How Vindictive Is The DOE When It Comes To Whistleblowers? This Vindictive.

Teachers who have been working in the New York City school system for decades know, either first hand, or from colleagues how the DOE's Office of Legal Services will pull out all stops to terminate teachers for the most minor of incidents when the Principal demands it.  It's not unusual for the DOE to sic their investigators on the hapless teacher and make frivolous incidents into major misconduct.  You can read my corrupt investigations articles Here.  Moreover, the DOE practices a "double standard" when it comes to disciplining administrators and staff. However, the DOE seems to have a special dislike for staff whistleblowers, be it Regents cheating, "double dipping" by administrators, like Principal Linda HIll, and administrative misconduct by abusing their authority over their staff.

One of the DOE's most egregious cases was the arrest of former Staten Island Chapter Leader and UFT Presidential candidate, Francesco Portelos by the DOE for publishing a sham piece called "How to hack the DOE payroll portal and give yourself a raise". Everybody who read the post knew it was a fantasy piece and gave many of us a good chuckle anyway.  What did the DOE do?  They called their favorite NYPD Detective, a Mr. Conner of the 84th Precinct that covers the DOE's 65 Court Street building in Brooklyn to arrest Mr. Portelos.  That's after assurances that Mr. Portelos would only get a desk appearance summons. Instead, he was arrested and kept in a holding cell for 33 hours before the District Attorney threw out the DOE's criminal complaint.

However, you feel about Mr. Portelos, what the DOE did was over the top and I hope he wins his lawsuit for abusing the justice system that had him unfairly arrested. You can read the story Here.

Social Security And NYC Educators.

 We New York City Public School educator gets some pretty good benefits.  A nice pension, a TDA that gives 7% to 8.25% interest with no fees, and affordable health benefits, not to mention union supplied and City funded welfare benefits like dental, hearing, and vision services.  What's not appreciated is that all the educators are covered by Social Security and that's a great bonus. Just ask teachers in fifteen states ranging from western states like California, Nevada, Colorado, and Alaska.,  the New England States except for Vermont and New Hampshire, and the rust belt states like Ohio, Illinois, and Kentucky about their lack of Social Security benefits. Let's not forget the South like Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Georgia.  Include some cities like Washington D.C. and 40% of all teachers in the country are not eligible for Social Security payments. When these teachers eventually retire, the likelihood is that they will get little or no Social Security income when they reach the age to apply for the benefit.

In a previous post I pointed out that the average New York City educator pension is $43,701.  Add the annual Social Security income for these long term educators of approximately $30,000.  Therefore, most retirees have a minimal average retirement income of $73,000, not including other investments like the TDA or IRA's for example.  TRS in their retirement seminars have stated that the average retiree has $325,000 in their TDA.  Assuming the money is invested in the fixed fund at 7%, the TDA throws off $22,750 annually.  Its safe to assume most long-term educators in the New York City Public Schools have an annual retirement income of close to $100,000, before taxes.

For long-term New York City educators there are some downsides to Social Security.  First, while educators can retire as young as 55 years of age, Social Security does not start until 62 years of age and is reduced by up to 30%. Second, the earned income limit to collect full Social Security and not pay taxes on the benefit is only $25,000 for single taxpayers and $32,000 for married taxpayers.  Therefore, all long-term teachers can expect to be taxed on 85% of their Social Security income.  For educators who retire before their full retirement age, the maximum a retired educator can make is $16,920.  Any earned income above the $16,920 will result in $1 being deducted from your Social Security check for every $2 earned.  Finally, most school-based educators tend to retiree in June. at the end of the school year.  However, for educators  who take Social Security and are younger than the full retirement year, there is the limitation of $16,920 for the calendar year.  Therefore, it might be wise to wait until January of the next year before taking Social Security or work the Fall Semester and take Social Security in February of that year.  Otherwise, you will have a sharply reduced Social Security check for the rest of the calendar year.

Social Security for the long-term educators may be the difference in being able to live very comfortably in retirement.

Attached is an Excel Worksheet that shows what the percentage you receive by taking Social Security between the ages of 62 and 70.

The Renewal High Schools Academically Are Like A One Legged Man In An Ass Kicking Contest.

One of the greatest failures of the Bill de Blasio Administration is his Renewal School program.  These are struggling schools with a low achieving student population, a competitive disadvantage in recruiting academically proficient students due to the DOE's misguided school choice program, and the Renewal Schools failure to recruit veteran teachers to work in the highly stressful and intensely accountable environment.  The result is an influx of "newbie" teachers, year after year, who flee the schools through the Open Market Transfer System every summer and this high staff turnover destabilizes the already struggling schools.

The New York Post has started a one week series on the Renewal Schools and their failure to significantly improve student academic achievement, especially the high schools.  The Post article pointed out the following issues of-the Renewal Schools.

• Total enrollment at the 86 Renewal schools currently open has plummeted nearly 25 percent — from 49,391 to 37,146 — since the 2013-2014 school year, before the program began.

• Average per-student spending at each Renewal school is $14,632 this school year, up nearly 35 percent from $10,847 in 2013-2014 — and more than twice the cost of educating students at the elite Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech high schools.

• Only three Renewal schools met all their improvement goals last school year, while 61 showed declines in at least one category and 13 fell in three or more — even after the Renewal schools were given three years to hit targets for which other schools only got one.

