Graduating Unprepared For The Adult World And Workplace.

Every year the Mayor and his Chancellor, be it Bloomberg (Klein, Black, Walcott) or De Blasio (Carmen Farina) sing the same tune.  That their education policies are working and they look to the high school graduation rate as evidence of their claim.   True, the graduation rate continues to climb but are the graduates really ready for college or careers?  The answer is a resounding no.

Far too many students are graduating unprepared for the adult world.  For example 78.3% of all New York City high school graduates had to take at least one no credit remedial course while almost a quarter took two or more remedial courses.Remember, this statistic is based on high school graduates actually applying and attending college and does not include the 20% who never bothered to attend college.

What happens to these students who struggle through high school, aided by bogus "credit recovery" courses, administrative pressure to pass them, and outright academic fraud?  The answer is that these students, lacking a real education, are destined to be the new under class of society.  Low wage jobs, unstable employment, and financial instability when it comes to the family. Sure there are occasional success stories, but for the majority of these struggling high school graduates the outlook is bleak.

We must stop kidding ourselves and realize that some students are not cut out to pass academic subjects and open up more vocational schools that will allow these students to enter the high paying trades like plumbers, nursing, electricians, and mechanics to name a few.  This nonsense that everybody can pass the Regents and be academically proficient is a fantasy and has resulted in far too many students being shortchanged educationally and unprepared for the adult world.  

More Transparency On The Executive Board, Thanks To The Opposition Caucus.

One of the more significant changes that has happened since the UFT elections was the election of the MORE/New Action coalition for the high schools.  The result is there will be more transparency as Executive Board member Arthur Goldstein, will be blogging on the issues discussed.  Moreover, with people like Jonathan Halabi (New Action) and Mike Schirtzer (MORE).  We now have advocates who will represent our interests and not the disconnected union leadership.

Unfortunately, the opposition caucus, will be regularly outvoted by the "Unity" slugs who will vote  on whatever the leadership wants since they all take the "Unity oath".  However, at least the membership will be informed in advance the shenanigans the union leadership will use to try to hide controversial issues from them.  Maybe now the union leadership will think twice before they impose terrible contracts, change the rules like the ATR agreement, and fail to protect the membership due to vindictive principals.

Let's all hope that with more transparency it will result in a more receptive and responsive union.

What Are The Demographics Of the ATR Pool?

One of the most closely held secrets by both the DOE and UFT is the demographics of the ATR pool.  The reason being that both organizations knows that if they released the information, it would show an age discrimination issue and that only younger and untenured teachers were being selected for vacancies. However, thanks to the Solidarity Caucus we at least have a partial data set that shows that the ATR pool is made up of older and veteran teachers.

The Solidarity caucus survey numbers on ATRs are as follows:

ATRs surveyed = 127
Average age = 52
Years of Experience = 20 

Rated Satisfactory = 68%
Rated Unsatisfactory = 23%*
No Rating = 9%

Excessed from school = 39%
Closed schools = 32%
Won their 3030-a = 23%

Black = 21%
White = 47%
Other = 32% 

Looking at the data above, the following conclusions can be reached.

• The ATR pool consists mainly of highly experienced and older teachers
• Salary and seniority overrides all other factors.
• Racial factors have little to do with who ends up in the ATR pool.

* It should be noted that many ATRs are being observed outside their license area and with students they have no ownership of, making classroom management a difficult chore.

At this point, I must bring up what Amy Arundell said to the Executive Board when she claimed that there are less ATRs in the system (1,162 according to UFT Solidarity) because more of them are being picked up daily by the schools.  There are less ATRs in the system because some retired, resigned, (forced or not) or were terminated by DOE field supervisors and not because they received permanent placements. Moreover, provisionally appointed ATRs  are not counted as ATRs and there are hundreds of them in the system. They are the ATRs being picked up daily as provisional hires and not permanent hires.


In conclusion, the UFT leadership's claim that its an "urban myth" that veteran teachers are being discriminated against has been found to be false as the data above clearly shows the discrimination in the ATR pool.

Homeless Students And Academic Achievement.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that homeless students suffer academically because of their social-economic situation and are far more likely to be placed in special education programs and struggling schools since their parents are more concerned in finding food and shelter than advocating for a better placement for their child at school.  The result is renewal schools end up with a large amount of homeless students which number almost 87,000 in New York City.  Moreover, add to the homeless student population the many students who are recent immigrants whose families share an overcrowded apartment with other families and offer little or no privacy or a place to study and you have a recipe for educational disaster.

When you talk to education reformers, they ignore the inconvenient truth of poverty and homelessness and instead blame schools for their low academic achievement.  These organizations will blame the teachers and demand that teachers be fired for their failure to improve the test scores of deep poverty students by the use of junk science.  Unfortunately,   even the best teachers have little real effect on a child's academic achievement.  A major study showed that any one teacher makes between a 1% to 14% difference in a child's academic achievement.  In other words, the education reform organizations and their media allies believe that putting a bandage on an infection will cure the infection.

Secure housing (not shelters), food security, and parental involvement is the solution for better academic achievement and failing to address these difficult issues and blaming the schools and their teachers is not going to improve a child's education.

What Does The DOE Fear The Most? Institutional Memory.

During the Joel Klein era the DOE tried to change the balance of power in the public schools by giving principals more power in running their schools.  It was not uncommon to see principals demanding teachers do additional duties and blame teachers when many of the administration's ideas resulted in no student academic improvement.  Teacher tenure was extended and veteran teachers were targeted by the DOE's fair student funding policy.  The new buzz word by the DOE was was "accountability", unfortunately, accountability was only assigned to the teachers while DOE policy makers, school administrators, students, and parents were given a free pass from their own responsibility.

