DTOE's Administrators In Need Of Improvement.

The DTOE blog, known as Don't Tread On Educators, has developed a list of school administrators that are in need of improvement.  They call the list ANOI.  This list was developed by the DTOE group from nominations by educators who had the displeasure of working with these administrators.  This replaces the highly popular PINI (principals in need of improvement)articles that our disconnected union leadership has decided to discontinue under pressure from the CSA.  When asked why the union discontinued the PINI articles in the New York Teacher magazine, one union leader claimed that we don't attack fellow union members.   I guess the police are not considered fellow union members or is it simply selective memory by our union leadership's part.

The DTOE list for ANOI can be found here. Note the map of the ANOI schools first show up and if you click the icon on the map the school name and address shows up. .Below the map are the ANOI list.  Click on the name and the school with a short bio appears about the administrator. By no means, is the list complete and if you go to the DTOE site you can include your administrator to the ever growing list of administrators in need of improvement.

The DTOE blog is for all educators and provides important information about educator rights such as how to FOIL the DOE.   More importantly, the DTOE is interested in having non-tenured educators join them as they represent many educators who were unfairly terminated or threatened with a discontinuance by vindictive administrators.

If you go to my "bad principals" section, you can add a couple of more to the ANOI  list.

When It Comes To College Readiness, Race Matters.

One of the third rails of education policy is the inclusion of race in evaluating academic achievement.  Politicians and the media will look the other way or ignore the inconvenient truth that a school's racial composition is an important parameter in the academic outcomes of the students of that school.  Better to blame teachers and their tenure than to actually investigate the data to determine the cause of poor student academic outcomes. Therefore, I took the DOE's "High School Quality Snapshot"  for the 2013-14 school year of all the Queens High Schools and compared their racial composition with their "college readiness" percentages and found that race does matter.  I used the "college readiness" percentage since its more difficult for schools but not impossible to manipulate as the other parameters are. For some reason the way the City calculates "college readiness" is different from the State and is higher than what the State calculates as college ready.

To simplify the comparisons I placed schools in five categories.  These categories are Majority of Asians and Whites, Diverse (no majority by any races), Majority Hispanics, Majority Black and schools that were 80% or more Black.  Admittedly, one can find fault in how I selected the categories but this seemed the most appropriate way to determine if the racial composition of the schools correlated with the "college readiness" percentages listed for each high school school in the DOE snapshot.

The results were very disturbing as the data showed that the schools who had the highest "college readiness" percentages had a majority of Asian and White students while the lowest percentage of "college ready" students were in schools that had a black population of 80% or greater.  The table below and the graph above summarizes my findings.

Majority                                        College Readiness

Asian/White.............................................73%
Diverse...................................................38%
Hispanic..................................................29%
Black......................................................18%
>80% Black.............................................12%

Not surprisingly, the screened and specialized schools showed the highest "college readiness" percentages and they usually have a majority of Asian and White students.  However, even if you eliminated those schools from the data, the majority Asian and White schools still had a "college readiness" percentage of  55%, significantly higher than the diverse category, where no majority exists and includes some screened and audition schools as well.  The lowest college ready scores listed by the DOE snapshot are all found in primarily black schools.  Listed below are the schools with the lowest "college readiness" percentages.

School                                             College Readiness

Business Computer Applications....................4%
Humanities and Arts...................................5%
Rockaway Park..........................................6%
August Martin...........................................6%
Fredrick Douglas Academy VI.......................7%
QIRT........................................................8%
Law Government and Community Service........9%


Blaming teachers, administrators, and schools for the poor academic outcomes is not only wrong but misguided. The DOE snapshot clearly shows that schools with high percentages of Black students are associated with low "college readiness" percentages which strongly indicates that its the social-economic factors that affect student academic outcomes, like poverty, community, and family.   When one looks at the DOE "High School Quality Snapshot" the racial composition of the school strongly correlates with the "college readiness" and academic outcomes of the school's student population.  In this case race matters.

Winners Of The 2014 Golden Turkey Award.

This year saw tremendous competition for the Golden Turkey Award.  There's  State Education commissioner John T. King, a past winner, who rolled out the Common Core and teacher evaluation requirements in a confusing and unworkable way that even Governor Andrew Cuomo backed away from it.  Then there's the Board of Regents that approved a charter school in Rochester proposed by a 22 year old who was home schooled and received dubious online degrees,  only to resign when it was exposed.  Then there's Campbell Brown, always a contender as well as the Governor. However, these two individuals won, head over heels, the Golden Turkey Award for 2014.   They are UFT President Michael (don't call me mike) Mulgrew and Chancellor Carmen Farina.

