Why The MDRC Small School Study Is Crap.

Once again the so-called non-profit MDRC has used questionable statistics and biased assumptions to falsely show that the Bloomberg small schools, between 2002-07, had better graduation rates and enrolled in college at a higher percentage than the large high schools. Yes, if one looks at the simple conclusion it does look like the small schools have a 4 year graduation rate that's 15% higher than the large schools and 49% enroll in college compared to the 40% in the larger schools.  However, if one looks deeper into the statistics you find some very disturbing problems with the study.

First, the MDRC study only sampled the oversubscribed small schools and not all the small schools.   In particular, the MDRC study left out the small schools that had open seats and located in deep poverty communities.  I wonder how that would have changed the small school statistics?

Second, its common knowledge that during the Chancellor Joel Klein tenure, which takes in the 2002-07 study period, small schools were allowed to exclude "high needs" students, like Special Education, English Language Learners, and students with behavioral, attendance, and academic difficulties.

Third, while the average large school was underfunded by 20%, the Bloomberg small schools were given their full allocation and then some more additional funding to ensure they succeed.

Finally, the DOE deliberately dumped large numbers of "high needs" and over the counter students into the large schools, lowering their 4 year graduation rates and college enrollment percentage.

Let's see, if I opened a school and excluded "high needs" students, used academics, attendance, and  behavioral parameters to select or reject students,  and didn't take my fair share of over the counter students  my school would be successful too.  What's interesting is that the small schools didn't have better results, considering their exclusion of low achieving middle school students.  The reason probably lies with the poor administration (leadership academy principals)  and their hiring of inexperienced teachers that hurt student academic achievement.

If you believe the MDRC study is accurate than I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.

Why You Need Equity Funds In Your Retirement Portfolio.

The most important question when one is nearing retirement is "will my income be sufficient to last thirty or more years"?  The answer to that question is complicated since most retirees what a risk-adverse retirement portfolio and don't know how long they will live.  However, in our present low inflation environment risk-adverse instruments like bank CDs, money market funds, and bonds pay little or no interest (>2%) and therefore does not generate the sufficient income necessary to live comfortably in retirement.  Sure, as educators we get a pension and social security benefits and they are partly but not fully adjusted for inflation and consequently, the spending power will be eroded over time. Most educators have been intelligent enough to put money in the TDA but as one approaches their retirement date, the majority puts it into the fixed income plan that gives 7% interest, a nice perk in our low inflation period.  However, like all risk-adverse instruments, the fixed income portion of the TDA will erode over time as well as inflation will slowly eat away at the spending power  Let's look at the three risk-adverse retirement funds and why the total income will erode over time due to inflation.

Pension:  Our pension is partly adjusted for inflation.  However, the inflation adjustment does not occur until 5 years after you retire and ten years if you retire at 55 years of age.  Using the average inflation rate, the pension will erode by 15% by the time the pension is eligible for an inflation adjustment and 28% if you retire at 55 years of age.  Moreover, the inflation adjustment is only one half of the Consumer Price Index (CPT) and is limited to 3% no matter how high the CPI gets. Finally, the inflation adjustment is confined to the first $18,000 while the average teacher pension is $42,000, that means that the majority of the pension is not adjusted for inflation. Therefore the pension spending power will be eroded over time.

Social Security: Unlike pensions, social security is adjusted for inflation.  However, the modified CPI used for the inflation adjustment ignores energy and food spikes which adversely affects retirees.  Further, social security only accounts for 25% or less of an educator's retirement income.

TDA: Quite a few educators take an annuity from the TDA since it provides the largest payout.  Since the average educator TDA is $316,000 then the payout is approximately $30,000.  However, just like all other risk-adverse instruments the $30,000 will erode over time since there is no inflation adjustment when you annuitize the TDA.

How much will the retirement income erode over time due to inflation assuming a historical inflation rate of 3.4%?

Years                                    Erosion Due To Inflation
5.........................................................15%
10.......................................................28%
15.......................................................39%
20.......................................................49%
25.......................................................57%   
30.......................................................63%

That means that the $30,000 annuity in 2044 will have the same buying power as $11,100 would have today.  Not a pleasant thought. 

How does one account for the eroding effects of inflation?  The answer is to include in your retirement portfolio assets that appreciate over time and the only asset that has stood the test of time are equity funds. Historically, going back to the Great Depression, stock equity funds have appreciated by 7.7% over the period.  Yes, there are some bad years, the latest being 2008 but in the long run stocks and equity funds appreciate above the inflation rate and will protect your retirement portfolio from the ravages of inflation.  There are other assets that appreciate like commodities, .real estate, collectables, and precious metals but they are rife with speculators and experience wide swings and are not appropriate for a retirement portfolio.

Many professionals recommend an asset allocation that will give you the best chance of success is a 60% stock/40% fixed retirement portfolio but in any case, one should have at least a 40% equity fund allocation in their retirement portfolio. Regardless how you structure your retirement income, make sure that equity funds are part of the portfolio to protect you from the ravages of inflation.

How High Schools Are Shortchanging Students In Science Education.

One of the more unfortunate aspects of the DOE budgeting process is the reduction of a quality Science education as the high schools reduce their Science departments to the bone.  This results in hurting student academic performance and puts the NYC high schools students at a competitive disadvantage with other New York State schools.  The DOE funding program called "fair student funding" (fsf) inadequately funds the schools,who, in turn, eliminate popular electives, reduce Advanced Placement (AP) courses, and cut extracurricular activities, the very programs that make for a successful school.  In addition, many teachers are encouraged to teach a "sixth period" and suffer burnout by the end of the school year as schools try to keep their staff salaries down.

In the New York City high schools principals are hamstrung with the unfair fsf fiasco that find many schools underfunded by receiving only 85% of what the formula should allow for.  Moreover, since 2008, the average school budget has been reduced by 14% and the disappointing Chancellor shockingly froze it at 2013 levels rhis school year. Therefore, principals have cut their expenses any way they can and that includes staff.