The roadblock stopping the DOE and their school administrators from riding roughshod over teachers were the veterans who had that institutional memory on how successful and collaborative schools work. To counter this the DOE did everything possible to demonize the veteran teacher and get them to leave the system.  Even the new Chancellor, Carmen Farina,  was onboard with the DOE policy, she warned new teachers to stay away from the teacher's room and veteran teachers.  People like James Eterno, Arther Goldstein, and Jeff Kuafman were radioactive to the DOE since they not only knew the contract, but were advocates for their teachers and would step up to the plate to defend their contractual rights. These are the teachers who had institutional memory and were able to use it to protect and support their staff.

Teacher institutional memory is what the DOE fears the most since these veteran teachers not only know the contract but understood how collaborative schools work.  This is opposite what the infamous "Leadership Academy" teaches which instructs perspective principals that they are the CEOs of their schools and they are in charge.  Collaboration with school staff is an inconvenient annoyance and is discarded when it does not serve the interest of the Principal.  In schools lucky enough to have a veteran teacher as a Chapter Leader and advocates for their staff, the Principal quickly realizes that its better to collaborate than confront and the school climate is better for all.  Unfortunately, too many Chapter Leaders lack both the institutional memory or the fortitude to confront the Principal.  The result is that in far too many schools you have a climate of mistrust and a hostile environment.

The bottom line is that schools fortunate enough that has veteran teachers with the institutional memory and is willing to advocate for their staff will make their school a better school.  By contrast, when principals are allowed to do as they please and there's no pushback from staff, the school will suffer from high teacher turnover, a hostile school environment, instability, and poor academic achievement for the students. A recipe for what makes a bad school.

When An Observation Is Not An Observation.

I have been hearing from various teachers that their school administration is trying to require them to follow a detailed lesson plan format, in direct violation of the contract.  Moreover, to push teachers to do the administration directed lesson plan, the administration is trying a different approach to compel teachers to follow their rules and fall into their web of destruction.  The administrators are telling teachers that one of their observations will be solely based upon their lesson plan and not actually observing the lesson in the classroom.  That's right.  some school administrators are proposing to do a lesson plan based observation without watching the lesson!

I suspect, the school administration is getting their marching orders from the Superintendent who is trying to circumvent the union contract that allows the teacher to determine the format and content of his or her lesson plan. Moreover, by having all teachers follow a boilerplate lesson plan, it makes it easier for the school administration to compare lesson plans and decide which lesson plan is inadequate and punish the teacher for it.  Finally, if the teaching staff cowers to the administration dictates, they can more easily manipulate the teachers to ignore other union contract provisions, be it per session activities, prep period duties, and meetings during lunch.

Speaking of observations, its time to meet your DOE field supervisor (assassin).  That's correct, the ATRs in

rotation have been notified that their field assassin will be meeting with then during the next two weeks.  interestingly, some ATRs who were excessed from closing schools have never had a field assassin assigned to them.  One teacher has been an ATR for 8 years and has never had one assigned to him.  By contrast, any ATR that were subject to discipline (3020-a, letter to their file as an ATR, or attendance issues) will automatically be given a DOE field assassin.

Why the inequality?  It goes back to somebody once telling me that the ATRs are put on two lists.  List one are teachers who were simply excessed from closing schools while the other list are teachers that were disciplined. Guess which list is more likely to get a field assassin?

Remember, rotating ATRs are subject to the teaching of the 21st century requirements and not Danielson. So don't allow the field assassins tell you that they are evaluating you under Charlotte Dainelson in the classroom.

When Will The DOE Remove Bad Principals? Apparently Never!

One of the best kept secret on why some schools struggle both academically and safety wise is the poor quality of the school's administration. There are far too many principals who have no business leading their school.  In fact Chancellor Carmen Farina stated that she believed that 400 principals are not capable of leading their school.  However, she apparently forgot to tell her Superintendents and few, if any principals were removed.

Many of the principals that need to be removed are graduates from the infamous "Leadership Academy", which until recently, the graduates didn't even have to be a classroom teacher!  Instead of being an instructional leader they became the CEO of their school and saw the Principal position as a stepping stone into higher paying positions in the educational policy field. The result was that the school administration refused to collaborate with the staff and teachers viewed the administration as the enemy rather than instructional leaders.

Under both Mayor Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio, the educational priority is how to remove "bad teachers" from the system rather than improve the hostile classroom and school environments.  Therefore, it suited their purpose to retain vindictive administrators as they were the tool to get veteran teachers to resign or retire.  Sure they also refused to give tenure to new teachers who dared to challenge their unwise decisions concerning students but who cared since there was always a fresh supply of inexpensive "newbie" teachers to abuse or hire an ATR provisionally for the remainder of the year.

Therefore, its in the DOE's best interest to protect these bad principals since they do the dirty work of removing veteran teachers and their institutional memory on how good schools work while using faulty statistics to claim improved student academic achievement is ongoing.  Of course, there has been little or no academic improvement in years. Remember, its not about what's best for the students but for these principals its how to protect themselves by manipulating graduation rates, hide school safety incidents, and blame staff for their shortcomings or unwise decisions for far too many principals in the system.

The Teacher Shortage Has Reached The Bronx.

The looming teacher shortage has apparently reached the Bronx. I have been told by various people that loads of vacancies have still not been filled as students showed up to their schools only to find out that they have no teacher in front of the classroom. At the high school level, many teachers are being asked to cover a sixth class in shortage area subjects, which now comes out of the school's budget this year,  In fact, discontinued teachers are now being hired in the Bronx, even if they were discontinued in another school district in the City.

School after school I visit as an ATR in Queens and speaking with different ATRs, they tell me of the many untenured and "newbie" teachers that are the majority of staff members.  School after school, with some exceptions, the teaching staff has the same complaints.  Senior teachers believe they are picked on by the school administration and many are being harassed out of the DOE. While the inexperienced teachers lack the institutional memory to understand how a collaborative school works and never lasts long enough to be a "quality teacher".

