City Controller Scott Stringer held a press conference that criticized the Department of Education for the low teacher retention rates in the New York City schools. According to Mr. Stringer 40% of all new teachers leave the New York City public schools within five years.
The Bronx had the lowest teacher retention rates with 21.5% leaving within a year in the 2017-18 school year.. he worst retention rate was District 12 in the Bronx with 26% of the teachers leaving after one year.
According to Scott Stringer, the problem is the DOE failed to provide appropriate support to new teachers. He believes that a teacher's first year should be a residency program while having a veteran teacher mentoring the teacher before being permanently hired the next year.
While I agree with Scott Stringer, it will still not solve the teacher retention problem and unless you improve the quality of school administrators, solve the many student discipline issues, and improve the classroom environment by respecting teachers, the retention problem will remain..
That won't solve retention. Making teaching an attractive profession (respect, autonomy, safety, less paperwork) will solve retention. But that would require dismantling a lot of systems certain corrupt people benefit from or enjoy, so that won't happen.
ReplyDelete23 yr veteran says:
ReplyDeleteIts by design.
Keep a steady flow of new blood, replacing everyone before they get tenure or tangible benefits, lowers healthcare/labor/pension costs and keeps the droids very agreeable.
As the song goes "We do what we're told, to do".....Machiavellian.
Chaz,
ReplyDeleteI think this is what the city wants.
Bloomberg was a business person. He knows that there is no way in certain traditionally low achieving areas that nothing will change and an economy needs laborers to do jobs that a lot of people don’t want to do. So, he created this system.
The outcome of this philosophy is as a teacher you cannot teach in low performing areas that have students who can’t read and get pushed on until they drop out. Also, you get a turnover of teachers and long term they do not receive the pensions and health benefits the city does not want to pay.
As an adult, all we can do is go along to get along.
I’m 40 and making good money. I have to fake it for another 15 years.
However, I am telling people not to enter this profession.
Bottom line is that this is not a career. It’s a job. If you can accept that fact and have no pride, you can make it in the doe. But, if you care and want kids to do well and take this job personally, you won’t last. In my twenties, I was in terrible health and almost quit yearly. Then, I sought therapy and realized I am not a miracle worker and when I leave today, I won’t think about teaching until Labor Day.
I care so little that one student this morning said ‘maybe next year you will learn all of our names.’ Everyone including myself laughed bc it’s true.
If you had pro-teacher administrators people would stay. I was in a difficult school for 20 years and would have remained if the aps and principal backed up the staff. But when the chairmen are coming into your room every day to do drive by gotcha' observations, why would anyone stay.
ReplyDeleteIf the chairmen said that we're all in this together as we deal with some of the hardest to educate kids in the U.S, people would remain. People sign up for 2nd and 3rd tours of duty in Iraq. and Afghanistan because they feel supported by their commanders.
The officers tell them we have to stay together and have each other's backs to survive. They don't say, "You're gun looks unpolished, I'm writing you up."
You left out the disgusting idiot remarks by Scott Stringer which were a slap in the face of white educators: "Stringer also called for more teachers of color, noting that 60% of city educators are white in a predominately minority school system." How absurd. He (et al) is lumping all black people together on the basis of their skin color, never mind that some are more highly educated than others, some come from wealthy backgrounds and some come from far humbler origins, some were born in the U.S. and some are foreign born, etc. But so long as they're black, they're OK, right?
ReplyDeleteSince when do you have to be the same color as your students to impart knowledge? And with an attitude like that, you invent yet another excuse for minority students not to pay attention. "I don't need to listen to you; you WHITE!" I was told a number of times, which left me absolutely incredulous. I have taught kids of every possible color, conformation, national origin, etc. and it never seemed to affect how well they could learn if they chose to put forth the effort. Only lately has this become yet another excuse to push white teachers out of their classrooms. Didn't the idiot parading as Schools Chancellor have mandatory workshops teaching that if you're white, you're "toxic", blah blah blah?
I'd be very interested to know if research has been done, and who did it, to see if there was any correlation between the race of the teacher vs. their students and the academic success of the students. I doubt if there is much correlation. But Scott Stringer has signed on with that notion: “It’s important for the person who is teaching them to culturally understand who you are, where you come from, your background,” he said “I’m not saying that other cultures can’t do it too, but it has to be part of the equation.”
Since when has that been necessary for kids to learn? I've had kids from Nepal, from China, from Nigeria, from Ecuador, and they all learned. So did I when I was growing up. We didn't have to have teachers who necessarily matched our complexion or background. We just had to listen to whatever teacher we had and do our work. And so could the kids of today.