One of the ways that high schools have cut payroll is to reduce the amount of Science teachers needed at their school.  In far too many schools the principal has replaced the New York State recommended 5-1 program to a 4-1 program.  This means that students will have one less instructional day as the laboratory requirement will replace the instructional day once a week for Regents Science subjects.  This means that the students are receiving a month's less of instruction and the Regents results show a significant drop off of Regents passing grades. Moreover, many schools encourage non-certified Science teachers to teach , especially when it comes to Earth Science and that also results in a lower Regents passing percentage.  When you combine the three issues, many students who may have passed the Science Regents don't and fail to receive the coveted advanced Regents diploma that colleges look for.

Unfortunately, the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy extends to AP courses as well.  Many schools either don't offer the classes or limit them to six periods weekly rather than the recommended ten classes  as recommended by the College Board.  The result of this shortsighted approach puts the students at a competitive disadvantage with the nation and few students achieve the grade of 3 or higher, the minimum necessary to receive college credit.

Finally, some high schools have inexplicably replaced Regents Earth Science with non-Regents courses such as Astronomy, Environmental Science, Forensics, and conceptional Physics. Making it virtually impossible for the students to get an advanced Regents diploma unless they take the much more difficult Regents Chemistry or Physics courses.

A prime example of the short-sighted approach is happening at Cardozo High School, once the shinning jewel of the NYC high schools that has dulled in the last few years. It was only a few years ago that Cardozo has a 34 person Science department.  However, due to excessing, sixth period assignments, and  reduction in courses, the Science department is down to 19, a 45% reduction in staff!  AP courses are six periods weekly and many students don't get college credit/  Moreover, the school has one certified Earth Science teacher for a school of 4,000 students.  Is it any wonder that two thirds of the students failed the Earth Science Regents last year?  Of course that's better than at Bayside high school who excessed two Earth Science teachers and saw their passing percentage drop from 73% to 30% last year! Noe Chemistry is converted to a 4-1 course and I suspect the Chemistry Regents passing rate will drop accordingly.

How in the world can the DOE keep a straight face and claim that student academic achievement will improve when their very policies are putting students in a competitive disadvantage when it comes to all other schools in the State and Nation.  No wonder NYC's "college and career readiness" scores are dismal.  The disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, needs to wake up from her dream world and face the reality  of the consequences of the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy that's hurting the children.

For Many, The Charter School Miracle Really Is A Mirage.

If you read the New York City newspapers, you would think the charter schools are the answer to the "failing schools" issue.   According to the print media the charter schools have shown the way to student academic achievement. However, when you look at the few successful charter schools and go deeper into the statistics, you would find that the charter school miracle is simply a mirage. A look at the NYC Public School Parents blog is a must read to see what the damaging effects the charter schools brought to the public schools in Harlem's District 5.

The supporters and backers of charter schools claim that these schools give minority children a choice and gives them a chance to succeed academically.  What the charter school supporters fail to mention is that the successful charter schools practice an exclusion policy that makes sure that "high needs" students are not part of the student population of the school. A UFT report shows how the charter schools fail to serve the most neediest students.

First, to apply to a charter school, a family must fill out a detailed application that many families don't want to be bothered with.  Therefore, many of the more dysfunctional, high poverty families are excluded by their failure to fill out the application for selection into the charter school.  Moreover, the charter schools expect parental involvement and volunteers for their school and this excludes families who don't have the time or motivation to do that. Not surprisingly,  the above referenced UFT report showed that charter schools have less deep poverty students than the district schools as a result of the application process.

Second, the charter school will discourage English Language Learners and Special Education Students from applying to the school by claiming that they don't have the resources or services for their children.  This limits the number of "high needs" students who are students at the charter schools.

Third, many of these charters have a strict student discipline policy and behaviorally challenged students are usually kicked out of the school and dumped into the district public school.  If a parent balks at removing the student, the school will threaten to have the student repeat the grade as an encouragement to have the student leave the charter school.

Fourth, If a student academically struggles, the charter school will counsel out the student before they hit the testing grades,  The charter schools use the same trick as they do for the behaviorally challenged students by threatening the parent with the child's repeating the grade as an incentive to remove the child from the school. Too many students are kicked out of charter schools for various reasons. More importantly, the charter schools fail to replace the students once the testing grades start.  This ensures the neediest students are not part of the charter school cohort.

Finally, the narrowly focused English and Math curriculum at the expense of other subjects and their obsession with test preparation for the State tests hurts the student's total education experience.  This shows up in the failure of any of the charter school students being accepted into the competitive specialized high schools.

Many of the charter schools are totally segregated with 100% Black or Hispanic and with extremely high teacher turnover.  Worse, the teachers are given a script and teach from the script.  Little if any innovative teaching goes on in the charter schools nor do teachers last long enough to develop the teaching skills to help their students.

The charter school miracle is really a mirage.


 

Principal Quality Is The Fatal Flaw In The New York City Public Schools.

I grew up and was educated in the New York City public schools and eventually became a public school teacher.  During my days as a student and the beginning of my teaching career, the one constant was that the Principal was a long-term classroom teacher and generally respected for their experience and understanding of the classroom issues.

While not all these principals were great leaders, they were knowledgeable and had an institutional memory of how things worked.  Principals were expected to slowly rise up through the teaching ranks, become an Assistant Principal and maybe after a minimum of ten years gets a shot at being the school leader.  However, things changed for the worst when Mayor Michael Bloomberg appointed a non-educator as Chancellor and the Chancellor.  The Chancellor, Joel Klein, in-turn founded the infamous "Leadership Academy".  

The "Leadership Academy" accepted potential administrators with a minimum of three years of experience in the education field and no classroom experience was required.  The result was that many of the newly minted "Leadership Academy" principals were not even tenured teachers!  The Bloomberg/Klein philosophy was that schools could be better run as a business and principals were the "Chief Operating Officers" of their schools and long-term education credentials were not necessary to be a Principal.  The Bloomberg Administration closed over 164 schools and replacing them with 634 new schools, all needing principals. The result was that many of the new "Bloomberg small schools" ending up with these "Leadership Academy" principals that presently make up approximately 20% of all New York City principals.