The results, especially in the Bloomberg small schools with Leadership Academy principals, teacher turnover is high and  these schools churn through teachers at rates that approach what the charter schools experience.   Combine that with the reduction of teachers graduating from teacher training programs in college and the damage done to the profession by the so-called education refoirmers and their media allies and its little wonder that the Bronx is nlw suffering from a certified teacher shortage.

I believe this is just the beginning of a widespread teacher shortage citywide as the State made teacher certification increasingly difficult and expensive.  Moreover, the low morale, pay, and accountability metrics in the State's teacher evaluation system discourage potential teacher recruits who rather go into more lucrative and respected professions. With 10% of the student population now going to charter schools, the overall teacher turnover will only increase as charter schools experience an average complete teacher turnover every three years.

It may take another five years but eventually politicians will realize that the laws and education policy that hurt teacher recruitment will be changed but by then it will be too late as many quality teachers will have left the school system and the city will be recruiting out of town and foreign teachers to fill the void.  Noit a recipe for student learning for the students in New York City.

How To Enhance Your Teacher Pension

The TRS website allows New York City Public School teachers to get a snapshot of our pension. Unfortunately,  the TRS changed their online access and their teacher pension calculation is incorrect and not updated monthly like they used to be.  Moreover, their calculated Final Average Salary (FAS) does not include per session, coverage, or 683 money earned in the three year (FAS).  These are duties that can enhance your pension.  That adjustment is made at your final pension consultation and even then that may be an adjustment by the TRS in retirement.  However, you can get an approximate pension number by looking at your last five years of your gross income on your W-2 form.

The reason for going back five years rather than three years is to see if any one year exceeded the 110%  cap as required by State law.  That amount that exceeds the 110% cap is not included in the FAS for pension purposes.  Interestingly, people who received their 9.9% twenty year longevity raise in the last couple of years  before retiring, along with the mandated yearly raise in May puts the teacher, over the 110% cap from the previous year's salary, even without the extra income.  This may not be fair but that's what our union let the State and City get away with.

Another way to enhance a pension is called "Ihe Art Of Pension Hopping" an article published in the prestigious Advisor Perspectives Journal  that showed that if a second career teacher worked in three different states who allow the teacher to use the time of each state (New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut) to enhance that person's pension in the State they worked in.  The author is a Math teacher in the New York City schools and is worth reading.  Unfortunately,  New York State does not allow teaching experience from other States or private institutions to be bought back. However, I believe all three states allow you to buy back New York State teaching experience to enhance their pensions in the State.

Finally, the best way to enhance a pension is to work at least 20 years and preferably 30 years and finding a school with a collaborative administration, (no leadership academy principals) well behaved students, supportive colleagues and a strict student discipline policy is the only way a New York City public school teacher can survive long enough for an enhanced pension.

Will New York City Tier VI Teachers Get A Pension? The Odds Are Against Them.

There is no question that for New York City teachers who can last in the increasingly hostile classroom, there lies a pot of gold by receiving a nice pension when they leave teaching.  Add that to the TDA and Social Security and teachers are set when they retire.  This is the Holy Grail that long-term teachers strive for.  These teachers gave up competitive salaries with other professions, suffer from constant disrespect from politicians, media, and the students, knowing that if they can just survive these indignities, it will be well worth it. This has been true as New York State has slowly reduced teacher pensions starting from Tier I to Tier VI.

During the time period when all teachers were covered under Tier 1 to Tier IV, pension plans only 40% of the teachers actually lasted till vesting (5-10years) and 33% made it to full retirement age (55 or 62). That means that the majority of teachers did not work long enough to get even a minimal pension. However, for those teachers who managed to make it long enough to be vested, they had a good chance to make it to full retirement age.

Fast forward twenty years from now and the vast majority of teachers will be Tier VI and be subject to the vastly reduced benefits that go with it.  For example, they have a 10 year vesting requirement and 15 years to receive retiree health benefits.  Moreover, the full retirement age is 63 compared to the 55-62 for the other Tiers (I to IV).  Finally, the pension amount is reduced, both by age and by the percentage used to calculate the pension (1.75%) compared to Tier IV (2.0%). See why the City wants to remove veteran Tier IV teachers.

While I cannot accurately predict how many Tier VI teachers will be vested and reach full retirement age.  I can venture an educated guess by looking at teacher retention statistics in other major urban areas.

City                           Teachers Making It To Retirement Age

New York City.....................................33%
Las Vegas..........................................20%
Philadelphia........................................7%
Los Angeles........................................6%
Honolulu.............................................5%
Washington D.C. .................................4%
Chicago..............................................4%
Houston..............................................3%
Miami.................................................1%
Tampa................................................1%

If you add the increased difficulty in achieving tenure, the use of the Charlotte Danielson rubric, the rise of the Leadership Academy Principal, the punitive teacher evaluation system, and the lack of collaboration, Tier VI teachers who reach full retirement age will probably be in the single digits and not the 33% cited in the report.

The bottom line is being a New York City teacher under Tier VI one shouldn't expect to last long enough to be vested and reach their full retirement age.  Start thinking of opening an IRA and when you leave the DOE and if your not vested, take the money you contributed to the pension plan should be added to the IRA since their is no teacher pension awaiting you.

Labor Day And Our Union Leadership

Today is Labor Day.  A day that celebrates workers throughout the nation. It is also a day when unions bring out their members to parade on the main streets of cities to show their pride.  However, when it comes to our union, the United Federation of Teachers, its not about worker rights its more about how much money the union leadership can get from the members, be it dues or COPE.  The union forces each member to fork over $1,346 annually and allow little or no input in the union's decision making process.