Michael Mulgrew gets the Golden Turkey Award for two disgraceful actions he has taken in 2014. the The first was a vastly inferior contract that has split his members into two groups, winners and the losers.  In addition, the ATRs were given second class citizenship and reduced "due process" rights.  Worse, was his defense of the Common Core standards where he claimed he will "punch anyone in the face" if they attack his Common Core which many of his members and many parents oppose.   Finally, under his leadership, the union has become increasingly disconnected with the members as his political philosophy is more important than what is best for the members as he required the union to co-sponsor and fund the divisive Al; Sharpton lead march in Staten Island.

Carmen Farina became Chancellor amid great hopes that she would change the political philosophy that resulted in antagonism between the DOE and the schools.  Instead, she has only made some minor changes and retained the Bloomberg 300 in policy making positions.  Who can forget during the worst snowstorm of the year she unwisely kept schools open and had her Cathie Black moment when she said this infamous statement.  "its a beautiful day" when it was snowing, and sleeting.  Moreover, she has failed to reduce class sizes, eliminate the useless and money sucking Children First Networks, or reduce the obscene amount of paperwork required by Tweed.  Finally, she has not improved the hostile classroom environment or "gotcha mentality" that exists at Tweed.  To say the least, Carmen Farina gas been a major disappointment.

Past winners of my golden turkey award are here.

Its Quantity And Not Quality When It Comes To Hiring Teachers In The NYC Public Schools.

With the unexpected wave of retirements, the NYC public school system had to hire 6,000 new teachers.  You would think that many schools would be thrilled to replace their retiring teachers with experienced teachers since it would not significantly affect their budget.  Guess again, the schools, rather than during what's best for their students, instead saw an opportunity to hire novice teachers and in some cases getting two for the salary of the retiring teacher. Meaning quantity over quality at the expense of the academic outcomes of the school's students.  In other cases the principals reduced their staff salaries and used the additional funds for their own pet projects.

Unfortunately,  the NYCDOE is famous for its "education on the cheap" policies when it comes to funding schools and the classrooms.  To ensure that schools suffer from tight budgetary constraints, the DOE imposed the "fair student funding" formula on them that forces principals to hire the "cheapest and not the best teachers" for their students. Is it any wonder that student academic achievement has shown little or no gains and the racial/income achievement gap is as wide as ever?

Novice teachers suffer from a steep learning curve, in acquiring effective teaching techniques, fully understanding the curriculum, developing classroom management skills, and staying power as 50% of the "newbies" leave the classroom within five years and 80% leave the school they started in.  What a waste of money in training and time when only 20% of the "newbies" will be in the school by the time they get tenure and are considered "quality teachers".  Moreover, how unfair is it to subject the students as guinea pigs to untested teachers who may or may not even last the school year?

Too bad the mass media choices to ignore the DOE's "education on the cheap" policies that hurt student academic achievement but loves to demonize the teaching profession, especially ATRs.

Family Values

During last week's cold snap an eighth grade child, I will call her Clara, did not show up to school or attend her after school program. Later that night, the coldest night of the new school year, with temperatures dropping into the low 20's and windchills in the single digits, the teacher was giving out free turkeys for Thanksgiving at the school and who shows up?  Clara, with her mother and little sister in tow.  The teacher asked Clara's mother why Clara was not in school that day, the mother responded in a calm voice "because it was too cold and I kept Clara home".

Here is the problem,  Clara is a struggling student and is in danger of not moving up to high school as she is academically behind her peers.  The teacher told me that Clara has learning difficulties and instructions must be kept simple and short.  Clara has difficulty in completing tasks and cannot do complicated learning assignments.  As you might expect, she gets frustrated and exhibits behavioral issues due to her inability to complete or fully understand her assignments.

Clara lives with her grandmother and her mother has given most of the responsibility of raising Clara to the grandmother..  To the teacher's knowledge there is no father or male authority figure in her family.  Worse, when the weather is bad, Clara fails to show up to school.  What is going to happen when winter is here to stay?

That brings me back to Clara's mother.  How can a parent allow their child to miss school simply because its cold?  More importantly, why doesn't the City hold this parent responsible for educational neglect?   Yet, this parent, when offered a free turkey, took Clara and her little sister on the coldest night of the school year to school so that she can get the turkey.  What kind of message is that sending to Clara and her younger sister?

Education reformers like to blame poor student academic achievement on bad teachers and schools.  However, when these children are raised by dysfunctional families that lack parental supports and role models, they end up coming to school educationally, emotionally, and physically damaged.  Moreover, many of these children experience deep poverty feel unsafe and food insecure, yet that are deliberately ignored by the education reformers. That's why the ex-Chancellor Joel Klein's statement that   "poverty is no excuse" rings hallow when faced with the damaging reality of how poverty and the dysfunctional family affects student academic achievement.