One of the biggest problems with the "Leadership Academy" principals is that they are trained to be top down managers rather the collaborative leaders.  Many of these "Leadership Academy" principals hire inexpensive and untenured teachers and will not hire highly experienced teachers due to both their higher salary and more importantly, their institutional memory on how successful schools are run. For the "Leadership Academy" principal its about the school report card and constant test prep than what's best for the academic achievement of the students.

If the quality of principals doesn't improve and the current Chancellor leaves the "Leadership Academy" principles in place, then don't look for any real academic improvements despite the rhetoric coming out of the DOE.  The schools are only as good as their leader and in too many cases the leader is from the "Leadership Academy" and that's not encouraging for student academic outcomes.

Is Carmen Farina The New Cathie Black?

There is an increasing concern among educators that Chancellor Carmen Farina is not up to the demands of heading the New York City school system. Her lackluster, unfocused, and dare say, incompetent leadership has many talented educators frustrated with her disappointing performance as Chancellor.  Worse, she has kept on many of the Bloomberg era personnel who retain their critical policy making positions in the DOE that has made teaching in the classroom a hostile experience and damages the students trying to learn in them.

What's unfortunate, is that Chancellor Carmen Farina, unlike the Bloomberg era chancellors, enjoys unlimited freedom in changing the dysfunctional DOE as the new Mayor allowed her to implement policies that would improve the schools. Instead, she has continued many of the destructive Bloomberg policies including the largest class sizes in the State, freezing the already inadequate school budgets, and continuing the badly flawed teacher hiring and retention policies that hurt student academic achievement.

The pity is that Chancellor Carmen Farina, unlike the last four chancellors, is a long term educator and should have been more receptive to positive changes in the classroom.  However, the reality is that Carmen Farina had bought in to Michael Bloomberg's education reform, rising to Deputy Chancellor before being pushed out by Joel Klein in a power struggle and is part of the problem and not the solution in making the classroom environment a more welcoming place to teach and learn in.

To me, Chancellor Carmen Farina is becoming more like the incompetent Chancellor Cathie Black, with her verbal gaffes such as her "its a beautiful day" comment among others. More importantly, the very people who were hoping for real change for the better for the New York City school system and were delighted with the new Mayor's  education policy,  instead were rapidly losing confidence with the seemingly incompetent Chancellor and her failure to improve the New York City schools. Maybe its time for Carmen Farina to retire for good and get a competent Chancellor to transform the New York City schools for the better.

Why The Triborough Amendment Is Important.

One of the unique laws that protect public employees in New York State is the Triborough amendment that not only requires the employer to maintain the provisions of the lapsed contract while a new one is negotiated but prohibits the employer from imposing new provisions or changing an existing contract without union approval.  The print media has complained continuously about the Triborough amendment and wants it eliminated from the State's Taylor Law.  However, there is little political support for the elimination of the Triborough amendment law that protects a public employee union member in New York State.

In states without a similar amendment to protect public sector employees, the State and Municipality can impose new rules and some do.  The latest example is in Philadelphia where the City and State ripped up the existing teachers union contract and imposed a $200 monthly health insurance deduction, eliminated welfare coverage payments, and end all contributions for retirees. This follows in the footsteps of eighteen other states that have changed teacher tenure law and other contract provisions without union approval.

Its a good thing that we live in a State that has real civil service protections.  Can you imagine if ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg had his way and imposed his own teacher contract what it would look like?  Remember this? How about this? Let's hope that never changes.

Will Tweed Be Held Accountable For Their Failure To Properly Investigate The People They Hire? Don't Count On It.

One of the most important responsibility that the DOE has is to ensure that the people they hire to work with children can be trusted in their care.  However, time and again, the DOE has failed in their responsibility to properly investigate potential new hires, often with devastating results. Moreover, the existing investigation process has proven to be inept and worse maybe corrupt in nature.

Its not just the case of Brooklyn Tech High School teacher Sean Shaynak, who has been arrested for criminal sexual assault charges.   What's troubling was that Mr. Shaynak had a restraining order against him in Maryland for assaulting an 11 year old boy and the DOE knowing this, still allowed his hiring.  Unbelievable!  Then there is the case of James Brown, who the DOE hired to become Principal of the troubled Flushing High School.  Mr. Brown was hired by the DOE who failed to look into the resignation of Mr. Brown from the Baldwin NY schools district.  If they just simply Googled his name, they would have found that he was found guilty of harassment, including sexual harassment, and retaliation against a female subordinate in a jury trial and was forced to resign.  Who can forget the poor role models these two "Leadership Academy" principals demonstrated in making obscene and sexually violent videos.  First, it was Anissa Chalmers who starred in a role called "Gang Girl" which featured her shooting, killing, and raping her enemies. Nice role model for her students growing up in gang infested South Bronx.  Yet the DOE has allowed her to continue to be Principal.  Then there's Principal Emmanuel Polanco, who starred in a sexually explicit rap video that glorified himself as a sex machine and demonized women.  Yet the DOE has allowed him to remain on the job. Finally, there's the case of CEO John Shea, who has been accused of sexual harassment by two different women, leading to two federal lawsuits.  Yet, the DOE did nothing about it. I would be remiss if we didn't bring up the case of Assistant Principal Michael Herlihy, an ex-priest who was defrocked because of his alleged sexual misconduct with two male students, yet the DOE didn't bother to investigate why he was defrocked as a priest and fired from Cardinal Hayes High School.

Obviously, accountability is only for the school staff but not for DOE administrators or managers as the blame lies with the disappointing Chancellor who has failed to "clean house" at Tweed and has shown a lack of focus in running the New York City school system.  Maybe she needs to start from scratch and replace the flawed and corrupt investigation process since the present system is badly run and unfair.

Ebola, ATRs, And The 2017 Teachers Contract.

Now that we have a contract, its time to look ahead to 2017 and see how the UFT and the City will finally resolve the more than decade long ATR crisis that wastes talent and money. 

