The Education Reform Organizations Are Losing Control Of Our Education System

Since the beginning of the new millennium, the education reform organizations nave been chasing the holy grail that would eliminate the student academic achievement gap,  The education reformers  came up with many ideas on how to eliminate the student achievement gap.  At first they proposed smaller class sizes, more resources, and quality teachers, even if that meant paying them more.   However, these ideas failed to significantly narrow the student academic achievement gap.  Therefore, the education deformer started to blame the public school system, especially the unionized teachers for the student academic achievement gap.

The education deformer organizations were led by the likes of Bill Gates, Eli Board, and Sam Walton who bribed pseudo-educators like Michelle Rhee, Joel Klein, and  Arnie Duncan to implement programs that put the blame on teachers when they failed

For example the Obama-Duncan Race to the Top program forced States to implement a teacher evaluation  system that linked student growth to teacher effectiveness.  It hardly mattered that  a study by the American Statistical Society showed that any one teacher had only between 1% to 14% impact on their student's growth,  Many states used a percentage of between 40% and 50%,  In fact, the student growth formula used was "junk Science" and in New York State a court found it to be true.

As the education deformer organizations could not close the student academic achievement gap, they proposed merit pay, elimination of tenure, limited collective bargaining rights, and the right to fire "ineffective" teachers.by weakening their due process rights.  Instead of being allies to the public school system the education deformer groups became the enemy by supporting and funding charter schools, online schools, as well as private and parochial schools.  They supported the school choice program that allowed any child to get a voucher and apply to any school.

The heyday of the education deformer movement was betweent 2006-15, when Arnie Duncan headed the Federal Department of Education and most States had education deformers  in charge of the State education systems.  Because President Barack Obama supported the education deformer education policy and the States desperately needed the Race to the top funds during the great recession, quite a few states implemented an education reform agenda,  The result was vastly disappointing.  The student academic achievement gap was as wide as ever,  Moreover, the unrelenting attack on teachers throughout the nation made college graduates flee the profession and widespread teacher shortages are a  contining problem.nationwide resulted from the unrelenting attacks on teachers.

I believe the pendulum is starting to swing the other wayas the education deformer orgabnizations are slowlly losing power and teachers are  standing up for a livable wage.  Example West Virgina.

The day of the education deformer organizations controlling the public schools have come and passed and even more of these deformer organizations will dissappear as many of the educatin deformer groups have become anti-public education and care more about saving money then giving the child a good education,

DOE ContinuesTo Award Bogus High School Diplomas.

In the New York Post today there is an article on the New  York State Department of Education audit of the "credit recovery" courses used by Brooklyn's John Dewey High School.  These credit recovery courses were nicknamed by the students as "easy pass".

The NYSED audit, which took years to complete looked at the "credit recovery" courses from 2012 to 2015 and found the following:

• Students not eligible to take the credit recovery courses were allowed to, despite teacher complaints.
• Most credit recovery courses had  no actual teacher, just a packet.
•  77% of the credit recovery courses had no certified teacher,
• 75% of the students were wrongly awarded a diploma due to the bogus creit recovery courses.
• One rookie teacher was responsible for 52 credit recovery courses in one semester.

While the Principal was removed and the DOE went through the motion to fire her using the 3020-a process.  The DOE sabotaged its own case by not allowing  officials to appear at the hearing that would have showed the DOE rubber stamped the "easy pass" system.  The result the ex Principal, Kathleen ­Elvin, now has cushy $169,916 job as a supervisor in the DOE’s Office of Safety Youth Development.  You can read my article Here.

This is just another example how the DOE rather issue bogus high school diplomas rather than give the students the education they deserve.

The DOE Is Run By A Bunch Of Imbeciles - The Anna Poole Story Proves It.

I have always snickered at the DOE motto under Mayor Bloomberg it was "children first...Always!  When the truth is that the DOE does what's best for the DOE not for the children in the classroom.  The DOE gobbles up way to much of the money it receives from the City, State, and Federal governments while keeping schools at near recession era budgets by giving them only 88% to 90% of their fair funding. Many of the DOE departments are bloated, especially the Office of Legal Services and the Accountability group.  It's little wonder that teacher 3020-a hearings are as high as ever, as the DOE lawyers needs to justify their bloated budget.  While paperwork overloads teachers as the Accountability group needs it for their useless data mining operation.