Enabling hostile work environments doesn’t pass on a message that employees are valued. Mayoral control is a complete failure. It’s just a path to punitive treatment of teachers from the getgo.
ReplyDeleteAll the negative spinning is for political and economic reasons and not in support of a higher quality education for students or a better work environment for teachers. All done "on the cheap" - no real training, no reduced class sizes, we still do high stakes testing, we have Danielson for no good reason except it was brought in as an anti-teacher tool, now it is "blame teachers" for all of our students' social and emotional problems even though pass rates, graduation rates, college readiness at an all time high, and teachers are forced to teach towards those goals.
ReplyDeleteIf certain forces succeed in getting rid of teachers of the wrong ethnicity, and things don't work out so well, they will call it another "white flight" like in the 1960s - 1990s. Maybe they will succeed in getting entire staffs of teachers with appropriate racial and ethnic and political backgrounds, I hope it works out. Probably when Carranza goes all this will go with him, or change again.
I make a final point - school budgets underfunded - City has multi-billion $ surplus.
I have to say honestly I had an amazing year. We had an IA assistant principal who was the best administrator I've worked with in years. Unfortunately, he won't be back next year, but it was - like in Camelot- "for one brief shining moment" I knew what it was like to be respected as a professional.
ReplyDeleteThis year was my best year in the doe and I was an atr.
ReplyDeleteI am a mid-40’s white male and the AP who I worked closely with was a white man also around my age and we went to the same college.
This made a difference. And yes, I know how racist I sound. However, we had similar experiences with how we were treated by the students so we understood one another.
In 20 years(16 as a real teacher), this was the first year I enjoyed going to work. It had nothing to do w the kids bc they were ass holes.
As the above commenters have noted, you must realize that it is a black/brown world now and we as whites are evil/Nazi/kkk from birth and can do no right.
ReplyDeleteOur civilization is being dismantled in favor of some of the most ludicrous ideas ever to come from the mouths of people who are supposed to be intelligent.
When the Soviet Union collapsed pundits at the time asked, "So what next? What will focus our people?"
Well, now we know: self-destructive, self-hating anti white ideology, specifically anti-white male campaigns. They will not be satisfied until we are sent to concentration camps. Think that's an exaggeration?
You see how bad the propaganda is getting now. Imagine in 20 years when we are a small minority and they can vote us out of existence. The U.S. of A. had a good run, but no civilization lasts forever. We should be fine as we get old and retire, but our grandkids are going to be in for a heck of time.
I liken this to the movie Rollerball when the James Caan character Johnathan finds out that the set up of Rollerball wasn't about a game. It's the same here. Teachers were never supposed to make it to their retirements. When more made it to the end the rules of the game changed. The city for all its talk does not want the system to succeed. They in fact would be happy to see it become even more transitory. Good luck to anyone teacher who is white. You will be targeted and made example by a racist system that will single you out as the reason that lazy black and Hispanic students with no educational values are abject failures in life.
ReplyDeleteWith a $25,000,000,000 budget, there is no excuse for the failure of the NYC DOE. I will never understand how the mayor, chancellor and other administrators are not ashamed, embarrassed and guilt-ridden by what they are doing to the students, teachers and the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteUntil the DOE swamp is drained and cleaned out, teachers will continue to come and go. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that teachers will go and be replaced by a person.
I love it how people are commenting that its a black and brown now. You will find this crap in the inner poor third world boroughs of nyc now...however drive north a bit and you will find a different world from the slums of nyc.
ReplyDeleteAt my school's graduation the other day, one social justice Latina said in her speech that the students should not study the works of dead white philosophers but should look for more relevant wisdom.
ReplyDeleteThen she gave some quote from some ancient Aztec king about feeling good and doing your best, and she explained that this is philosophy for latinos.
The anti-white crap I hear weekly in my school is off the charts. How can they get away with being so blatantly racist against people who look like me?
I never harmed any POC in my life, nor did my parents, grandparents, etc.
17 years district 8 in Bronx my wife in district 12. Bottom line 50,000 starting salary with health care and summers is attractive with the way the world is heading. The new teachers who go to charters after 1-3 years are swimming deeper into hell.
ReplyDeleteSchools should have 2-3 veteran (10-15 years plus) to help the first year teachers grow and to feed ideas , many ATR's who would fit this roll well.
What the hell does some stupid 18 year old kid know about anything but what she is seeing in the media who are the devil in disguise in America.
ReplyDeleteNo discipline. Psycho administrators. Cupcake teachers kissing asses. Who wants this job anymore?????