In 2017 New York City finds itself with an Enola outbreak and with close to a 50% mortality rate, its important that the City develop a vaccine as quickly as possible.  How will they get the volunteers to help? However, help is on the way in the form of the 2017 teachers contract.

The provisions of the new 2017 teachers contract will allow the DOE to "force place" ATRs into the City's voluntary Ebola vaccine trials. Any ATR who refuses to participate in the voluntary trials will have been considered to have voluntarily to have resigned.  Moreover, any ATR who refuses to be infected with the Ebola virus in the trials will be charged by the DOE with "problematic behavior"and terminated after receiving an expedited one day show trial by a DOE appointed hearing officer.

The expectation is that of the 2,000+ ATRs, half will be removed from the City payroll either by death, resignation, or termination.  In the New York Teacher Paper UFT President Michael Mulgrew calls this new ATR procedures a victory in draining the ATR pool of 50% of its members.

The DOE wants the surviving ATRs to be fired since they are infected with the Ebola virus and cannot be exposed to the students.  However, in a joint press conference with the new Mayor, Michael Mulgrew stated that the surviving ATRs will be put on a disability pension and receive 33% of their final average salary.  Mr Mulgrew further stated that its a win-win for all parties as he hugs the Mayor, Eva Muscowitz. Not only does the 2017 contract end the ATR crisis but increases educator salaries by the inflation rate and lengthens the school year to 225 days and increases the school day to 9 hours.

Yes, the new 2017 teachers contract is a win for the UFT leadership and the City and we all know that's the only thing that really matters.

The Legacy Of Givebacks By The Unity Caucus Under The Weingarten/Mulgrew Regime.

Since the beginning of the 21st century the working conditions and "due process rights" for the New York City classroom teacher has steadily worsened.  We find ourselves with longer days, more paperwork, and a Teacher Evaluation System that makes for a more hostile classroom environment. Teacher autonomy in the classroom has been replaced by administrative micromanagement and Principals, fresh out of the "Leadership Academy", who with little actual classroom experience,  rather dictate than collaborate with school staff.  In this backdrop, our disconnected UFT leadership has been instrumental in the worsening environment for New York City teachers by agreeing to massive givebacks to the City for raises that barely kept up with inflation. What follows are the list of "givebacks" the UFT, led by the Unity caucus has agreed to since 2000.

3020-a Process:
In 2000, the newly appointed Randi Weingarten, with six months of actual teaching experience, worked a deal with the City to streamline the 3020-a process by agreeing to a rotating list of between 19 to 36 arbitrators to hear 3020-a cases.  In doing so Ms. Weingarten sharply reduced teacher "due process rights".  First, teachers were no longer allowed to refuse the selection of an arbitrator as the rest of the State can.  Second, for incompetency cases, the three arbitrator panel was eliminated, leaving the teacher at the mercy to the decision of one arbitrator. Third, if a teacher retains a private lawyer,it could be a disadvantage since the arbitrator is used to working together as a team for a year or more with the NYSUT and DOE lawyers and replacing the NYSUT lawyer could subconsciously affect the arbitrator's decision negatively. Finally, this NYC 3020-a process limits the chances of the teacher to be found innocent since the arbitrator can only stay on the panel with the approval of both the DOE and UFT.  Therefore, only 4% of the teachers are actually found innocent.. Usually, the arbitrator will give the DOE something to appease them for their time and expense in bring 3020-a charges.  The result is the teacher almost always become an ATR.

Mayoral Control:
Inexplicably, Randi Weingarten didn't oppose Mayoral Control nor did she oppose its renewal.  The result was the "rubber stamp" PEP and 160 closing schools, despite community and political opposition.

The Infamous 2005 Contract:
The 2005 Contract that not only contained the major givebacks that we still suffer from presently but resulted in the ATR crisis and the "mutual consent" provision that allowed principals to hire who they pleased.  Please read my "Here Comes The Clowns" series on what damage the 2005 contract has done to the teaching profession.  Here, Here, Here, Here, and Here in this giveback laden contract.

The Fair Student Funding Fiasco:
This ill-conceived idea that dumped staff salaries on the schools rather than from DOE Central, back in 2007, encouraged principals to hire the "cheapest" and not the "best teachers" for their schools, combined with the mutual consent provision, this has made hiring veteran teachers almost an impossibility.

The 2007 Contract:
This contract saw the expansion of the "probable cause" section that included felony assaults.  However, the most serious giveback was the establishment of the Peer Intervention Plus (PIP+) program that resulted in a finding of incompetency of over 90% of the teachers who took the program.  The UFT leadership knew very well that since the vendors were being paid by the DOE, there was a real concern that these venders would not be objective.  However, the leadership encouraged the Chapter Leaders to recommend the PIP+ program and many of these trusting teachers ended up terminated or forced to resign.

The TDA Reduction:
Randi's parting gift to the members was to allow the City to reduce their contribution to the TDA interest rate in exchange for the two days before Labor Day that she unwisely gave up in the infamous 2005 contract.  She allowed the City to reduce their TDA interest rate contribution by 1.25%, from 8.25% to 7%.  Depending how much one has in the fixed income part of the TDA, the interest rate deduction could result in UFT members losing tens of thousands of dollars by retirement.

The 2014 Contract:
The givebacks continue under the new contract as it makes ATRs second class citizens, subject to an expedited 3020-a hearing process, making some ATRs who won their termination hearings "untouchables" and royally screwing ex UFT members by not giving them their well deserved retroactive payments. I descussed this in the post called "winners and losers".

What do we get for all these "givebacks" that has made teaching in the classroom a more hostile and dangerous environment?  Raises that barely equaled the inflation rate, meaning in 2000 dollars, our salary is essentially unchanged.  Maybe the Unity caucus should rename themselves as the "Givebacks"!

Don't Believe What You Read In The Media.

