While Schools Scrimp For Funds The DOE Wastes A Million Dollars On Unecessary Travel Expenses.

It's no secret that schools suffer from near recession budgets and only receive 89% of their fair funding.  By contrast the bloated DOE does not worry about funding when it comes to their travel, wasting almost one million dollars on questionable travel and poorly documented proof of their educational value.

According to City Comptroller Scott Stringer, the DOE wasted almost a million dollars on lavish and unnecessary travel for example:

• $14,023 in blatant overpayments, including $11,913 to the glitzy New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge.

• $233,167 for meetings in hotels and other venues with no effort, as required by the rules, to find free or low-cost space in city school buildings — including $12,883 for a staff retreat at the posh Tarrytown House Estate on the Hudson.

• $269,684 in purchases that lacked required written bids including a $17,847 catering bill.

• $14,956 in credit card charges with no supporting documentation, including $2,821 in charges at the lavish Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville.

This is just another example of the bloated and wasteful DOE using money for their own needs while stiffing the schools of much needed resources.  Francis Lewis High School Chapter Leader Arthur Goldstein said it best  in the Ne York Daily Mews.

"Teachers have to beg for money and these educrats are staying at the Marriott. Shame on them," said Francis Lewis High School teacher and teachers union rep Arthur Goldstein.

"They don't have any money to reduce class sizes but they have money to over-pay hotels," added Goldstein, who said he teaches 34 students stuffed into a half-size room. "Where are their priorities?"

This is where the DOE's "children last"  policy came from with the DOE's wants and needs coming first and the students get the leftovers.  Read the entire Daily News article Here.  The New York Post story is Here.

Let's see how many educrats are terminated due to the lavish travel fiasco?

The DOE Refuses To Fund 41 Schools So They Can Hire A Full Time Guidance Counselor.

The DOE has a 25.5 billion dollar budget, yet they refuse to spend $5.2 million dollars to fill the vacant spots for a Guidance Counselor or Social Worker for 41 schools in the public school system.  This is the very same DOE that has for years had  the motto "children first" but for 41 schools the DOE refuses to allow the schools to hire a full time guidance counselor or  social workers to provide critical services to the students.  Just think, the DOE uses 24% of their budget on administrative overhead when the national average is 11%.  Can't the DOE streamline the bloated Central Bureaucracy and provide the extra funds for these 41 Public Schools?  Apparently, the answer is no

Chancellor Carranza must step in and take action to rid the bloated Central Bureaucracy of the Bloomberg/Klein ideology that shortchanges public schools with near recession budgets (90% of their fair funding) while even the City Comptroller has questioned why the DOE spends 24% of their budget on administrative functions?

In these 41 public schools, many students need social services that only a certified Guidance Counselor or Social Worker can provide.  Not having a full-time Guidance Counselor or Social Worker is almost criminal.  Yet the Bloomberg era administrators that allocate funds and make policy believe that if a school cannot provide professional services with their tight budget then it's the school's problem and not the DOE's.

I hope that Chancellor Carranza does what Carmen Farina did not do and that is to "clean house".  Otherwise, schools will continue to be starved for funds while the DOE, flush with cash, will continue to spend money on their administrative overhead.  "Children Last"....Always..

How To Improve Test Scores? Air Condition The Classroom.

Most teachers know that teaching in a hot room is not conducive to good teaching and student learning.  Of course school and DOE administrators would beg to differ since they have air conditioned offices.  Now there is a study that proves that overheated classrooms result in lower test scores and less student engagement.

In New York City , the majority of schools have no air conditioning in most of their classrooms.  Even when the classroom has an air conditioner, it is problematic whether it works or not.  In one school I was in this year, an administrator received a brand new air conditioner for his office and then "donated" his ten year old air conditioner, that didn't work very well to a non profit organization that supplied services to a couple of students outside the school.  While the air conditioner could not be used in the classroom, the "donated" air conditional would have been a welcome addition to the school's teacher work room which had no air conditioner.  Is it any wonder this administrator is not well liked by the staff.

This study should show that the New York City Department of Education  should give priority to upgrading every school's electrical system and install a working air conditioner in every classroom.  That will help improve effective teaching and student learner and maybe the test scores will legitimately improve. 

For Newbie Teachers Its Sink Or Swim With No Lifeguard To Save Them.

The DOE has empowered principals to hire who they please and even with the elimination of the useless and money sucking Children First Networks, Superintendents have so far failed to oversee school hiring to ensure that all students have a certified teacher in each subject area.  The DOE policies like Fair Student Funding, tight school budgets, and the use of Danielson as a weapon against veteran teachers have resulted in many schools hiring "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools. The result is a lack ofr veteran mentors for this inexperienced staff..