Overall the DOE Central Bureaucracy absorbs an increasing amount of funds at the expense of the schools and the children in them.  Many of the DOE Bureaucrats are not the brightest bulbs when it comes to innovative programs to help schools best educate their students.  Moreover, they allowed class sizes to be highest in the State.  Finally, the DOE hires Superintendents based on who they know and not what they know.  Just take a look at two of them Amiee Horowitz and Juan Mendez.,

Not only is the DOE the enemy of the classroom teacher but are a bunch of imbeciles as well. Just take a look at the Anna Poole story.

Anna Poole was n untenured Science teacher who tried to do a Chemistry experiment that was considered dangerous and could result in injuries.  No experienced Science teacher would attempt this experiment without proper safeguards but Anna Poole did.   Beacon High School, rather than hire an experienced Chemistry teacher from the ATR pool chose an untenured rookie teacher to lead their students.  The result was disastrous as her inexperience resulted in an explosion that disfigured one student, burned another and gave a third student PTSD..

Was Anna Poole fired?  Nope!  She was instead promoted to become an instructional specialist at the DOE.  I guess on how to prepare laboratory experimenter that can explode and injure students.   Now she has been promoted to become DOE instructional Supervisor to help teachers prepare Science lessons, complete with a $25,000 raise!

Like I said the DOE is run by a bunch of imbeciles!

Why I Can't Support Black Lives Matter.

In a reaction to police injustice how young Black men were treated an organization was created called  "Black Lives Matter".  This group was a vocal advocate of treating the young black men with the same respect as all other people.  However, the Black Lives Matter group slowly morphed into a political organization and seemed to move away from their roots.  While the Black Lives Matter movement still had a focus on anti-police action when they could exploit incidents that show the police abusing their authority and rightly so.  The movement has also taken an ideological slant that is quite disturbing to me.

For example the Black Lives Matter movement supports the Boycott Disinvestment and Sanction (BDS) organization against Israel, an anti-Semitic movement dominated by pro Palestinian and far left fringe groups. Over the last couple of years and especially after the Ferguson Missouri incident.  Black outrage against the police resulted in Black Lives Matter to represent them. Why they would support Anti-Semitic issues and single out Israel is puzzling.

Black Lives Matter has a foreign policy fact sheet and only identifies one country for criticism, Israel and calls the country an‘apartheid state’ committing ‘genocide’.  Yet, there us no mention of Syria, which kills thousands of its civilians with chemical weapons, barrel bombs, and rapes children.   Back Lives Matter fails to mention Iran, a sponsor of terrorism.  How about North Korea or Burma?  Read it for yourself Here.

Despite the historic alliance between Blacks and Jews, Black Lives Matter has joined the Anti-Semitic  far left fringe groups in attacking the only Jewish State in the world, Israel.  That is why I cannot support Black Lives Matter.

Post Janus New York.

The unions, lead by the UFT, is sounding the alarm about what the Janus decision will do  to public unions.  Granted, the unions will lose the right for mandatory dues checkoff and data from Michigan shows that approximately 20% of members refused to pay union dues when the State banned mandatory dues to the unions. These members who refuse to pay their fair share of union dues but still must be represented by the union are known as "free riders".  How will it affect New York State public unions?  Here  is my best guess.

In a post Janus New York, unions will still have Civil Service protections in the form of the Taylor Law.    The Taylor Law requires that Municipalities must bargain in "good faith" with unions.  That includes arbitration, meditation, and hearing of grievances.  It also penalizes unions who participates in work stoppages or strikes.

One of the most important amendments is called the Triborough amendment.  The Tribourough amendment requires that all municipalities cannot change work rules or alter the last contract. until a new contract is negotiated with the union.  That means that once a contract lapsed, all the provisions of that contract stays in force until a new contract is agreed upon by the union.  You can read my take Here.

As for the UFT?  They have a political action wing that relies on voluntary contributions called COPE   Therefore, if you believe our union leadership that no union dues pay for political or social causes, then the reduction in union dues colected will have little or no effect on union contributions to politicians since COPE funds are unaffected by Janus.  Therefore, any future contract negotiations with the City should not be significantly affected by the UFT receiving less union dues, despite the scare tactics the union leadership will employ on their members.

When the UFT comes knocking at your door and tells you what Janus can do to the union's power and our benefits, TAKE WHAT THEY SAY WITH A GRAIN OF SALT.