The "Unity" caucus controls the union and is run more like a communist dictatorship , think of the Soviet Union,  than a Democratic process.  To be part of the "Unity" caucus you must take a. loyalty oath and vote the way the leadership tells you or be kicked out of the caucus.  All paying union positions are controlled by the union leadership and unless you are part of the "Unity" caucus, you cannot get such a position,

Our disconnected union leadership has allowed for a group of educators to be glorified substitute teachers, moving from school to school like gypsies (ATRs), the only union that allowed this to happen to their members in the City.   Furthermore, they support policies like Common Core, high  stakes testing, the Charlotte Dainelson rubric, and junk science, despite the majority of teachers opposing these destructive policies.  Finally, they negotiated inferior contracts that resulted in massive "givebacks" like the 2005 contract and inferior raises to curry favor with the Mayor and Chancellor (the 2014 contract).

The result is that we have a union leadership that is more interested in political power and control than representing their members and on this Labor Day its time for our members understand that our union leadership is not about representing their members but serving their own self-interest. Maybe one day we will get a real leader who will champion member rights and when that happens I will be proud to march alongside my union in support of worker rights.

Which Teachers Have A Flag On Their Files?

Occasionally, I have written about the unfair flag put on teacher files that makes it virtually impossible to be hired by schools.  Who has this flag?  Quite a few teachers do and many have no idea that they do since only principals have access to the teacher's file and the flag attached to their file.  I call it the "Scarlet Letter"

Any teacher that had a substantiated OSI or SCI investigation finding, even if it did not lead to a 3020-a termination hearing has a flag on their file.  Moreover, if the teacher was charged under 3020-a. they also have a flag on their file. Having this flag on your file will discourage most schools from even interviewing the teacher for their vacancies.  It matters little if the teacher was ultimately found innocent of the accusations and charges, the flag on the file stays and only a time-consuming and costly Article 78 hearing in front of a State judge can force its removal from the teacher's file.

For teachers who were discontinued or irrevocably resigned or retired, they also have a flag on their file that is known as the "do not hire" list.  While discontinued teachers can theoretically get a job in another district, no principal would want to go through the hassle and the loads of paperwork to hire a previously discontinued teacher.  Further, any teacher who irrevocably resigned or retired are assumed to have been under 3020-a charges and cannot be hired for a DOE position as well.

Any teacher that retired and want to come back as a substitute teacher (they really should have their head examined) must have 5 consecutive years of satisfactory or effective ratings in their last five years of active service to do so.  One year of unsatisfactory or ineffective ratings in the last 5 years of active service will result in the DOE rejecting their substitute teaching application.

Unfortunately, our disconnected union leadership has allowed for this unfair situation to continue unopposed.  Instead of filing a PERB complaint or file a lawsuit, they have buried their collective heads in the sand and allowed this abuse to continue for the last 5 years as far too many teachers are denied an opportunity to apply for vacancies or even to continue their livelihood in the profession.

Betsy Combier at the Rubber Room Reporter blog is reaching out to all teachers to join a potential class action lawsuit that will eliminate the unfair flags put on teacher files and she can be reached at betsy.combier@gmail.com

What Are The ATR Rules This Year?

There seems to be some confusion on what rules ATRs are subject to.  To the best of my knowledge, the 2011 ATR agreement is now in force and the 2014 ATR agreement is no longer valid since our union leadership allowed it to sunset on the last day of the school year. I believe I speak for the vast majority of the ATRs who believed the 2014 ATR agreement made us second class citizens and was being abused by dumping rotating ATRs into temporary provisional vacancies simply to try to terminate them in an expedited 3020-a process for the  ill-defined "unprofessional misconduct".

What does the 2011 ATR agreement say?  First, rotating ATRs go back to a weekly rotation after the first placement that lasts to October 17th.  Second, the DOE can no longer force ATRs to take provisional assignments outside their district, third, there are no longer expedited 3020-a hearings for "unprofessional behavior". Of course, there were more issues with the 2014 ATR agreement, such as missing two mandatory interviews or not showing up results in the ATR voluntarily resigning  Unfortunately, the union will continue to allow the field assassins to continue to try to terminate us.

Saying that, it's possible that the union leadership could has secretly negotiated some changes to the 2011 ATR agreement such as longer placements in rotation but since I have heard no rumors of this happening, I must assume the 2011 ATR agreement is now in force.  I guess we will know for sure when our union gives us their "dog and pony" show around October 1st.

Academic Fraud Continues At Some Schools And The DOE Does Not Little About It.

After delaying for six months, the DOE finally released information that 30 high schools violated State and City "credit recovery" guidelines and allowed students undeserved credits to jack up their graduation rates. What discipline did the DOE impose on the school administration?  None, that's right, not one school administrator was disciplined, no Principal was fired, fined, or even given a letter to their file.  Of the 30 high schools cited, only 10 will be monitored by the DOE (ha, ha) to ensure they don't violate the credit recovery regulations in the future.

Acade4mic fraud in the New York City public schools has not been eradicated but continues to thrive as principals have little to fear if they get caught "gaming the system" as the DOE rather put "lipstick on the pig" then take real educational action for the alleged abuses. Maybe, if the DOE took seriously the many educational abuses found in the schools rather than protect school administrators, we would get a true picture of the student academic achievement at each school.  Instead, we end up with highly inflated and bogus graduation rates where over 3 out of every 4 students need to take no credit remedial courses in college and far too many drop out before getting a degree.

Chancellor Carmen Farina and Mayor Bill de Blasio seem to follow the Bloomberg/Klein script that student academic achievement is getting better and the racial/income achievement gap is narrowing when the truth is that any academic improvement is all "smoke and mirrors" and until the administration decides to reduce class sizes, ensure teachers certified in the subject are in front of the classroom, and schools are fully resourced, student academic achievement is just a pipe dream.

Why Teaching In The New York City Public Schools Under The Charlotte Danielson Rubric Is Hurting Student Achievement.

When I first started teaching 20 years ago, my Assistant Principal was there to assist me as I struggled through classroom management problems, curriculum issues, and the stress of controlling 150 different incomplete teenage personalities on a daily basis.  When I had a problem, my assistant principal would offer helpful hints, she would tell me stories how she struggled in her early years of teaching, and how the students have told her how they liked me, even with all my faults.  With her supportive guidance I went from a terrible "newbie" teacher to a quality teacher five years later.