In many schools, the teaching staff is composed of young and inexperienced teachers and there are few veteran teachers to mentor or guide these inexperienced teachers on the skills necessary to survive in the New York City classroom.  When I started teaching, I was mentored by a senior Science teacher and in my first couple of years, as I struggled and ready to quit, many veteran teachers dropped in to provide advice and support.  The teacher room was a godsend as I could ask the veteran teachers questions and get answers on classroom management skills, pedagogy, and tap their extensive knowledge of the different teaching techniques that worked for them and of course, the ones that did not. Having a veteran staff was invaluable to a "newbie" like me and helped me become a better teacher and stay in the profession.

By contrast, the lack of veteran teachers in the schools means that new teachers are thrown into the New York City classroom and told its "sink or swim".  Well, without veteran teachers mentoring the "newbies" ,many sink.  Meaning they leave the NYC classroom and maybe even the teaching profession.

While novice doctors and lawyers are mentored by a senior colleague and don't operate or appear in court without first, assisting the veteran for a year or more so as to gain the necessary experience and confidence to eventually learn their craft  Nobody in their right mind would want a "newbie" doctor to operate on them or a "newbie" lawyer to defend them in court.  Yet, in NYC far too many "newbie" teachers are thrown into the classroom without the proper tools and subject to a steep learning curve that makes guinea pigs out of our children.  No wonder we have a low "college and career readiness" rate.

The bottom line, the NYC school system has too many inexperienced teachers and with fewer and fewer veteran teachers to mentor them.  Therefore,too many of them sink and take student academic achievement with them because the lifeguard, in the form of the veteran teacher is no longer on duty to save them.

Why NYC High School Students Have Terrible College And Career Readiness Rates.

There is no secret that the ever rising high school graduation rate does not result in increasing the college and career readiness rates that see 78% of high school graduates forced to take remedial courses in college.  The graduation rate increases every year and is now 72%.  However, the career and college readiness rates are stuck at 36% and if you excluded the screened and specialized high schools, its in the 20% range.  Here are some extreme examples.

The reason that the typical New York City High School graduate has such abysmal career and college readiness rates are due to many factors. In order of importance they are:

Social-economic factors:
80% of a student's academic growth can be attributed to the social-economic factors.  They are the child's family, community, and income.  Poor urban school districts and New York City are no exception, suffer from academic differences and struggle in college and a career as an adult.

Class Size:
New York City has the largest class sizes in the State and the DOE uses class size reduction funds to fund their own pet projects.  Class sizes have increased since 2008 and the DOE only funds the schools at 90% of their fair funding.  By contrast the DOE budget increases every year from 23.2 billion in 2014 to 29.2 billion dollars this school year. A 22% increase!

Teacher Recruitment and Retention:
The DOE has installed policies that incentivizes principals to hire "the cheapest and not the best" teachers for their school.  The result is the schools hire "newbie" teachers who have a steep learning curve and 80% leave their first school by year three.  Not good for a stable educational environment.  This DOE policy is known as "fair student funding" that's school-based and not fair whatsoever..   The use of Danielson as an evaluation toll and is used as a weapon against teachers pushes far too many teachers out of the City school system to pursue better opportunities in the suburbs and more respect in office work.

Academic Fraud:
The DOE allows high schools to manipulate the system by reducing Science from six days to five and physical education to three days from five.  Moreover, "credit recovery", grade changing, and scholarship requirements on teachers is really academic fraud.

Poor Administration:
Outside New York City most principals were long-term educators.  However, in the New York City schools over 20% of the Principals are from the Leadership Academy and many have little or no classroom experience as a teacher.  Finally, the Chancellor has discontinued the program but the damage has been done as many schools suffer from poor leadership, vindictive actions, especially against outspoken veteran teachers, and questionable academic policies.

The bottom line is until all the above issues are resolved, real student academic achievement is simply an illusion.
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The DOE's Slogan Of Children First Rings Hollow.

The DOE will claim that everything they do is geared on putting the students first and when bloggers like me point out the hypocrisy of their "children first" claims, the DOE will simply ignore the inconvenient truth.  Let's look at why the DOE's claim that they put children first rings hollow.

Large Class Sizes:  New York City public schools have the largest class sizes in the State.  In some schools like Francis Lewis High School, almost all classes have the maximum 34 students.  Moreover, the school is vastly overcrowded with over 4,700 students crammed into a school that shooed have less than 3,000.  Moreover, try to walk on the second floor hallway between 4th and 5th period and you feel like your in a Japanese subway car at the peak of rush hour as bodies bump into you from all sides.  Finally, book-rooms with no windows and little ventilation are being used as classrooms.  Ask the students at Francis Lewis High School if the DOE is putting their needs first?
 