The Tier VI Teacher Retirement Game Is A Sucker's Game.

The Tier VI retirement game is based upon reasonably conservative assumptions on how difficult it is for a Tier VI teacher to reach their goal of full retirement benefits.

The Tier VI teacher retirement game requires one dice (die) and depends on the law of probability.  Based on the assumptions used for the game, only 9.2% of all Tier VI teachers will be able to reach the goal of full retirement benefits.  That's one out of every 11, not good odds.  The assumptions used in the Tier VI retirement game are as follows:

The first  step is to reach the 10 year vesting period necessary to receive a pension.  Based on the Manhattan Institute report on Fairer Pensions, only 33% of all New York City teachers (Mostly Tier IV) will last long enough in the New York City Public Schools to be vested for a pension.  This is a conservative assumption since the study was done before the New York State Teacher Evaluation System and the use of the Charlotte Dainelson rubric that is used as a weapon against teachers. Other cities report percentages in the teens and that will probably be the value for Tier VI teachers in the future.

Next, for those 33% of Tier VI teachers that are vested, the next goal is obtaining retiree health benefits,  To achieve retiree health benefits the Tier VI teacher must have 15 years in the system,  Since this is only 5 years over the pension vesting period, I assumed that only 17% of Tier VI teachers will not achieve that goal.

To get to the maximum percentage (1.75%) to calculate the 5 year Final Average Salary (FAS), the Tier VI teacher must have a full 20 years in the pension plan.  Otherwise the FAS is calculated using a 1.67% factor rather than the 1.75% factor once they completed their 20 year of service.  According to various studies, only 67% of the teachers (Tiers 1 thru 4) actually reach the 20 year threshold if they had completed 15 years This is true in New York City where veteran teachers are targeted.  Therefore, in the Tier VI retirement game I conservatively used 67% of the Tier VI teachers who reached 15 year of service will last another 5 years to the 20 year goal of maximum percentage when calculating their five year FAS.

Finally, to reach full retirement benefits and a maximum pension, the Tier VI teacher must reach 63 years of age.  Otherwise they are subject to an age reduction factor of as much as 48%!  Only 50% of Tier VI teachers who meet the  above criteria will reach full retirement age.

Is it any wonder that a Tier VI teacher has the odds stacked against them as they strive for full retirement benefits?  If you play the game you only have a 9.2% chance of achieving your goal and that's probably close to what will happen as the Tier VI teacher moves closer to retirement in in the year 2032 and beyond.

The bottom, line is for Tier VI teachers, reaching full retirement is a sucker's game.

Mayor Bill De Blasio Is More Like Michael Bloomberg.When It Comes To Education Policy.

When Bill de Blasio was a candidate for Mayor he positioned himself as the anti-Bloomberg.  His campaign promise was to reduce class size, bring respect to the teaching profession, and  no more closing schools.  To be fair, Bill de Blasio did live up to his promise in limiting charter, schools, appoint an educator as Chancellor, and to cooperate with the UFT on a new contract,  However, in the first term Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed a Joel Klein Deputy Chancellor (Carmen Farina) who turned out to be more the problem then the solution as she kept 80% of the Bloomberg era policymakers and picked Superintendents on who they knew rather than what they knew.

Ask the teachers in the trenches if the classroom environment is different now then under Michael Bloomberg and their answer is a resounding no!  Class sizes are far too large, Charlotte Dainelson is still used to evaluate teachers, and 3020-a charges against educators remain high and essentially unchanged, when compared to the third term of the Bloomberg era.

In addition, the "gotcha philosophy" is still the theme of the day and the DOE still goes after veteran teachers, either by their fair student funding policy or by Charlotte Danielson as administrators used the rubric as a weapon to force senior teachers to either retire or face 3020-a charges. The ATR pool continues to exist with 1,300 ATRs still without a classroom, despite candidate Bil de Blasio's intention of placing them in vacancies when he became Mayor.  Finally, the racial/income achievement gap is as large as ever.  Another example of Mayor Bill de Blasio becoming more like Michael Bloomberg is he forced one of his PEP appointees to resign after she voted not to close two Far Rockaway schools.