During my early years of teaching I never had to worry about a "gotcha observation" and the administration would give me a "heads up" when they intended to come in.  Moreover, the school administration allowed me to teach the way I felt most comfortable with and the result was many of my students exceeded expectations.  To the school  administration it was what's best for the students not going after teachers or using a "one-size-fits-all" rubric to satisfy DOE Central.

Unfortunately, for most teachers those days are long gone.  Now we have Leadership Academy Principals with little or no classroom experience who think of themselves as CEO's of their school rather than as an instructional leader.  Furthermore, we also have assistant principals who ended up in their position by connections and not teaching ability.  Their job has morphed from respected educational role models to feared bosses.

The main weapon the school administration uses is the Charlotte Danielson rubric that forces teachers to follow a scripted format to be rated "effective".  Combine the Charlotte Danielson rubric with poor school administration and you have a recipe for disaster when it comes to teacher satisfaction and more importantly, student learning. Many studies have shown a strong correlation between effective leadership, teacher satisfaction and student academic achievement, yet the Chancellor and her DOE managers rather concentrate on terminating teachers than improving the hostile classroom environment and until that changes all the DOE claimed academic improvements are all smoke and mirrors.

Will things change?  I hope so but I do not believe that the pendulum will swing back until we have a change at the top and a new Chancellor is appointed, until that time look for a continued emphasis on a punitive teacher evaluation system and low teacher morale in the New York City public schools.

Carmen Farina's Fantasyland When It Comes To The Renewal Schools.

I snickered with amusement as I read the Chalkbeat interview with the disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, and was especially laughing about the lies she said about the staffing of the renewal schools.  If you read the Chancellor's comments you would be led to believe that "quality teachers" were applying in droves for coveted positions in the renewal schools. Unfortunately, the truth is very different.

Let's look at what happened at Automotive High School.  Few teachers reapplied for their jobs and the hired staff consisted of "newbies" with zero classroom experience.  That is what's happening at all the renewal schools.  Few "quality teachers" are willing to jeopardize their careers to work in these struggling schools with "high needs" students while being subject to onerous accountability requirements that make teaching that more difficult. Yet, according to the Chancellor, teachers are applying to the renewal schools so they can be subject to the increased stress, useless professional development, and added responsibilities working in the renewal schools.  Either she is in fantasyland or outright lying.

Even when it came to the attendance issue, the Chancellor was less than forthright.  She made it seem that the student enrollment has stabilized and that at least one school had more applicants than spaces available.  First, most of the renewal schools continue to have enrollment issues and the parents of academically proficient students do not select these schools for their child.  Moreover, many of the renewal schools suffer from safety concerns as the schools have more violent incidents than other schools.  Finally, the increased accountability on teachers add to an already stressful situation at these renewal schools.

The truth is that the renewal schools are not a pleasant place to work in and no matter what the Chancellor claims, its a place that no "quality teacher" would willingly work in.

Chancellor Carmen Farina's Report Card Is A "D" For Disappointing.

Its been two and a half years since Carmen Farina took over the New York City Public schools as Chancellor and she continues to be a disappointment to the students, parents, and teachers of our school system.  Let's look at why the Chancellor has maintained her disappointing "D" rating.


First, the good things she has done,

Eliminated the useless and money sucking Children First Networks and gave the Superintendents  back the power they need to effectively run their schools.  However, many of the Chancellor's selections to be a Superintendent must be questioned, be it Juan Mendez or Amiee Horoiwitz.

Require seven years of school teaching and administration before graduating from the Leadership Academy to become a Principal.  However, she has apparently carved out some exceptions already.

Now the bad.

Carmen Farina has shown that she supported the continued attacks on teachers as her 3020-a numbers are similar to when Bloomberg was Mayor.  Moreover, she has told new teachers not to listen to the older teachers in the teacher's room.

The ATR pool has remained relatively unchanged since she became Chancellor and she is more interested in firing the ATRs than placing them in schools.  Just look at the 2014 contract that made ATRs second class citizens and even tried to overreach by pushing some into expedited 3020-a hearings.

Class sizes have actually rose under Chancellor Carmen Farina and school resources remain scarce as schools struggle with tight budgets while DOE Central remains bloated.

Now the ugly.

Chancellor Carmen Farina continues to support "fair student funding" (fsf) and to make matters worse, the average school only received 86% of the fsf allocated to the school.  Worse, the Chancellor's budgeting shenanigans has resulted in the school;s forced to hire"the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school.

The Chancellor's failure to remove bad principals after telling the media their are 400 principals who should not be running their schools.

The lax student discipline code that has made schools increasingly unsafe for all.

The bottom line:  Chancellor Carmen Farina gets a grade of "D" for disappointing.

What Metric Should One Use To Determine If A Student Will Be A Sucessful Adult?

A couple of years ago, I proposed that the "college and career readiness" metric should be used to determine if  a school was giving their students a quality education and on track to being a successful adult. I received some undeserved flack from my fellow bloggers and teaching colleagues when this metric showed that majority Black schools did the poorest using this metric.  The more sane of my critics pointed out that the "college and career readiness" metric was not an appropriate indicator of adult success. However, nobody proposed a better metric.  The reason I used this metric was because Principals and the DOE could not manipulate the "college and career readiness" metric.

By contrast throughout the DOE academic fraud is practiced and even condoned at Tweed, be it the bogus graduation rate, phony credit recovery programs, undeserved credit accumulation, or scholarship requirements that forces teachers to pass 80% or more of their students (included frequent absentees) or face low observation ratings.

In January I used a ratio between the graduation rate and college readiness rate for all unscreened high schools in Queens and found any school with a ratio of 3 or less was giving a quality education.   On the other hand, any schools that was higher than 3 raises doubts about how successful their graduates would be in the adult world.   While I received less criticism, there were the same complaints about using the "college and career readiness" metric. 