Moreover, the dropout rate at the Renewal High Schools rose to 18.5%, compared to a 8.5% dropout rate for the City as a whole.  Finally, the "college and career readiness" rate of all Renewal School has fallen since 2014 and only 12.3% of the graduates achieve that proficiency, compared to a 37.0% for the rest of the high schools. In tomorrow's paper the article is about a Renewal High School with uncertified teachers, lack of resources, and an uncaring Superintendency.

I have written various articles on the failure of the Renewal Schools and the various issues that have resulted in their continued struggles and you can read them Here, , Here, Here and Here. For more about the failed Renewal School program please read this.

The bottom line, until the City changes the school choice and fair student funding programs, the Renewal Schools are like a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, they cannot win, or in this case improve academically.

Teacher Tenure And Retention.

Over the years teacher tenure has been under attack.  Even in deep blue and union friendly States like California and New York.  Education reform groups and their media allies have presented teacher tenure as allowing teachers lifetime job protection by keepimg their positions despite committing misconduct or being incompetent.  The truth is far different.  Teacher tenure is granted only after two to five years of continuous satisfactory service and must be awarded by the Superintendent.  Moreover, teachers who earn tenure are awarded the right to a full and fair hearing by an independent arbitrator if the school district charges the teacher with either incompetence or misconduct/  By contrast, untenured teachers can be discontinued for any or no reason whatsoever.

The reason that teachers need tenure are as follows:

1. Tenure protects teachers from being fired for inappropriate reasons. Before tenure teachers were fired for political, personal, and other non-teaching reasons.  Teachers were also fired for teaching evolution and for simply questioning school board decisions.
2. Tenure protects teachers from false accusations.  A popular saying is that "when does a teenager lie?  When they open their mouth".  Was replaced that children lie except when its about their teacher.
3. Teacher tenure makes teachers better educators.  Tenure allows teachers to experiment with different and more effective ways to improve student academic performance.
4. Tenure protects good teachers from being fired because they are too expensive or too old.
5. Tenure allows teachers to stand up and question administrative decisions that are detrimental to student learning.

In many "right to work" states, teacher tenure is limited or eliminated.  In these states where teacher tenure does not exist, teacher salaries are low, teacher turnover is high, and teacher shortages are becoming an ever increasing problem, especially for urban and high poverty schools.  The latest example is Louisiana where teacher tenure was eliminated for teachers and replaced by one year evaluations, based upon student Common Core based test scores.  The result is that the State has seen a significant exodus of teachers, especially veteran teachers and are currently experiencing a severe teacher shortage.


The Louisiana experience is not surprising since charter schools, where teacher tenure does not exist, experiences high teacher turnover and usually has difficulty retaining teachers for more than two years.  Its not unusual to see 50% of the staff turnover every tear in the charter schools. Is it little wonder that the charter schools are always hiring Teach For America "newbies" who usually stay only two years in the classroom anyway?


Without a stable teaching staff the student body experiences  transient adult instructors and believe its their fault that teachers are here today and gone tomorrow.  How does that help the student's  self worth?  It doesn't of course.  Teacher retention is a major ingredient in student academic achievement and tenure is the carrot that keeps teachers from leaving a school for a better and more respected job outside of the classroom.  In other words, teacher tenure is necessary for teacher retention and long-term student academic achievement.

Senior Teachers Targeted At Thomas Edison High School

One of the better high schools in Queens is Thomas Edison High School located in the Jamaica Hill section of Queens.  The school is both screened and unscreened when it comes to student selection and has a fairly diverse student body.  If you look at their snapshot you will see they have a high "college and career readiness" score and is a school that I highly recommend if I was a parent with an academically proficient student   However, if you are a senior staff member there is a dark side to the school.

The school has, in the last few years, a reputation for targeting veteran teachers and has forced many of them to retire or risk getting an "ineffective" rating.  For the veteran teachers who refused to be pushed out, 3020-a charges and reassignment out of the school and into the DOE's informal "rubber rooms" are the result.  I was there for a month and heard many a horror story about what the administration did to senior teachers and was there when one senior teacher got her 3020-a charges for incompetence, despite getting a "developing " rating on both parts of her evaluation the last year.  Some senior teachers told me that they are leaving and some have left mid-semester due to the administrative harassment they experienced.

Now, in today's New York Post, a senior teacher, Alan Herz was served 3020-a charges simply based on some questionable but innocent statements he allegedly made to two students.  Fortunately, for Mr. Herz, the charges was not put in writing within 90 days of the investigation and by contract they are no longer chargeable.  Therefore,  the statements cannot be used in the 3020-a hearings. and was thrown out by the administrative law judge.  Now, the DOE wants a second bite of the apple and wants to recharge Mr. Hertz again for the same statements he made in 2014 and has filed a lawsuit to overturn the decision against the DOE.

In another case an activist Chapter Leader, Marilyn Martinez, a 12 year veteran with a child in the school, from the award winning and progressive Central Park East I elementary school was removed after supporting parents and staff run-ins with appointed Principal Monika Garg who is trying to remake the successful school into something less. The Superintendent not only had the Chapter Leader removed just before the February break and was served, with lightning speed, her 3020-a charges.  But believe it or not,  her hearing starts tomorrow! Read the entire sordid story at Ed Notes Online. 

Also read the massive protest by parents and staff at 100 Gold Street in support of the Chapter Leader.

These are just more examples how little has changed at the DOE under Bill de Blasio and his Chancellor Carmen Farina when it comes to abusive persecution of senior teachers that started in the Bloomberg era and continues unabated to this day.

