Usually, I don't allow another person to use my blog to state their position. However, this charter school teacher's story is so compelling I felt it necessary to print the teacher's article that was sent to me, unedited.
I was laid off from my “long term sub” assignment in a
charter school in the Northeast Bronx on Friday. State science performance tests are next week, and then the 8th grade pretty much goes on field
trips for the rest of the school year. So as far as the principal is concerned,
teaching is over. So on Friday afternoon, after I’d come
into work all week despite doctors’ orders to stay home (horrid ear infection),
I was let go after a brief post-observation meeting. The principal chastised me
for a rather trivial comment I made in after school test prep that apparently
offended my co-teacher (who was there not to teach after school with me, but to
apparently surf the web and eat lunch). But basically, I knew why I was let go:
because they no longer needed a science teacher.
I had been working there three months, and was by different estimates, either the sixth or seventh science teacher of the year. The students had lost count. One teacher apparently lasted all of a day before an altercation with a student gave him his walking papers.
With that being said, my time in a charter school wasn’t all bad, and there are some pros of working at charters:
1. The pay - many of them pay more than the DoE. The hours are longer, and true you barely get breaks between lunch duty, coaching sessions, coverages (charter school teachers are often absent an enormous amount at the end of the year as they know the axe is falling and some simply stop coming to work while others call out to attend interviews). But if you can take it, you do take home a sizable chunk of change … while you have your job.
2. There’s less harassment, at least at the charter school I was at. Admins at charter schools do not have to document poor teaching, or poor anything, to let a teacher go. You can be let go for any reason, or no reason at all. Contracts are rarely renewed after one year. So while you’re at your job, you do get to do it without the humiliating “documentation” public school admins foist upon targeted teachers.
3. School supplies - charter schools often have a mysterious hedge fund manager who bankrolls the school. So things like paper, notebooks, smart boards, pencils, markers, which are often in short supply at public schools are readily available in charter schools.
4. Discipline codes - although charter school children have the same discipline and behavior problems expected at any high-poverty urban school, the discipline code in a charter school is stricter and it is easier to impose punishments. The deans are not part-time teachers but full-time security types equipped to deal all day with behavior problems. Sending a kid to the dean’s office is often looked down upon in public schools but in the charter school I worked at it’s generally not a problem if a kid is acting out and disrupting the class for the child to be pulled and sent out. The deans I worked at were by far the best employees of the school — tough, practical, supportive of the teachers.
But the cons of working at a charter school are too many to list, but here are a few that I found the most galling:
1. The “suggestions” that teachers donate money, raise money, or work at fundraisers. There were walkathons, receptions, more receptions, “happy hours” in which teachers were asked to bartend, and constant email missives asking teachers to “match” donations. Professional developments focused on whether teachers were “on the bus” or not — and “on the bus” often was a code word for willingness to participate in the endless fundraisers.
2. Teacher turnover - Most of the teachers were there for less than one year. The ones that stayed seemed to be personal friends with the principal or board of directors. Others often just left. No explanation was given, and that left the kids confused, as they would form a bond with the teachers and boom! the teacher was gone on Monday.
3. The lack of resources given to extremely special needs kids. The charter school I worked at had a very high population of SWD’s, and although they varied in skill and ability, some of the neediest kids were allowed to flounder in 30-pupil classrooms with little to no support. The “paras” I saw spent most of their time chatting on the phone or surfing the web on their iPads. In public schools these students surely would have been put in self-contained classes and get specialized services but at the charter school they were allowed to sit there, not knowing how to read, write, or (in one case) speak, and were often relentlessly bullied by other students for being “dumb.” It was a horrible environment for them and a scam on their parents, who no doubt thought that putting their children in a charter school would give them the individualized attention they needed.
4. The poor academics - it’s a myth that charter schools have better academics because they “counsel out” poorly performing kids. At the charter school I was at only 18% of the students were reading at a “proficient” level — actually worse than the DOE average. The students had the same academic challenges — poor reading and writing skills, but IMO their deficiencies were worsened by their schedules. In the morning in homeroom they were forced to read in absolute silence. Easier said than done for many students who really couldn’t read. Homeroom was by far the most challenging period of the day — many students literally shook with frustration as they were forced to read in silence. Others discreetly held a book to their noses but sometimes I saw they were holding the book upside down. Students were also referred to as “scholars” and constantly tested throughout the year. They were often given the message that their only value was how well they did on the CCLS ELA and Math exams.
