The Achilles heel in working in the 94 Renewal Schools for teachers is the extra work expected of them. There is countless hours of useless "Professional Development", teacher meetings on their prep periods, and mindless assessments that add stress on the teaching staff. Moreover, the unrelenting pressure in showing improvement simply adds additional stress to an already stressful job. Finally, while teacher time is the same in all schools teachers are under intense administrative pressure to put in an extra teaching period as the school day is longer in the Renewal Schools. While the extra teaching period is voluntary, its difficult for a teacher to refuse the administration's request. With a "high needs" student population the DOE's expectation of real academic improvement is just unrealistic.
The informed veteran teacher will usually not take a position in a Renewal School since the additional requirements put upon teachers who work with these "high needs" schools and the additional stress put on the teaching staff. Therefore, the majority of teachers who are hired at the Renewal Schools are recently excessed and untenured teachers or "newbies". The DOE's "fair student funding" also ensures that even the renewal schools will think twice before hiring a veteran teacher, no matter how desperate the school may need a certified teacher in a hard to staff subject. An example is Richmond Hill High School which has more than two dozen Earth Science classes without a certified Earth Science teacher.
The Renewal Schools will continue to struggle and fail until the DOE realizes that the first step in attracting more academically achieving students is to hire a veteran and certified staff that have a deep knowledge of curriculum and already posses good classroom management skills. That means improving the teaching environment of the schools and not the "education on the cheap" policy that the DOE continues to apply that simply follows a failed model of hiring "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools. Just take a look at Automotive High School and see how that has worked out? Even the Principal is jumping the sinking ship!
If the De Blasio Administration really wants these Renewal Schools to succeed they may want to revisit the Chancellor's District that was discontinued when Chancellor Rudy Crew was removed by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani that seem to work as the DOE made an effort by recruiting veteran teachers with more money and lower class sizes. Of course, as long as Carmen Farina is Chancellor don't expect the DOE's "education on the cheap" mindset to change and these schools to improve. For the DOE its "Children last"...Always.
Seriously Chaz, what's up with these PD's every Monday and parent outreach every Tuesday? Who really thought this was a good idea? Why? Next contract they mine as well make Monday's and Wednesday's PD and Tuesfays and Thurtsdays parent outreach. The union would sign off on this. It's basically a 9-5 job now with work from home after 5.
ReplyDeleteI work in a renewal school. We are hiring about 9-10 new teachers next year. We have already received almost 600 applications. We are shocked too! People must really be desperate. The work load at my school is insane. The applicants do not know what they are getting into. I plan to stay because of the convenience.
ReplyDeleteThe Danielson's rubric is a nightmare in a renewal school where principals are under pressure to show they are 'cutting those bad teachers' that 'keep minorities down.' Danielson's is the most prone-to-being-abused evaluation 'tool' ever invented. The admins can circle whatever they want on the rubric regardless of what is happening in the classroom, and you have no recourse. At my renewal schools we are demoralized due to all the 1s and 2s that have been flying around, and for no good reason.
ReplyDeleteSo Minerva Zanca is in the news again, the failed principal of a renewal school. I was there. She did those racist things against the black teachers. I didn't speak up because I did not want to be targeted or fired for opening my mouth.
ReplyDeleteThe unknown secret is that she also had it in for the WHITE teachers, and most left the school after her first year. Why, you ask? Here is another secret: even though the media is trying to spin this as an 'evil white' thing, she is in fact a Puertorican mulatta with a slight accent who dyes her hair blond from time to time.
She hates whites and all but told us so during one staff meeting through a story about how the 'evil white' editors of a magazine she used to write for 'held her down' and denied the quality of her writing. As principal, she hired almost all Asians and Latinos as new staff her second year after driving away almost all the white teachers (and firing the black ones).
On the related story on Lafergola, it should be pointed out that this terrible terrible principal (Automotive,) who is finally leaving and should have been out a long time ago, was only allowed to stay as long as she did because her married name is Stancik (as in married to Ed Stancik who heads up the city's Dept of Investigation). I guess that guy has a lot of dirt on a lot of people and so can pull a lot of strings. Why else would that disastrous school be headed up by such a disastrously bad principal for so long? It's because of her creepy, powerful husband, who himself should be investigated (Preet Bahara are you there?) Anyway she's finally gone. Baldwin is nuts for hiring her
ReplyDeleteand the students are trash...
ReplyDeleteAny ATR who has been in these Renewal Schools are smart enough not to apply but new teachers have no clue what they face/
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:24:
ReplyDeleteEd does not head up Investigations. He headed investigations. He died 15 years ago. You real need to get current.
The idea of 250 lb Lafergola married to elfin dwarf Ed Stancik is pretty amusing. The comment points to a problem with most of these blogs, namely the facts are poorly researched and the conclusions drawn are often preposterous.
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:48
ReplyDeleteIts not the blogs that give out apparent misinformation its the comments that respond to the blogs. Get that straight.
I am just starting out in my teaching my career and I can never think of joining renewal schools. I can totally understand why veteran teachers would not.
ReplyDelete