The Absent Teacher Reserve. The Unwanted Orphans When It Comes To Representation.

Back in 2005, with the implementation of the terrible contract our union leadership negotiated with the City.  One of the many "givebacks" that our union surrendered to the City was the right to bump untenured teachers out of their position if you were excessed from your school.  Moreover, the salaries of staff were in units and did not affect the school's budget, no matter how much a teacher made.  However, after the implementation of the 2005 contract, thew union allowed the DOE to change their teacher funding mechanism and the unit method was replaced with actual salaries.  The result was the "fair student funding" that encouraged principals to hire the "cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools as their ever tightening budget made it painful to hire an experienced teacher.  The result, was a pool of excessed teachers called the Absent teacher  Reserve or known as the ATR.

The ATR pool consists of between 2,600 to 1,000 ATRs annually.  Some are covering for leave replacements, others are in provisional vacancies for the rest of the year, while a good 50% are rotating from school to school during the school year.  While the former two groups are not considered ATRs by the DOE and UFT in their statistics to the media, they are ATRs and they know it since they have a snowball's chance in hell of being appointed and have their salary on the school's budget.  The average age of ATRs are in their 50's, have over 15 years of experience, and make $87,000 annually.

The Union leadership will claim that the ATRs are temporary status employees and don't need their own chapter.  However, since when is temporary when some ATRs have been in the pool for almost a decade?  How can the ATR be adequately represented by the Chapter Leader of the school that they are rotated into?  The ATRs rarely meet the Chapter Leader and in my time I rotated, I met less than 25% of the Chapter Leaders and few ever bothered to introduce themselves to me.  Not only are ATRs being treated as "second class citizens" by the DOE but are regarded as unwanted orphans by the union leadership.  ATR's need to be represented by having their own chapter to advocate for them since our disconnected union leadership has done a poor job in protecting the ATR by allowing the DOE to impose different rules for the ATRs, like missing two mandated interviews will result in termination, lack of mutual consent, the vaguely defined "problematic behavior" clause, and the expedited 3020-a hearing.

The bottom line, I want a Chapter Leader to represent the ATRs not rely on the school's Chapter Leader who does not know you or what's it like to be an ATR.

You Get What You Pay For.

I have always claimed that the NYCDOE does not put "children first" but actually they don't care about the students or as I call it their "children last" policy.   Despite the disappointing Chancellor's claim that she wants the best for the students of the City, her actions demonstrate that its still all about the DOE's budget priorities and not what's best for the students.

The prime evidence of the DOE's "children last" policy is their continuation of the "fair student funding" that penalizes schools for hiring highly experienced teachers.  Last year due to retirements and the end of a hiring freeze that was always a joke to savvy principals who knew how to circumvent the restrictions or were secretly given exemptions, 6,000 vacancies had to be filled.  However, few of those vacancies went to experienced and tenured teachers, most hires were "newbies" with no track record and principals closed their collective eyes to the potential damage some of these teachers could and did to their students.  This situation was especially true in schools with "Leadership Academy Principals", many with little classroom experience and were afraid that a highly experienced teacher would question the dubious decisions by these administrators.  The result was that combined with the "fair student funding", encouraged principals to hire the "cheapest and not the best" teachers for their students.

A prime example of the DOE's short-sighted approach was the travesty that transpired at Hillside Arts And Letters Academy, one of the small schools that replaced Jamaica High School.  The Leadership Academy Principal who was the founding Principal of the school needed to hire an Earth Science teacher in their second year.  After going through a phoney interview process, he hired a "newbie teacher" who apparently had poor pedagogy, according to an ATR who was placed at the school.  This deficiency showed up in the school's snapshot where Science did poorly compared to the other tested subjects.

Worse, it turned out that this teacher was caught trying to arrange a meeting with a 14 year old girl who ended up to be a NYPD Detective and was arrested.  He subsequently pleaded guilty and gave up his teaching license and registered as a sex offender.  When the Earth Science teacher was removed in March of 2014 after being arrested, the Principal instead of bringing in one of the 5 excessed Earth Science teachers to finish the course, instead had a Living Environment teacher complete the year.  As a result, the Earth Science Regents passing percentage dropped drastically over an already poor outcome from the year before. In other words, the students suffered for the unwise decision making by the Principal both in his hiring and replacing the teacher.

I'm sure there are hundreds of similar horror stories in the NYCDOE's 'education on the cheap" policy.  Therefore when the Chancellor claims that she only wants the best for the students of NYC, just take a look at her actions and you see its all about the DOE's budget priorities and not what's best for the children.

Latest Opt Out Numbers For Math.

Previously, I listed the "opt out" numbers in the ELA test and as that number slowly approaches the 200,000 mark, preliminary results show that the Math "opt out" numbers are between 2%-10% higher in most school districts.  However, it appears the school districts are being pressured by the State not to publish the data and the Math "opt outs" are only slowly and reluctantly being released by the school districts.  As of Saturday, the latest "opt out" values are as follows:

ELA   193,067 with 76.2% reporting.
Math 150,367 with 44.0% reporting.

The website for the latest "opt outs" can be found Here.

The table below lists some of the highest "opt out" Math numbers for various Long Island school districts.

Comsewogue.........83.5%
Rocky Point...........80.9%
Sayville................74.6%
East Islip..............74.2%
South Country.......70.9%
East Quogue.........70.2%
Bellmore...............70.1%
Patchogue............69.5%
Rockville Center.....69.1%
Levittown.............67.6%
Seaford...............65.1%

Finally, here are some other "opt out" Math rates throughout the State.