No matter how one looks at it, getting families back together and providing them support is the most important factor in improving student academic achievement.

The Small Schools That Replaced The Large Comprehensive Schools Are A Failure.

During the Bloomberg years, the city came up with the bright idea, advocated by Bill Gates and then abandoned as not the answer, that closing the large comprehensive schools in poor communities and replacing them with smaller schools will improve student academic achievement.  These small schools will show an improved graduation rate and "college and career readiness" rates.  Well the graduation rates did improve, thanks to "credit recovery", Principal pressure, student exclusionary practices, and questionable grading policies.  However, the "college and career readiness" rates cannot be manipulated and these rates clearly show how much a failure these small schools have been when improving academic achievement.

Lets look at the 2013-14 school year "college and career readiness" scores of the small schools that replaced the large comprehensive schools in Queens.  The citywide average "college and career readiness" rates is 32% while the average in Queens is 36%.

Andrew Jackson High School Campus:

Business Computer Application and Enterpriseship........4%
Law, Government And Community Service..................9%
Humanities and Arts Magnet School..........................5%
Math, Science Research Technology Magnet..............19%

Franklin K. Lane Campus:

Brooklyn Lab School...............................................11%
Cypress Hills Collegiate Prep....................................11%
Multicultural..........................................................2%

Far Rockaway Complex:

Fredrick Douglas Academy VI....................................7%
Information, Research And Technology........................8%
Academy of Medical Technology................................21%

Springfield Gardens Campus:

Queens Preparatory Academy..................................18%
George Washington Carver......................................30%
Excelsior  Preparatory High School............................21%
Preparatory Academy For Writers.............................31%

Since the Beach Channel and Jamaica high schools have closed this year, the small schools that inhabit the campuses are new and were given extra funding and allowed to exclude "high needs students" from the schools to ensure that they succeed.  Therefore, they were not included in this post until there is a real track record for them.

The relatively high "college and career readiness" scores of the small schools at the Springfield Gardens complex will rapidly drop as the data reflect the last year of the new small school exclusion policy that kept low achieving students from being accepted to the schools which is no longer the case.

For comparison what were the "college and career readiness" rates of the large comprehensive high schools that the Bloomberg administration tried to close but failed to get court approval?

August Martin........................................................6%
Flushing...............................................................20%
Grover Cleveland...................................................17%
John Adams..........................................................12%
Long Island City....................................................29%
Newtown.............................................................14%
Richmond Hill........................................................11%
William Cullen Bryant .............................................33%
...
The average "college and career readiness" scores of the eight large comprehensive Queens high schools, slated for closure but spared by the courts is approximately 18% while the small schools created at the four closed large comprehensive high schools averaged only 14%.

If one uses the "college and career readiness" scores, its obvious that the small schools carved out of the closed large comprehensive high schools have not shown any real academic improvements.  In fact, that might be even worse once the small schools have a longer track record and cannot exclude "high needs students" as the Campus Magnet schools (Andrew Jackson Campus) have shown..

The Field Supervisor From Hell.

This is a true story that has happened this school year.  I have kept the names of the teacher and field supervisor out of this post to protect the ATR from retaliation.

The story starts innocently enough.  The field supervisor, a retired middle school principal from the Bronx, formally observed the teacher in her contact area (Biology) and gave her a "satisfactory rating".  End of story?  Not quite.

A month later the field supervisor showed up for an informal observation while the teacher was assigned to cover a foreign language class.  The ATR was given work by the absent teacher to hand out to the class.  She handed out the work and walked around the room to make sure the students were on task.  While she is not a foreign language teacher she did offer assistance to students who seemed to be struggling with the assignment.  The ATR took attendance and because some students arrived quite late to class, the ATR took the time to take attendance again to ensure accuracy.

At the end of the class the field supervisor told the ATR that her classroom pedagogy was "unsatifactory".  Why you ask?  Here's why according to the field supervisor.

First, he wanted the teacher to expand the teacher directed assignment beyond the material given to the students to complete, despite the ATR having no real knowledge of the subject.

Second, the field supervisor complained that some of the students were not on task and were talking.  Really?  How unrealistic is it for an ATR who has never seen these students before, expect them to exibit perfect behavior.

Third, The field supervisor claimed the lesson was disjointed.  However, the lesson came from the absent teacher and not the ATR.  How can he blame the ATR for somebody else's lesson?

Fourth, taking attendance twice was a waste of time.

Finally, the field supervisor saw no common core or rigor in the lesson.  Really?   Didn't the lesson come from the absent teacher?  What was the ATR to do, ignore the lesson and risk being insubordinate or follow the school's direction and hand out the absent teacher's assignment?  Moreover, the ATR is a Science teacher and how can she add common core based rigor in a subject she has little knowledge of?