The Teacher Retirement System Needs To Update And Upgrade The TDA With A ROTH Option.

 

In my continuing series to make my readers more financially savvy, I have explored possible improvements to our Tax Deferred Annuity (TDA).  Its no secret that our TDA is one of the best benefits educators who work for the DOE has.  UFT members can get 7% in the Fixed Income Fund, with no administrative or management fees while non-UFT members get 8.25%.  According to TRS 60% of all educators funds are in the Fixed Income Fund. Who can blame educators when inflation is running at 2%?

However, our TDA has some shortcomings, a limited selection of funds and up to a three month delay to change your portfolio contribution allocation as well as re-balancing.  One of the more serious flaws our TDA has is the lack of a ROTH option. There is no reason why TRS does not offer a ROTH option.  The NYCDCP for Municipal employees offer both a ROTH 401{k} and 457 plan.  Yet for some unknown reason, the TRS does not offer a ROTH option in their 403{b} plan.

First, let me explain the difference between a ROTH option and our TRS non-ROTH option.  The ROTH option requires the contributor to pay taxes, upfront but any withdrawals are tax free.  By contrast the TRS non-ROTH option allows the educator to deduct their tax-deferred contribution from their taxable income upfront but then taxes the withdrawals.  Both plans allow for appreciation to grow without being taxed while the money accumulates in the plans.

For new and younger employees, the ROTH option is vastly superior to the non-ROTH option.  Primarily because the newer employees make less money and therefore, the taxes taken out for each paycheck is less.  Moreover, younger employees have a long time to retirement and the appreciation from contributions and compounding will result in a large amount of money subject to taxation when its time to withdraw under the TDA plan.  Presently, according to the TRS the average TDA fund has $325,000 in it, a large sum of money that the government would like to get their hands on and will without a ROTH plan.  Furthermore, under the non-ROTH TDA plan, retirees over 70 years of age will have to withdraw a certain percentage of money that is subject to Federal tax.  This is called the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD).  By contrast if the TRS had a ROTH TDA, the withdrawals would be tax free and not subject to the RMD.  Finally, by having a lower salary, and the ROTH TDA plan, if there ever is one, would allow money to be taken out paycheck to paycheck, 24 annually, and the bi-weekly tax bite will be minimal, when compared to the tax-free withdrawals at retirement.

For educators near or at retirement, baby boomers for example, its probably too late to convert the TDA to a ROTH plan, if offered, since the money that is transferred into a ROTH plan would be subject to Federal taxes.  For example is it really worthwhile to convert your entire $325,000 TDA and pay a 33% to 39.6% tax on it?  Probably not. It seems to me you are better off being subject to the RMD which is 3.65% and pay taxes on $11,863 that must be withdrawn from the $325,000 nest egg and at a hopefully much lower Federal tax bracket of between 15% and 28%.  For us older folks you can see the tax advantage by contributing to a TDA  Here.

Until TRS offers a ROTH TDA plan, the educator really only has two choices.  Contribute to the TDA plan or rollover the money and new contributions to the NYCDCP 401{k} or 457 ROTH plans.  Personally, I rather have the 7% interest rate guarantee and the tax deduction and pay the RMD when I am 70 years old,

DOE's Fake News When It Comes To Student Academic Achievement.

Since the election of Donald Trump as President, "fake news", is the news.  Be it from Trump himself , the Democrats, or the media, "fake news" is all the rage.  However, at the DOE, fake news has or misinformation has been the name of the game since the Bloomberg era and continues with Bill de Blasio.

What do I mean by fake news?  The graduation rate which is easily manipulated and fails to show real student academic achievement  is what I call fake news..  Every year the City tells the world that the graduation rate increases from the previous year  The latest is 72%.  However, ask any business or institution of higher learning what they think of the academic proficiency of the New York City graduates and you get a near universal response of how deficient academically these graduates are. In fact,  78% of all New York City high school graduates must take no-credit remedial courses in college.  Furthermore, the average New York City high school averages 37%  "college and career readiness" of the high school graduates.   Not an encouraging statistic if you ask me.  Exclude the 45 top performing high schools, most of them screened or specialized and the remainder of the high schools average closer to 22% for "college and career readiness".  A study by StudentsFirst lists the lowest 72 high schools in the City,  based on the 2014-15 school year. While I usually ignore the education deformer group, their numbers show how bogus the graduation rate  is when compared to real academic proficiency. I also wrote about the "diploma mill" high schools Here and Here.

The City high schools are full of easy credit "credit recovery courses", online instruction without a certified teacher instructing students such as APEX or PLATO, and administrative pressure on teachers to pass undeserving students by imposing scholarship requirements.  The result is that these  "diploma mill" schools with there phony graduation rates is a disservice to the students.

When you read in the newspapers that the City is improving the academic ability of their student population, remember its all "fake news"!

NYS Constitutional Convention Update.

In ten months (November 7. 2017), New York State will have a Constitutional Convention referendum to determine if the state will have a Constitutional Convention and appoint delegates.  The delegates are elected on November 8, 2018 and the Constitutional Convention is connived on  April 2, 2019, where each and every referendum is voted on in the November 2019 election day. Any amendment that is approved probably comes into effect on January 1, 2020.

