I was told by my APO that as of Feb 4, 2017 the school assigned to the rotating ATRs will be the school they will remain in for the rest of the school year. Apparently, the first tangible change Randy Asher has made in changing the ATR status is to eliminate the useless and demoralizing rotation of excessed teachers. It seems that Chancellor Carmen Farina has finally decided to reduce Principal autonomy in hiring teaching staff since few principals were hiring experienced teachers and especially ATRs, no matter how qualified they are and the incentives offered them.
According to the APO, ATRs will be placed in schools with vacancies in their subject area. Will that include the many hidden vacancies throughout the system? Can the school still hire outside the school system in the last two weeks of January? What penalties will the DOE impose on schools who refused to accept the ATR in their vacancy? What about uncertified teachers teaching in a subject area their not qualified to teach in? How will school budgets change (Fair Student Funding). What about the ATR field Supervisors?. These questions remain unanswered.
I have no doubt that the placing of ATRs in schools with vacancies in their subject area is because of the looming teacher shortage and the saving of $100 million dollars that it cost DOE Central annually. Moreover, the Chancellor and Mayor have finally realized its to their political advantage to move further away from the ideological Bloomberg/Klein policies that has alienated school staff and with a new election approaching, its time to go in a different direction. Finally, principals only have themselves to blame for this turn of events as they rather hire young, inexpensive "newbie" teachers rather than spend a few extra bucks on high quality talent as it was more about age and salary discrimination than about what's best for their students academic achievement.
Far too many principals believed the decade long DOE kool-ade that ATRs are "bad teachers" and even the ATR incentive wasn't enough to change their minds. The DOE did such a great job demonizing the ATRs over the decade that the principals have been brainwashed in believing this false narrative and now its up to the DOE to forcefully tell principals that it was all a lie and please hire them. The question is what's next? Stay tuned.
Once the rotations stop ,the drive-by observations will begin. And then the negative ratings. And then.........
ReplyDelete9:38,
ReplyDeleteThat's been going on for several years for many ATRs, at least now they'll know the kids and school. You're an asshole.
A lot more damage can be done to someone who is assigned to a school than to someone who is there short term.
DeleteFirst of all they can put you in a classroom then come in constantly and pummel you with negative observations. It will be easier to give Ineffectives since you won't have a history at the school.
You will get written up for improper grading, paperwork errors, ineffective planning, and other expectations that are given to regular classroom teachers.
Additionally, you can be sabotaged and accused of so many more things.
That's what I see as a possible outcome.
Hopefully not though.
It is only a matter of time before the ATRs are placed---most likely FORCE placed in schools they don't want to be in. And then, the negative observations will begin, as well as false charges of things they never said or did. How can you expect positive ratings or support from principals forced to take them on? There's more than one way to skin an ATR, and this way, the DOE can point to the "placed" ATR and say, "What can we do? We TRIED...."
ReplyDeleteQuoting Admiral Ackbar of Star Wars: "It's a trap!"
Chaz, you always mention the looming teacher shortage, and we all take solace in that prediction, but at least in Queens, there are usually hundreds of applications sent to schools every hiring season. At my Renewal school, we had 600 applications for nine positions last July. Most of them were new teachers.
ReplyDeleteIt seems NYC is still a big draw for the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed crowd. Is there really a shortage looking? Even the Bronx manages to fill its positions with the gullible.
I agree I find there is a surplus if teachers in every area. Long Island kids who can't get jobs are flooding the DOE system.
Deleteso many questions,
ReplyDeleteAre we placed just for the spring term or permanently?
if a principal hired an atr with the incentive, will they get the better deal if one is offered in june?
Yeah, i dont like this. So, what if the school Im put in in Feb is a disaster? I cant get out. That is a problem. Chaz, I dont know why you would think this is good, as it gives teachers no choice. Same thing for September. If I get an assignment on September 1 that stays thru June 28, and the school sucks, which it probably will, then what? 185 days of torture. And this does nothing for teacher traveling out of the boro they live in, etc...This includes dangerous neighborhoods, out of control students, no discipline in schools, vindictive admin...The list goes on and on...