This abuse of the observation process by the field supervisors must stop and the ATRs should only be observed in their content specialty.  Being observed in a subject that the ATR is unfamiliar with is wrong and harmful which must be stopped by the union.

The Mutual Consent Provision Does Not Apply To ATRs.

One of the changes in the DOE hiring process was the "mutual consent" provision that our union unwisely allowed back in the infamous 2005 contract.  The "mutual consent" provision allows principals to determine who to hire for their schools and can refuse any teacher sent by the DOE for any or no reason whatsoever.  In other words the Principal must consent to have a teacher assigned to their school and can remove the provisionally appointed teacher whenever they want, be it one day or at the end of the school year.

However, when the it comes to the ATR rights, there's no consent as the ATR is "forced placed" against their wishes.  What happened to "mutual consent" when it comes to the ATRs?  If an ATR refuses a provisional appoinment or leave replacement they are assumed to have voluntarily resigned.  No ATR consent is necessary nor is one required.  You take it or else you lose your job.

Already the DOE tried to "force place:" me in a Middle School.  Thankfully, since I am a licensed High School teacher the union was able to cite a violation of the contract to get the DOE to rescind the "forced placement".  However, this very same school is setting up mandatory interviews and making high school teachers do demo lessons when these interviews are not mandatory!  The union must be proactive and put a stop to this abuse at once.

If the Chancellor wants "mutual consent" then the consent must be mutual for both sides and ATRs should have the right to refuse an assignment if the fit is not right. That's only fair.

South Bronx School Will Be On The Radio Tomorrow.

South Bronx schools, awaiting his 3020-a hearing, will be on WFAS 1230 tomorrow morning.  I'm sure he will talk about his upcoming 3020-a hearing and the DOE charges they hope to terminate him with.

This case is interesting since his Principal had apparently written an email back in the summer of 2012 to her assistant principal discussing how to charge the satisfactory rated teacher with incompetence in the next year.  Yes, the following year and that, to me, is premeditation!  You can see the email Here. One would think that the 3020-a arbitrator will not look kindly at the DOE's case once the Principal's incriminating email is put into evidence and hopefully allow South Bronx to continue teaching.

If you have the time South Bronx's radio interview will be at 6:35 to 7:20 am tomorrow morning.  Please listen. If you cannot get the station on the radio then its streamed live.

The DOE Bureaucratic Machine Is Broken And Only A Complete Overhaul Will Fix It.

Educators have known for years that the DOE is dysfunctional and broken and is need of a complete overhaul.  There was a momentary hope that the new De Blasio administration would appoint a Chancellor who would sweep out the Bloomberg era policy makers.  However, the new Mayor appointed Carmen Farina who has been a major disappointment, to say the least.  She has retained the Bloomberg 300 and even promoted Bloomberg era holdovers such as Kathleen Grimm, known as the "Grim Reaper". for her part in closing many of the large comprehensive high schools in the city.

To many of the schools, little has changed, with frozen budgets, the continuation oi the useless and

money sucking "Children First Networks", and the top down management from the bloated bureaucracy, full of high salaried managers and high priced consultants.  The disappointing Chancellor has not reduced the obscene number of people in the accountability and legal departments that exploded during the Bloomberg years   Moreover, her failure to eliminate the perverse "fair student funding": formula that has resulted in principals having to hire the "cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school and to allow for the continuation of the ATR pool have added to her disappointing tenure as Chancellor.  Finally, in an effort to squeeze every dollar out of an already tight school budget, she has failed to reduce class sizes or hire the proper amount of school staff, be it teachers, guidance counselors, and librarians at the expense of their students' academic achievement.

Unfortunately, Chancellor Carmen Farina's tenure has resulted in little change from the Bloomberg years and the DOE remains bloated, dysfunctional, and lacks transparency.  Furthermore, the excessive paperwork required by the DOE for their mindless data mining projects continues and the hostile classroom environment still exists to this day. Until the DOE's bloated bureaucracy is  completely overhauled, don't expect any real change in the classroom and student academic achievement.

update:  The DOE has finally taken its first steps in eliminating the useless technology called ARIS.  A $95 million dollar failure in which only 16% of teachers and 3% of the parents actually bothered to use the system.  This was Joel Klein's baby and the DOE kept it despite its obvious  failure.  An added bonus is that Joel Klein's company Amplify, will also lose their contract to service ARIS that has cost over $10 million dollars since 2012.  The Daily News article is Here.

Its Time For ATRs To Have Their Own Chapter.

Before the signing of the new contract, the UFT said the reason there was no need for a Chapter for ATRs was that the ATR was transitional and temporary and that once Mayor Bloomberg was gone the ATR situation would be resolved.  However, instead of the ATR crisis being resolved, under the new contract the ATRs are now a separate class of educators and in too many cases, are no longer temporary or transitional. Now, the ATRs have different rules when it comes to interviews and discipline and are afforded  reduced "due process rights".