In some ways the Bill de Blasio administration is worse.  He allows cellphones in the schools despite evidence that student cellphone use reduces academic achievement.  He also limited student suspensions and is a supporter of restorative justice instead.    The result is the most students feel less safe in the schools. The lax student discipline code is a disaster.  Read the NYC  kids pac report for all the promises that Mayor Bill de Blasio broke in the 2016 Mayoral report card..

The bottom line Mayor Bill de Blasio is becoming more like Michael Bloomberg and that can only increase he already low morale of the classroom teacher and hurt the students down the road.

Will The New Chancellor Eliminate The Bloomberg Ideology That Permeates The DOE?

Starting in April, the new Chancellor, Richard Carranza, will take over the New York City school system.  Obviously, any substantial changes will have to wait till the next school year,  Hopefully, he will do what Carmen Farina failed to do and that is to "clean house" at the DOE.  Carmen Farina was as much the problem rather than the solution as she retained 80% of the Bloomberg policymakers.  Already, Carmen Farina has transferred her close friend and failed Renewal Superintendence, Amiee Horowitz. to a position she will still oversee after her retirement. I can only hope that the new Chancellor will get rid of the many Bloomberg era policymakers that has made the DOE the enemy of the classroom teachers.

In particular, Mr. Carranza should eliminate the destructive Fair Student Funding formula that discriminates against veteran teachers.  Worse yet, the schools are only funded at between 88% to 90% of their fair funding while the DOE's Central Bureaucracy was cited by Controller Scott Stringer for increasing their expenses by 24% since 2012, while teacher overhead increased by only 12%.

Bring back unit based hiring that will encourage principals to hire veteran teachers without being penalized in their budget while eliminating any financial advantage to hire "newbie" teachers as it is presently.

Eliminate the ATR pool by allowing ATRs first choice in vacancies in their district.  No teacher outside the district can be hired until all ATRs in the district are placed.

Reduce class sizes and ensure properly certified teachers are teaching in their content specialty.

Have a "zero tolerance policy" on academic fraud and eliminate the "double standard"when disciplining teachers and administrators.

Finally, the new Chancellor should reach out to the teachers and not just the union leadership as Carmen Farina did.  The new Chancellor should allow teachers to teach the way that is best for their students and not be micromanaged by administrators.  Furthermore,  eliminate the Charlotte Dainelson rubric for evaluating teachers and reduce observations from 4 to 2 a year.  Finally, eliminate the useless and worthless PD that makes Monday and Tuesday a living hell for teachers.

Carmen Farina's Flunky, Amiee Horowitz, Gets A New Job.

Amiee Horowitz a close colleague of Chancellor Carmen Farina was rewarded by the outgoing Chancellor by being appointed to lead an initiative to help schools who share buildings.  To me it appears the Chancellor, in trying to protect her close frined, and decided to have Amiee Horowitz work on the initiative that Ms. Farina will be involved in after she is no longer Chancellor.  You can read the Chalkbeat article Here.

Why do I think as I do?  Let's look at all the negative issues associated with Amiee Horowitz.

First,  as the District 76 Superintendent she tried to railroad an untenured teacher who reported Regents cheating.  Instead of simply discontinuing the teacher, Amiee Horowitz tried to file a C-31, a license revocation.  You can read the teacher's story in my article on cronyism over competence.

Second, under Amiee Horowitz, a Renewal School, Flushing High School was caught in a massive Regents cheating scandal.  What did Ms. Horowitz do?  Nothing, nothing at all.  you can read the sickening details Here.

Third,  as the supervising Superintendent of the Renewal Schools she put many of her friends in administrative positions, many of them failed principals and administrators. In fact, the Renewal program was top heavy with administrators while the schools continued to struggle academically,  You can read it here,

Finally under Amiee Horowitz, the Renewal Schools ended up hiring "newbie" teachers, rather than experience educators and the academic results were predictably poor.  The post is Here.

Just like a "bad penny" Amiee Horowitz continues to show up in high level DOE positions at the expense of real education experts.   Here are more stories about Amiee Horowitz.  Here and Here.

Why Many UFT Members Are Conflicted About Paying Dues. However, ATRs Are Not.

New York City Educator wrote on his blog why we all should be paying union dues when Janus is settled.  He correctly points out why union representation is important and despite the arrogance of the union leadership, we must stand together.  I considered myself a loyal union member and help other members with their issues.  However, its hard to be loyal to a union who's leadership cares more about themselves and political favors than the members they are supposed to represent.  As an ATR I am furious how we are treated as second class citizens and if you came out of discipline, an untouchable,  Moreover, the ATRs have no chapter representation and cannot request a change of schools.  Finally, there is no mutual consent as the ATR cannot refuse an assignment.  Let's not forget the field supervisors as well.