ReplyDeleteAnd now with this racist chancellor the white teachers are being targeted as toxic and privileged. It is a sham. Sorry if the minorities can't pass the tests they are not qualified to teach!
ReplyDelete1:12 mentioned the cupcake teachers who brown nose.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a huge phenomenon now. It is because the Danielson rubric put SO MUCH power in the hands of the principal to fire with ease.
The abusive system brings out the worst "arse-kissing" tendencies in scared young workers.
At my school we have 4 teachers like that: young, perky, filled with social justice zeal to the point of nausea and circling around the admins chirping like moths to a flame.
They use their 'power' to lord it over the rest of the staff. They believe 'Freedom Writers' is an accurate movie and think only they know how to teach. Funny thing is that they lecture a lot in class (preaching is more like it) and they have almost no actual content knowledge. This is just awful.
The article also stated that they wanted to give new teachers a thirty thousand dollar stipend. Where will this money come from. Well just like all the other times it will come from the pocket of all other teachers. The contract will either be extended or raises postponed.
ReplyDeleteThis whole issue began several years ago when everyone was up in arms because so many black kids were getting suspended. That caused all the cupcakes and social justice freaks to scream from the rooftops that the system is racist. But most teachers I know (myself included) look to suspend kids because of the WAY they ACT, not because they are black, Hispanic (I'm white but my kids are Hispanic, as is their father), Indian, Chinese, Martian, Half-Breed Goddess or whatever. Rayquan and Queenisha got suspended because they are the ones who threw the chair. Or set a bulletin board on fire. Or punched a teacher in the head. You know why Michael and Stephanie DIDN'T get suspended? Because they DID NOT throw a chair, set a bulletin board on fire, or punch a teacher in the head. And the black kids who act more like Michael and Stephanie DON'T get suspended because they, like Michael and Stephanie, understand three things that Rayquan and Queenesha do not. They know how to 1. Speak to an adult and respect the adult's position, regardless of whether they actually LIKE the teacher (nice, but not necessary). They 2. Understand how to sit in a seat, listen to a directive and follow it, and complete assignments well and on time, even when they don't "like" the task, the subject, or school in general. They understand that putting up with stuff they don't really like is part of reaching a goal and they realize that they have to pass English, Algebra, Living Environment or whatever, because it is REQUIRED. And finally they, 3. Understand how to SHUT UP. Stop talking to your friends, stop talking back. put down that infernal cell phone, take out the damn ear pods, and let the teacher do his/her job.
ReplyDeleteAnd to provide that I'm not "racist", I will also say that when Stephanie and Michael start acting like Rayquan and Queenesha, THEY, TOO, should be suspended. Because it's not about what color you are. It's all about how you ACT.
Principals have way too much power. Administrators get away with cruelty. Students are out of control and teachers are blamed. It has become a disgusting career. Can't wait to get out of this cesspool.
ReplyDelete8:50 Exactomundo!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteA helpful hint...
ReplyDeleteNeither the NYC Law Department (the Corporation Counsel’s Office) nor DOE’s Office of the General Counsel likes to see teachers filing appeals with the Commissioner of Education pursuant to Education Law § 310.
They are difficult to win as in Farrell, but, occasionally, the teacher lucks out as in Raines:
www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/volume45/d15308
www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/volume45/d15246
But, the point is that it’s embarrassing for DOE when a principal’s “dirty laundry” gets reported on NYSED’s website.
For information about filing an appeal with the Commissioner of Education, see:
www.counsel.nysed.gov/appeals
NYCDOE fits the movie theme " Get out"
ReplyDelete... And Tier VI is the motherload of anti retention... Don't see ANY newbie getting vested let alone a full pension under this Tier
ReplyDelete@8:50 I wouldn't want you anywhere near my children if you have to use the heavily stereotypical names "Rayquan and Queenisha" to clearly exemplify black or poor minorities in your ignorant little story. Anonymously, you just stuck your foot in your behind. Would you like if someone gave an example that Billy and Bob were always terrorizing students and threatening to shoot up the school? It's very ignorant especially because children don't name themselves and every child with a name you don't understand are not the only ones misbehaving. To be honest minority children can see through your prejudice and they go home to tell their families who probably don't trust you either. Why would you even want to teach them? Smh.
ReplyDeleteThe retention issue is because of improperly trained administration who knows nothing about the classroom. They feel good about abusing their power because the laws don't really support its teachers.
File a “Moral Character Actions (Part 83)” with the NYSED against administrators (if applicable)
ReplyDelete