Sunday, I was reading the New York Post and came across an article by Susan Edelman called "Teachers Accused of Misconduct Keep their Jobs in Secret Settlements". In the Newspaper itself the headline read "bad teachers" instead of teachers accused.   The article was the usual crap with a political slant along with the misleading statistics.  However, what bothered me is what the article claimed Betsy Combier said with regard to the settlements.  The N.Y. Post article stated the following:

 “All they want is your money,” said paralegal Betsy Combier, who helps defend teachers. “It doesn’t matter what happened to the kid — it’s kind of frightening.”.

If you read the article it makes Betsy appear to be blaming the DOE for making secret deals with bad teachers and allowing them back into the classroom to cause more damage.  The truth is that Betsy Combier said no such thing.  What she said to Susan Edelman was this:

"What I told Ms. Edelman was that when an educator is charged with misconduct or incompetency, and sign up for a NYSUT attorney, in many cases the NYSUT Attorney tries very hard (sometimes, in my opinion, abusively) to get the educator to resign, retire, leave town, or settle. Anything but go to a hearing. I believe the NYSUT Attorneys know how much of a due process disaster the hearings are, from the viewpoint of defending an educator's rights. After watching the attorneys work at 3020-a for almost 8 years, 2003-2011, I thought there was a better way to defend, and started as a paralegal advocate in defense of Respondents brought to 3020-a in 2011. No one who is innocent of charges should be forced into a settlement of any kind. You can win a 3020-a."


Knowing Betsy like I do, she would never had said what the New York Post quoted her as saying.  Both Betsy and I see the settlements as DOE extortion when they cannot prove their case for termination and offers the terrified teacher a way out. Please read Betsy Combier's blog for her story.


Remember, when you read stories that come from these rags, the Daily News, Post, and Times, don't believe what your reading, its not about the truth.

For educators who want to know how to defend themselves against abusive administrators, there will be a "Don't Tread On Educators" (DOTE) meeting on Wednesday, October 1, at the Elmhurst Diner located at Grand Avenue and Queens Blvd, starting at 5:30pm.  Be there if you think you are being targeted.  Plenty of parking in their parking lot and the M or R train stops there.

DOE's Education On The Cheap Policy - Its Not About The Students, Its About The Budget.

One of the issues the news media fails or doesn't want to discuss is how the NYC public schools have been shortchanged of needed resources and the questionable funding priorities the DOE has taken that finds most every school struggling to provide the proper educational services for their students.  Despite a 26 billion dollar budget, the DOE, has reduced the average school budget by 14% since the 2007-08 school year despite the fact that the DOE's own  budget had increased 39% since that time.  Furthermore, and shockingly, the disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, froze school budgets at least year's level, adding to the financial pain at the schools.  Where did the increased funding go?  Obviously, not to the schools and the students.  Let's look at the various items that have been part of the DOE's "education on the cheap " policy.

School Budgets:  Every school I was in last year claimed they were short of resources.  In many schools, teachers had to buy their own classroom supplies, even copy paper!  Photocopy machines and smartboards lay broken for weeks at a time.  In the schools where there is an active and engaged PTA, the fundraising by the group pays for things such as class trips, and technology upgrades, taken for granted in the suburbs. When the disappointing Chancellor shocked everyone by freezing the already inadequate and tight school budgets, it just adds to the financial squeeze that the schools are in.

Librarians:   Many schools either don't have a librarian or have a part timer in the school library.  Once, every school was required to have a full time librarian.  In many of the Bloomberg small high schools, there is no librarian and the libraries that once was a hallmark of the big high school is usually locked and unusable to the students.  The problem is so acute that even the Commissioner of NYSED has required that the DOE hire librarians.

Guidance Counselors: The lack of enough Guidance Counselors  in schools has become a real issue for the majority of schools.  Guidance Counselor caseloads of 400 or more students are commonplace. Students are lucky if they see their Guidance Counselor more than once a semester.  How many students fall through the cracks when these students are not able to develop that close personal relationship with a trusted adult trained to help them because of the infrequent contact between the two?  Worse, the DOE unwisely decided to assign ATR Guidance Counselors to a weekly rotation, making them useless to the school's Guidance Department.  Finally, some principals  brought in poorly trained and low paid community relation specialists that simply provide a bandage to an infection. The City Council has told the DOE to address this situation through their Education Committee.

Sixth Periods:  It seems that most every high school I was in had a significant number of teachers teaching a "sixth period".  While some of them were actual "shortage areas", most of them were teaching a "sixth period" as a way for the school to hire less teachers.  Many of these teachers were paid "per session", if it wasn't a shortage area or was outside their school schedule.  In quite a few cases, Earth Science programs were being taught by non-certified Earth Science teachers and schools went from a 5-1 to 4-1 Science program as a way to reduce the amount of Science teachers, even when Regents scores and passing rates plummeted as a result of the change.

Class Size: Shockingly, despite the new Mayor's campaign promise to reduce class size, the

disappointing Chancellor failed to do so.  Class sizes in New York City are the highest in the State and will remain unacceptably high for the foreseeable future.  Oversized classes are once again in the thousands with an estimated 3,500 in violation of the contract, according to the UFT website.

Principal Quality: approximately 20% of all New York City Public School principals came from the infamous "Leadership Academy".  Many of these principals have limited classroom experience, some never earned tenure!  Their primary concern is their budget and to intimidate staff.  They have little idea how the classroom environment works nor do they care.  To them its about the bottom line, test scores, keeping their "Children First Network" happy, and using funds as they see fit.  Its not about the students, its about the budget.

Bloated Bureaucracy:   It goes without saying that too much money is paid out to high priced consultants, accountability experts and lawyers.  Furthermore, the schools are forced to choose and fund the useless and money sucking "Children First Networks" that provides little real support to the schools.  Finally, the lack of transparency at the DOE makes the flow of funds hard to trace and that's why we end up with stories like this as the DOE rarely holds themselves accountable.

Fair Student Funding: Probably the biggest reason for the failure of New York City schools to show real and relevant academic improvements since it encourages Principals to hire the "cheapest" and not the "best" teachers" for their students.  Case in point, the City hired 6,000 new teachers this school year, while most of the 2,000+ ATRs couldn't even get interviews, especially, the ATRs who have ten or more years in the system.