Parent Exclusion:  Since the Bloomberg years parent voices are deliberately ignored by the Chancellor and the Central Bureaucracy.  Just look at what happened at Townsend Harris High School and at Central Park East 1, where the DOE tried to ignore parents and only backed down when the media got hold of the story, The DOE is quite happy if parents remain clueless and quiet so they can do what's best for them and not what's best for the students/  The C-30 selection committee is a prime example of how little parent (and teacher) voice means as its simply a fig level for the Superintendent to pick his or her favorites as principals for the schools in the District.

Principal Hiring Practices:  The DOE implemented a policy called "fair student funding" that requires schools to pick up the salary of all school staff members.  The result was that principals were incentivized to hire "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school.  To penalize principals who dare hire a veteran teacher the DOE only funds the schools at 90% of their fair funding, despite a 6 billion dollar budget surplus for the City//

Uncertified Teachers: Far too many schools are using teachers uncertified in the subject they are required to teach.  At the high school level, Regents Earth Science is just as likely to have an uncertified teacher than one certifried to teach the course.  Moreover, many high schools shortchange Science students by going to a 4-1 from the State recommended 5-1 program.  The result is that City students experience lower Regents grades and a higher failure rate.  This is done to save on hiring scarce Science teachers.  This is certainly not putting children first.

The bottom line is when the DOE claims that they are putting children first, what they really mean is they are putting their ideological aims first and children last.  See nyc educator for a similar take on the DOE's children first policy.

From Reaching For The Stars To Back To Basics.

Over the last few years, many schools were pushing their students into higher level Math and Science courses.  This was known as "reaching for the stars".  It also didn't hurt that the DOE gave high schools extra points for the total number of students who took these higher level Math and Science courses. However, many parents and students started to complain that these higher level courses of Algebra II (Trigonometry), Chemistry, and Physics were a "bridge too far" for the students  Moreover, many schools pushed students to take these courses, despite the added pressure, stress, and reluctance to take these courses that many were destined to fail..

One of the reasons that many low performing schools pushed students to take Chemistry and or Physics was the lack of certified Earth Science teachers as well as getting more credit as a school bu the DOE.  According to the ATR pool there was only one certified Earth Science high school teacher available, citywide,  in June and he had just came out of his 3020-a hearing that Spring.  Moreover, many schools use teachers not certified in Earth Science to teach the Regents Science course and, for the most part, their students did poorly.  Finally, many seniors, are forced to take the Common Core Algebra II Regents and complain bitterly about taking a difficult Math course that means little to their college acceptance since the Regents is given after the student received their acceptance letter.

Some forward thinking school administrators are finally seeing the light and realize that to "reach for the stars" you need the academic tools to built a spaceship to get their and far too many students lack those tools.  Therefore, these administrators are now going "back to basics" and only giving those academically proficient students higher level Math and Science courses.   These administrators have learned a painful lesson and that is "reaching for the stars" is just a dream when there is a failure to launch a successful rocket ship due to the lack of the academic tools to build it, which hurts the students confidence, self-esteem, and ability to move ahead academically.

High School Science Instruction Is Given Short Shift By The DOE.

Increasingly, principals who are subject to tight budgets and not fully funded, find different methods to reduce expenses. One of the ways these principals reduce their budget is to cut school staff.  Many schools have no social worker and are usually short guidance counselors in their quest to cut expenses.  Moreover, the schools will try to reduce support personnel like paraprofessionals and school secretaries and try to use much cheaper school aids instead.  However, the favorite tactic that principals use is to push veteran teachers into retirement, either by persuasion or by targeting them, and hire cheaper "newbie" teachers in their place.

Given the above tactics that principals use to reduce expenses, one of their favorite is to reduce Science instruction both for Regents and Advanced Placement courses and save on Science teachers.  The DOE approved and encouraged practice was the byproduct of the terrible 2005 contract that allowed principals to become CEO's and not instructional leaders of their school.

First, NYS Science Regents is based upon five days of instruction and an extra period for laboratory skills. Otherwise, known as a 5-1 program.  Outside of NYC, all school districts in the State run the Regents recommended 5-1 program.  However, thanks to the UFT allowing extra teacher time in the 2005 contract,  the DOE quietly encouraged schools to raise the classroom instruction time to barley meet the time requirement set by the State and make it a 4-1 program.  The DOE and schools knew full well that the few extra minutes of classroom time was only used for reinforcing the day's lesson and not to start a new lesson.  The result was that as the end of the school year approached many Science teachers were under increasing pressure just to finish the curriculum and there was no time for Regents review since there lost 30 days of instruction.  The result was a lower percentage of students passing the Regents and fewer yet who achieved mastery in the course.