For example if an ATR misses two mandatory interviews or not show up to work for two days, they will be considered to have voluntarily resigned.  Moreover, if an ATR shouts in the halls or refuses an administrator's order to do more than one circular six chore, the ATR is accused of "problematic behavior" and if two consecutive principals say so, the ATR is terminated after an expedited one day 3020-a hearing, or the DOE so hopes is the case.  Finally, the UFT and DOE have agreed to allow field supervisors to give "unsatisfactory observations"  to ATRs who are not teaching in their subject area and have faced a class for the first time that day.  Therefore, it's necessary for the ATRs to have one of their own to represent the ATRs at the Executive Board,  Delegate Assembly, and at Chapter Leader meetings.

As of November 11, 2014,  the Absent Teacher Reserve Alliance (ATRA) was formed to push for such ATR representation at the UFT.  This group is open to all and includes all of the different caucuses, ICE, New Action, MORE, Solidarity, and yes even "Unity". The elected President of the ATR Alliance is James Eterno, a past Presidential candidate for the UFT and one of the most knowledgeable UFT members when it comes to member contract rights.  Mr Eterno will meet with a committee of five elected Borough  representatives to discuss issues concerning ATRs and the ATR process and advocate for fair treatment for all ATRs.  Furthermore, the ATR Alliance (ATRA) will give guidance, advice, and prepare grievances for any ATR who has been wronged by the school or field administrators.

All ATRs past, present, and future are encouraged to join the ATR Alliance and give us a voice in protecting our rights as educators.  More information on how to join and who to contact will be published in this, the UFTICE blog, and DTOE Blog as well as other NYC education blogs.

How Some Schools Manipulate The Graduation Rate.

During the Bloomberg era, high schools quickly realized that it was politically important for the administration to show improved graduation rates and in fact the graduation rates did improve.  However, it had little to do with improved student academic achievement.  The improved graduation rates were manipulated by the school administration by using tricks that hid the lack of real academic success.  The schools used phony "credit recovery courses" that not only lacked rigor but gave out essentially free credits.  Moreover, principals were known to pressure teachers to change failing grades to passing and if the teacher refused, they did it anyway.  Finally, many students who had poor attendance records were deemed to have "dropped out" and were no longer included in the graduation rate.

Because of the abuses in the "credit recovery program" and scrutiny in the dropout rate, schools were unable to manipulate the graduation rate.  But wait, the schools found a new method to increase their graduation rate and that is to encourage under credited students to transfer out to alternative schools and get them off their books.  How common is it?  Well the new Principal of Boys and Girls high school has already pushed 30 students out of his school and into into the transfer school in the building. With a student body of 729 students, that's 4% that will no longer be counted in the school's graduation rate. A Bronx Principal admitted that he removed 100 students in four months to improve the graduation rate because that is what Tweed wanted to see.  How many other schools are doing this?  I bet quite a few.

This is just another way of showing improved results when the reality is that there's no real academic achievement occurring at these schools.

Children last....always!

More Experienced Teachers Headed To The ATR Pool.

The DOE and union have agreed to use a version of the "turnaround model" at two struggling high schools.  Automotive and Boys and Girls High Schools. Starting in January, a hiring committee will be formed and interview all the teachers of the two schools.  The likely outcome is that a good 50% or more of the teachers, most of them highly experienced, will find themselves without a classroom position and in the ATR pool for the 2015-16 school year.   In fact, unlike the 18D process, the two schools do not have to hire back any of the present  teachers if they do not want to.

If the Bloomberg inspired "turnaround model" the DOE tried to impose on 24 schools back in 2012 is any guide, then look for the two schools to jettison most of their highly experienced teachers, keeping a select few as mentors for the expected influx of inexpensive and unproven  "newbie teachers" they will hire to replace the banished veterans.

The result will be an influx of hundred or more veteran teachers added to the ATR pool who will find it difficult to obtain a new appointment because of their salaries.  Interestingly, these teachers without an appointment will not be subject to the rotation system, field supervision,  or the tier two ATR discipline process.  However,make no mistake, they will be ATRs.   Of course, the union  leadership will claim that the 18D like process was fair and the best teachers were selected.  However, our union leadership is so disconnected from the membership that they would tell you its a sunny day when its raining out. 

Will a newbie dominated teaching staff really result in improved academic improvement with the present student body?  If you believe that than I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you or maybe you also believe in the tooth fairy?

In This School Its Technology Over Quality Teachers.

