The Daily News published an article that in its print edition called ATRs "bad teachers" and that principals find them "undesirable" for their school. The trash article made it seem that ATRs are unwanted and damaged and will hurt student learning. How wrong the article is. The inaccurate article with the byline of Corinne Lestch and supported by that "hard working reporter", Ben Chapman, the Daily News education reporters smacks of another case of "yellow journalism". These so-called "education reporters" failed to print the truth, like usual.
The real truth is that principals fail to hire ATRs because of the "fair student funding" formula that requires principals to hire the "cheapest" not the "best teachers" for their school so as not to hurt their tight budget. Nowhere in the terrible Daily News article is there even a mention of the "fair student funding" formula and its effect on hiring as a result. In addition, the Daily News article omitted that the New York City schools have suffered funding losses and had their budgets reduced by an average of 14% since 2008 while class sizes rose to their highest in years. Furthermore, these sloppy reporters failed to notice that the ATR pool is populated with senior teachers with the average age in the 50s. Wouldn't a good reporter look into the "age factor"as the reason that principals don't want these teachers in their schools? These senior ATRs bring with them an institutional memory of what teaching is about and what teachers can or cannot do under the teachers contract. Why hire a teacher that says "why" when given a command that seems in violation of good teaching while a "newbie" will say "high high"? This is especially true of those "Leadership Academy Principals" who bought into the Joel Klein propaganda. Finally, the Daily News failed to question the uselessness of the ATR rotation system that wastes money and hursts students who are deprived of some very experienced "quality teachers". Interestingly, the Daily News forgot to include the hundreds of guidance counselors, social workers, assistant principals, and secretaries. The number is over 2,000 and the money wasted is close to $160 million dollars annually. My proposal on what to do with the ATR pool can be found Here.
The Daily News article was one-sided, inaccurate, and simply "yellow journalism" and as a recipient of their poor "fact checking" skills and ideological bent, it didn't surprise me one bit that the Daily News article only presented the Bloomberg/Klein/Walcott side of the issue and not what's actually going on in the New York City public schools. Shame on the Daily News education reporters for buying into the pseudo-reform propaganda and is just another piece of "yellow journalism" at the expense of the truth
I guess for the Daily News education reporters it's ideology first and children last. What happened to honest and balanced reporting in the education beat? Apparently, it doesn't exist when it comes to the Daily News education reporters.
P.S. I have been informed that the Daily News is doing a "follow up article" on the ATR issue for tomorrow's paper. I'm sure there will be more half truths, an ideological slant, and outright lies about the ATRs. Can't wait. I also believe we we see the New York Post and the New York Times do the same in the coming weeks.
I think it's time to start an APR (Absent Principal Reserve)for those who game the system by juking their scores.
ReplyDeleteNo APR. Those principals should be fired for dishonesty. They do not deserve a paycheck.
ReplyDeleteThe union needs to take out a full page ad in the News defending us. If public sentiment goes against us, we become fair game. This is what the News is attempting to do. The union should step up to the plate and respond directly to this.
ReplyDeleteEvery single ATR should write to the Daily News expressing his or her outrage about this "trash"article.....very soon before the public believes their lies...
ReplyDeleteTo Ben Chapman, if you're reading this... it doesn't take Woodward & Bernstein to find info that refutes your article... just ten minutes of Googling.
ReplyDeleteHere's an old article, where the teacher blogger discusses the ATR phenomenon... and how the principals don't hire them because they are ordered to hire "new blood":
http://chaz11.blogspot.com/2012/03/atr-crises-will-really-explode-in-2012.html
Here are some excerpts:
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Chazz the Teacher:
"One of my friends told me that his Principal had informed the Assistant Principals in his 'Turnaround School' that the Network Leader had notified him that Tweed is encouraging the Principals of 'Turnaround Schools' to hire the maximum amount of "new blood" (newbie teachers) for their school for the 2012-13 school year.
"That means that 40% of the new staff will have no real classroom experience and already struggling schools will struggle even more as their academically low achieving students will be the 'guinea pigs' for teachers who themselves must learn curriculum and acquire classroom management skills.
"... the truth is that Principals don't want senior and high-paid teachers on their tight school budget."
"... However, the DOE will tell the mass media that already large and rising class sizes, lack of resources, and tight budgets would magically disappear if they could only get rid of the ATRs.
"The DOE has convinced the NYC newspapers that the ATRs are the 'Jews' of the education system, it is all their fault for the problems that plague the NYC schools."
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Our school hired a teacher who was assigned to our school as an ATR and she is terrific! I've also seen a few teachers come through the ATR rotation that I've worked with at other schools and they were also great teachers... BUT... unfortunately there are some ATRs who I can't imagine any principal in their right mind wanting to hire. These people are the reason that the ATRs have such a bad reputation.
ReplyDeleteYes, but the actions of a (very) should not be used to brand and villify all ATRs. We ARE teachers, so even term to differentiate us is objectionable. Those few ATRs are teachers and were thrown into the ATR pool (for drugs, prostitution, etc.) and are now being shown as examples. Just like when Bloomy wanted to close a school, he inundated the student population with criminals and used there stats as proof of a failing school. Also all professions, especially news reporters, have their bad eggs.