Apparently, Governor Andrew Cuomo's support of the Constitutional Convention has cooled considerably since 2015 and in his latest budget, the Governor even failed to include funding for the Con-Con Commission that's needed to organize the Constitutional Convention.  Without funding, it will be very difficult to publicize and propose different amendments.  Moreover, the Democratic Assembly have shown little interest in supporting the Constitutional Convention.  Even the Senate Republicans are lukewarm in their support since they can see an amendment of reducing large corporate donations being approved under the Constitutional Convention.

While the State must have a Constitutional Convention every twenty years.  Hopefully, with the lack of supportive politicians in both sides of the aisle and a Governor who seems to not to be so anxious in funding the Constitutional Convention, it will go down to the same overwhelming defeat as in 1998.

That brings me to our union leadership's appeal to have the members increase their COPE contributions so that they can more effectively lobby for the Constitutional Convention's defeat.  While, the union's appeal is understandable if the COPE funds were only used to for the defeat of the Constitutional Convention, the truth is our union leadership uses our COPE contributions to fund many different organizations, many of them I do not support or should not be funded.  Remember this?

 Until our disconnected union leadership starts to ask its members where our dues and COPE contributions should go to, they get no COPE money from me.

 How to withdraw from COPE can be found Here.

The Renewal High Schools Continue To Lose Students.

Despite additional resources, a longer school day, and more money, the Renewal high schools continue to shed students.  Moreover, veteran teachers refuse to apply to these schools due to the added stress and accountability associated with teaching at the Renewal schools.  The result is an inexperienced and unstable teaching staff, who have a steep learning curve in the art of teaching and learning the curriculum.  Finally, parents refuse to send their academically proficient student to these struggling schools and since the DOE no longer allows these schools to get "over-the-counter" students, the schools continue to shed students.

For example, August Martin High School has shed 33% of the original 679 students since 2014.  In all the 31 Renewal high schools, only 3,371 students graduated, compared to 4,121 students back in 2013, the last year before the Renewal School program was established.  Worse yet, the 2016 graduation numbers is 10% less than the 2015 for all the Renewal Schools.

The dropout rate for the Renewal High Schools remain stubbornly high with 50% of the 31 Renewal High Schools having dropouts rates higher than before the Renewal program started. At the end of 2015 the 94 Renewal Schools shed 6,300 students since the start of the Renewal School program.

Since middle school students can choose to go to any high school they apply to, assuming they have the academic qualifications.  How does the DOE expect parents to subject their child as a guinea pig to an academically struggling school with an inexperienced teaching staff, and longer hours?  The answer is they don't.  Better yet how many of the DOE policymakers send their children to Renewal Schools?  How about "zero"! The DOE may claim they are turning the corner but the reality is the Renewal high schools are a failure and the DOE is simply pouring money in a bottomless black hole.

Its time to bring back the community high schools and zoning, while converting the Renewal School program back to a community high school. That's the only way to attract academically achieving students.

Our New York State Pension Compares Very Favorably To Other State Pensions.

Despite the news media occasionally writing articles on how our generous benefits will bankrupt the NYS pension system, the sky is not falling and our pension system is doing just fine thank you.  The truth is that the New York State pension is doing quite well and compares very favorably with other state pensions.  Both in funding and in benefits.  Moreover, unlike a dozen or so states, like California and most of New England,  New York State employees also are eligible for Social Security benefits.  Even for the latest Tier VI pension, the maximum employee contribution of 6% is still low, only a little over half of what the local and or State government must contribute  (11.72%, down from 17.23% the year before)  to keep the pension system solvent.  During the recession, the NYS pension was in trouble as local and State government had to contribute over 20%, compared to less than 3% by the employee. However, the State was smart enough to ensure the pension plan was funded and the stock market has recovered nicely.   Presently, the average NYS employee contribution is still a low 3.3% (all tiers) while the national average is 7.4% and the total contribution is one of the lowest in the nation..

Our pension is considered "well funded" and unlike New Jersey and Connecticut,  there is no major potential shortfall that requires major action to correct and may reduce future pensions. Compared to the rest of the nation, New York State has done a good job keeping their pension promises to their employees.  No, the sky is not falling when it comes to our pension system.

You can read the latest example of the media scare tactics Here.

Below is a list of all 50 states and their  employee and employee pension contributions.