In a highly regarded large comprehensive high school in Northeastern Queens, a Principal is practicing his own version of "education on the cheap".  In my opinion he is using precious school funds to upgrade technology while paying for it by scrimping on teacher quality in a school known for having highly experienced teachers.  In the long run this can only hurt the academic outcomes of his school's students.

The Principal is a big fan of technology, the more technology, the better.  He is installing all his classrooms with expensive state of the art technology.  That might be all fine and good if there were dedicated funds for such a project.  However, under "fair student funding" all the funds supplied to the school can be spent in any way the Principal pleases.  Therefore, many principals "rob Peter to pay Paul" to fund their pet projects and this Principal is no exception.  How is the Principal paying foir this lavish upgrade of technology at the school?  You guessed it, its at the expense of hiring quality teachers for his school's students.

Since he took over as Principal two years ago, his hiring pattern is to select "newbie teachers", right out of college to fill most of the positions in his schools.  Few experienced teachers were hired and none of them could be considered highly experienced.  As for ATRs?  They need not apply since he has let it be known that ATRs are not appropriate for his school.  Moreover, to limit the amount of teachers the school needs to hire, he encourages teachers to pick up a "sixth period" and if its in a shortage area better yet since DOE Central actually picks up the tab for the extra class.  Interestingly, he has told at least two people that he only wants to hire the best teachers not just good teachers.  Somehow his deeds don't seem to match his words.

For example, this year his Science department was in need of a Chemistry teacher to fill in as a leave replacement.  Instead of interviewing the Chemistry teachers in the ATR pool, the school hired an unknown  substitute teacher to fill the leave replacement.  Unfortunately for the students, this teacher proved to be terrible and the students complained about him.  Now almost two months later the teacher finally decided he didn't want to be at the school and resigned before he could do any more damage to his Regents Chemistry classes.  The result is that these students are behind their peers academically and all the Chemistry teachers were forced to pick up an extra Chemistry class, whether they wanted to or not.

The DOE must be proud of this Principal as he follows their "education on the cheap" policies of Tweed at the expense of his school's student academic achievement. 

Citywide ATR Meeting Next Tuesday - Please Attend.

There will be a very important organizing meeting for citywide ATRs on Tuesday, November 11th (Veterans Day).  The organizing meeting will be held at 5pm at a hall at 87-22, 52nd Avenue in Elmhurst Queens.  The hall has a parking lot and the M and R trains stop at Grand Avenue, one block from the meeting hall.  Issues will be the establishment of a functioning ATR Chapter, possible nomination of Borough representatives and a leadership committee for coordinating issues affecting the ATRs.  The ATR organizing meeting invites all UFT caucuses and non-members to participate in its formation.  Please attend!

For members and potential members of the Solidarity caucus there will be a meeting at the same location starting at 2pm  We will be discussing the bylaws and our policy statement, among many other important issues.

Attached is a map showing the location of the building.

Principals Love The Chancellor But For Teachers It Continues To Be A Living Hell.

The New York Daily News had an article how principals are very satisfied with Chancellor Carmen Farina.  The only negatives are the budgeting process and her failure to eliminate the money sucking and useless "children First Networks" and that's not surprising since she has always been pro Principal.  However, when it comes to the classroom teacher, nothing has changed under the disappointing Chancellor..

Carmen Farina has failed to remove the 300 Bloomberg holdovers from policy making positions and even promoted Kathleen Grimm, known as the grim reaper for her major role in closing many of the large high schools, to Deputy Chancellor.  Since Carmen Farina took over at Chancellor, there has been no change in the classroom environment.  Class sizes have not been reduced and is the highest in the State, unnecessary paperwork has not been eliminated as promised and in many schools, Principals give out a sixth period class to save on teacher salaries. Moreover, the "fair student funding" encourages principals to hire "newbie teachers" while highly experienced teachers languish in the ATR pool.  Finally, she shockingly froze school budgets while DOE central increased their own budget.

Is it any wonder that student academic achievement and the income/racial achievement gap has remained unacceptably flat?  Maybe if Chancellor Carmen Farina significantly reduced class size, supplied more resources to the schools and eliminated the "fair student funding" that forces principals to hire the "cheapest and not the best teachers" and get rid of the bloated accountability and legal departments at the DOE, then just maybe we will see some real student academic progress not the "smoke and mirrors" and fuzzy math that has been the trademark of the Bloomberg DOE and continues with the disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina.

Horror Stories From The ATR Pool.

With Halloween here, its time to recount some of the horror stories told to me by the ATRs in the last couple of years.

Freddy Kruger:
This nightmare started when an ATR, trying to go the extra yard in entertaining the class he was covering, by asking them to solve a math question, using a baseball analogy.  In describing the problem he used statistics commonly used in baseball.  However, one female student didn't understand the concept and he patiently explained the math problem to her.  When she still didn't get it, the teacher explained that since she really didn't understand baseball he could see her confusion in solving the Math problem.  The girl felt insulted and reported the ATR to the Principal who charged the ATR with gender discrimination and verbal abuse. The ATR ended up with a Letter To The File (LIF) and a "u rating" for the year.