West Seneca.........73%
Mohanasen...........61%
Lafayette........... .56%
North Rockland......53%
Mahopac..............52%

I hope to list a complete rundown of the "opt out" rates of the school districts in New York State next week.



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What The NYC KidsPAC Report Omitted.

With much fanfare and great hopes, the De Blasio Administration would make real change to the NYC public schools.  Even our UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, said so and he never lies!  Right?  However, very little has actually changed since Bloomberg left office.  The NYC KidsPAC report gave the Bill de Blasio Administration failing grades on many of the education issues facing New York City that the Bloomberg Administration created.

According to the organization Bill de Blasio and his disappointing Chancellor, Carmen Farina, gets an "F" for failing to reduce class sizes, despite promises to do so.  Moreover, they received a "F" for the lack of transparency on funding and contracts that was the hallmark of the Bloomberg years.  Finally, they get another "F" for their failure to allow for the segregation of too many schools in the City without a diversity plan to correct this.

The De Blasio Administration does little better when it comes to parent engagement, receiving a "D" for not providing enough parent outreach.  Further, the De Blasio Administration was given a "D" on how it handled busing and Special Education services.  Finally, their failure to adequately handle the co-location issue deserves another "D" rating.

What was left out of the report was the continuation of other Bloomberg policies that has not been corrected by the De Blasio Administration or his disappointing Chancellor, they are:

Fair Student Funding:  The continuation of fair student funding has resulted in principals selecting "the cheapest and not the best teachers" for their schools, while allowing teaching talent to waste away as glorified babysitters in the ATR pool at a cost of $150 million dollars annually.

Frozen School Budgets:  Despite the increase in the overall DOE budget, Chancellor Carmen Farina froze the school budgets at last year's levels which was 14% below the 2008 level for the schools.

Teachers Teaching A Sixth Class:  Too many schools, trying to meet their unrealistically tight budgets are requiring teachers to pick up a sixth class to save on teachers,  This is especially true in shortage areas where the DOE picks up the tab for the sixth class not the school.

There are other "education on the cheap" issues like Science and AP classes being shortened, teachers not certified to teach in their content specialty, resources like paper and school supplies not being sent to the classroom, and special education students not being given their mandated services.  All of these issues were omitted by the KidsPAC report but are still going on despite the demise of the Bloomberg Administration as the Mayor and his disappointing Chancellor has failed to make the changes necessary for our public schools to succeed.

Latest "Opt Out" Numbers Across The State.

The explosion of students who "opted out" will not have a final number until all the school districts comply with the FOIL and publish the data.  However, enough school districts have reported (72%) to get a clear picture how successful the student "opt out" movement has been.  So far, 185,000 students have "opted out", that's 17% of all students eligible to take the 3-8 grade tests.  On Long Island, approximately 43% of the students "opted out". Interestingly, the highest "opt out" rates were in solidly middle class school districts not the wealthy suburban school districts that the media would like one to believe.  This shows how the vast majority of middle class parents are concerned with the validly of the Common Core best high-stakes test on their child's well-being  To find your school's "opt out" numbers you can use this website.  Here are some of the more impressive "opt out" numbers I found.

1.  Comsewogue 82%
2. Rocky Point    77%
3. West Seneca  70%
4. Sayville         68%
5. Fairport         67%
6. Iroquois         65%
7. East Islip       63%
8. Onteora        61%
9. Lakeshore      58%
10. Mahupac       50%

There were many more school districts with over a 50% "opt out" rate but I couldn't list them all.  In one county, Chenongo students were punished for "opting out" by being forced to "sit and stare".  This policy was also employed by isolated schools in various counties  In addition, at least one Superintendent wrote letters to principals asking to identify teachers who actively supported the "opt out" movement for potential discipline.  Otherwise, most school districts stayed relatively neutral on the "opt out" issue, despite the potential financial consequences.

These numbers should increase as more students tend to "opt out" of the Math based test this week.

The Governor And NYSED Only Have ThemselvesTo Blame On the "Opt Out" Explosion.

It appears that approximately 200,000 students have "opted out" of the badly flawed high-stakes Common Core tests in English.  In Long Island almost 50% of the students "opted out".  While the numbers in New York City are small, only 2,500 so far "opted out", out of 400,000.  However, some schools had high rates of students "opting out".  For example the Earth School had 72% of their students "opting out".  

The Governor and the NYSED blamed the explosion of "opt outs" to the teacher unions, especially, the State umbrella organization, NYSUT.  While some of that might be true, the majority of parents decided to "opt out" their children because the tests did not realistically determine their academic growth and couldn't understand why the State placed such emphasis on a secret and questionable test that is simply "junk Science".  Moreover, parents talk to their child's teacher and even the highly effective teacher tells the parent that they spend the entire second semester on "test prep"  because their child's ability to do well on the test affects their teacher's evaluation.  Therefore, the children, rather than learning new and interesting  topics, is subjected to unrelenting "test prep" and just plain hate school.

Furthermore, the NYSED determines the cut scores and can manipulate them to meet their political goals.  If they want to show that 10% of the teachers should be rated "ineffective", than raise the cut scores to achieve that goal.  Since the formula used is top secret and the fudge factors used to account for social economic and school effects requires a super computer to determine and can't be independently verified, the SED can do as they please to manipulate the results.