State	Employer	Employee	Total
Alabama	10.82%	6.00%	16.82%
Alaska	17.78%	8.65%	26.43%
Arizona	11.34%	11.50%	22.84%
Arkansas	14.30%	6.00%	20.30%
California	21.41%	9.21%	30.62%
Colorado	21.94%	8.00%	29.94%
Connecticut	23.65%	7.25%	30.90%
Delaware	9.58%	5.00%	14.58%
District of Columbia	12.17%	8.00%	20.17%
Florida	6.21%	3.00%	9.21%
Georgia	14.27%	6.00%	20.27%
Hawaii	17.89%	6.00%	23.89%
Idaho	11.57%	6.79%	18.36%
Illinois	39.12%	9.00%	48.12%
Indiana	28.41%	0.00%	28.41%
Iowa	8.93%	5.95%	14.88%
Kansas	16.38%	6.00%	22.38%
Kentucky	29.755%	12.86%	42.61%
Louisiana	25.51%	8.00%	33.51%
Maine	13.01%	7.65%	20.66%
Maryland	15.79%	7.00%	22.79%
Massachusetts	17.73%	11.00%	28.73%
Michigan	25.78%	6.40%	32.18%
Minnesota	10.37%	7.50%	17.87%
Mississippi	16.65%	9.00%	25.65%
Missouri	14.50%	14.50%	29.00%
Montana	11.16%	8.15%	19.31%
Nebraska	7.25%	9.78%	17.03%
Nevada	14.50%	14.50%	29.00%
New Hampshire	15.67%	7.00%	22.67%
New Jersey	26.55%	7.20%	33.75%
New Mexico	16.78%	10.70%	27.48%
New York	11.72%	4.50%	16.22%
North Carolina	8.47%	6.00%	14.47%
North Dakota	13.04%	11.75%	24.79%
Ohio	14.00%	14.00%	28.00%
Oklahoma	13.11%	7.00%	20.11%
Oregon	31.26%	6.00%	37.26%
Pennsylvania	30.03%	10.30%	40.33%
Rhode Island	23.13%	3.75%	26.88%
South Carolina	11.09%	8.66%	19.75%
South Dakota	4.74%	6.00%	10.74%
Tennessee	9.04%	5.00%	14.04%
Texas	7.92%	7.70%	15.62%
Utah	23.31%	6.00%	29.31%
Vermont	13.63%	8.53%	22.16%
Virginia	16.32%	5.00%	21.32%
Washington	14.78%	5.95%	20.73%
West Virginia	24.32%	6.00%	30.32%
Wisconsin	6.85%	6.80%	13.65%
Wyoming	9.38%	8.25%	17.63%

For Randy Asher, Its Three Strikes And You're Out!

In baseball when a batter has three strikes he is out. That appears to be the case of Randy Asher, the ex-Principal of Brooklyn Tech.  Under his watch three staff members have been accused of sexual misconduct.  One went to jail, while the other two resigned when presented with the evidence. Interestingly, the third accusation was substantiated by SCI in December and that is about the time that Chancellor Carmen Farina removed Randy Asher as Principal of Brooklyn Tech and put in charge of the ATR issue.  Coincidence?  I suspect not.

If my suspicions are correct and Randy Asher was removed due to his failure to properly oversee his staff, then look for little or no change in the ATR situation since Mr. Asher will have no power to force principals to hire ATRs.  That's right, regardless if he succeeds in stopping the rotation, few, if any ATRs will be offered permanent positions and unless principals are required by the Chancellor in filling their vacancies with excessed teachers, the ATR crisis will continue unabated.

I hope I'm wrong but knowing the DOE and how they have brainwashed principals, especially the Leadership Academy principals, that ATRs are "unwanted" or "bad" teachers and the fact that Mr. Asher will have no authority to significantly change the hiring process, along with the continuation of "fair student funding", makes hiring qualified ATRs a rarity.

You can read the other staff stories Here and Here.

When Ideology Trumps What's Best For Students.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you know that I believe that the DOE wastes millions of dollars on a bloated bureaucracy, short changes schools of needed resources and funding, and implements policies that keep experienced, veteran teachers without a classroom. In addition, the DOE is considered the enemy and not a friend to the classroom teacher, the same as under Mayor Bloomberg.  The reason is the ideology of the Bloomberg era remains at Tweed.

Nowhere else in our country would a school district be allowed to spend money so lavishly on their own creature comforts  and expensive consultants at the expense both to the taxpayer and the students they are supposed to educate.  Yet the DOE wastes countless millions on their ideological pursuit of data mining, teacher accountability, and lawyers.  Moreover, the DOE allows 1,300 to 1,600 ATRs to act as substitute teachers and is estimated to cost over $100 million dollars annually.  Finally, their school-based fair student funding encourages principals to hire "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school.

The present DOE budget is 29.2 billion, that is a 7.3% increase since last year and a 22% increase since Bill de Blasio took over as Mayor.  By contrast, teacher salaries have only risen 5.5% since the Mayor took over the City and schools have only seen a 3% to 6% increase in their funding.  If you realize that 4,500 teachers leave the system every year and are replaced by cheaper "newbies" the overall teacher salary has probably changed little or even dropped.  Further, class sizes have remained unchanged and are the highest in the State.  Rather than hire more teachers and add more seats, the DOE encourages schools to give a "sixth period" to teachers and stuff as many students as possible in any one class.

Until Chancellor Carmen Farina retires for good and the new Chancellor "cleans house" at Tweed, ideology will trump student needs in today's DOE.  Children last.....Always!

ATR Update, Rumors, Rumors, And More Rumors.

Since I broke the story about the rumor back in January that the ATR rotation may be coming to an end and that the new ATR DOE leader will start to place ATRs in vacancies, little has actually changed.  In fact, even more rumors and disinformation are being spread about the ATRs.  While I know no more than the rest of you, I do know that some of the rumors are downright wrong.  Here is what I know and don't know about each rumor.

Rumor #1 - Rotation ends:
According to the UFT leadership and ATR Assignment the rotations will continue next month.  Both claim that the ATRs are not being placed in one school to the end of the year,  While Randy Asher did tell principals in a meeting that he was intending to eliminate the ATR rotation and place some ATRs permanently in vacancies, he was vague on how he was to achieve it.

Rumor #2:  Forced placed in vacancies:
ATRs have been forced placed  for years and nothing changes. The few vacancies that do exist after the outside the system January hiring are few and far between. Some schools hide vacancies or find excuses to keep the vacancies unfilled.  How Mr. Asher's proposals will significantly affects the ATR hiring process remains unknown if at all.