DeleteTo Ben Chapman, if you're reading this... it doesn't take Woodward & Bernstein to find information refuting your article... just 10 minutes of Google searching.
ReplyDeleteHere's an old article dealing with NYC's ATR problem... and how principals aren't hiring them because they are being ordered instead to hire "new blood".
Here are some excerpts:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Chazz the Teacher:
"One of my friends told me that his Principal had informed the Assistant Principals in his'Turnaround School' that the Network Leader had notified him that Tweed is encouraging the Principals of 'Turnaround Schools' to hire the maximum amount of 'new blood' (newbie teachers) for their school for the 2012-13 school year.
"That means that 40% of the new staff will have no real classroom experience and already struggling schools will struggle even more as their academically low achieving students will be the 'guinea pigs' for teachers who themselves must learn curriculum and acquire classroom management skills. The result will be an explosion of the ATR crises in the NYC school system.
"... the truth is that Principals don't want senior and high paid teachers on their tight school budget."
"... However, the DOE will tell the mass media that already large and rising class sizes, lack of resources, and tight budgets would magically disappear if they could only get rid of the ATRs.
"The DOE has convinced the NYC newspapers that the ATRs are the 'Jews' of the education system, it is all their fault for the problems that plague the NYC schools."
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I left a comment on that NYDN article this morning, I was so ticked off. I asked the NYDN why they framed the ATRs so negatively and then explained why there are ATRs to begin with. It's time for the union to fix what they helped break!!
ReplyDeleteOur union is afraid of its own shadow
ReplyDeleteI guess the reality is that many of the reporters at the daily news are just plain lazy and they just do not investigate enough to get the accurate facts. The reporters are stupid lazy guy and dolls of nyc who travel the subways and foster the cold and snow. They are miserable in a sense so bashing anything or anyone makes them fell a bit better. So, the average daily news beat writer wakes up at 6am in their no heat soho studio apartment, hops on the subway to their trashy smelly offices filled with high flying energy goons just trying to survive. So, next here comes a story for them...yeah the doe is putting the atrs back into the classrooms!! A wonderful thing in that schools will have smaller class sizes, students can actually sit down with a school counselor, social workers can help students with stress, librarians can monitor libraries, secretaries can keep in all together in the office. However, the daily news reporters chose to talk about anything negative they could think of and just print it!!! A disgusting display of journalism but I am not surprised because they are all miserable and misery loves company
ReplyDeleteWe need someone like Al Sharpton heading out union! ( I'm a white guy)
ReplyDeleteThis daily news article is yet another stab at nyc teachers and it must stop. The UFt really needs to step up to the plate here. Mr. Mulgrew needs to PR to the public the real story about the teachers in the absent teacher reserve and to let the public know that bloomshits was wasting millions in his outside services DOE. In mikey bloomshits world outsiders are used and teachers are rotated and abused - so what does this stupid idiot paper publish, just what mikey wants again....so sad so sad,,,we lost independent reporting
ReplyDeleteI am hoping for a dreadful disease to hit the offices of the daily news and that everyone there gets a disease that eats away at their brains because their brains are brain washed
ReplyDeleteI had to laugh when reading this daily news article but laughed even more when at the end of the article there is a quote from a principal who says the ATRS are draining the system of money.....LOL....This principal (probably a wonder kid from the infamous bloomshit leadership academy) is a dumb shit head because 100 million dollars is hardly going to "drain" the system of money when the city spends 24 Billion dollars a year for education. So, 100 million of a total budget of 24 BILLION is less then 1 percent. So, I would bet the ranch that that principal did not even know what the city budget for education is! I guarantee you.
ReplyDeleteThe ATR's will be boarding the next train to Auchwitz.
ReplyDeleteor campus magnet
ReplyDeleteOne of the Daily Spew authors of the article was on channel 5 vilifying ATRs this morning (2/7/14).At least Greg Kelly stuck up for us. Where the f--k is our union?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/de-blasio-action-100m-unused-teachers-article-1.1605295
ReplyDeleteLook...the union has had enough of this slander from the press for 12 years already-enough to file a 1 billion dollar lawsuit against either rag-for the slander of all the hard working, honest people working in these schools.
ReplyDeleteWhat have they done to fight back...?
Little more than nada...
Mort Zuckerman is his name. Boycott should be our game.
ReplyDeleteA few problems with the story:
ReplyDelete-That Chancellor Fariña discussed something with her staff does not make fait accompli.
-The source and validity of the News’s breakdown of how ATRs got to be ATR’s-disciplinary proceedings, closing schools, dinosaur licenses-are questionable.
-As the article acknowledged at its close, no such move is possible without collective bargaining. This might be part of a contract or a discrete agreement, like the ATR agreement on provisional hiring and funding which sunset several years ago.
-The stated and unstated assumptions of the article are that ATRs are undesirable and that they do not wish to resume permanent teaching duties. You can test the validity of those assumptions in your conversations with your colleague ATRs as they rotate through your building week to week.