The DOE treats the ATR as if they are "bad" or unwanted teachers as the DOE fair student funding policy makes hiring veteran ATRs financially unappealing.  The union leadership, rather than pushing the DOE to eliminate this unfair policy, looks the other way.  Notice how the ATR issue wasn't addressed by the UFT on negotiating the next contract?

When three out of four union members didn't even bother to vote in the last union election,  How many will voluntarily pay their union dues?   60%, 70% or 80%?. Who knows?  However, when it comes to the ATRs   I suspect the majority will refuse to pay their union dues since they feel the union leadership has failed to properly represent them.

While NYC Educator is right that we need a union to protect our hard won gains, the problem is that our union leadership does not deserve the respect from the members, especially the ATRs who have been betrayed time and again by the self-serving Unity leadership.

Read ATR Adventures blog for how most ATRs feel about the union leadership.

How Safe Is Our Schools? Not Safe At All According To The NYPD.

In the first semester of the 2017-18 school year saw a spike in arrests summonses, and use of restraints by the NYPD in the New York City school system.  The Daily News article reported that the major crimes in the schools increase was 8% over the same period in the 2016-`17 school year.

The figures published Friday show reported incidents of major crimes in the public schools, such as larceny, arson or robbery, rose to 163 in the period of October through December 2017.  That's up from 151 in the same period in 2016.

Obviously, the weakened student discipline code, the emphasis on restorative justice and reduced suspensions have empowered misbehaving students to commit offenses that require NYPD intervention.  Mayor Bill de Blaio may claim the schools are safer but with arrests up and students feeling less safe, the opposite is true. 

Are the New York City school safe?  Not according to the NYPD statistics.

The Bloomberg Small Schools Are Doing A Disservice To Self Contained Special Education Students.

 




There have been pros and cons when breaking up large comprehensive high school and make three to six small schools on the campus.  The pros would be closer relationship between students and staff, assuming staff stays at the school which is problematic.  A higher graduation rate (but not college readiness) and a more focused student centered environment.  The cons are limited course curricula, high teacher turnover and usually an inexperienced teaching staff in low income communities, and .lack of resources for the neediest of students.  However, the biggest negative are those Special Education students who need a self-contained environment.  Be it 12-1-1 or 8-1-1.  Instead most of the Bloomberg small high schools have no self-contained classrooms and these Special Education students are dumped into a ICT classes with class sizes as high as 34 students.

The DOE will claim that they are mandated to put Special Education students in the "least restrictive environment" but many students need a self contained classroom, where he or she gets more intensive academic and behavioral support.  This is just another example of the DOE's "education on the cheap" policy at the expense of the Special Education student.

Ask any teacher at the high school level how many potential self-contained Special Education students will pass the end of year Regents.  How about close to zero!  Yet, the Bloomberg small schools dumped these high needs students in ICT classes of up to 34 students.

The villain is the DOE and their "no excuses" philosophy when it comes to the teacher evaluation system and combined with their "education on the cheap" policy and you have a recipe for failure and that's what happens in school after schools in the small school universe in New York City.

The bottom line is that the DOE treats self-contained Special Education students a disservice when they dumped them in ICT classes.  For these "high needs" students the DOE's child last policy hurts their academic achievement.

Will The DOE Protect "F" Status Field Supervisors From ATR Lawsuits? Maybe Or Maybe Not.

It has come to my attention that a teacher, who became an ATR, filed a lawsuit against the Principal and the Principal's Advisor.  Of course the Principal was protected as a DOE employee from personal liability.  However, the DOE appointed advisor was not an active employee but was defined as a consultant.  The result was the Principal's advisor was not protected by the DOE from liability.  The result was the consultant had to hire his own lawyer on his own dime.  Moreover, he ended up paying the teacher $25,000 and his own lawyer as well..

This brings me to the field supervisors (assassins).  Most of the field supervisors are retired Principals or Assistant principals.  The are hired on an "F" status basis and are considered contract employees.  Therefore, its possible that if the ATR, who feels they were unjustly evaluated by one of these "F" status field supervisors, if the ATR files a lawsuit its possible that the "F" status field supervisor would not be protected from liability by the DOE.  If that is the case, then the "F" status field supervisor would have to hire their own lawyer.