Finally, the questions used are way too difficult and not relevant to real academic achievement.  Real educators have little or no input into the tests.  Instead the State allows a private company to develop and maintain the test without educators looking at and evaluating the imposed tests. Some of the questions are so difficult that educated adults have trouble answering them and we expect our 3-8 graders to pass the test?  Here are some examples.  Here. Here, and Here. In this year''s eighth grade test here are some vocabulry words used:

Vocabulary words from the 8th grade test this week:

8th grade:
Bowdlerized
Habituation techniques
Orthodoxy
Cognitive
Per se
Counterintuitive
Litigious society
'Assuage paradoxical parental anxieties'
'Far from the tax brackets of the south street seaport'
These are words & phrases from a test for 13 year olds.

The bottom line. The NYSED Common Core tests are worthless, punitive, don't show real academic growth, and actually takes away from real academic achievement. Everybody should "OPT OUT".

Michael Mulgrew's Fantasy World.

It is with little surprise that at last night's Executive Board meeting UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, defended the union's position not to take a stand against the basely flawed Common Core high-stakes testing.  That's right, our disconnected union leadership has defied the will of its members and supports the Common Core based State tests.  It seems to matter little that the vast majority of teachers oppose the "junk science" used to evaluate them and bring fear and loathing to the students. For its all about Michael Mulgrew's vision and not what's best for his members or the school children of the City.

Let's look at all the issues that Michael Mulgrew supports that's against the wishes of his teachers.

Support and funding for Al Sharpton's race baiting demonstrations at the expense of our fellow union members in the police department. Here.

Defending the high-stakes Common Core tests by claiming he will punch anyone in the face if they attack his Common Core.

Negotiated an inferior contract and threw the ATRs under the bus by making them second class citizens.

Refused to support Zepher Teachout by forcing the Working Family Party to support Cuomo for Governor.  How did that work out Mikey?

Hugged Carmen Farina and claimed there's a new tone at the DOE.  I guess we are all tone deaf since we don't hear it.

How can he declare victory when the reality is Governor Cuomo got almost all he asked for in the new budget.  Remember this?
 

Dear Teacher,

In a rebuke to the anti-public-school agenda of hedge-fund billionaires, the state Legislature tonight reached agreement on a new budget and a package of education proposals that will immediately increase aid to public schools, ensure that teacher evaluations do not hinge on state test scores and ensure local oversight of struggling schools.

Just two months ago, Gov. Cuomo proposed a series of education proposals that amounted to a declaration of war on public schools. His plan was to use the incredible leverage he holds in the state budget process to ram through his plan.  And now all of our hard work is paying dividends. The governor’s Draconian agenda has, in large part, been turned back. We want to thank the Assembly and the Senate for standing up for our schools and school communities.

Finally, he not only refused to support the "opt out" movement but defined the badly flawed high-stakes Common Core tests. by saying the following at the executive board meeting when it was brought up.
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At last night’s Executive Board Regina Gori (New Action), Chapter Leader of the Brooklyn New School (with a 90% opt out rate) asked how the union was planning to help teachers of conscience who did not administer state tests. The response was sharp.

1. Refusing a direct instruction from your supervisor is insubordinate
2. If we test less than 95% of our students, we could lose Title 1, Title 2, and Title 3 funding, which would cost jobs.
3. Our allies in the Civil Rights Movement want annual testing. It has helped us learn where the system has problems.

Yes, it seems that Michael Mulgrew is more interested in protecting his friend's political interests than his teachers and the public school students.  I really would like to know what drugs Michael Mulgrew is on since his views are warped and his perception does not reflect the reality of the situation.  In other words, I believe he is living in a fantasy world of his own making.

Teacher Discontinuances Increase Under Mayor De Blasio And Chancellor Farina. So Much For A New Tone At The DOE.

Thanks to Francesco Portelos's FOIL request, we now find out that an astonishing 186 untenured teachers were discontinued in just a four month period between July 1 to October 31 of 2014.  This figure does not include teachers who decided to resign rather than continue teaching in the NYC Public Schools.  While there are no comparable numbers available under the Bloomberg administration, it's hard to believe that the magnitude of the discontinuance numbers in the four month period under De Blasio and Farina are greater than under the Bloomberg administration but it appears that's the case.

At the beginning of the De Blasio administration, teachers hoped for a new philosophy that would support teachers, treat them as the professionals they are, and with the respect that they deserved.  Moreover, there was real hope that the destructive Bloomberg policies that hurt students and starved the schools of necessary resources would end.  In fact, UFT President Michael Mulgrew hugged the new Chancellor, Carmen Farina, and claimed that there is a new tone at the DOE.  Instead, not only did we see the continuation of the destructive Bloomberg policies of "fair student funding" and the ATR crisis but the inadequate school budgets were frozen at Bloomberg levels and class sizes were not reduced as was promised by the Mayor.

Chancellor Carmen Farina has proven to be inept and is as much anti-teacher as her hated predecessors under the Bloomberg administration.  In fact, she has retained many of the Bloomberg appointed administrators at the DOE in vital policy making positions and this is reflected in the obscene amount of paperwork and data mining that is required of the classroom teachers.  Moreover, there has been no letup of tenured teachers facing 3020-a disciplinary charges as the overstaffed Office of Legal Services needs fresh meat to prosecute to keep them busy. Finally, her disdain for veteran teachers showed when she was Principal of her school, where 80% were forced out of the school during her tenure and her statements to "newbie teachers"to beware of the teachers cafeteria and the gripping veteran teachers.