Jason:

An ATR covering a leave replacement was teaching a Science lesson when three girls decided to play "UNO" instead.  The teacher asked the girls to put the cards away three times.  However, the girls refused the teacher's request.  The Teacher went over to three girls and took the UNO cards away.  One girl refused to give up her pile and the teacher grabbed them from her hand.  In doing so he touched her hand in taking the UNO cards away.  The three girls went to the Principal and the teacher ended up being charged with corporal punishment and OSI was contacted.  The result was a LIF for the teacher and no disciplinary consequences for the three students who failed to do their work or follow the rules.

Michael Myers:
A student was feeling ill and the ATR, who was provisionally assigned to the school, told the student to go to the school clinic to be checked out.  The teacher was trying to do what's right by having qualified medical personal observe her and to ensure the child's illness was not contagious to her classmates.  The student refused to go and an argument ensued until the student reluctantly went to the school clinic.  Two weeks later the Principal held a disciplinary hearing and charged the teacher with verbal abuse (yelling)  and embarrassing the student in front of her classmates.  The  teacher ended up with a LIF and a "U rating" for the year.

Chucky:

An untenured ATR provisionally assigned to the school saw a poor performing student's Regents paper being marked separately from others and in another room and quickly realized that the teacher was violating State rules.  She asked the teacher why he had the student's Regents paper and was told to mind her own business.  She reported it first to the Assistant Principal and then the Principal of the alleged Regents violation.  However, it appears the Assistant Principal and Principal wanted this student out of the school and were in on it.  The untenured ATR's satisfactory observations in the Fall semester became "Unsatisfactory observations" after she reported the Regents violation, in the Spring semester.  She was discontinued at the end of the school year.

Alien:
A certified regular education Math ATR was dumped into a self-contained Special Education class all day without any technology or lesson plans left for the classes and was told by the Assistant Principal to keep them entertained when he complained about the lack of appropriate work for the students.  He tried his best but the students were out of control and when the Assistant Principal walked in saw that the teacher was having trouble keeping them focused.  The Assistant Principal gave the ATR a "U observation" for poor classroom management.

These are just a few of the many horror stories from the ATR pool.  If you have some stories to share, please send them to the comment section and I will publish them.

How Educators Need To Act In Their 3020-a Hearing.

When tenured educators are charged by the DOE under State regulation 3020-a, the only outcome the DOE wants is termination.  However, in only half the cases does the DOE get the educator to leave the system and most of them decide to resign or retire rather than go through the stressful 3020-a hearing process.  It appears that between 45% and 55% are either terminated, forced to resign, or retire.  The reason that the DOE does not get its way is that the DOE must prove the charges against the educator by the preponderance of relevant evidence in front of an independent arbitrator.

There is no matrix for determining the arbitrator's award.  Except if the arbitrator finds the educator committed sexual misconduct then termination becomes the automatic award.  Different arbitrators weight the DOE specifications (charges) differently, despite the number, severity, and type of specifications against the educator. Therefore, its extremely important that the educator's appearance and demeanor will go a long way in influencing the arbitrator award. Here are the actions an educator must take in the 3020-a hearing to save their job.

First, and foremost dress and act professionally.  Treat everyone in the hearing room with respect, even the DOE lawyer!  Your attitude will be noted by the arbitrator,  Men should wear a suit and tie while women should wear business attire. Don't be argumentative, emotional, or display displeasure. These actions at the 3020-a hearing will result in the arbitrator giving a more severe award then might otherwise be warranted.

Second, be on time and never miss a hearing date.  Being late to your hearing will annoy the arbitrator and will make your lawyer's defense more difficult.

Third, thoroughly familiarize yourself with the charges against you.  Craft a point-by-point rebuttal and give it to your attorney.  The more you understand the DOE specifications, the better prepared you will be to defend yourself.  Stay attentive and take down notes when witnesses testify.. 

Fourth, The DOE will blow even the most trivial action into a major incident and take things said or did by the educator out of context.  Your job is to defend yourself with clear, concise, and understandable actions and put it into the proper context.  Try to show your intent behind the action you took and express sorrow, when appropriate, that your actions were misunderstood.  Do not be arrogant!

Fifth, Try to get witnesses for your defense.  Past and present students are important and will help your defense with the arbitrator.

Finally, Tell your attorney everything!  If you lie to the lawyer or caught in a lie at the 3020-a hearing it will probably result in termination.

Time Magazine Joins The Teacher Bashing News Media.