I cannot say for sure that is the case, but based on the Bronx case it might be worth the effort to sue the "F" status field supervisor and see if the DOE decides to protect them.  Ir the DOE does not protect them from liability, the result would be the eventual elimination of the "F" status field supervisors since the money they receive is not worth the risk of a lawsuit.

How Will The Union Leadership Respond To The Janus Decision?

Before the end of the school year it's expected the Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision will rule in favor of Janus and dues will become voluntary not mandatory.  The result will be that approximately 20% of the teachers will refuse to allow the union to take out their dues from their paycheck.

The union leadership wants to get the State Legislature to allow for the State to work out a mandatory dues program but with the State Senate controlled by the Republicans, that seems to be wishful thinking.  Without State intervention, the union has developed two strategies to encourage members to pay their dues.  The first, is a door knocking campaign that will have loyal members of the "Unity caucus"  knock on every members door to exchange personal stories about how the union helped them to convince the member to pay their dues,  The second,  is to establish membership meeting at every school to tell active school staff why it's important to continue to pay dues to keep the union strong and effective.

In Michigan, when the State eliminate the mandatory dues for public sector unions, the dropout rate was 20%.  Despite a strong effort by teacher unions to get members to pay their dues, still 18% dropped out.  Obviously, the Michigan law is much more relevant to what will happen in New York State than what happened in Wisconsin, where union collective bargaining rights were eliminated that resulted in reduction of teacher benefits and limited pay raises amd have caused a severe teacher shortage in the State.  You can read my post on Why New York State Is Not Wisconsin.

One group the union will most certainly lose are the ATRs.  While they amount to only 2% of all teachers, they are a vocal group.  Moreover, many ex-ATRs still harbor resentment to the union leadership on how they were treated by the union during their time being excessed.  Finally, all the teachers who were forced out of the closing schools to look for new positions were not happy with the union's inability to fight the DOE by taking action.  Instead the union acquiesced to the DOE school closing policy.

Another group that might not pay voluntary dues are the veteran teachers who know how the union leadership has allowed the DOE to impose policies that discrimate against them, like Fair Student Funding and tight school budgets that penalizes principals who hire veteran teachers.

Maybe after the Janus decision the union will start to treat their members as customers and provide them the services they pay for rather than looking at them as a nuisance since they are required to pay their dues.  How much will the union downsize after the Janus decision?  Only time will tell but downsize they must since a 20% cut in dues will require many jobs to be eliminated at the union.

Note:  An audit done by Comptroller Scott Stringer  found that the Department of Education escalated their spending on its Central Bureaucracy and was put on his "watch list".  Here is what he said.

Stringer red-flagged the school system, where he found central administration staff has soared by 24 percent since 2012 — double the 12 percent rate of teachers.

What Grade Would You Give Chancellor Carmen Farina?

Chancellor Carmen Farina told the news media that she would give herself a grade of "B+" for achievement and an "A+" for effort..  She pointed out her success in increasing the bogus graduation rate, the implementation of the pre-K program, and increased parent engagement.  The Chancellor also claimed how she went to numerous schools and reached out to teachers.  Moreover, she is pleased of the work she has done as Chancellor.

I for one maintain that her overall grade is a "D" for disappointing.  Here is why.

1. Carmen Farina retained 80% of the Bloomberg policymakers at the DOE and few of the destructive Bloomberg policies were changed.  Fair student funding, 3020-a charges, and large class sizes continued to exist with the new Chancellor.  Let's not forget Charlotte Danielson, recession era school budgets, and the ATR pool remained under her administration.
2. She curried favor with our disconnected union leadership but treated veteran teachers with contempt.  She stated that when she visited schools, she was looking to identify "bad teachers" and told principals how to start a paper trail to remove them.
3. Chancellor Carmen Farina failed to remove the 400 principals she claimed should not be running their schools and allowed the DOE "double standard" to continue when disciplining principals.
4. Her insistence that teachers be subject to 90 minutes of useless Professional Development and her failure to reduce paperwork hurt teacher morale.
5. Carmen Farina's greatest failure is that she allowed the teachers of the system to look at the DOE as the enemy not as a partner when it came to education.