Rumor #3: Double Observations:
I find it highly unlikely that a school administration will have the time or inclination to add to their paperwork by observing ATRs especially if the ATR is only there monthly or is not provisionally hired for a long-term leave replacement or vacancy.  My understanding is that the field supervisors will continue to rate the ATRs in rotation not the schools.

Rumor #4 Danielson Rubric:
The ATRs are observed using Teaching for the 21st century and not Charlotte Dainelson.  The union would have to reopen the contract to change the ATR evaluation system.

Rumor #5: ATR time limit:
While I don't trust the union on many levels one issue they have been rock steady on was no ATR time limit.  An ATR can be in that status for the rest of their career.  Can the union give up the ATRs in a future contract?  Possibly, but the two unions that agreed to an ATR time limit, Chicago and Washington D.C. found themselves voted out of power and our union leadership knows that.

I do agree the union leadership should have sent out a mass email either debunking the rumors and informing the members what issues are being negotiated with the DOE concerning ATRs.  This lack of transparency and secrecy has allowed the rumors to spread throughout the ATR community and is it any wonder that most every day there is a new rumor cropping up and the blame must be laid at the feet of our disconnected union leadership who continually fails to get input from the ATR community on issues affecting them.

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!

The Sweetheart Endorsement Our Union Gave Mayor Bill De Blasio.

Last week Michael Mulgrew announced, without member input,  the endorsement of Mayor Bill de Blasio for reelection.  What "takebacks" did our disconnected union leadership negotiate with the Mayor to get the union's endorsement?  Nothing, nothing whatsoever.

It would have been nice if our union played hardball and demanded some "takebacks" from the Bloomberg era of massive "givebacks". Here are just some examples of the "takebacks" I would have liked to see.

Fair Student Funding:
Eliminate the school-based "fair student funding" that badly under fund schools .  Moreover, the fsf  forces principals to hire the cheapest and not the best teachers for their schools.  Finally, most schools only received 89% of the already stingy fsf

Class Size:
Where is the class size reductions promised by Bill de Blasio when he was running the first time?  Why didn't the union leadership hold the Mayor's feet to the fire?  Instead class sizes have remained largely unchanged and are the highest in New York State.

ATRs:
Despite promises to the contrary, few ATRs have landed permanent positions and there still is between 1,300 and 1,600 ATRs without permanent placements. Despite the school system averaging 4,500 vacancies annually, these experienced and veteran teachers have little chance to land a permanent position under present DOE policy that originated from the Bloomberg era.

Teacher Voice:
Teacher autonomy in the classroom has been replaced by administrative micromanaging and data mining.  Moreover, school policy is top down and teacher voice is ignored, when given, and the DOE is deaf when it comes to teacher complaints.  Be it incompetent and vindictive principals or lax student discipline.  Even complaints about academic fraud is more likely to get the teacher disciplined then the perpetrators.  Shouldn't our union leaders be pressuring the Mayor and his staff to empower teachers since empowered teachers result in better student academic outcomes.

Parking Passes:
How about giving school staff their parking passes back?  School staff was the most affected by Michael Bloomberg's limiting parking passes and made life more difficult for many teachers.

Unfortunately, our disconnected union leadership rather be the Mayor's valentine rather than demand "takebacks" for our support for his reelection.

What Is The Average NYC Educator Pension Last Year?

The average educator pension for all New York City retirees in 2016 was $43,701.  Not bad but not a windfall by any means.   However, if you read the Daily News headline, the newspaper makes it seem that the average pension for educators is $88,000.  Of course, inside the article you find out that their definition of "average" is much different than everybody else s.

It turns out the Daily News average salary is based upon educators (including Assistant Principals and Principals) who retired in 2015 with 30 or more years experience, not the average of all educators who retired in 2015.  Deceiving?  I certainly think it is.

Obviously, this is the newspaper's opening salvo on educator pensions as the Constitutional Convention is discussed and this may be one of the issues brought up.  Once again the Daily News is practicing questionable journalism in their quest to demonize teachers and their benefits.

To Caring Parents. Avoid These Queens High Schools At All Costs.

A major problem parents have is how to guide their middle school child to a safe and academically proficient high school. This post will help parents stay away from schools that have the best chance to potentially harm their child academically.  The three types of schools are the Renewal high schools, high schools with a terrible administration, and diploma mill high schools with low academic proficiency.  Some high schools may fall in more than one category.  However, just being in one of the three categories should disqualify the school from consideration by caring parents who want a quality education for their child.

Renewal Schools:
The Renewal schools, which are academically struggling schools, are rapidly losing experienced and veteran educators to retirement, resignation, or transfer and are populated  by "newbie teachers" who themselves suffer a steep learning curve to master the art of teaching.  These schools suffer from classroom management problems, instructors struggling to learn the curriculum themselves, and are subject to an unstable school environment with high teacher turnover.  Just take a look at this post to better understand why parents don't want their academically proficient child subject to the Renewal School environment.

Bad Administration:
Some of the highest teacher turnover rates are usually associated with terrible principals and their administration. For example the neighborhood around a school like William Cullen Bryant High School is middle class, yet the school cannot attract the neighborhood students because of the Principal, Namita Dwarka, and her Assistant Principals.  Instead the school is forced to reach out to the DOE to get enough "over-the-counter" students to keep their numbers up.  Under her four year tenure as Principal, of the 173 teachers she inherited, she has seen 137 leave.  You can read my post about her and other bad principals Here.