Second, few NYC schools follow the College Board's recommendations of double periods daily and no more than 20 students in any Advanced Placement class.  The rule in New York City is to dump up to the contract limit of 34 students in single period Advanced Placement classes.   Is it any wonder that New York City Public School students fair poorly, when compared to the rest of the country?

Finally, it is not all that uncommon to have teachers who are uncertified in the Science they are instructing in.  Even in the elementary and middle schools most schools will have a non-Science teacher trying to teach Science, with usually disastrous results.  Even in the high schools many teachers who teach Regents Earth Science are not certified in the subject.

How does the DOE and school principals get away withm this educational abuse of the student's Science education?  Simple when our union leadership stays so silent on the abuse that you can hear crickets chirping at UFT Headquarters .   Therefore, instead of exposing the Science education travesty in the City schools they are complicit in sweeping the issue under the rug.

You don't need to be rocket scientist to realize that both the DOE and our disconnected union leadership rather ignore the issue than to help students get a quality Science education.  Children last...Always!

Here's The Problem Randy Asher Has In Placing ATRs.

In the vocational high school that I am assigned to until the next rotation, an Earth Science teacher is leaving at the end of the semester.  The five year Leadership Academy Principal, rather than interview the 3 or 4 ATRs with an Earth Science certification, has instead hired a Bronx charter school Science teacher with no Earth Science certification to complete the school year.  The reason, she is paid a "newbie" salary and she's has no tenure or institutional memory.  Who cares if she knows how to teach Regents Earth Science or not, its not about the students anyway.

What this Principal did is legal, since schools have a January window to hire outside the system for the second semester and I suspect most principals are doing the same thing as this Principal.  Therefore, I believe that Randy Asher will be having a difficult time convincing principals to hire ATRs unless he is given and uses his authority to put an end to this nonsense. At least in this case he doesn't have the authority or the will to overrule the Principal.

As for me?  I'm happy I was not interviewed for the position and relieved I am not being forced placed in the vacancy since the school is a long distance from my home and is difficult to park. However, that's not the issue, its that once again a Principal abuses their power by hiring what's best for their budget and control and not what's best for the students she is in charge to educate.

Children last....Always.

The DOE Motto, Out With The Old And In With The New.

The DOE has made it virtually impossible for veteran teachers to transfer from one school to another by their continued use of the "fair student funding" fiasco.  Now that the Open Market Transfer System (OMTS) is history this year and principals, who are not savvy or crooked enough to play the game, must hire an ATR for their vacancies or long-term leave replacements.   Let's see how the new ATR hiring process works out?  I hold little hope that principals will hire them permanently, even at bargain basement prices, due to the seniority and institutional memory issues. Instead the principals will be spending this school year trying to find ways to get rid of their veteran teachers and replace them next school year with inexpensive "newbies:".

Look for principals to continue to give many "ineffective" observations to their senior teachers and those who ended up with a "developing rating" will be observed frequently to ensure their Teacher Improvement Plan (TIP) will be stringently followed. Already I am hearing too many highly experienced teachers complaining that they are being picked on and set up for failure. People at the 3020-a hearings are telling me there has been an uptick of senior teachers (20 or more years of experience) who are under termination charges.  Whether that is true or not, its a perception that seems to be going around the New York City education community. Interestingly, I have seen and heard about too many of my colleagues who have either been terminated, charged, or in their 3020-a termination hearings in the last two years and this leads credence to what I have been told.

I would just love for the DOE and UFT provide the OMTS statistics of who transferred from one school to another by age, experience, and tenure status.   However, we all know what it would show and even if somebody would FOIL the information, I believe the DOE would stall, delay, and claim its unavailable or protected since they want to avoid the embarrassment of being accused of discrimination in their "out with the old and in with the new" policy in their "children last" program.

Just Another Example Of A DOE Official Being Stupid.

For teachers in the trenches, we all know that the DOE proposes policies and programs that has a negative impact on schools.  Be it tight school budgets (86% funded) while the City has a 6 billion dollar surplus and more money is being used by the bloated DOE Central Bureaucracy at the expense of the schools and their students. Now we have another example how a top DOE official ignored pleas from two Jewish coaches and refused to reschedule games slated for the eve of the Jewish high holy day of Yum Kippur.