Overall, while Chancellor Carmen Farina did some good things, like requiring more school experience for Leadership Academy principals and her opposition to charter schools.  Her many faults and failures earn her a grade of "D" for disappointing.

Principal Quality Is A Major Factor Why Schools Struggle Academically.

When I was a student I used to buy Marvel comic books and "Archie" for my younger sister   One of the characters in the Archie comic book was the Riverdale high school Principal, Mr. Weatherbee. In the comic book Mr. Weatherbee was looked at as the instructional leader of the school and was highly respected for his integrity by both staff and students.

Mr. Weatherbee was a composite of the many old time and long-term educators who started out as a teacher for a decade or more and worked his way up to eventually become a Principal.  Mr. Weatherbee was educationally, .all knowing and mentored his staff. He was highly respected head of the school.

Fast forward to the present day New York City schools and few principals followed the path of Mr. Weatherbee.  Over 25% of the present day principals are graduates from the infamous "Leadership Academy" and until 2015, many graduates had minimal.classroom teaching experience and quite a few never achieved tenure as a teacher.  Even when Chancellor Carmen Farina changed the rules and required that educators have a minimum of seven years of school experience (from three and not necessarily in the classroom).  However, there were exceptions and people already in the program were grandfathered in   Therefore, a greater percentage of newly minted principals running their schools came from the "Leadership Academy".

These "Leadership Academy" principals, were accepted in the program based upon who they knew, not what they knew.  It was not uncommon that the teacher was accepted to the "Leadership Academy" by a recommendation of a Superintendent or a DOE official at Tweed.  The result was these principals didn't think of themselves as instructional leaders but as the CEO of their school.  Many practiced a top down management approach and collaboration with the school staff was seen as an inconvenience and a bar from implementing polices that the Principal wants to employ.

 These "Leadership Academy" principals were known to bully staff and were encouraged to run the school as they pleased by the DOE.  Is it any wonder that New York City has over half the State's 3020-a cases when New York City teachers make up only 30% of all teachers in New York State?
While there are many factors why schools struggle academically.  Poverty, segregation, teaching experience, and student discipline policies.  A major factor is also poor administration and the Principal. Maybe the new Chancellor will release the fatal flaw in improving academically struggling schools.  The poor quality of recently appointed principals from the "Leadership Academy".

To Join The ATR Class Action Lawsuit It Has Been Extended To February 28th.

The potential class action lawsuit against the DOE for their discriminatory treatment of the ATRs has been extended to February 28th.  To join the lawsuit it cost $250.  Attorney Bryan Glass has agreed to file the lawsuit and he has an excellent reputation.  Mr. Glass has worked for both the DOE and NYSUT as an attorney both prosecuting and representing teachers at their 3020-a discipline hearings.

The class action lawsuit will show that the DOE discriminated against veteran excessed teachers by implementing policies that penalized schools who hired a veteran teacher.  Providing field supervisors who gave out bogus observations on ATRs who were assigned classes where they didn't know the students and had no ability to affect their grades . Refused to allow ATRs who came out of discipline to be hired by a school, despite being found innocent of the major charges against them.  Made it difficult for ATRs to apply for per session grading and other activities. 

You can read the summary at Glass Krakower​ LLP

The link can be found Here.

Why New York State Is Not Wisconsin.

The UFT leadership has been using scare tactics that if Janus is upheld by the Supreme Court, our collective bargaining rights and pensions could be in danger.  They point to what happened in Wisconsin in 2011 as the example.

Wisconsin passed Act 10 that eliminated all union negotiating rights, except for raises limited to the inflation rate.  That meant that all other issues like health benefits, job protections, and work rules were non-negotiable,  The result is that union power was significantly eroded and despite still being able to negotiate limited raises, the raises have been smaller and even making teaching jobs non-competitive and resulted in high teacher turnover.  You can read what ACT 10 did to educators Here.

Wisconsin's Act 10 eliminated collective bargaining and saw a significant reduction in union membership.  One study showed a reduction of 40%!  Since Act 10 allows members to "opt out" of paying union dues and many members did so.

By contrast, New York State is a union friendly state and collective bargaining will still be in force, regardless of the Janus decision.  While theoretically if the Republicans somehow take over all three branches in New York State, and try to change the rules is always possible.  The likelihood of this happening is slim since the State Assembly has always been dominated by the Democrats. Moreover, any changes in the State Constitution will have to wait another twenty years for the next Constitutional Convention.  Finally, any legislative changes would also be subject to court challenges that could ne tied up in the courts for years.