Diploma Mills:
There are far too many schools that operate as "diploma mills"  with very low "college and career readiness" rate.  Many of the Rockaway High Schools fit into this category.  In fact, almost all the high schools in Southeast Queens can fall into the diploma mill category.  Add the Renewal Schools and you have unprepared graduates for the post secondary and the adult world. 

Parents in the know and who have academically proficient children would be wise to avoid these schools at all costs.

To Chancellor Carmen Farina - Tomorrow Really Is A Beautiful Day.

Back in February of 2014, Carmen Farina, the newly appointed Chancellor of the New York City schools wrongly decided to keep schools open, despite the National Weather Services forecast of heavy snow just when children where traveling to their schools.

Her poor decision making was compounded by her statement that "it's a beautiful day", despite a heavy snow and sleet storm happening at the moment outside her window.  She then claimed that it was important for the children to have a hot lunch.  However, few schools had enough staff to make a hot lunch and the vast majority of students trapped in their schools ended up with cold sandwiches.

To make matters even worse she justified keeping the schools open because it was a babysitting service for parents.  Of course most sane parents did not go to work and kept their children home rather than threaten their safety due to the elements.  Moreover, aren't schools for educating children and not a babysitting service?  Finally, it was the first indication that Chancellor Carmen Farina was following the Bloomberg ideology to keep schools open at any cost, even if it potentially threatened the life and limb of children who travel to school through heavy snow and icy roads.

Now that Chancellor Carmen Farina is apparently retiring at the end of the school year.  She and Mayor Bill de Blasio have realized that its more important to keep children safe and have closed schools,  Now tomorrow is really a beautiful day!

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly About The Bloomberg Small Schools.

Back in 2009, Bill Gates, who pushed for small schools, soon realized that small schools didn't work.  The one exception he said was the New York City (Bloomberg) small schools.  Instead, Bill Gates focused on teacher accountability and evaluation based on test scores.   Why was the Bloomberg small schools the exception?   Simple.  The Bloomberg small schools, to ensure they succeeded, were over funded,  while the large comprehensive schools were underfunded by 20% or more of their fair student funding.   Moreover, the Bloomberg small schools were allowed to exclude "high needs" students like English Language Learners, Special Education, and Behaviorally challenged students while dumping then in the large comprehensive schools he wanted and did close.  Finally, if the Bloomberg small schools could not attract enough academically proficient students, they still received funding for the empty seats which kept class sizes small.   The result was that the first few years, these Bloomberg schools had much higher academic proficiency rates and that is why Bill Gates found them a success.  Of course, once the Bloomberg small schools were subject to the same funding and policies as the rest of the schools, the student academic achievement dropped significantly.

Let's look at the good, the bad, and the ugly of the Bloomberg small schools and the false promises of a great education they claimed the students would get..

The Good:
In theory, small schools allow for a more personal relationship between staff and students.  In fact, many of these schools advertise the family-like atmosphere and that most teachers are familiar with the students and can provide emotional and social support as well as academic help.  Usually, graduation rates are higher at small schools since fewer students fall through the gaps as the schools are better able to track students.

The Bad:
Small schools have limited course selection, few electives, and no flexibility in their schedules.  Moreover, despite the small school size, classes are usually at contract limits of 34 and students are forced to take courses that they are not capable of passing.  Further, the Bloomberg small schools have a largely inexperienced staff and subject to high teacher turnover leading to an unstable school environment. Finally,  many of the unscreeneed Bloomberg small schools are now required to select "over-the-counter" students.  Many of them "high needs" and level one students just to reach the numbers when it comes to funding. No more funding for empty seats.

The Ugly:
The Bloomberg small schools have abysmally low "college and career readiness" rates  Usually headed by a "Leadership Academy" Principal, and have a reputation of being top-heavy in administration and hostile to their teaching staff.  Moreover, teacher autonomy in the classroom is virtually non-existent and micromanaging is the rule, where Danielson is used as a weapon.   Finally, the graduates from these schools are subject to no-credit remedial courses and struggle in college.  In other words.  they graduate unprepared for life after high school.  Remember, there are no "credit recovery courses" in college or administrative pressure to pass undeserving students and being absent or late gets one fired in the job market. Welcome to the real world and for far too many of these students its really a slap in their face.

Finally, most students who are  enrolled in the Bloomberg small schools will tell you it was one of their worst mistakes selecting their school.  If you don't believe me then just ask them when you end up in these unscereened Bloomberg small schools.

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Inside The Numbers Of The Poor College And Career Readness Rates At These Diploma Mill Schools.

In today's New York Post an article identified the high schools with high graduation rates and low "college and career readiness" rates.  Not surprisingly, all of the schools are concentrated in two Boroughs.  The Bronx and Brooklyn.  Many of the schools are themed Bloomberg small schools which suffer from high teacher turnover.   The list is found below.

School................................Graduation Rate.....College Ready
FDNY Fire & Safety..................83.3%....................1.9%
Urban Assembly......................82.5%....................3.8%
School For Music & Theatre......89.5%..................11.8%
Eagle Academy For Men II.......88.7%...................14.1%
Law & Community Service........80.6%...................6.5%
Academy For Young Writers.....86.3%..................12.3%
George Westinghouse..............81.1%...................7.6%
Victory Collegiate....................76.0%...................2.7%
Bronxdale...............................76.0%...................4.0%
New Visions  Humanities..........86.0%...................1.2%
 ..
However, if one is to break down the school statistics you can find many other commonalities with the schools listed above.  Let's look at what these diploma mill factories have in common.