ReplyDeleteI hope I don't get stuck in Beach Channel, Campus magnet or Far rockaway.
ReplyDeleteI pray this is untrue. Can we be placed outside of our seniority district?
ReplyDeleteI wrote HR and ATR support and supervision and was told yesterday starting February 6th, rotations are 4 weeks in our seniority district. Maybe these regulations will occur in the fall(if at all).
I can't see the principals union accepting this
Hopefully this is good news but I was hoping to get sent back t one of the schools I was at. Not that I don't like this current school...
ReplyDeleteWell to what I go through every damn day.
ReplyDeleteIt's not a rumor. The dates may not be right, but the plan seems to be loooong placement. Right placement? I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteChaz
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've dis-agrees with you. Forced placements are bad. We will always be unwanted ATRs. I'd rather be rotating than one shitbox
Here is the question. Will ATRs be forced out of district? That would be awful
This teacher shortage is propoganda by colleges. Every time there is an opening for crap schools they always fill it
ReplyDeleteI feel it's the colleges coming up with rhetoric to get tuition coming in
Bryant Principal Namita Dwarka is skrewing ATR supervisor Justin Stark!
ReplyDeleteSo many questions. If there isn't a vacancy for license area? What if you hate the school and or the school hates you? This is absolutely unfair to both. Where's the UFT on this? Why haven't ATRs been asked for input? Doesn't the current agreement stay in effect which says the least amount of time you can be rotated is 1 a semester? This is a potential nightmare for everyone. Send us back to the campus buildings we came from - but even that wouldn't be completely fair, but better than this.
ReplyDeleteIs this a roll back? We used to be placed for the year before the rotations. So is this just for a semester, provisional, or permanent?
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry to much about this news. According to our agreement, principals do not have to accept placements. Two reasons why they don't want atr's as we all know: 1. too expensive, and 2. seniority issues.
ReplyDeleteEven if this were partially true, it would be very big news. We need clarity on if there is a change, and if there is, what the details are.
ReplyDeleteBut my gut says I agree with your instinct on this.
Jonathan
LIKE I'VE BEEN SAYING ALL ALONG, the easiest way to get rid of ATR's is to put them back into the classroom. It's amazing how long the DOE took to figure this out. At my school I hear the top 3 quotes time after time again. These 3 are:
ReplyDelete1. I can't believe I'm getting paid for this
2. I hope I'm never placed
3. I can do this for another 10, 15 years with my eyes closed (literally)
Well ATR people you are now going back into the classroom! Good luck and may the force be with you. You have gotten away with sitting in lounges watching videos, reading the paper, doing a few coverages here n there. I have actually been told by every single ATR I ever spoke to that they never ever want to go back into the classroom on a permanent assignment and would much rather rotate with NO RESPONSIBILITY OR EXPECTATIONS. I asked my principal if she could allow me to become an ATR and she laughed. Well now it looks like from the multiple comments on this blog that no one is laughing anymore. Your free ride is over. Welcome back! You will be retiring or leaving the system shortly because if you really wanted to teach, you would've never become so comfortable as a 6 figure substitute.
Someone is drinking the DOE Kool aid. Is this an admin??
DeleteAnon 8:38
ReplyDeleteI find your analysis faulty and must of us would love the chance to be permanently assigned to a decent school. I must assume you work in one of the hellholes.
ATR'IN has been been vacation for a decade. Watching others bust their ass while i sit back, recline my chair and sip on my tea. Thanks for the 10 years of service as an atr nomad. Hopefully this news isn't true because the newbie robots are in charge now. Programmed to teach students nothing.
ReplyDeleteChaz,
ReplyDeleteWhy be permanently placed? Rotation is like vacationing at sandals
They keep targeting ATRS, age discrimination at its fullest with the blessing ofor the UFT.