The DOE official is Brenda Morgan, sports coordinator of the PSAL told both coaches that they either get a qualified replacement or forfeit the game.  The entire story can be found in today's New York Post. Apparently, the PSAL has showed little sympathy for students and coaches like in 2011 when the PSAL forced sixteen girls volleyball teams to forfeit their season opener and six the first two games because they were unable to send the PSAL a final roster one week before the season began.   Who was in charge you ask?  Why it was the very same Brenda Morgan who penalized the students since the previous commissioner allowed the schools to submit a completed roster as late as the day of the season opener because it was difficult for the schools to allocate the necessary gym time before schools officially opened to make the girls eligible for league play.

Apparently Brenda Morgan is more interested in upholding the rules and cares little about the hardship to coaches and their players.  As a decade long coach I was fortunate enough to have a commissioner who would work with the coaches and a forfeit was a rare occurrence, usually because of a lack of eligible players.  My Commissioner was more interested in making sure the games get played and if that meant bending the rules, so be it.  Unfortunately, the Brenda Morgan's of the world at the PSAL are sticklers for the rules and if it causes a forfeit and hurts the players?  Well, that's just too bad.

The good news is that the bad publicity and the article in the New York Post about her made Brenda Morgan reconsider her terrible decision and has reluctantly agreed to postpone (reschedule?) the games. Maybe Ms. Morgan should be reminded that it's children first...Always.

Why Didn't Metropolitan High School Hire An ATR To Cover A Living Environment Class?

I'm sure this will not surprise my many readers or ATRs but I was told by a very smart and motivated summer school student that he failed second semester Living Environment (Biology lite) because his teacher was in a car accident and never returned.  Apparently, the school, Metropolitan High School, didn't bother to interview ATR Living Environment teachers to cover the class and help the students pass not only the class but the Regents.  Instead the school administration decided to have day to day substitute teachers cover the class and the result was predictable, lots of failures.

My question, if the student is being truthful, and I believe he is.  Why didn't Metropolitan High School hire an ATR certified to teach Living Environment?   Moreover, where were the school's Chapter Leader and the District Representative in allowing such a travesty to the students?  Finally, how can the school be allowed to hire day to day substitutes for long-term vacancies?  Didn't the ATR agreement prohibit this?

Of course the answer is that the DOE ignores these abuses of the contract and our disconnected union leadership buries their collective heads in the sand rather than fight for the students and their members.  Both the DOE and UFT rather than ensuring every classroom has a certified teacher teacher in the subject that needs a long-term replacement, its better to ignore the violations of the contract and pretend everybody is doing what's best for the students.  However,  the truth is far different as students suffer without quality teachers.  In other words both the DOE and UFT are complicit in what Metropolitan High School apparently did and continues the Bloomberg policy of "children last"....Always.

Why Bill De Blasio's Cellphone Policy And Other Issues Are Resulting In Lower Academic Achievement.

One of the most damaging policy directive by the Bill de Blasio Administration is allowing students to bring cellphones to school.  Unfortunately, for many classroom teachers that adds to their classroom management problems and results in less instructional time and more time in getting students to put their cellphone away.  Defenders of the Mayor's misguided policy will claim that allowing students to have a cellphone at school does not mean they condone their use in the classroom.  However, unless the school administration does what Lehman High School in the Bronx did once the student brings the cellphone to school it will end up being used in the classroom.  The bringing of a cellphone to school results in student distractions and a lowering of student academic achievement.

Once the Mayor's ill-advised cellphone policy took effect in April of 2015, classroom teachers immediately saw an increase in classroom management problems.  Students who listened to the instruction and took notes started to see their focus wander as  friends and family, including parents, started to text message the student during class time, who of course, must text back.  Instead of focusing on the lesson, the students became more focused on their cellphone.  The school administration is of little help since they refuse to discipline students for cellphone use and demand instead that teachers take action.  Without administrative backing and the required "scholarship"  requirements, few teachers could reasonably take any real action except to constantly call parents who  couldn't or wouldn't discipline their children.

Add the disruptive nature of the cellphone with the school accepted (certainly tolerated)  student lateness and this combination results in lower student academic achievement as precious instructional time is lost day in and day out.  This is especially true for the first period of the day but is also common throughout the school day.

In Regents Science, you can add the shortened instructional time to factors that lower student academic achievement.  Only in New York City does the DOE allow for four rather than five instructional days plus a lab period.  The policy causes over a month of instructional time being lost when the Science Regents requires a five day instructional week to reasonably cover the full curriculum. The result is that their is little or no time to review for the Regents and lower Regents test grades are the final product for New York City schools that adopted the four day instructional program.  This is an example of the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy that shortchanges schools of their fail student funding (averaging 89% in 2015-16 school year) and reduced the amount of Science teachers needed to staff.the school.