Today I received a call from a professor from a well known college who was preparing a detailed study on which schools graduate the most successful students into the adult world.  We talked about culture, poverty, family, and peer influences and then he asked me which metric I would use to predict student success in the adult world.  Not surprisingly I cited the "college and career readiness" metric since it could not easily be manipulated by principals.  The professor stated that he was looking for a metric that corrected for all the factors we discussed and using the "college and career reediness" metric did not correct for these factors.   I mentioned the State tried to do this and most education experts call it 'junk science" and has been universally panned. We finished our conversation with promises that we will keep in touch.

My question to all,  what metric would you use to predict the success of a student in the adult world?  I'm interested in your thoughts on this matter.

In Defense Of A Great Teacher.

I have read the unfair and inaccurate twitter criticism of teacher Arthur Goldstein by failed educator and journalist Alexander Nazaryan who couldn't last five years in the New York City Public Schools and believe it's time to defend Arthur Goldstein as the great teacher he is.  This started as a twitter battle between the two.  Arthur Goldstein took offense that Mr. Nazarayan called Arthur a shrill for the UFT, which Arthur quite correctly pointed out as being ridiculous.  Mr. Nazaryan then decided to attack Arthur personally and showed his true colors by disrespecting the entire teaching profession.  Mr. Nazaryan said the following on Twitter to Arthur.

"People like you is why teaching is not respected anymore". 

Now I worked with Arthur Goldstein back in 2011 and 2013-14 school years and covered  for him while an ATR in 2011.  I can tell you that his students genuinely respected and missed him when his Chapter Leader duties required him to represent teachers or meet with school administration.  Arthur teaches ESL and his students have recently arrived in the country with little English skills.  Yet by the end of the school year these students, who can barely speak English and have no English reading or writing skills, have developed into proficient English speakers and are on their way to successfully pass the English Regents.  Most of their success is attributed to Arthur Goldstein gently prodding these students to success by using a combination of academic instruction, joking, nurturing, and stern lecturing,  A hallmark of a "quality teacher".

When I covered three ESL Earth Science classes in the 2013-14 school year, I asked the students which teacher helped them the most to acclimate to our culture.  Universally they told me it was Mr. Goldstein who helped them the most.  Arthur, works with the most needy students in the school and  is loved and respected by his students who end up becoming productive adults and a real asset to their adopted country.


By contrast, we have failed educator Alexander Nazaryan who back in 2012 disparaged the high needs students and  staff of the South Bronx schools while praising his students and Principal at the high achieving specialized Brooklyn Latin, before he left teaching altogether.  Read my 2012 post Here..

Now Mr. Nazaryan has written another article, from the view of a failed teacher and an education reformer in Newsweek.  At first, Mr. Nazaryan;s article seemed to present both sides of the education issue but then he wrote this.

 Paradox alert: The people who know our public school system better than anyone, the ones who suddenly have it back in their hands, were the very ones who allowed American schools to sink into mediocrity, so much so that the most powerful nation in the world does markedly worse than Slovenia in educating its young. The reform movement, after all, would have been unnecessary if previous generations of public educators had done their jobs.

Mr. Nazaryan with the above statement is showing his education reformer slip if you ask me. Moreover, he cited the badly flawed MDRC study that is pro small schools and and ideological in nature as proof of the small school success.  However, please read my post on why the MDRC study is crap.  There are more in his article I disagree with but while, on the whole his article appears somewhat even handed, its obvious his personal opinion is very sympathetic to the education reform movement and his twitter response to Arthur Goldstein shows a clear bias against the teaching profession.

I only have one question to my readers which of the two people would you want your child to be taught by?  A great teacher who works miracles yearly with high needs students new to our country or a person who left teaching and couldn't wait to leave his high needs students in his first school? I believe the answer is obvious. Its Arthur Goldstein




 

Besides being Disrespected, Teachers Are Underpaid As Well.

In a new study by the non-partisan Economic Policy Institute found that the pay gap between teachers and other professionals is wider than ever. The latest data shows that teachers are paid 17% less than other professions with similar education and experience.  By contrast the wage gap between teachers and the other professionals was only 1.8% in the mid 1990's.  The question is why did the pay gap between teachers and other professions get so large?

First, is the unattractive salaries and working conditions, especially in poor urban schools that result in many teachers leaving the profession for better paying positions and without the stress of the classroom.  They are usually replaced by "newbie" teachers who make minimum salary, who in turn, leave for greener pastures themselves in a few years. This further depresses salaries as school districts suffer high teacher turnover and leave before receiving significant salary raises.

Second, State and Local teacher evaluation, complete with "junk science" , has made lasting in the profession a punitive one and has resulted in few college students willing to enter the teaching profession which has resulted in widespread shortages.

Third, the school and teacher accountability policies by politicians and education reformers have resulted in high teacher turnover nationwide. Many teachers decide that their talents are better compensated and appreciated in other professions.

Finally, the climate of disrespect fostered by education reform organizations and their political and media allies has made the teaching profession an unappealing long-term job and has encouraged potential teacher candidates to seek other professions.

A side note, having a union that can collectively bargain helps somewhat as unionized teachers make only 11% less than other professions with similar education and experience.  However, that is sill far less than what they should be paid.

The Charter School Miracle Is Simply Smoke And Mirrors

If you read the Daily News and New York Post editorial boards and their education reporters like Ben Chapman and others they would have you believe that charter schools are superior to the neighborhood public schools.   They would cite the badly flawed State tests as evidence but ignore the many negative issues associated with the charter schools. Just read my post Here.

Removing the struggling student:  First and foremost the more successful charter schools will find ways to remove the academically struggling or badly behaved student from their school by the third grade when testing begins.This weeding out process continues throughout the years so by the time the cohort leaves the school, there is less than a third of the original group left.  Furthermore, the successful charter schools don't back-fill the open positions, this ensures that they keep the more successful students without diluting the cohort.