ReplyDeleteFor those people who rather rotate. Why did you become a teacher in the first place?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 40 and excessed I felt insulted. Really did. But I was burnt. From the kids, from admin and even from ass hole colleagues. Being an atr made me tolerate the job. Going from one crap school to another knowing that nothing that goes on effects me is such an amazing feeling.
ReplyDeleteCome on Chaz you know the doe will place Atrs in the worst schools. They are setting us up for failure. You've been in this system for a long time and know few Atrs if any will be placed in bayside, Francis Lewis. Townsend Harris and all the other good schools. These good schools have have few if any openings. On the other hand the bad schools like Far Rock, Capus Magnet, Van Buren, Veach Channel, August Martin and so on have tons of openings. These schools are a revolving door for teachers. These schools end teaching careers they don't revive them! That's why Chaz! You know and still are in favor of forced placement? I don't get it.
ReplyDeletechaz 8:10
ReplyDeleteI would rather rotate then be forcerd placed any day.
btw i've been an atr 4 years and took provisonall 3 of those years
including this one
(so technically not an atr)
but at least it was my choise every time where i choose to teach.
Anon 9:27,
ReplyDeleteYour wrong. I was just going to retire, but changed my mind, now that I believe we will be placed. You're in a good school, Renassisance HS, where teachers work hard, hence your mean spiritedness and jealousy. I've been sent to many horrible places covering rowdy classes every single day. At Renassisance the staff can get subs from sub central to cover their classes. Most schools I've been can't, the subs simply won't go. So just because you may see ATRs there with little to do, realize that is the exception and not the norm - especially in the Bronx.
I will say it once again. Why did you become a teacher?
ReplyDeleteTo have a profound impact on the lives and success of the students and to serve my community through instilling the importance of knowledge. The doe's motives are not sincere and you would be foolish to believe and trust them. They aren't doing this to help students with my sincere motivation to serve but to get us out of the system. Fool me once shame on you fool me twice shame on me. Sending us to bad performing schools is a tactic not a solution to help the students. Open your eyes. Far Rock and the rest here we come!!!
ReplyDeleteNot to be abused, cursed, threatened and made fools of. Give me a drop of respect, and USE THE DISCIPLINE CODE, and dont give me a 5 hour roundtrip, and its fine. Thats why i mentioned on James' page, give us the old "choose 6 schools and you get 1," and im sure most ATRs would accept it.
ReplyDeleteIf the ATR rotation does end and we are placed in schools with vacancies in our subject area,at least we will be doing what we signed up for, teaching in the classroom. For the rest, at least you know where you will be for the rest of the year and that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteif the doe was an honest broker yes I would love to be placed and appointed to one school for the rest of my career. I spent almost 19 yrs in very challenging school but wasn't concerned about horrible admins and being set up to fail. You must know the doe will do anything to get rid of Atrs. The doe and uft can't be trusted and no one will ever convince my to trust them. Chaz has made a name for questioning the motives and tactic of the doe and uft. We should now trust the sincerity and belive they are helping us revive our careers. They are worse than 2 faced. Repeat this over and over the doe and uft are setting us up by forced placement. Keep saying it over and over until it sinks in!!!
ReplyDeleteStop the crying! First of all, IF this is true, the overwhelming reality is that most ATRs will still be overpaid subs. In the past 6 years that I have been rotating I have taught my subject (social studies) TWICE as a positioned teacher. The first was when a teacher quit/fired right two weeks before I arrived and I finished the year there. The second time was a maternity leave. Every time I was sent to a school that supposedly had a vacancy in my license I simply covered for absent teachers, regardless of the subject. Even if the email was labeled "Temporary Placement" or if the school listed a vacancy on open market, I usually ended up in a school (with other Social Studies teachers) covering absences. This past September, 3 of us with a social studies license were placed in a shit school with a listed vacancy. Guess what? I covered a math vacancy, another covered a foreign language vacancy, and the third served a the daily sub. Oh, and a newbie was hired to cover the social studies vacancy on the 3rd day of school. So quit the nonsense that all ATRs will be placed in front of a classroom to be observed in their license. Won't happen.
