Thursday, February 12, 2015

Why Schools Don't Do The Right Thing For Their Students.



























As I travel from school to school monthly, I have seen too many teachers who have some real deficiencies when it comes to instruction and classroom management skills.  Quite a few are "newbies" and that's to be expected but some are experienced teachers that are teaching out of license.  Worse, is that I have been in schools that have teachers who have no business teaching a subject they have little knowledge of. One example is Earth Science. In school after school, I have seen students being taught by teachers who are not certified Earth Science teachers and, as you can expect, their students do poorly on the Regents as a result.

Examples of uncertified teachers teaching Earth Science are Richmond Hill and Newtown High schools, where there are multiple classes of Earth Science and to my knowledge, neither school has a certified Earth Science teacher on staff!  Moreover, in the Bloomberg small schools many Science teachers are teaching multiple Science courses that they are not certified to teach and may have four different preps.  You would never see this in the suburbs.


According to the UFT, there are six certified Earth Science teachers in excess in Queens but since they are highly experienced and expensive, the schools will not do the right thing for their students and appoint one of them to improve the chances of their students in passing the Earth Science Regents, since its more important in hiring the "cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school.

While the union could file a PERB complaint and publicize the educational maleficence that hurts the student's academic outcomes, the disconnected union leadership rather ignore this educational abuse and instead aids and abets the DOE  in allowing it to occur.  The union should be going after "fair student funding" and filing both a PERB complaint and informing parents that the DOE is allowing non-certified teachers to teach their students in subject areas like Math and Science.  Instead its business as usual at the DOE practices its "education on the cheap" policy and the union just cheers them on.


12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are they expensive and experienced or are they they just bad? Do they get into confrontations with students? You know we don't do that anymore in this profession. Do they make children feel small and belittled? Yesteryears teacher used to do that all the time as part of their "classroom management" approach. Are they one of the the ATRs who refuse to be placed? I have seen far too many show up to an interview with the intent of throwing it so they would be sent back to the pool where there is no Danielson or lesson planning. Do they get along withy their colleagues? Far too many ATRs have or pretend to have personality disorders that are so pronounced that people will not go near them. Are these the type of teachers you would have readers believe placement would be akin to doing the right thing'? Because if you're selling that, I ain't buying.
Qualifications be dammed. How do you know they can teach? How should a parent? A principal? A whole school community?

Anonymous said...

If there are three classes within a license area, that is considered a program and it can be grieved. This would be done under Article 5. It's an easy win but the UFT probably won't take it.

Anonymous said...

Dear Anonymous 5:18

I'm one of the Queens earth science teachers Chaz is writing about. During the first four years of being an ATR, I taught in license / close to license for full year programs.

At one school, 85% of my 120 earth science students passed the earth science regents; still, no job offer for me....but numerous non-certified science newbies were provisionally hired.

Sadly anonymous 5:18, you sound incredibly familiar. Maybe you're "too good to be excessed"? Waddle off, I think there's a BBQ you're missing!

Anonymous said...

Hey CHAZ, who the hell came up with the "rule" that you can indeed teach .4 (2 classes) out of license? This is nuts! The UFT came up with this? Or DOE? 40% of a teachers day can be in anything, LEGALLY. This is crazy and believe me, principals take advantage of this shit. Small schools with no $$$ have a random teacher doing fake music classes or art to satisfy the 1 year "requirement". I'm a music teacher licensed, and I'm furious that these schools get away with this, legally. It's disgusting. In a small shit school on my campus, a social studies teacher is doing a "music" class. They're calling it Music History. The kids get their 2 credits to satisfy the requirement. Shit system, shit results, shit for brains. Place sucks. 6 more years, 60% of my salary. I'm gone, can't wait.

Bronx ATR said...

To 5:18,
You could make that same argument with any profession, but it would still be ridiculous. What you're saying is experience doesn't matter . You're entire premise is prejudiced, illogical and ignorant. Try it out with a doctor or lawyer some time. Pick the newbie doctor when you're on the operating table, or the newbie lawyer when you're looking at jail time. The newbie teacher might become a great teacher with experience, but with your logic that person would then be incompetent.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous 5:18

Qualifications be damned? How would you like your child's math Teacher to have majored in Spanish for instance (Just an example-Spanish/math Teachers).
Qualifications are important.
If I was an ATR where someone like you was an Administrator, yes, I may have to pretend to have a personality disorder just to avoid working in your school. You seem to have only negative ideas about ATRs.

Chaz said...

Anon 5:18

I can tell you that most ATRs are superior to newbies and better than having a non certified teacher teaching a subject.

If you don't give the ATR a chance, you will never do the right thing for the students.

Anonymous said...

To anon 5:18, thats why the schools are out of control. As teachers we can't even discipline our students. Fake passing rates and grades are the new approach to teach. Why teach when you can give students fake grades and everyone is happy. Nice try trying to smear the atr's you tool!

Anonymous said...

anon 10:18
Ok you got me with your post. You know as I continue to read the blogs here at Chaz I can usually tell who is for real and who is full of shit. Sadly you are full of shit and probably one of Eva Moskowitch's paid (minimum wage) bloggers because you are full of shit. And yes, there is a barbecue waiting for you troll.

Anonymous said...

chaz, I just love your graphic and how true it is.

Unknown said...

Great transformation!!!
Educational Company in India, Global Schools in India

Anonymous said...

Hey, Anonymous 5:18...

Defend yourself bitch!