When you combine the distracting cellphone policy, tolerating excessive student lateness, a permissive student discipline policy, large class sizes, reduced science instruction time, and scholarship requirements, is it any wonder that student academic achievement is a major issue?

"Children last"........Always.

Why Renewal Schools Cannot Attract Veteran Teachers?

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.

Restorative Justice And Other Questionable Programs Make All Of Us Unsafe In Our Schools.

When Bill de Blasio became Mayor, he brought with him many ideas that progressives wanted to see in the New York City schools.  One of them was how to change the student discipline code that would give students a second and even a third chance to mend their ways.  This has resulted in a drastic reduction of student suspensions by 17%.  While I do understand that minor infractions like student lateness, cursing, and failure to have school books or writing instruments should result in a stern lecture and a call to the parent, the fact is, that more serious student infractions are being treated the same way.  For example, student insubordination, repeated cellphone usage in class, and disruptive misbehavior are being treated as if these are minor infractions rather than the more serious infractions that they are.  Worse, student threats and intimidation to staff are being treated as if they're minor infractions as well.

One of the main programs that schools are being pressured to use to cut down on student suspensions is the "flavor of the day", restorative justice method.  This program is a mediation program that takes the student offender into a circle of school staff, including teachers,administrators, and guidance counselors and try to explore the causes of the student's misbehavior.  In theory, restorative justice would allow the student to realize that his or her behavioral problems can be addressed and the student comes out of this mediation circle a more compliant student.

 Unfortunately, what sounds good in theory, does not work in the real world of the New York City schools.  I have personally been involved in three such restorative justice sessions during my travels as an ATR.  In two of the three cases, the students told their friends that what a joke it was.  In both cases the two boys had been deliberately insubordinate to their teachers.   In the third, a girl threatened her teacher and despite the teacher's report (she was not part of the circle or even attended) the girl claimed she was having a bad day and was sorry.  Did it help?  Nope!  The last day I was at the school the same girl throw her book at a para who tried to discipline her in another class.

Now the New York Post has an article about how a group of 37 schools that go one step further and hand out warning cards (remember the movie Demolition Man?) for violations rather than real punishment.  The result is staff morale is dropping and the school climate feels increasingly unsafe.  However, since school grades are based on suspensions, school administrations are happy to limit school suspensions if their school grades improves.  What about student and staff safety?  That is not as important as getting a better school report from the DOE.

Some of our union caucuses (Unity and MORE) support these programs and maybe with a limited subset of minor infractions the restorative justice method may work but for the most part it just makes the New York City schools unsafe for students and staff.

The Fault Lies With Chancellor Carmen Farina For Her Failure To Change The Bloomberg Policies That Has Resulted In The Academic Fraud.

It seems the "shit has hit the fan"  as the New York Post has focused in on the fraudulent graduation rate, with a four day expose of the lengths some schools will take to graduate academically unprepared students, just to improve their graduation rate.  The recipient of this media attack is Mayor Bill de Blasio and his disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina and deservingly so.  However, what the Post deliberately failed to mention is that the bogus graduation rate was based upon the Bloomberg era policies that Chancellor Joel Klein implemented.  It was Mayor Bloomberg and his Chancellors that allowed schools to "game the system" by giving "credit recovery" courses that violated State law and in far too many cases graduated academically unprepared students for the adult world.  Here are just some of these examples.  Here, Here, and Here.  Back in June of 2009 Marc Epstein wrote an article in the City Journal that exposed the Bloomberg/Klein agenda to graduate academically unprepared students titled "Not Worth The Paper...". All of these outrageous actions occurred under Mayor Bloomberg and that was just the tip of the iceberg on the bogus means the DOE allowed just to improve the graduation rates.  Yet the news media has conveniently ignored all this and blames Mayor de Blasio and Chancellor Carmen Farina for this.

I also blame the Mayor and Chancellor for the academic fraud and the bogus graduation rate.  However, I blame them for their failure to eliminate the Bloomberg era policies that have resulted in the continuation of the academic fraud throughout the New York City public schools.  In particular the Chancellor has retained many of the Bloomberg policymakers in Tweed and her only major changes she has made were he elimination of the useless and money sucking "Children First Networks" (CFN) and requiring new Leadership Academy Principals to have a minimum of 5 years of classroom experience, both the creation of her nemesis, Eric Nadelstern.  Interestingly, many of the CFN staff found positions at the Borough Support Centers or the newly empowered Superintendent office.  Therefore, the very people who "aided and abetted" the schools in their academic fraud, will be in similar positions in directing school administrators on how to continue to "beat the system" at the expense of a student's education.