ReplyDeleteHope your right
DeleteChaz,
ReplyDeleteFor a guy who has been a great wealth of knowledge over the years why would you now think the doe is looking to help us by placing us?
Whether the end of the rotation is true or not, nothing will change for most ATRs. We will still be covering other teachers classes. How many vacancies will be filled in the second semester?
ReplyDeleteOK 8:58 is my new hero. Thank you!!! YOU just summed up everything in ONE SENTENCE. Nothing effects you (Nothing effects ATR's). It's a great GIG. I mean it's just about over but come September you guys will just about be ready to retire. You can handle a few years in the classroom. Can you imagine? For years, nothing has been attached to you and nothing effects you. Genius!!!!
ReplyDeleteDid anyone call Amy to find out if it's true? She'll tell you.
ReplyDeleteAmy is useless.
DeleteI'll ask at Monday's UFT Exec Board. I'll respond (to Chas via e-mail) - and I'm sure Arthur will blog the response.
ReplyDeleteJonathan
ATRs are always an after thought. You ask Jonathan, perhaps you'll get an answer. There are over 2000 ATRs, by the way, via a recent FOIL release. The UFT really needs to step up to the plate and inform its members.
ReplyDeleteATR gig is the best. Love having no key to the bathroom hahahaha
ReplyDeleteI don't understand the support for this.I looked at the attendance for last week (right before regents and found attendance ranged from 37 to 97 percent- including 87% at a non exam traditional high school.
ReplyDeleteAll schools I have rotated through. What happens if you are forced to teach a full program at a school with 37 percent attendance ? So long career.Madness
I'm lucky I'm at a good school but I understand if people are at a shit school.
ReplyDeleteHey 757 if no bathroom key is your biggest gripe.....
ReplyDeletei feel real sorry for u buddy
boo hoo
7:57 is the moms basement troll; really a jackass high school teacher from either Bronx Science or Renaissance HS
DeleteCareful Clovis that waiting for support guy will call u a racists for saying shit school.
ReplyDeleteDid you have a nice day today 5:26pm?
DeleteYou need a hug 5:26 pm...or a spanking
ReplyDeleteYou know me so well!
ReplyDeleteI spoke to a source at Uft and asked HR. Both said placements week of February 6 are 4 weeks
ReplyDeleteIs it 4weeks or the rest of the year Chaz?
ReplyDeleteChaz, how reliable would you rank the information given to you by the APO?
ReplyDeleteI don't know that answer since some school administrators claim they were told the same thing but our union and ATR assignment maintained the rotation will continue. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteBoy did this idea come and go. The nightmare of the pool will continue now that it certainly looks like a "rumor". This ideology of the bloomberg administration was created over 10 years ago by Klein and Bloomberg and the DOE still continues to use this sick, insane system of rotating our best educators!! Hard to believe people. For the life of me the numbers tell the story for the ATR pool with only 1000 educators in the pool out of a work force of 80,000 which means 79000 employees of the DOE are not ATR. So, the question is why is it so hard to rid the pool of such a small amount of people?? Upside down is a song by diana ross who sings about the doe.
ReplyDeleteApparently, there is some sought of power struggle going on at Tweed between what the new ATR leader wants and the entrenched Bloomberg people want. Maybe that's why there is confusion on the rotation
ReplyDeleteI thought the DoE & the UFT had a Memorandum of Agreement in place to keep ATRs in rotation. Has this been bi-laterally or unilaterally rescinded? Is this a backroom deal over a hand shake? WTF?
ReplyDeleteThe rotation is not part of the contract. The DOE can decide if there is a rotation or not without union approval.
ReplyDeleteThe Union is part of the problem.
DeleteWhy is Amy Arundell not sending an email to ATRs about this?
ReplyDeleteIt is obvious they want to keep us in the dark. Our UFT agreed to all the discriminatory policies that has led to many experienced teachers to end up in the ATR dumping pool.
Delete