Student Body:
The student body is usually over 95% minority and a high percentage receive free lunch, a marker for deep poverty.  Moreover, the schools tend to be male dominated.  Finally, many of these schools have a much higher percentage of "high needs" students than the average school in the City..

Teachers:
The schools identified have a majority of untenured teachers and are subject to high teacher turnover as teachers flee these schools when the Open Market Transfer System opens up for the summer..

Chronic Absentees:
All these schools suffer from a high percentage of chronic student absenteeism and student discipline is an ongoing problem.

Unsafe Neighborhoods:
The majority of the high schools are located in neighborhoods that are high poverty and considered unsafe.

The bottom line is that until the schools have a stable teaching staff, s stringent and enforced student discipline code, and a more diverse student body.  These schools will be the poster schools for diploma mills that simply push out students who are unprepared for post secondary education and the adult world.

For all unscreened high schools in Queens you can find it Here.

The Teacher Blame Game Continues.

There is no question that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Chancellor, Joel Klein, tried to remake the New York City Public School; system into an education reform laboratory.  The result was a failure of historic proportions as various iterations and policies were foisted on the schools, only to be discarded as yesterday's garbage.  Large comprehensive high schools were closed and small ones were opened, top heavy on administrators and once the extra funding and student exclusions disappeared, the unscreened small schools ended up with lower academic achievement than the schools they replaced.   However, far too many of the Bloomberg/Klein era policies survive to this day.

For example under the progressive Mayor, Bill de Blasio and his Chancellor, Carmen Farina, many of the Bloomberg/Klein policies are still in place.  They are as follows:

•  Large class sizes
•  Graduation rate
•  Fair student funding
•  ATRs
•  Danielson rubric
•  Bloated DOE bureaucracy. 
•  Data mining
•  Uncertified teachers
•  Double standard in disciplining staff and administrators.
•  Principal autonomy. 

Just like in the Bloomberg years, real student academic achievement weren't realized and the income/racial achievement gap stayed as wide as ever.  Who gets blamed for the lack of academic progress?  The failed education reform policies by bureaucrats, and politicians?  How about the poor parent involvement?   It can't be the lack of resources and funding for the schools?  Or was it the high teacher turnover and the policies that devalue veteran teachers?  No?  according to the news media its the teachers themselves!

Now we will have the highly unqualified Betsy DeVos, who will do her best to divert money from the public schools to charter, private, and even virtual schools.  If you think we teachers were unfairly treated before by the likes of Arnie Duncan and John King?  When the new Secretary of Education finds that none of her policies will work who will she and her allies blame?  The teachers and their unions of course.

The UFT Leadership Is Once Again Secretly Negotiating With The DOE Without ATR Participation.

Here we go again.  Our disconnected union leadership ia apparently secretly negotiating with the DOE on changes to the ATR pool without reaching out to those affected, This time with Randy Asher and his staff at the DOE,  Of course, the negotiations are top secret and there has been no leaks coming out of the DOE or UFT about what's on the table.  However, every time the UFT leadership negotiates with the DOE, the ATRs end up with the short end of the stick.  Let's see how our disconnected union leadership has hurt the ATRs since 2005.

First, it was the terrible 2005 contract that our union agreed to let the DOE eliminate seniority transfers and bumping, which then resulted in the ATR pool., that started the ATR crisis.

Second, this was soon followed up later in the year by the school-based "Fair Student Funding" that penalized schools financially that hired veteran teachers and also allowed schools to offload teachers from their budget after 60 days if they filed 3020-a charges, no matter how frivolous the charges are.  The result was a massive influx of reassigned veteran teachers that reached 800 by 2007 Moreover, the UFT allowed the DOE to assign all teachers who won their 3020-a hearing or took a deal to be dumped into the ATR pool.  Even an arbitrator award of "a letter to the file" resulted in the teacher losing their position in the school.

Third, It was the UFT Vice President, Michael Mandel who brought up the idea of rotating ATRs from school to school and the DOE jumped at the suggestion and in 2011 the DOE and UFT implemented the ATR rotation that made ATRs "a stranger in a strange land".  Did Michael Mandel or Leo Casey, the two members of the joint DOE/UFT ATR committee ever talk to the ATRs?  Of course not.  Thankfully Michael Mandel retired and Leo Casey is now with theAFT and both cannot do anymore harm to the ATRs.

Fourth, our great negotiator, UFT President Michael Mulgrew negotiated his first contract that don't make members whole until 2020 and allowed the DOE to make ATRs "second class citizens" with reduced "due process" rights and made ATRs who won their 3020-a termination hearings "untouchables".  Even after the UFT wisely allowed the 2014 contract provisions to sunset in 2016, the DOE still has two lists of ATRs.  One list is for ATRs who were simply excessed from their school and the other who survived their 3020-a hearing. Guess which list the DOE refuses to hire from?

Presently, I have little faith in our disconnected union leadership making our life better.  They will stick to their "no time limit" for ATRs but beyond that, look for the union to agree to make our lives more difficult and lie to us that we have your back.  More like being stabbed in the back as the DOE tries different ways to fire us.  Why else will the union not reach out to the ATRs and have a representative or two to be involved in these delicate negotiations.  To me the answer is obvious. They secretly wouldn't mind seeing us fired by any means possible.