The new tone claimed by UFT President Michael Mulgrew is simply an illusion when it comes to the classroom teacher.

The NYSED Is Running Scared With Threats If Parents "Opt Out" Their Children From The State Tests.

Reading the newspapers, the statements coming out of the Cuomo Administration , the NYSED, and Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch, its obvious their running scared about the percentage of children who will "opt out" of the badly flawed high-stakes tests next week. 

First the NYSED has informed rebellious school districts and boards that they may suffer financial consequences if they encourage their parents to "opt out" of the State tests.  Moreover, they threatened to fire school board members if they encourage the "opt out" movement. The letter sent to the President of the Kenmore-Tonawanda School Board is Here.

Second, Regents Chancellor Meryl Tisch told the media that parents are doing a disservice to their children by "opting out" and harm their educational ability.  Further, she claimed that if enough children did not take the test, it could result in federal sanctions and reduced funding, Here.

Third, the Governor's administration in the form of the Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Huchi claimed that parents are doing a disservice to their children by "opting out".

Finally, in today's Newsday, three education deformer groups who support the Governor's agenda  wrote a piece supporting the badly flawed high-stakes tests and criticized the "opt out" movement. Here.  Also the Buffalo News had an editorial that also slammed the "opt our" movement.

Why are they running scared?   Here's why!  That's right, in one school district an astounding 56% of the students are "opting out"!  Many schools in New York City will experience significant "opt out" rates and in some elementary schools the majority of students will "opt out".


This is only the beginning of the push back on the punitive education agenda that punishes teachers and ends up hurting the students of the State.

The Governor's Blame Game.

Its very interesting how Governor Cuomo has blamed teachers for his punitive education agenda that will hasten teacher retirements, bring about a teacher shortage, and hurt struggling schools in districts in high poverty communities who cannot attract or retain quality teachers due to the fear of the new teacher evaluation system.  Some bloggers like DOENUTS believe that the Governor overreached and when the general public realize that the new requirements not only hurt teacher quality but resulted in disappointing student academic outcomes, the blowback on the Governor will be intense.  His reputation and poll numbers will suffer and his Presidential ambition will be a pipe dream. While I agree with that assessment, the problem is until the Governor's education agenda blows up in his face, the collateral damage done to the teaching profession and to the students will be devastating.

Already, the Governor is spinning the reason he changed the teacher evaluation system to make it more punitive by claiming that educators conspired to manipulate the present teacher evaluation system so that very few teachers could be ratted "ineffective".  In other words,  he was more interested in how many teachers he could terminate than the students he professed to care about. The new teacher evaluation system was opposed by Superintendents, school board members, principals, teachers and parents yet the Governor and his education deformer buddies didn't care.  To them its about how to terminate as many teachers as possible and not what's best for the students.

The Governor claimed that he could not understand how only 1% of the teachers in the State can be considered "ineffective" while only 30% of the students met the State testing standards.  This flawed comparison placed the blame on the student academic outcomes squarely on the teachers, despite studies that showed that the teacher has little effect on the student's academic ability.  Its like a person who has stage three or four cancer who finally shows up for treatment and the doctor who is newly assigned to the patent is rated on how many of these late stage cancer patients he or she can save.

The Governor does what all education deformers do, that is to ignore the effects of poverty, family, inequality, and community, that contributes to over 80% of a student's academic development. Add that to the lack of accountability by politicians who starve the schools of resources, and cause large class sizes and you have a recipe for poor academic outcomes.  Better to blame the teachers than to tackle the social-economic factors that are primarily responsible for a student's academic ability.  That and the failure of politicians to be held accountable for approving badly flawed high-stakes tests, and using "junk Science" in calculating the VAM that have resulted in the poor student outcomes.

In the Governor's blame game, its easier to blame the teachers than to admit that the problem lies beyond a school's ability to control.

How Changes To NYSED Part 83 Regulations Treats A Teacher Like A Convicted Criminal On Probation.

One of the many changes in the punitive teacher evaluation system are the changes to the New York State Education Department Part 83 Regulations on an educator's "Moral Character".   Presently, if the State finds that the educator was terminated in a 3020-a hearing for misconduct, resigned under charges of misconduct, or found guilty criminally, it triggers a Part 83 review that usually results in the educator being stripped of their teaching license.  Now it seems under the new and punitive teacher evaluation system the educator will be treated like a convicted criminal who is on probation with the inclusion of this paragraph in the budget.


Certificate holders shall notify the department of any change of name or mailing address within thirty days of such change. Willful failure to register or provide such notice within one hundred eighty days of such change may constitute grounds for moral character review under subdivision seven of section three hundred five of this chapter. 


That's right, if an educator moves his or her residence, or changes their name and fails to inform the NYSED, the educator can be brought up on charges of misconduct and lose their license!  Unbelievable, but apparently true.

Imagine, as a women, you get married and change your last name to your husband's and fail to tell the State, this can trigger the "Moral Character" clause.  Moreover, you frequently change your address as you move from place to place and fail to notify the State.  That also can trigger a "Moral Character" review.  To my knowledge only convicted criminals who are released on probation are subject to this notification requirement.

This is yet another example of the punitive nature of the teacher evaluation system as it makes educators subject to rules that no other State employee is subject to and the notification requirement is similar to criminals who were released from jail and are on probation.