Emphasis on test preparation:  Its no secret that the successful charter schools concentrated on teaching to the State tests, especially English and Math.  Both subjects can make up almost 50% of the school day.  Interest6ingly, until this year none of the charter school students were selected to the specialized high schools since the entrance exam was based on mastery of all subjects, not just English and Math.

High teacher turnover: Few charter school teachers last three years ant there is a 50% turnover yearly.  In fact the State, realizing that the charter schools were finding it difficult to hire and keep certified teachers, allowed a third of the staff to be uncertified.

Lack of high needs students: The successful charter schools do not represent the neighborhood demographics and recruit potentially higher achieving students from outside the neighborhood.  This is especially true when it comes to English Language Learners and Special Education students. The few of these students the successful charter schools take usually get nothing more than a resource room.

When you look, in depth, at the so-called education miracle you find it's really all smoke and mirrors.  Just take a look at what blogger Gary Rubinstein did to show this and can be found in my blog Here..

Comparing Apples And Oranges - The New York State Common Core Tests Of 2016.

With great fanfare our inept Mayor, Bill de Blasio, and our disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, hailed the academic improvement of the New York City students.  What was left unsaid was that the 2016 tests were radically different from the previous years.  The 2016 tests were shorter, with less questions, and more importantly, there was no time limit.  Furthermore, because of the large "opt out" numbers in the higher achieving middle class suburbs the cut scores are lower.   NYSED commissioner, Maryellen Elia even stated that this year's test was "not an apples to apples comparison" as she told the New York Post.  Furthermore, the esteemed CUNY education professor, David Bloomfield said the following.  "The increases are illusory.”


Unfortunately, real academic achievement has not been demonstrated by the badly flawed and manipulated high-stakes State tests.  In fact the NAEP national test, the gold standard, has not shown any improvement in student academic achievement since 2013. Therefore, the 2016 State tests are probably invalid as a meaningful measurement to show real academic gains.  Read the NYC Parents Blog for a clearer and more complete analysis of the State test flaws.

Let me give you a real world example, if you were a chess player and played chess with and without a clock  which game would you fare better in?  The game without a clock of course since there is no time pressure to contend with..  The same goes for the State tests, the students are bound to do better without the pressure of a time limit. Moreover, the fewer questions also contributes to higher student achievement, especially when the State once again lowered the "cut scores".  Finally, teachers were given more test preparation materials and were better able to concentrate their test preparation instruction.  This is especially true in the charter schools where the majority of the day is concentrated on the English and Math test preparation.  Therefore, it's little surprise that the charter schools had relatively large increases in the badly flawed State tests.

The bottom line is that the NYS high-stakes Common Core tests are badly flawed, manipulated to meet certain political goals, and are geared to test preparation rather than real learning.  Consequently, these State tests and have no validity when it comes to real academic achievement.

To Our Clueless Mayor And Chancellor, Its School Safety Stupid.

 Parents, students, and teachers were asked how satisfied they were with the public schools and parents gave a 95% approval rating of the education their children are getting.  However, they had one overriding complaint.  You guessed it school safety issues.  All three groups expressed concern to the deteriorating school safety climate and saw their satisfaction levels drop in this category.

The largest drop came from teachers who saw their school safety issue a concern. The 2016 report showed that teachers most affected by the deteriorating school safety issue by increasing 5% from 2015. The percentage of teachers who reported that order and discipline are maintained at their schools fell from 85% in 2015 to 80% in 2016.

Both Bill de Blasio and Carmen Farina claim that suspensions and arrests are disproportionately given to Black and Latino students and therefore, is racial in nature.  However, the head of the school safety agents, Greg Floyd, which is 90% minority (70% women) said the following statements to the Chief with regard to the high arrest rates of minority students.

"Activists like to take statistics and run with them, they don't like to look at the complete picture.  No one is looking to arrest black or white students, they're arresting students who are committing crimes".  

"Given the de Blasio administration's record of allowing crime to go unpunished, I suspect that now there's going to be a push not to arrest anybody in the schools for doing anything."


With the new, more lenient student discipline polices enacted by our clueless and inept Mayor and his disappointing Chancellor, look for school safety issues to become an increasingly dangerous problem as violent and insubordinate students are left in class to continue to terrorize and disrupt the classroom making a peaceful classroom where everybody can learn a pipe dream.

Education Reform Billionaires For Hillary Clinton.

I have been getting some hate mail from my fellow teachers and I suspect from our union leadership on my previous post about who supports Hillary Clinton.  Their main complainant is that the only alternative is Donald Trump and he is pro charter school and school choice (vouchers).  While I agree that Donald Trump's education agenda is terrible for the public schools.  If he were to somehow win the presidency, the Democratic National Committee's (DNC) education agenda (not Hillary Clinton's) would deadlock Congress and the Donald would have no choice but to comprise his education agenda if he is to get things done.

By contrast, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, she will disregard the DNC education agenda and support the education reformers that have had Barack Obama's backing.  Besides the $48.5 million dollars she has received from hedge funds she also is supported by the education reform billionaires as well.  Already Eli Broad, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and the Walton clan has donated loads of money to Hillary's campaign.  Moreover, they have strongly and publicly support Hillary Clinton.  Does anybody really believe she would ignore their demands? 

Hillary Clinton has said she would continue Barack Obama's policies and if that includes education then it will be a another 4 years of hurting public school education as the Republican agenda would be closer to what education reformers want and I can see Hillary Clinton and the Republicans having common cause when it comes to education policy.  I hope I'm wrong but I doubt it.

More Students "Opt Out" Of The Inappropriate New York State Common Core Tests.