If the City was really serious in improving student academic achievement, they need to centrally and fully fund the New York City Schools and under the new Mayor and disappointing Chancellor, its not happening, at least for another year.

Why The Richard Parlini Case Has Little To Do With Teacher Tenure.

In a New York Post opinion piece, some of the parents that were outraged when they found out that teacher Richard Parlini was reinstated to his teaching position at P.S. 101Q in Forest Hills, despite accusations of corporal punishment, verbal abuse, and bullying, stated why they joined the lawsuit against teacher tenure.  According to the Daily News, Mr. Parlini made a deal with the DOE and paid a $2,500 fine and took a six hour course to make the charges go away.  He was then allowed to return to the school and was scheduled to teach the first grade until some of the parents complained to the press.  Due to the negative publicity, Mr. Parlini was hastily assigned by the DOE to administrative duties at the school until another position is found for him at a different school.  Some of these parents then joined the teacher tenure lawsuit, citing the Richard Parlini case as a reason why teacher tenure laws needs to be changed.  However, if one looks at the Richard Parlini case, it has little to do with teacher tenure but everything to do with the DOE deciding not to go forward with 3020-a charges and his Principal wanting the teacher back at the school.

First, if the DOE's Office of Legal Services really had a solid case against Mr. Parlini, they would have pursued 3020-a termination charges against him as they have done to too many others and let an independent arbitrator determine the "award" (penalty).  Second, the DOE may have realized that the accusations lacked credibility when they did the preliminary investigation.  Finally, its very obvious that the Principal of the school wanted him back, otherwise he would have been immediately assigned to the ATR pool since he agreed to a stipulation and paid a fine.  Is Mr. Parlini guilty of what he was accused of?  Who knows?  However, if the DOE believed they had real evidence, Mr. Parlini would have gone through a 3020-a termination hearing as many other teachers have done.

The fact that the DOE reached a settlement with Mr. Parlini had nothing to do with the teacher tenure issue but has everything to do with the credibility of the accusers and the Principal wanting him back into her school's classroom.  With or without tenure protections, the result would probably end up the same way since it was up to the DOE to initiate charges and decided not to.  Place the blame on where it really belongs, the DOE for sending Mr. Parlini back to his school and not the teacher tenure issue.

Teacher Absences Increased Significantly Due To City And State Polices That Adds Stress To The Already Hostile Classroom Environment.

It was no surprise that the DOE reported a !2.3% increase of teachers that took excessive absences, meaning  11 or more days off in the 2013-14 school year over the year before.  That comes out to be an astounding 13.2% of the entire teaching force of 74,000 or almost 10,000 teachers who called in sick that used over the ten sick days allocated for the school year. The New York Post article can be found. Here. 

Interestingly, the DOE claims this 12.3% increase in excessive teacher absences isn't significant, really?  In addition, our union leadership claimed it was that maternity leave accounted for the increase. However, a union member blamed it on the Common Core. The real reason that there was a 12.3% increase in excessive teacher absences can be associated with the State's Teacher Evaluation System, the Danielson framework, and the failure of many school administrators to properly support their teachers when it comes to misbehaving and disrespectful student behaviors. 

To me, the increased excessive absences is proof positive that the classroom environment has become even more hostile and stressful, when the State and City policies and paperwork are rammed down the teacher's throat. Waiting for the new Mayor and his disappointing Chancellor to make the classroom environment less stressful and more peaceful is simply a pipe dream that our disconnected union leadership tries to sell.  However, the reality is very different and the significant upsurge of excessive teacher absences demonstrates this reality.as many of these teachers are fleeing the hostile classroom for as many days as possible to keep their sanity.

I also believe if one broke down the statistics and look at the individual schools, I bet one would find that the low academically achieving schools and those schools with terrible administrations suffer the greatest teacher absences and yearly turnover.

Finally, when one combines the increased teacher absences with the DOE's recruitment over retention policy, the result is a failure by the DOE to implement workable strategies to improve student academic achievement and to narrow the unacceptably wide income/racial achievement gap in the New York City Schools.

Why A Physically Fit Student Is Important For Academic Achievement.

One of the things I noticed that in many of the academically poorly preforming high schools how out of shape many of the high school students looked.  When I covered a physical education class as a second teacher I would observe that half of the students wouldn't bother to exercise or participate in the activities that the physical education teacher planned.  In fact, a substantial number of these students didn't even bother to change into their gym clothes but sat on the bleachers and talked to each other. Worse, is that many of the Bloomberg small high schools have inadequate or no gym space and the State requirements are routinely violated and ignored by the DOE, with no consequences from the State.

I blame this on the school administration who allow students not to participate or even dress for physical education and then pressures the teacher to pass them anyway.  Is it any wonder many of these students look the way they do?

By contrast, in academically performing schools, every student is required to participate in gym.  For the students at these schools not only do they dress for gym and are required to participate in the activities but goals are set for each student to meet.  By the time the school year is over, many of the students are physically fit which translates into a better body image, alertness in the classroom, and better grades.

If schools are really serious in improving academically then they must require all students to meet the physical education standards that they have ignored for years by the DOE.  Otherwise, look for continued academic failure as these out of shape students fall asleep in class and stay unfocused while doing poorly on tests.If it really is "students first" then start with improving their physical fitness.

Don't Expect NYC Schools To Improve Academically Under The DOE's Present Policy.

With much fanfare and little scrutiny,  Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina praised the miniscule increases the City students achieved on the 2013 State tests and have proclaimed that 100% of the NYC school children will be passing the State tests.  However, when one takes into account the lower cut scores and the large "opt out" cohort, any real academic progress is simply "smoke and mirrors".  The politicians can crow all they want about imaginary academic gains but the truth is that these supposed gains are illusionary.  Moreover, the unacceptably wide racial/income academic achievement gap has not improved and this is shown by the analysis done for the 4th grade citywide.  According to the report, the top schools are predominately made up of students that come from the surrounding diverse middle class neighborhoods or are screened, while the worst preforming schools are in neighborhoods of deep poverty and nearly 100% Black and Hispanic.