While our UFT President, Michael Mulgrew, claims victory, the reality is quite different and this punitive teacher evaluation system will result in producing a teacher shortage and hurt the "high needs" student population as they will never have "quality teachers" willing to put their career in jeopardy working with this student population.

Four Step Bucket Approach For Teacher Retirement.

We educators have a very nice retirement package, assuming we can last long enough to be vested and accumulate enough years to reach at least twenty.  We get a pension that covers approximately 40% (20 years) to 60% (30 years) of our final three year average salary.  Moreover, you can retire with a full pension at age 62 (63 for Tier VI).  Since Social Security is available at age 62, the retired educator, on a full pension, can have a guaranteed monthly income of 75% of their working salary.  Considering you no longer pay Social Security and Medicare taxes (9%) and the cost of commuting and other work related expenses, the retiree will end up with a cost of living similar to their working years.

Lucky for us, the NYC educator has a 403b plan called the TDA that allows us to put away up to $24,000 a year, tax deferred, and the guaranteed fixed interest rate is 7% for UFT members and 8.25% for other educators.  While the educator can decide to put the TDA in equities or bonds, the educators nearing retirement or already retired might want to put 100% in the fixed fund since it gives us a 5% increase over the present day inflation rate of 2%.  Moreover, the TDA is not subject to State or Local taxes on the first $20,000 (thanks Norm) if your primary residence is in New York State.

Therefore, for educators approaching retirement, here is my four step bucket approach that I intend to use when I retire.

Bucket 1:   Pension and Social Security.  Stable Monthly Income.
Bucket 2:  TDA.  7% Interest. Stable Monthly Income.
Bucket 3: Interest & Dividends:  Quarterly/Annual Income
Bucket 4: Equity Appreciation. Variable/Annual Income

For educators its extremely important to have a stock/mutual fund since inflation will slowly eat away at the pension and TDA.  The equity appreciation component is necessary to combat the eroding effects of inflation.   True, in bad years, there will be no equity appreciation and therefore, no bucket four.  However, over the long-term, equities are the only instrument that can overcome the erosion of principal due to inflation.

While Social Security is inflation indexed, it will only account for 25% of a retired educator's income.  Moreover, the pension has an inadequate cost of living adjustment that is only half the inflation rate which ranges from 1% to 3% and only for the first $18,000 of a retiree's pension.  Further, you must wait five years after you retire before the COLA actually kicks in. Therefore, its important for the educator to have a significant portion of their retirement funds in equities.

This advise is not for everyone but its what I intend to follow for my retirement years.

The Atlanta Cheating Scandal And The NYS Teacher Evaluation System. What The Future Holds.

Rather than continue with the analysis of the demoralizing teacher evaluation system which has been thoroughly covered by Perdido Street School , ICEUFT Blog, nyc educator, and Ed Notes Online, this post will concentrated on the consequences to the future of teaching and learning in the New York State and City schools. 

This week eleven educators, administrators, principals, and teachers were found guilty of "cheating" and were immediately sent to jail as they were convicted of "racketeering" and face long prison terms of up to twenty years.  The cheating scandal resulted from the City of Atlanta who decided that high-stakes test scores should be the basis of a school's success or failure as well as teacher tenure decisions.  The result was increased pressure on schools to show that their schools were successful, that meant test preparation was emphasized over actual learning and the joy of teaching and student learning was replaced by the threat of dismissal for not meeting the expectations for the teacher and hating going to school for the student.  When the students still struggled to do well on these high-stakes tests, many educators either condoned or were complicit in changing student scores. Overall, 180 employees, including Dr. Hall, the head of the Atlanta school district, were charged and 44 schools had cheating allegations tied to their test scores.  Most took a plea deal and are no longer in the education field as they lost their teaching license.

This brings me to the new teacher evaluation system that will hasten the exodus of experienced teachers from the already struggling schools and will see teachers refusing to work with a "high needs" student population for fear of being labeled "ineffective".  Combine that with fewer college students going into education, especially in the classroom, and Board of Regents  Chancellor Meryl Tisch's suggestion that a school district's graduation and/or college readiness rate be tied to the more punitive part of the teacher evaluation system, struggling schools will be left with two choices.  Either they put increased pressure on the teachers to pass the students along deservingly or not, or "cheat" by changing student answers or encouraging them to select the correct choice while taking the test.  Regardless, the potential for educational abuses is high and I suspect will commonly occur.

The bottom line is that no experienced teacher, no matter how much extra money is offered, will willingly take a position in a struggling school with a "high needs" population, knowing full well that they can be terminated due to their student population and the badly flawed Common Core high-stakes tests and not based on their teaching ability.  For the rest?  The potential to cheat to save their job will be real and thanks to the new teacher evaluation system I can see the Atlanta cheating scandal repeated in the City and the State.

Mulgrew Declares Victory As Governor Cuomo Gets His Way. - Teachers Are The Real Losers.

It appears that Governor Andrew Cuomo won big time in the budget as he gets many of the things he wanted in the teacher evaluation system. Not surprisingly, UFT Michael Mulgrew claimed victory for increased school aid and a delay in other issues in the Governor's education agenda.  However, the teachers are the real losers.  I guess for our disconnected UFT leadership its like Hamas claiming victory after the Israeli-Gaza conflict because they were left standing despite the devastation around them.  Let's see what we lost under the proposed teacher evaluation system.

 First, The Governor gets an additional year tacked on to a teacher's tenure, to four years.  Moreover, in three of the four years, the teacher must be either "effective" or "highly effective" to be awarded tenure. 