Should Carmen Farina be fired as Chancellor of the New York City schools as the NY Post has demanded?  The answer is yes because of her failure to eliminate the Bloomberg policies and managers that allowed the academic fraud to make many high school diplomas a worthless piece of paper.

The DOE Continues To Deny, Delay, And Defend Academic Fraud.

According to Chalkbeat, Chancellor Carmen Farina has appointed a (yawn) task force to investigate the "credit recovery" programs that is now responsible for an astounding 50% of all credits students received at one school.  This task force is supposed to identify schools who abuse the "credit recovery" programs (more yawns) and refer the more egregious cases to SCI (even more yawns).  Interestingly, enforcing the rules will be the staff members at the new Borough Support Centers, many of them worked for the now disbanded "Children First Networks" who aided and abetted schools in awarding the "easy credits" to artificially improve the graduation rates.  It's like the fox guarding the chicken coop!

Jame Eterno, Chapter Leader extraordinaire, stated it best in the ICEUFT blog by saying the following:

 "The goal of education today is to graduate the students, not to educate them in too many instances".

This is exactly what the DOE is doing presently.  It's not about educating the student but to graduate them, regardless if they are academically prepared for the adult world.  Will the task force end up to be what is really needed?  A truth commission?  or will it be simply a sham that will hide the abuses in the "credit recovery" program?  I bet my pension on the latter.

The DOE policy is to delay, deny, and defend administrators who pressure teachers to pass as many students as possible through scholarship (>85% passing), pressure, threats, and the use of  "easy credits" that required little or no work.   Remember what Chancellor Farina said about the John Dewey cheating scandal? The bottom line as James Eterno pointed out:

 "Manipulating numbers is the inevitable result of tying teacher and principal ratings to student performance.  Many students are not interested in school and when they find out educators will take the blame if they fail, they play the game to their advantage".


To me the Chancellor's new task force is simply a public relations ploy by the DOE to take the pressure off them to truly reform the abusive "credit recovery" system and the bogus graduation rate that sees over 78% of them needed remediation if they even bother to apply to college. Academic fraud is alive and well in the New York City public schools, be it Bloomberg or De Blasio as Mayor and the real losers are the students who are handed worthless diplomas while unable to academically survive in the real world like obtaining and keeping a good job or succeeding in college.


In the DOE its  "Childern last.....Always".

Science Education Is Lagging In The New York City Public High Schools.

Yesterday Chalkbeat summarized a report by The New School's Center For New York City's Affairs  and not surprisingly found that most New York City high schools had an inferior and inadequate Science curriculum.  Over the years I have been informing my readers how the New York City public high schools are short changing students in Science education.  My complaints have fallen on deaf ears at the uncaring DOE as they actually encourage school principals to eliminate many Science courses and to reduce others by a period a week in an effort to save on teacher salaries in their "education on the cheap" policy.  For example New York State Regents Science requires that there be five classes of instruction per week and one class of laboratory skills .  However, almost every New York City high school has reduced classroom instruction by 20%, or one class a week to meet their tight budget requirements.  Worse, is the lack of certified Earth Science teachers teaching the subject,  In most schools the Living Environment teacher is required to teach Earth Science and, as one could guess, the Regents results predictably are terrible.  The reason being that Living Environment teachers are life Science teachers not a physical Science teacher and have little understanding of the subject, be it Chemistry, Physics, or Earth Science.  Is it any wonder that 100 of the 600 high schools in the City had no students graduate with an advanced Regents diploma last school year?

Many of the Bloomberg small schools do not offer the courses necessary for students to obtain an advanced Regents diploma, be it Regents Earth Science, Chemistry, or Physics and in Math Algebra II.  In fact, these schools are simply diploma mills, graduating students who are not "college or career ready" academically.  Just 25 of the 600 high schools had 50% of all students who obtained an advanced Regents diploma while few poor and minority schools had no more than a handful, if any, students who earned an advanced Regents diploma.

While Asian and White students make up only 23% of the student population they accounted for 70% of all students who obtained an advanced Regents diploma.  By contrast, in the 100 schools that award no advanced Regents diploma, 92% of them were Black or Hispanic. For a complete list of all New York City High Schools that offers STEM related advanced Math and Science instruction and the ones that do not,  it can be found Here.

Maybe the DOE and the disappointing Chancellor will wake up and stop short-changing the New York City High School students on their Science education but I highly doubt it.   In the DOE Its still "children last"...Always!