The question is how can we improve the academic ability of the New York City school students?  There are ways.  However, the new Mayor and his disappointing Chancellor has done little to take strides in that direction.  For example, despite the Mayor's pledge to reduce class size, the opposite happened, class sizes have actually increased once again for the elementary and middle schools. Numerous studies have shown that class size has a significant effect on classroom learning and the City has the largest class sizes in New York State.  Until class size is reduced significantly, don't expect any academic improvement.

Another issue, is the lack of "quality teachers" in the classroom.  The new administration has continued the destructive "fair student funding" policy that encourages principals to hire the "cheapest" and not the "best teachers" for their schools.  Since 50% of these teachers will leave the profession in five years and over 80% from the school they started at, few will ever become a "quality teacher" for the school that hired them.  Moreover, the steep learning curve "newbie teachers" experience makes their students guinea pigs until the teacher has demonstrated good pedagogy skills and gets tenure three years later, if their the lucky 60%.  A seven year study showed how difficult it was for struggling schools to attract effective teachers.  Even the offer of $20,000 extra for a two year commitment met with few takers.  How does the DOE expect to attract teachers to struggling schools for a measly $5,000?  The answer is they don't.  Combined with a hostile and stressful classroom environment, is it any wonder that retention is a problem?  High teacher turnover and poor academic achievement in these struggling schools go hand in hand.


Shockingly, Chancellor Carmen Farina froze already tight school budgets at 2013 levels and that is 14% less than in the 2007-08 school year.  She unwisely kept the money sucking and useless "Children First Networks" and worst of all, the Chancellor has made the demonetization of the 2,000+ ATRs part of the new contract, meaning that the DOE will waste money and talent by having high priced "babysitters" rotating weekly from school to school.

Finally, under the new Chancellor, the failed policies of the Bloomberg Administration are still evident and many of his architects are still in control of Tweed.  Rather than "clean house" she has kept many of them in place and the classroom environment is still as hostile as ever with loads of paperwork, Leadership Academy Principals" and inadequate school resources a norm.

What needs to change to make real academic progress?  Lower class sizes, the elimination of "fair student funding" with all staff salaries coming out of DOE Central like it used to be. Downsizing and folding the Children First Networks into the Superintendent's Office, with the savings going back to the schools for resources and the placing of ATRs back into the classroom with the 160 million dollar annual savings being used for hiring of more teachers which will lower the average class sizes, especially in deep poverty neighborhood schools.

Mark my words, without the usual academic tricks any real academic progress will be illusionary and will; not result in the narrowing of the racial/income academic achievement gap.

Join The New UFT Caucus - Solidarity, Where Mainstream Teachers Have A Real Voice.

There is a new UFT Caucus that has formed that will be focused on "teacher justice", not social justice,  and will act as a real trade union, representing school staff in the New York City public schools.  This new and dynamic caucus is call "Solidarity" and will represent the mainstream educators, the disenfranchised ATRs, and those without tenure.  This caucus will be a real trade union caucus and will not dilute the message by having a "social justice" plank or spend member money on causes that the union leadership decides, without member input.

The "Solidarity" caucus will represent teachers and school staff. and not muddle their message with tangential issues that have nothing to do with education.  If you are a teacher or school staff employee and want what's best for your school then its time to become a member of "Solidarity" who will advocate for the educator and not hugging the Chancellor or supporting marches that demonize fellow union members.

Join the "Solidarity" caucus and belong to a real union that represents school staff and help improve the hostile classroom environment that our present no-accountable union leadership allowed to happen on their watch.  Its time that the rank and file have a real union that listens to their concerns and that is "Solidarity".

"JOIN THE "SOLIDARITY" CAUCUS" 

 

Here is the link to join.

Its Our Own Fault For The Lack Of Real Democracy And Transparency In The UFT.

Over the years, many teachers have bemoaned the fact that our union leadership has ignored the wishes of its members.  The complaint is that the union lacks real democracy and transparency in its operation.  While I agree 100% with these teachers, the blame must be placed where it belongs and that is on ourselves.

If we look how our union operates, we see that our union is dominated by one caucus, "Unity" which requires total subservience to the leadership, where any dissent results in expulsion from the caucus and the perks that go with it.  No other caucus requires a "loyalty oath" as a condition of employment in the UFT.  Decision-making is done by a small inner circle of Unity loyalists, dominated by President Michael Mulgrew, and rather than reach out to the rank and file for their input, they impose their own political philosophy and claim that is the union's position.   Even the District Representatives are appointed by the union leadership when before Randi Wiengarten came to power the District Representative was voted on by the Democratically elected Chapter Leaders of the Borough or District,  The latest two examples of the union unaccountable leadership riding rough shot over the members were the recently negotiated inadequate contract  that threw the ATRs under the bus, deferred raises as far away as October 2020, and eliminated retroactive raises for ex members who resigned, were terminated, died, or became an Administrator, just to make the new Mayor look good.   Yeah, I know that 77% voted for the contract but it was the scare tactics used by the leadership such as "if we don't approve the contract, we go to the back of the line and the City won't have the money to pay us." that scared many members in voting for it.  Then  there was the Al Sharpton led anti-police march that the UFT co-sponsor, using member dues money to fund.

Yes, our arrogant union leadership acts like Eric Cartman and does as they please but its our fault that they can get away acting this way.  In the latest elections for UFT President, only 25% of all members actually bothered to vote and only 17% of active members.  Furthermore, retirees votes were 52% of the total vote.  The breakdown can be found in the MORE blog and the numbers are below:

75% OF UFT MEMBERS DID NOT PARTICIPATE — WHY?

The majority of UFT members did not bother to participate in these elections. Out of 173,407 ballots mailed, only 43,138 were returned. When 75% of the membership doesn’t think voting is worth their time, that’s a serious problem. We can’t read the minds of those roughly 130,000 non-voting members, but we can imagine that frustration, demoralization, and basic alienation from the union at the chapter level must be ingredients in the explanation. While public education is facing an historic crisis, our union has thus far failed to involve the majority of members in a struggle to defend our rights and to improve our schools.