The bottom line is that what happened in Wisconsin will not happen in New York State, regardless of the Janus decision.

Flushing High School, How The DOE Destroyed A Potentially Great Neighborhood School.

Very soon, the entire staff of Flushing High School will reapply for their jobs thorough the 18D process that is simply a fig leaf for the DOE and Principal to choose who they want.  Not what's best for the students of the school.   The 18D process usually includes a committee that consists of three DOE employees, the Principal, a representative from Tweed, and another DOE representative, either from the Superintendent's office or an assistant principal from the school.  The other two come from the UFT, usually the District Representative and another from the Borough office.  The result is usually a 3 to 2 vote with the DOE holding the majority.

Because of Fair Student Funding and recession era school budgets, the 50% of staff members selected usually consists of the cheapest teachers and most of the lower paid employees like paraprofessionals, school aides, and support service personnel.  The only veteran teachers selected are the lead teacher of each subject area, while the rest are usually not selected.  The result is the majority of teachers selected are usually untenured and the rest will be new to the system.  Most veteran teachers will be jettisoned to the ATR pool.  The result is far less than 50% of the teachers will find themselves back at the school in their position next year.

The DOE decided that teachers are the blame for the poor results at Flushing High School and not the administration or the students.  Flushing High School has had six principals since 2011 and each one of them had issues.  One was  arrested with drugs near the school.  Another was found guilty by a jury for sexual harassment and retaliation, a third alienated the entire staff and fled to the suburbs.  The only one that lasted more than a year was removed for trying to interfere with teacher surveys and stopped a student newspaper from being published.  Let's not forget some of his questionable academic policies.   His claim to fame was calling the principal's job at the school like the "hunger games"You can read some of the issues with the previous principals Here, Here, and  Here.

 When it comes to the school, the student body is unrepresentative of the community.  Flushing High School is in the middle of Flashing's Chinatown and the neighborhood surrounding the school is 85% East Asian.   However, the school's student body is 80% Black and Hispanic with Asians only representing 17% of the student body.  Eliminate the South Asian students and the East Asian percentage is probably in the single digits.  I taught at the school in the 2011-12 school year and it was a real hellhole.  Read my post Here.  The majority of Black and Hispanic students that go to Flushing High School live many mikes from the school and can take up to two hours to arrive at the school from Southeast Queens or Elmhurst.  Showing up late or not at all is a common problem at the school.  Combine that with the large "high needs" population and it's no wonder that the academic problems persist at the school.

How does the DOE expect the school to improve with a relatively inexperienced staff and the same student body?  The answer is they don't.  The DOE just wants to reduce school salaries and push veteran teachers out of the system.  It's not about what's best for the students.

The Racial\Income Achievement Gap Is As Wide As Ever

New York State and City published the latest graduation rates for the 2016-17 school year and both inched higher.  More about the bogus graduation rates is in a later post.   This post will concentrate on the racial/income achievement gap which is unacceptably wide.

The latest data from the New York State Education Department found that the academic achievement gap between White and Asian students and Black and Hispanic students was 20%,  Moreover, graduation rates for English Language Learners, who are mostly Black or Hispanic and low income, actually declined.  The schools with the lowest graduation rates in the State were in low income urban districts who tend to have a high percentage of "high needs" students, primarily low income Black and Hispanic students.

In another report the older a student gets, the wider the racial achievement gap.  A study reported by Chalkbeat found that while Black and Hispanic student started out slightly behind their White and Asian peers, the achievement gap became larger as the students went into higher grades.  In particular Black boys fell furthest behind and girls did better than boys.

The report came up with the following conclusions:

• Black and Hispanics started out behuind.
• Black students lost ground as they got older.
• Hispanic students did slightly better.
• By eigth grade Asian students did the best.
• Black boys came out on the bottom.
• Girls did better than boys.

Looking at the data is disturbing and for Black boys it seems the school to prison pipeline is not just a saying but a reality as Black boys struggle through high school and never acquire the necessary skills to be successful in higher education or the working world. Is it any wonder that the minority communities have trouble becoming financially independent and keeping the family intact. The bottom line, after two decades of trying to eliminate the racial\income achievement gap, little progress has been made in doing so and that means poverty in the low income, minority communities will continue..