapter Leader and the District Representative in allowing such a travesty to the students? Finally, how can the school be allowed to hire day to day substitutes for long-term vacancies? Didn't the ATR agreement prohibit this?
Of course the answer is that the DOE ignores these abuses of the contract and our disconnected union leadership buries their collective heads in the sand rather than fight for the students and their members. Both the DOE and UFT rather than ensuring every classroom has a certified teacher teacher in the subject that needs a long-term replacement, its better to ignore the violations of the contract and pretend everybody is doing what's best for the students. However, the truth is far different as students suffer without quality teachers. In other words both the DOE and UFT are complicit in what Metropolitan High School apparently did and continues the Bloomberg policy of "children last"....Always.
9 comments:
Dwarka from Bryant is double dipping....and no one is asking questions.
In my district there are plenty of substitutes running around. A couple of years ago, my principal offered a position to a teacher's aide sans degree rather than give it to me as a teacher certified in that subject. The aide declined the offer and the kids went without instruction for four months.
Abigail Shure
Anon 612- so report it so the SCI and OSI investigators can laugh and tell her " we got your back."
Corruption is clear as day in the NYCDOE
Which Metropolitan HS- Queens Metro, or Metropolitan Plus? Because the latter's principal has been investigated for Regents tampering.If it's the former, I'm surprised and disappointed, because it was my understanding that they were trying to turn that place around.
DWARKA SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM HER POSITION.
The Principal of Queens Metro HS, Greg Dutton is a mega ahole. I interviewed with him prior to becoming an ATR, 2 summers ago. He told me he would be in touch. Never called. I followed up twice. On the 2nd call he told me, "let me give you some advice, you should let the interviewer ask questions" and "you interviewed us more then we did you". He also said I was not interested. I told him that is because you asked zero questions and I couldn't walk out without showing my teaching skills. Gave the guy a piece of my mind and told him let me give you advice... as a 33 year old principal, when you interview a candidate, ask them proper questions.
The principal at metro dphs is just as bad. She encourages regents cheating and she treats staff members like crap. There is no support for special ed. Content teachers help students during the regents and nothing is done to stop this. I was discontinued by her for not conforming even though my MOSL scores are highly effective. It's horrible what principals are getting away with in the nyc doe.
There was also no special ed teacher for most the year or ESL teacher in a school that is made up of 20% special ed classes. I had classes that had more than half special ed students. The DOE is a complete mess.
I was a math teacher at Greg Dutton's previous school where he had the Living Environment department cherry-pick the students they least wanted, assigned them to me, then left us in a room each day without a board or textbooks. I had never taught science before and I wasn't observed for 5 months. Each time I would ask for help from him, I was turned away. When he finally observed me, he said, "If I had kids, I wouldn't want you teaching them." He spoke to me condescendingly for 45 minutes. Then, he observed me the next day and did the same. No coaching. No resources. No care for the IEPs of my students that were way out of compliance. I was beside myself and am still hurt by the experience 8 years later. He left to be promoted as principal of Queens Metropolitan H.S. I went back to grad school to receive proper instruction on how to teach science, and now I'm rated as an effective/highly effective teacher. I feel sorry for those kids and whichever teachers he went on to bully.
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