New York State Education Department finally published the final "opt out" numbers and found that the "opt out" percentage increased by 2% statewide from 20% to 22% of the total student population eligible to take the tests.  The NYSED claimed it as flat but that statewide the almost 2% increase means that an additional 22,000 students refused to take the badly flawed tests.  That means a total of 240,000 students "opted out", up from 218,000 last year and 54,000 (5%) in 2014.

NYSED claimed only 21% actually "opted out" by receiving a parent's written statement but an additional 1% were absent without parental notification.  Last year NYSED did not breakdown the absences and therefore it made it seem that their was only a small increase in the "opt out" rate.

New York City increased their "opt out" rate from 1.5% to 2.4% (or 2% to 3% when absences are included).  The low "opt out" rate in New York City are due to three factors.  A minority and immigrant population, union leadership's non-support of the "opt out" movement, and a hostile DOE response to the "opt out" movement including threats to take disciplinary action against teachers who express support to their students and their parents.  This theme was common in all the major urban cities throughout the State.

By contrast, the mainly white middle class school districts, especially in Long Island were the epicenter of the "opt out" movement is obvious and where 52% of the total student population "opted out".  Listed below are the Long Island school districts with the highest "opt out" rates.

School District...............Percentage

Comsewogue......................83% 
Plainedge...........................79%
Rocky Point........................78%
Eastport Manor...................77%
Sayille...............................76%
Patchogue-Medford............76%
Bellmore-Merirck...............75%
East Islip...........................74%
Middle Country..................74%
Connetquot.......................73%
Sachem............................70%
Farmingdale......................70%
Hauppauge.......................70%


On the other hand, the lowest "opt out" rates were concentrated in low income minority neighborhoods in Long Island and are listed below

School District...............Percentage

Wyandanch..........................4% 
Hempstead...........................5%
Roosevelt.............................8% 
Elmont................................10%
Manhasset..........................12%
Central Islip........................15%


Will the "opt out" movement continue to expand?  Only if the movement can make more inroads in minority and immigrant communities who appear to be either afraid or uninterested in doing what's in the best interest of their child and the Common Core based inappropriate State tests are not in the student's best interest as its not age appropriate and just brings fear and loathing to their child.

Why Hillary Clinton Is Untrustworthy When It Comes To Public Education.

I have been hearing how Hillary Clinton is the "lesser of the two evils" when it comes to whom I should vote for.  According to my fellow blogger nyc educator, he will be holding his nose and vote for Hillary Clinton simply because Donald Trump is worse.   If one looks at the education planks of the two parties, its obvious the Democratic party plank is pro public school while the Republican plank is pro charter and would allow vouchers which would dismantle the public school sector.  However, experience has shown that the elected President usually disregards their party's plank and imposes his or her own policies.  Just look at what President Obama did to the public schools during his eight years as President?  He bribed states in using hastily developed high-stakes Common Core based testing and teacher evaluations using "junk Science" that has resulted in massive teacher shortages nationwide.  Moreover, he is a charter school supporter and education reformer that has hurt the public schools by diverting scarce resources to the charter schools without the accountability demanded in the public school sector.

Now back to Hillary Clinton. after the Democratic National Committee unveiled their education plank, Eli Broad, one of the most powerful education reformers in the country was concerned.  However, according to the Wall Street Journal, Hillary Clinton s husband Bill Clinton quickly reassured Mr. Broad that the DNC's agenda was not Hillary's and she will continue to support the charter school sector.  Now it seems that the deep-pocketed Hedge Funds who support and fund charter schools and education reform organizations have contributed,  according to a Wall Street Journal article,  to Hillary Clinton's campaign $48.5 million dollars in Hedge Fund donations compared to $19,000 for Donald Trump.  Do you really think that Hillary Clinton will not support the charter schools given the massive amounts of money the hedge fund community has given to her campaign and their close relationship with Eli Broad?

If Hillary Clinton becomes President of the United States do you really believe that she will abandon the charter school sector?  The answer is a loud no and that means that for every dollar that goes to the charter school sector, that's a dollar taken away from public schools and with a charter friendly supporter as President, look for the non-accountable charter school sector to continue to bloom at the expense of the public school system.

If you really trust Hillary Clinton to safeguard public school education then I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Another Renewal School To Avoid - Richmond Hill High School

One of the many issues facing the renewal schools is not only the poor academic skills of the student body but the feeling that these schools are unsafe for students and staff alike.  In Queens, August Martin and John Adams high schools were declared "out of time" and many of the staff either refused to reapply for their jobs or were not selected, replaced by inexperienced or "newbie" teachers.  How that helps these schools and their students are beyond me.  Then there is William Cullen Bryant High School with one of the worst Principals in the City pushing out experienced staff and allegedly giving double credits to the students.  How about the infamous Flushing High School who has had five principals in six years and where massive excessing occurred wile staff morale is at rock bottom.  Finally, there are Martin Van Buren and Richmond Hill where the most weapons were confiscated and most arrests occurred.  Who in their right mind would risk their reputation and well-being working in these schools?

Interestingly, the Chapter Leader of Richmond Hill has been playing up the school while admitting that "working at Richmond Hill requires a huge commitment", meaning that teachers are under continuous pressure to improve student performance or else. Moreover, the Principal Neil Garnesh is rated poorly by many teachers and is in the bottom rung of trust for High School principals in Queens.  Finally, the school cannot attract academically proficient students to the school and has many teachers not certified in subjects they are teaching in (Earth Science is a prime example).  Now it seems Richmond Hill has a new distinction, the school with the most student arrests in Queens.

Cosmetic changes to the renewal schools is not the answer,  First, hire "the best and not cheapest" teachers for staff and develop a magnet program (Gateway) for academically performing students Second,  bring back high school zoning so that the schools could retain more academically performing students in the neighborhood.   Finally, recruit a school administration that willing to collaborate, .and not dictate to the staff.  No :Leadership Academy Principals please.  These three simple steps will slowly improve the renewal schools not how its being done by the DOE.  More about the DOE's renewal school failure in my next post.