Second, the State will decide when a failing school closes down, not the City or school district.

Third, the State and not the school district will decide on the new teacher evaluation system, meaning that the high-stakes testing will be half of a teacher evaluation and an "ineffective" on this portion will automatically make the teacher either "ineffective" or "developing"..

Fourth, two consecutive "ineffective ratings" results in automatic disciplinary charges and three "ineffective rating" results in automatic termination.

Fifth, independent observers will be employed for part of a teacher's observation at cost to the school district.  See how well this has worked for the ATRs?

Sixth, No union approval is necessary for implementing the new teacher evaluation system.  It can and will be imposed on the teachers unions by the State.

Finally, all other unresolved issues will be given to the NYSED to develop a plan to implement them.  Yes, the very same NYSED who will be subject to intense pressure from the Governor to follow his education agenda.

Already, there is a looming teacher shortage, as few college students are going into education and fewer yet into the classroom.  Good luck getting good teachers for the New York City Public Schools as the higher paying suburbs, with better working conditions, and academically accomplished students will out compete the City for the dwindling supply of these "quality teachers".  Of course, as UFT Michael Mulgrew continues to proclaims victory, the demoralization of the teaching profession just gets worse.  Clueless politicians will continue to blame the teachers for student academic failure as the City struggles and fails to attract the necessary teaching talent necessary to raise student academic achievement.

The bottom line, is that accountability is for teachers and not the NYSED or the Governor.

The Danger For Teachers In Governor Cuomo's Education Agenda.

The hedge fund financed and supported Governor has proposed an education agenda that comes straight out of the corporate deformer playbook that intends to destroy the unions and make the classroom teacher a temporary occupation. Of course, the ultimate goal is to make teaching a temporary profession with no pension and retiree health benefits and making "due process" a joke.  Now that the recession is receding, the ranks of teachers are thinning with fewer and fewer candidates going into teaching and the boomer teachers retiring in droves due to the continued demonetization of the profession, you would think the Governor would want to attract highly skilled applicants to teach in New York State. However, that's not the case and this has not stopped the Governor in attacking teachers and trying to remove as many teachers as possible, despite the looming teacher shortage.

The Perdido Street blog published the 22 point breakdown of the Governor's education agenda and 11 of them are downright dangerous to teachers and their students, I hope to explain why.

• Adjust the APPR sub-components to be 50 points on state tests and 50 points on Other Measures.

Can you image that 50% of a teacher's evaluation is based upon a high-stakes test that's subject to manipulation by the State (cut scores and bands), "junk science", and a VAM that has proven to be beyond the ability of a teacher to control?  What teacher in their right mind would want to teach in a high needs school or with high needs students, even for an extra $20,000, if it means a loss of their job two years later? As for his merit pay proposal?  It has never shown to work anywhere, why should it be any different here?

• Thirty-five points of Other Measures will be determined by independent evaluators.

Who pays for these independent evaluators?  Yes, you guessed it, the schools and not the State.  Moreover, these independent evaluators will be under pressure to find a significant number of teachers to be "ineffective" to keep their job.

• Have the state set the scoring bands for both student growth and observations.

To ensure that the Governor gets his 5% to 10% ineffective ratings, the SED can adjusted it to meet that criteria and not on the academics. Believe me, that's exactly what will happen as SED will manipulate it to fit the political narrative.

• If a teacher is rated ineffective in either portion, then the total score cannot be effective or highly effective.

This requirement will ensure the Governor gets his share of his "ineffective ratings" as well as greatly reducing the amount of teachers who achieve tenure.

•  Tenure granted when a teacher achieves five consecutive years of effective or highly effective ratings.

If any one year the untenured teacher gets a "developing" or "ineffective", the teacher will not get  tenure.   This will ensure that many teachers leave the system without any pension or retiree benefits. This will go a long way for the corporate deformer goal of making teaching a temporary profession.

•  Expedited hearings (maximum time of 60 days) extended to cases of accused physical or sexual abuse of a child. Teacher’s charged with abuse will be suspended without pay pending the outcome of the hearing. If a teacher is convicted of a violent felony against a child, he/she will automatically have his/her certification revoked.

That's right a mere accusation of corporal punishment or sexual misconduct will remove the educator from salary and benefits until their 3020-a hearing is concluded.  For many, that could mean up to two years without an income until the actual decision is published, even if found not guilty of the charges.

• If a teacher receives two ineffective ratings in a row, the teacher would only be able to rebut this strong indication of incompetence by “clear and convincing evidence” that the calculation of one of the ratings was fraudulent.

Good luck winning here since the teacher would have to prove fraud and show evidence of the fraud. The teacher is as good as being terminated if this requirement is imposed.

• Eliminate the legal requirement that districts must attempt to “rehabilitate” teachers who are incompetent or engage in misconduct.

In other words, there will be no "plan of assistance" and the school administration does not need to provide assistance to the teacher and show that the teacher could not be rehabilitated. Moreover, the 3020-a arbitrator does not need to take into account whether the educator can be rehabilitated in their decision as they do now.

• Remove the requirement that children must testify in person. Allow them to testify via sworn written or video statements.

Dangerous, very dangerous.  A teacher has a right to face their accuser and  a trained arbitrator likes to see the body language of each and every witness.  Furthermore, how can a witness be cross examined if they're not there?  Great potential for abuse and unfair to the educator in a 3020-a hearing.