The once gold standard of news reporting, Time magazine, has now sacrificed their journalistic responsibility for some cheap headlines by putting on its cover, a picture of "rotten apples" with a caption saying its nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.  While the article inside the magazine seems more balanced, the use of the picture demonizing teachers rather than a more neutral cover on the tenure wars is inflammatory.

Most educators know that the problem with education is not teacher tenure but the lack of education funding and deep poverty.  Many students show up to school hungry, tired, sick, and insecure.  To believe that a teacher can cure society's ills is not only naive but is insincere when you claim that if you eliminate teacher tenure education will improve. In fact, the opposite is the more likely result. In the book "The Teacher Wars" by education reporter Dana Goldstein, she reported that a teacher affects, at most, 7% of a child's academic achievement.  That means that 93% or more of the factors that affect student academic achievement are beyond the teacher's control.

If teacher tenure is the problem then states that have no teacher tenure should have better educational outcomes and a lower racial/income academic achievement gap.  However, the opposite is true.  States like Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas have the lowest academic levels in the nation and the widest racial/income academic achievement gaps where teachers have no tenure protections.  Furthermore, many studies have shown that teacher tenure is associated with better student outcomes since teachers feel more secure to try different approaches without fear of being fired.  Moreover, teacher tenure reduces teacher turnover which can destabilize a school.  Finally, if a teacher is truly awful, then the Principal can deny tenure or, if tenured, can document the reason to terminate the teacher in a "due process hearing".

A case in point is the New York City schools.  Given the same racial and income cohort, schools that have experienced tenured teachers have lower staff turnover and better student achievement.  By contrast, the schools that have higher inexperienced non-tenured teachers on saff suffer from high teacher turnover and lower academic achievement. Is it any wonder that the schools who have a deep poverty concentration have the highest teacher turnover, the most non-tenured teachers, and the lowest college readiness scores?

Already there are fewer college students going into education  and fewer yet who actually want to teach in the classroom.  How can you expect to get "quality teachers" when the media continually demonizes teachers and blames them for all the ills in society.  This just scares high quality potential candidates from considering the teaching profession and ensures that it becomes the profession of last resort during the recession years and go begging when other, better paying and less stressful jobs are available.  The teaching profession is a highly respected profession throughout the world, except in this nation where these deep-pocketed billionaires have convinced the media that the problem with the nation's education.is teacher quality and not the real reasons of inequility, inadequate funding, and poverty. 

My Overview Of The Different UFT Caucuses.

The UFT is one union.  However, it has different caucuses when it comes to representing educators and here is my overview of each of the UFT caucuses and what, I feel they stand for or in some cases against the member interests.

Unity:
In power since the beginning of the union and the leadership has become increasingly disconnected from the rank and file. Under Unity teachers have been subject to "givebacks" and now making ATRs  "second class citizens".   Democracy ends at the lowest level with only Chapter Leaders elected by the members.  All other positions are appointed by the leadership who demand a loyalty oath.  Lately, the union has put politics above the interests of the members by not supporting Teachout against Cuomo and co-sponsoring a derisive Al Sharpton lead march against fellow union members.  It seems that the leadership's social justice interests trump the rank and file needs.

MORE:
The opposition caucus that once held real promise but is ideologically split between the moderates and the Socialists.  Lately, the Socialists have seemed to have taken the upper hand in this caucus and their social justice plank seems to trump all other issues, including member rights.  The MORE caucus has moved to the far left and has alienated many anti-Unity moderates which makes their days as the primary opposition group questionable.

New Action:
They claim to be the voice of reason in the UFT but their deals with Unity, like getting two executive board seats in exchange to supporting the Unity caucus candidate for President, is unsettling to me.   Moreover, they tend to follow the Unity position when the leadership tells them to. They also put too much emphasis on social justice and also unwisely supported the Al Sharpton anti-police march.

Solidarity:
The new kid on the block and claims it will be narrowly focused on educator issues and be more a trade unionist caucus.  I have joined the Solidarity caucus and hope they attract all like-minded educators who believe that the classroom environment and teacher respect is the most important consideration in teacher satisfaction and student academic achievement.  Time will tell if this caucus will become the primary opposition group or die a slow and painful death like many others have over the decades. Maybe if ICE splits with MORE and combines with Solidarity, a real trade unionist caucus will be created and become the face of the UFT in the future.


Educators 4 Excellence:

A fringe group who operates outside the UFT caucus system. This group is simply a front for anti-union corporate elites and is a fifth column. E4E had a chance to run in the last UFT elections but failed to do so in fear that they would have been exposed as a cult with few real members. Most of the E4E leaders were untenured teachers who quickly left the classroom and took the money that deep-pocketed  corporate reformers gave them to advance their anti-union agenda.

Here was my interview with an ex-E4E member.