5. The humiliating professional development session in which the school admins reminded us of how they were ‘actively recruiting’ for applicants. Sometimes these candidates would be brought into your classroom to do a demo lesson. It’s just the way the system works — contracts are rarely renewed after one year, but it contributed to low morale and towards the end of the year absences by teachers were staggering — sometimes maybe 30-40% of the staff was absent, presumably to go on interviews or maybe just to use their remaining sick days.
6. The 9 hour days that often translated into no breaks - sure, you were given a prep period. But many times you were pulled for coverages (many unpaid), for lunch duty, for meetings, and you were expected to work after school as well. It was an exhausting schedule and not one many teachers could maintain. Many teachers are very young, and live with their parents. One teacher said she felt “old’ — she’s 28. It’s very hard for people with families to maintain this kind of workload.
But the strange thing is, the best part of working at a charter school is the best part of working at any school - the kids. Kids can be rowdy, disrespectful, unmotivated, difficult to teach, but I can tell you that I’d rather deal with the most difficult kids all day than to have those awful five minute “you’re fired” meetings with a principal.
I had been working there three months, and was by different estimates, either the sixth or seventh science teacher of the year. The students had lost count. One teacher apparently lasted all of a day before an altercation with a student gave him his walking papers.
With that being said, my time in a charter school wasn’t all bad, and there are some pros of working at charters:
1. The pay - many of them pay more than the DoE. The hours are longer, and true you barely get breaks between lunch duty, coaching sessions, coverages (charter school teachers are often absent an enormous amount at the end of the year as they know the axe is falling and some simply stop coming to work while others call out to attend interviews). But if you can take it, you do take home a sizable chunk of change … while you have your job.
2. There’s less harassment, at least at the charter school I was at. Admins at charter schools do not have to document poor teaching, or poor anything, to let a teacher go. You can be let go for any reason, or no reason at all. Contracts are rarely renewed after one year. So while you’re at your job, you do get to do it without the humiliating “documentation” public school admins foist upon targeted teachers.
3. School supplies - charter schools often have a mysterious hedge fund manager who bankrolls the school. So things like paper, notebooks, smart boards, pencils, markers, which are often in short supply at public schools are readily available in charter schools.
4. Discipline codes - although charter school children have the same discipline and behavior problems expected at any high-poverty urban school, the discipline code in a charter school is stricter and it is easier to impose punishments. The deans are not part-time teachers but full-time security types equipped to deal all day with behavior problems. Sending a kid to the dean’s office is often looked down upon in public schools but in the charter school I worked at it’s generally not a problem if a kid is acting out and disrupting the class for the child to be pulled and sent out. The deans I worked at were by far the best employees of the school — tough, practical, supportive of the teachers.
But the cons of working at a charter school are too many to list, but here are a few that I found the most galling:
1. The “suggestions” that teachers donate money, raise money, or work at fundraisers. There were walkathons, receptions, more receptions, “happy hours” in which teachers were asked to bartend, and constant email missives asking teachers to “match” donations. Professional developments focused on whether teachers were “on the bus” or not — and “on the bus” often was a code word for willingness to participate in the endless fundraisers.
2. Teacher turnover - Most of the teachers were there for less than one year. The ones that stayed seemed to be personal friends with the principal or board of directors. Others often just left. No explanation was given, and that left the kids confused, as they would form a bond with the teachers and boom! the teacher was gone on Monday.
3. The lack of resources given to extremely special needs kids. The charter school I worked at had a very high population of SWD’s, and although they varied in skill and ability, some of the neediest kids were allowed to flounder in 30-pupil classrooms with little to no support. The “paras” I saw spent most of their time chatting on the phone or surfing the web on their iPads. In public schools these students surely would have been put in self-contained classes and get specialized services but at the charter school they were allowed to sit there, not knowing how to read, write, or (in one case) speak, and were often relentlessly bullied by other students for being “dumb.” It was a horrible environment for them and a scam on their parents, who no doubt thought that putting their children in a charter school would give them the individualized attention they needed.
4. The poor academics - it’s a myth that charter schools have better academics because they “counsel out” poorly performing kids. At the charter school I was at only 18% of the students were reading at a “proficient” level — actually worse than the DOE average. The students had the same academic challenges — poor reading and writing skills, but IMO their deficiencies were worsened by their schedules. In the morning in homeroom they were forced to read in absolute silence. Easier said than done for many students who really couldn’t read. Homeroom was by far the most challenging period of the day — many students literally shook with frustration as they were forced to read in silence. Others discreetly held a book to their noses but sometimes I saw they were holding the book upside down. Students were also referred to as “scholars” and constantly tested throughout the year. They were often given the message that their only value was how well they did on the CCLS ELA and Math exams.