Is The DOE Using Different Standards When Evaluating ATRs? It Appears So.

A couple of years ago it was brought to my attention that the DOE had separated ATRs into two lists.  The first list were ATRs who were excessed from schools.  The second list are for ATRs who were disciplined or "U" rated.  I was never able to actually see these lists and didn't think much more about the lists or why the DOE would separate the ATRs since it had no relevance at that time since nobody was getting a permanent position anyway.  However, its now become obvious to me and many others that these lists still exist in some form or another and is being used to target the second group of ATRs to harass them until they resign or retire.

It seems to me, that after speaking to many ATRs, that the ones who won their 3020-a termination hearings or were "U" rated the previous couple of years were assigned ATR field supervisors (assassins) as early as September and were continually observed throughout the school year (one ATR claimed she had 19 visits).  While the ATRs who were excessed had either no ATR field supervisors or were observed one or two times during the school year.

I suspect the union is well aware of the different standards being used in observing the ATRs but has apparently done nothing to stop the harassment.  Maybe, they are actually encouraging this abuse of authority and hoping that some of the ATRs actually leave the system?  It's no secret that both the DOE and UFT want to "thin the herd" to the union the ATRs are an embarrassment and while they want them back into the classroom, they would be quite happy if they resigned or retired.  That's why the union leadership does not want an ATR Chapter Leader and prefers that they be disenfranchised by claiming their situation is temporary, despite some people being ATRs for nearly a decade!  As for the DOE?  They would fire all ATRs if they could and save $160 million dollars in the process.  Its no wonder the DOE has instituted policies that made ATRs a second class citizen and some practically an untouchable in their attempt to eliminate the ATR pool and the union is complicit by even allowing it to be part of the latest contract!

Letters have been written to the Chancellor and calls made to the Mayor to eliminate the ATR issue. However, these pleas have been met with unresponsive silence and for the next school year I see nothing changed in resolving the ongoing ATR problem that deprives students of "quality teachers" and drain $160 million dollars that could be used to reduced class sizes and the savings would add resources to the classroom but then its still "children last" when it comes to the DOE as ideology wins over what's best for the students in the New York City public schools.

The City's Use Of Uncertified Teachers Results In Poor Student Academic Achievement And That's A Crime.

This week I was grading the Earth Science Regents for many of the schools  in Queens.  During the grading, I observed two very important things.   First, approximately 33% of the graders were not certified in Earth Science yet they were selected to grade the Earth Science Regents and were even selected for per session grading.  Second, many of the schools graded that had poor Regents results had one thing in common.  Few of the school's students had a certified Earth Science teacher instructing them!  By contrast, schools that had a full complement of Earth Science teachers showed a much higher Regents passing percentage.   That got me thinking if some of these graders, who were uncertified in Earth Science, did not properly credit some student answers because of the grader's lack of knowledge of the subject and this resulted in the student received a failing 63% or 64% on the Regents rather than a passing grade of 65%? The question is how can the use of uncertified teachers instructing and grading students be condoned by the DOE leadership in their "children first" policy?   The simple answer is the DOE doesn't care.

An organization that really believes in putting student first would demand that every teacher be certified in the subject they are teaching in.  A teacher who has deep curriculum and subject knowledge is a prerequisite for real student academic achievement.  Moreover, a certified teacher provides the necessary information for a student to fully understand and not memorize subject material as is done in too many schools.  However, as I have traveled through the Queens high schools, I saw schools like Martin Van Buren, Richmond Hill, Long Island City, Newtown, and Bryant high schools without a certified Earth Science teacher on staff.   Further, many other schools had uncertified teachers teaching nearly full Earth Science schedules rather than hire the Earth Science teachers available in the ATR pool.

Many of the Bloomberg small schools had not emphasized Earth Science and pushed students to take Chemistry and Physics instead.  The result was disastrous as many students failed the higher level and much harder Sciences and eventually these schools had the teachers teaching Earth Science.  Now that many of these schools have Earth Science, they have not hired certified Earth Science teachers to teach it.  The DOE allows this by accepting the false claim that there are no Earth Science teachers available.  True, few newbie teachers are certified in Earth Science but in Queens alone there are 6 experienced Earth Science teachers in excess but because they are expensive, no school is willing to pick up their salary, thanks to "fair student funding".

When I hear that the disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, wants "effective teachers in the classroom" I can only laugh because under the DOE its hiring the "cheapest and not the best teachers" that count and its all about the money and not what's best for the children's academic achievement that is most important. Until this policy changes the New York City schools are doomed for failure.