• When a school is determined to be failing for three years, a non-profit, another school district, or a turnaround expert must take over the school. This is similar to the Massachusetts Model. New York has 178 “priority schools".

 This will allow the new operators to excess the staff and add significantly to the ATR pool in New York City.

• Raise the charter school cap from 460 to 560 and make it statewide not restricted by region. New York City only has 24 charter applications remaining under its cap;

No way should the charter cap be raised and no increase in New York City.  We need the money to go to the traditional public schools and not siphoned off to the charter sector. Furthermore, the proposed increase of charter funds by $75 per student that will come from the overall education budget and take away much needed funding to the traditional public schools. It's a "rob Peter to pay Paul" policy.

• Pass the $100 million Education Tax Credit for public and private scholarships to promote choice in education.

This is a backhanded way to subsidize the private and parochial schools, which will take students and funding away from the public school systems.

To try to ensure the Governor gets his way, he has dangled an extra $1.1 billion dollars or 4.8% to the school districts.  Of course, he owns the very same school districts $7 billion dollars.

Join The Demonstration Against Governor Cuomo Tomorrow.

Tomorrow there will be demonstrations throughout the State against the Governor's education agenda.  The biggest one will be held in front of the Governor's Office at 633 3rd avenue at 41st.  To join the demonstration, enter at 3rd avenue and 36th street at noon.  While I have my differences with my union leadership, I will close ranks when it comes from outside corporate deformers and hedge fund managers who are funding the Governor and in return, his education agenda is simply an attack on teachers.

The Governor has claimed he is a "student lobbyist".  However, he has withheld $7 billion dollars to the City and State schools, despite a State surplus and is trying to blackmail the State legislature by holding increased school funding to his corporate deformer education agenda.  Unfortunately, for the Governor, his demonetization of teachers and withholding of billions of dollars to schools have backfired.  His poll rating are dropping like a rock with only 28% of the general public supporting his education agenda.  For public school parents its 21%.  Worse for the Governor, when it came to who the general public supports, they support the teachers unions by 55% to 28% when it comes to education.   Both the Democratic controlled Assembly and the Republican controlled Senate have balked at including the Governor's agenda in the budget.

The planned demonstrations should further deteriorate Cuomo's popularity and if followed up with hard hitting television ads, will eventually force the Governor to abandon his quest for higher office and look for other issues to champion rather than butt heads with real educators and the students who trust them.

Chancellor Carmen Farina Continues Her Attacks On Teachers.

When our union leadership was telling the media that they now had a friend ruining the DOE in Carmen Farina and life would become easier for teachers.  However, I was highly skeptical.  Yes the very same leadership, who's President threatened to punch you in the face if you dare oppose Common Core, and is strangely silent on the "opt out" movement that many teacher support, except for the E4E fifth columnists.

 At first, the disappointing Chancellor committed to reducing the obnoxious paperwork requirements, to bring a different tone to the DOE, and eliminate the antagonism at Tweed to the teaching staff.  However, fourteen months into her tenure as Chancellor, nothing has changed for the classroom teacher.  Most of the Bloomberg 300 are still in policy making positions at Tweed, the double standard between disciplining principals and teachers continue, her school budgets and class sizes remain frozen when compared to the Bloomberg third term, and her comments about teachers would make Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg proud.

Just yesterday she told the press that she approves having administrators harass teachers by observing them many times until the targeted teacher resigns or retires.  Her words were, according to Charkbeat are below:


She said the principal must weed out unmotivated or unsatisfactory teachers by documenting their performance problems and advising them to look for jobs elsewhere. After they stopped by the classroom of a teacher whom Hernandez said she had concerns about, Fariña told her to observe the teacher “many, many more times a day.”

After the tour, Fariña explained that principals can use such methods to convince teachers who are not a good fit for a school to leave.

This is not the first time she went after teachers.  Remember what she said to the newly hired teachers not to hang out in the teachers room and listen to the disgruntled veteran teachers.  You can find it Here.  Finally, her insistence in making ATRs second class citizens in the contract proves her dislike for the "due process rights" for teachers.

To me Carmen Farina is no different than the other three Chancellors who blamed teachers for every ill of the school system and refuse to hold themselves accountable for their poor decisions that hurts the students. Too bad our disconnected leadership prefers to ignore the damage Chancellor Carmen Farina is doing to the members but then again its politics over what's best for the classroom.

To The Daily News. It's The DOE's Education On The Cheap Policy That Causes Student Failure.

The New York Daily News ran a series about the New York City schools that was biased and supported Governor Cuomo's badly flawed education agenda.  However, in one of their articles, they did touch on a subject that they, and other media outlets have deliberately ignored in the past. That is the influx of "newbie teachers" and the use of teachers forced to teach in subjects they're are not certified in.  Maspeth High School had an astounding 88% of their teachers who had less than three years of experience while Banana Kelly had 69% of their teaching staff with less than three years of experience.

The Daily News article reported that there were 21 NYC schools that had over 50% of their teaching staff with less than three years of experience and are probably nontenured as well.  Worse yet, are the amount of classes being taught by teachers who are not qualified to teach the subject.  According to the Daily News and my own experience in traveling in the Queens high schools, this is a common problem and the more pervasive the practice, the lower the school's academic achievement ends up to be.  Even the DOE admitted to the Daily News that many schools use their Living Environment teachers (Biology) to teach Earth Science (Physical Science) and the results are uniformly disappointing with the majority of these students who have these uncertified teachers, failing the Earth Science Regents. Remember my article on Excelsior Prepatory High School where the school decided to not give the over 100 students the Earth Science Regents rather than hire an Earth Science teacher?  How's that putting children first?