The participation results, listed by division, are shameful:

                               Mailed  ballots           Returned ballots

High School:      19,040                          3,808

Middle School:   10,807                          1,879

Elementary:         34,163                          7,331

Functional:         51,040                          7,704

Retirees:              58,357                          22,462

Retirees contributed the majority (52%) of the ballots. Among UFT members who are still on the job, only 18% voted. When the active membership is less engaged in the life of the union than those who have stopped working (and, in many cases, live in other states!), that is cause

Is our union any different from other unions?  Probably not, except that our union allows retirees to vote and when you look at the new contract you can see that retirees are the winners.  An article, which I only partially agree with, identifies the lack of active member participation in elections and we teachers are no exception to this.

Presently, the two other caucuses, MORE and New Action, has failed to garner significant support and as for the E4E cult?  They are simply a fringe group and a front for anti-union corporate reformers, who didn't even bother to enter the elections for fear of exposing their lack of membership.  For our union to become more democratic, we need to have a new caucus that focuses on teacher justice and not social justice issues that dilutes the message and alienates a significant sector of the rank and file.

Its time that a new UFT caucus be formed from the disenfranchised membership, ATRs, untenured teachers, and mainstream educators who are unhappy with the union's leadership and lack of support.  Maybe the ICEUFT section of MORE can split and form its own caucus, as it did once before, and focus only on educator issues. Become a real trade unionist alternative caucus.   Only then will the UFT leadership take notice and maybe our union will become more democratic and transparent.  Until things change, its more of the same, a disconnected union leadership that cares more about their relationship with the City and DOE than for the membership.

Yet Another Flushing High School Principal Leaves The Troubled School.

The once prestigious Flushing high school has continued to academically deteriorate in the last few years and has become a dumping ground for "high needs" students throughout the borough.   As a teacher there in 2011-12 I can personally attest to the problems at the school.  The school was once slated to close but survived when the courts ruled against Mayor Bloomberg.  Instead, like many of the schools that survived the axe, the Department of Education decided on a slow strangulation policy instead. Flushing high school now shares its building with two new small schools and have reduced freshman and sophomore classes.  The result has been a major excessing of teachers in the last two years.  Last year the average department excessed an astonishing four teachers from the school and over twenty teachers overall.  During this time the school has had three diffwerent principals i n the last three years and a new Principal will take the helm this year making it four principals in four years.

The latest casualty is the infamous James Brown.  No not the singer but the Principal who was hired to lead troubled Flushing high school  by then Chancellor Dennis Walcott, despite being found guilty in court by a jury of his peers for harassing a female subordinate who also accused him of sexual misconduct .  Yes, he was found guilty and left the Baldwin school system and was hired by the Walcott Administration to be Principal of Flushing high school despite the Chancellor's long stated zero tolerance policy on alleged sexual misconduct.  You can read the entire James Brown story on my blog Here.  Moreover, during his troubled year as Principal he tried to artificially raise passing grades by putting in a grading system that was in violation of State regulations only to be exposed and subject to ridicule, before being forced to abandon it.

It was only a little over two years ago when another questionable Principal was removed due to the police finding drugs in his car during a traffic stop.  He now works at the DOE in another capacity.  His story can be found Here.  In between Mr Brown and Mr. Hudson the DOE hand-picked Principal alienated so many of her staff, that she fled the DOE entirely and know works in a school district upstate after only one year at the helm.

How can a school be successful when the very leaders the DOE selects for the school have serious character issues, lack extensive classroom experience, and are selected on who they know and not on their academic credentials.  Until the DOE puts the very best in roles of leadership, no school will be able to show real academic improvement and Flushing high school is a prime example of the academic neglect by the DOE as they have failed to put a real educator, with high academic standards as a role model for staff and students alike.

A Case Study Why Teacher Tenure Is Necessary - Principal Alison Coviello

Many teachers who are targeted by their Principal for incompetence and misconduct complain that instead of collaborating with them to resolve their personal differences and offering support to improve their pedology,  the principal pre-planned the attack on these teachers.  The problem is proving it and that is the crux of the issue.  However, in the South Bronx School blog we get an insight of how a Principal planned to target this blogger for incompetence, despite the teacher never getting an "unsatisfactory rating" previously and was "S rated" in June of that year.  If it wasn't for the "due process rights" that gives us our tenure protection, he would have been terminated simply because the Principal didn't like him.

If you have been following the South Bronx School blog, you know he was charged and awaiting his hearing under section 3020-a for incompetence and misconduct by his Leadership Academy Principal Dr. Alison Coviello of PS 154.  I previously wrote a post about Principal. Coviello's reign of terror and you can find it Here.  Well, it appears that South Bronx School was somehow able to obtain an email from Ms. Coviello that was sent to her Assistant Principal on the strategy they were to use the following school year to make sure they can charge the teacher with incompetence.  The August 24, 2012 email was printed by South Bronx School in the August 7th 2014 post and is reprinted here.

“Hey, I revised Zucker’s job description (per the advice of Mike Agona) so that it is focused more on literacy. This way, Agona explained, we’ll have a surer chance of winning a case when our observations detail incompetence.”

According to the South Bronx School blog this is the "smoking gun" that shows that the Principal decided beforehand to go after the teacher.  It certainly appears that the Principal was targeting the teacher even before the school year started and that brings into question the validity of the charges against the targeted teacher.  In other words, the Principal already assumed a predetermined outcome and prepared a strategy to implement it.

From my point of view, the Principal's harassment of the teacher in the 2012-13 school year was pre-planned and morally wrong and hopefully, the arbitrator will see that instead of working with the teacher to resolve their differences and do what's best for the students of the school,  Dr. Alison Coviello , instead did the exact opposite and harassed the teacher and in turn hurt the students of her school.  If it wasn't for our tenure protection, he and many other teachers would be terminated simply upon the whim of a Principal, many of them unqualified themselves.