5. The humiliating professional development session in which the school admins reminded us of how they were ‘actively recruiting’ for applicants. Sometimes these candidates would be brought into your classroom to do a demo lesson. It’s just the way the system works — contracts are rarely renewed after one year, but it contributed to low morale and towards the end of the year absences by teachers were staggering — sometimes maybe 30-40% of the staff was absent, presumably to go on interviews or maybe just to use their remaining sick days.
6. The 9 hour days that often translated into no breaks - sure, you were given a prep period. But many times you were pulled for coverages (many unpaid), for lunch duty, for meetings, and you were expected to work after school as well. It was an exhausting schedule and not one many teachers could maintain. Many teachers are very young, and live with their parents. One teacher said she felt “old’ — she’s 28. It’s very hard for people with families to maintain this kind of workload.
But the strange thing is, the best part of working at a charter school is the best part of working at any school - the kids. Kids can be rowdy, disrespectful, unmotivated, difficult to teach, but I can tell you that I’d rather deal with the most difficult kids all day than to have those awful five minute “you’re fired” meetings with a principal.
I guess we should be thankful we don't work in a charter school, subject to long, grueling hours, intense pressure to fund-raise, and being fired for no reason whatsoever.
This is a great and instructive article. Wish we could name the school.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but on the other hand, most of those teachers weren't around long enough that they'd get tenure in public schools. Therefore, they could also be fired for pretty much no reason too.
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks for posting this and thanks to the author of the post. What stands out the most to me as I read this is that this is our future if we don't stand together to preserve our Union. The billionaires will make our entire profession into a cash cow. Using educated people and then spitting them out. The poster said she was well paid but I doubt she will see a paycheck from now until the next gig. We are not here to put money into greedy megalomaniacs pockets. Teaching is a service to the community. A hard- won democratic right. And by the way, I'd like to know which bank will lend this teacher money to purchase a home. So in addition to being jobless she will also be a perpetual renter, or worse. More money for the developers.
ReplyDeleteI might add that I had doctor's notes to stay home the whole week due to an extreme ear infection. But I went in anyway thinking the students needed my test prep. Ironically had I stayed home under doctor's orders, I might have been employed another week or two.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like what is happening to many of the young untenured teachers in the DOE who are now required to participate in after school activities to get their tenure which is often postponed a year to keep them on the string. I have also heard teachers in many schools complaining how they are supposed to do fundraisers for their schools on weekends as well as participate in clubs, sing etc sometimes without pay.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the posting of the charter school fired teacher. This situation describes the powerless of the worker BEFORE unions. People died and suffered
ReplyDeletegovernment retribution to defend and support the rights of workers to form legitimate unions. We are taking steps backward. Time to fight and be willing to pay the consequences (jail, loss of jobs, and worse). The long-term goal of whoever is behind this attack on teachers and unions, is the elimination of a thinking and educated voter. Students are being cheated of an education and many will not be able to reason beyond the brainwashing propaganda which assaults them in the biased media. Is it any wonder why we have the kind of government that we complain about?
I'd like to see massive statewide boycotts.
DeleteTo Anonymous 5:06
ReplyDeleteThe Unity Caucus of the UFT is not looking for the rank and file, they are looking out only for themselves.
This is the Icahn Charter on Pelham Parkway South in the Bronx.
ReplyDeleteThe UNITY CAUCUS tips off the networks when teachers file complaint to city officials. I know people who ave proof of this.Therefore, the DOE and union are in bed together. Nobody is on our side.Please wake up!
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what my read on charter schools has been all along. They use teachers like Kleenex, then discard them without a single glance backward. Why would anyone want to teach at a charter school?
ReplyDeleteSounds like this school must be an Evil Moskowitch school. If not, I am sure that the success charter bull crap schools are run just like this one. This is what the donkeys in Albany are pushing for?? This type of schooling is going to revolution the US?? The planet of the apes model continues in education as it seems as though the apes are running the asylum.
ReplyDeleteNope. But kind of scary that this applies to so many different charter schools that you can guess the wrong one.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like there really is no difference between the DOE and a charter.
ReplyDeleteMoskowitch will not hold any press conference announcing this:
ReplyDeleteFor the 2nd year in a row, not a single Success Academy student passed the SHSAT, a test that demands logical thinking. For two straight years now not one success moskowitch student will be attending any specialized hs because the test requires logical thinking - word to cuomo and the new commiss: read the information carefully before you make any decisions...
The rat in the Queens UFT office is Rona Frazier. She tips off Thomas Fox ( another network flunky ) who tips off the Principal. This is how that cunt Dwarka gets all her information. And we thought Vazquez was the heel. He is just a boot heal licker.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew and his crew are lower than scum.