The question is why does the DOE and the UFT allow our NYC Public School students to be exposed to uncertified teachers instructing in subject areas that they have no business teaching in?  The answer its the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy.  That's right, if you think its about what's best for the students, than you probably believe in the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, and yes, Santa Claus.  The truth is that the DOE imposed a destructive budgeting practice on the schools that's called "fair student funding" that forces principals to hire the "cheapest and not the best teachers" for their school.  Add that to the 14% budget cut since 2008 and the rise of the "Leadership Academy Principals", with little actual classroom  experience and you have a receipt for educational disaster.  I have written about this travesty previously and it can be found Here.  Finally, many schools try to save money by assigning phantom teachers to courses and force the unfortunate students to take an online or blended learning course.  Remember this?  Or in today's New York Post.

Its too bad the Daily News didn't bother to dig deeper into this issue but then they would have found out the real truth that its what's best for a school's budget than what's best for the students in the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy and that would bring into question the validity of the Governor's education agenda and their "blaming the teachers theme" for the school system's many problems.

Putting Lipstick On The Pig Doesn't Solve The ATR Crisis.

The De Blasio/Farina administration claims their policy has been successful in reducing the ATR pool by encouraging these teachers to leave the system as a gentler approach to solving the ATR crisis. Unfortunately, if you break down the numbers it still looks like the same old punitive Bloomberg/Klein policy that is costing the DOE over a hundred million dollars just to satisfy their ideological goals.  Putting lipstick on a pig does not make it more appealing. The DOE released updated information on the amount of ATRs who are still rotating and how many left the system, as of February of this year.  According to the publication Chalkbest, it broke down as follows:

• There are 1,000 ATRs still rotating as of February of 2015.
• 289 ATRs left the system since April of 2014.
• 100 of the 289 ATRs left due to retirement. 
• 97 took the ATR buyout (most were retiring anyway).
• 53 ATRs resigned under disciplinary charges.
• 19 ATRs were terminated due to missing interviews (10) or time and attendance issues (9).
• 18 ATRs simply resigned.
• 2 ATRs were discontinued.

To date, no ATRs have been brought up on 3020-a charges, using the expedited disciplinary process after being accused of "unprofessional conduct", whatever that means.

What's left unsaid by the obviously biased Chalkbeat article is that the majority of ATR teachers who found a long-term placement or leave replacement (estimated to be about 1,400) in the schools are not appointed but are simply placeholders for principals to hire cheaper "newbie teachers" during the summer when the DOE allows unlimited hiring.  Few ATRs are offered permanent positions and if the ATR has ten or more years of experience and makes $75,000 a year or more, the chances of being permanently hired are slim and none.  Until the DOE changes how the schools are funded, the ATR issue will continue to exist and over 100 million dollars a year will be wasted on a failed ideology rather than use the money for the classroom for more resources, reduce class size, and hire qualified and certified teachers to truly help the students. Of course if you only talk to the education reformers like StudentsFirst or E4E, of course you will insinuate that the ATRs are "subpar" or "ineffective". Better to ignore the issues and slant it to make it seem that the ATRs are the problem and not the failed ideology that has resulted in the waste of talent and money at the expense of the students.

The Scholarship Requirement Artificially Raises The Graduation Rate And Cheapens The Diploma Of NYC High School Graduates.

Over the Bloomberg/Klein years the high school graduation rate jumped significantly and of course the Mayor and Chancellor claimed their education policy was a success.  In fact, the Chancellor proudly stated that "a zip code was no excuse for failure" as the dumbed down State tests narrowed the racial achievement gap.  However, it all collapsed in 2010 when it became obvious that many students were getting free credits through a bogus "credit recovery system" and Principal pressure to obtain a high letter grade for their school and receive a bonus as well.  Moreover, the State re-cut the State test to more realistic levels and the racial achievement gap actually widened!

Under State pressure the "credit recovery system" was strengthened to include more meaningful work and a stringent requirement for eligibility, the easy credits became harder to justify and principals needed to find another way to maintain their graduation rate.  The answer was a scholarship requirement.  In many schools administrators tell their teachers they want a minimum of 80% of a teacher/s students to pass their class.  Otherwise, the administrator will threaten to give the teacher a low grade on the observations and if not tenured, result in a discontinuance of employment,  This scholarship requirement usually included student "no-shows", meaning that if a student shows up most of the time, the teacher is pressured to pass the student to meet the scholarship demand. I experienced this first hand during the 2011-12 school year at Flushing High School where your effectiveness was based upon your student passing rate.  In my travels to the various high schools many teachers told me about the pressure their under to meet the scholarship requirements.  Its a rare teacher that refuses to abide by the administrator demands to pass undeserving students just to meet the scholarship requirements of the school. In one school at Campus Magnet, the Principal allegedly demands a 90% scholarship and this school is known for giving one third of the teachers an unsatisfactory or ineffective rating.  The result is that the students run the school with little fear of failing.

I feel sorry for the students who work hard and achieve good grades who must be frustrated that their poor performing classmates are allowed to pass their classes without bothering to open a book or do any work, except to show up,  Is it any wonder that a New York City High School diploma is greeted with great skepticism by colleges?