Note where Randi says "WE are working with the DOE."
"It is no secret that there have been problems at Lafayette, so its closing is not surprising," said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
"As to Lafayette, we are working with the DOE to create a redesigned school - and potentially two new schools - that parents will want to send their children to and where educators will want to teach," she said.
Why does Randi go along with this instead of calling for Lafayette to be redesigned instead of closed? The closing of the schools is one ploy to get half of the teachers out, making them look for new jobs or become ATR's. If the school is redesigned without being closed then the teachers stay. Is Randi in effect going along with Klein's point that the teachers are the problem?
Make Rohloff an ATR principal.
I really think Randi wants senior teachers off the pensions to appease our mayor. After seeing what went on in New Jersey yesterday, I for one am very afraid for the future of our pensions.
And, I bet most of the teachers at Lafayette don't even know what lies ahead.
How many do you suppose voted for the contract?
Actually, it's entirely conceivable that high school teachers voted against the contract. The UFT set it up so those figures would be unavailable to us.
That sucks about your school. I'm sorry. If you ever feel like teaching science, we here at Titanic would welcome you with open arms.
I don't think you understand about the Teaching Fellows thing. You can only be kicked out/fired if you are in the ATR as of Dec. 1 of your first year in the program. After that, you have the same contract as anyone.
It's a little scary, though, to think of the power a principal who understood the situation could wield over a new Fellow before Dec. 1 (assuming the contract calls for Fellows who are excessed after being hired to be fired along with those who never got jobs) by threatening to excess him or her.
Also I can't believe the UFT has essentialy set a precedent for full-time salaried teachers to be fired for reasons other than poor performance.
And of course what better way to reward teachers who stuck with a struggling school than to fire them. That'll help to get experienced teachers into struggling schools in the future!
Well, in all fairness, the teachers are not fired, not yet at least. They are made permanent subs. I can't tell you how demoralizing that would be for me, but the ATR teachers who've emailed me have no shortage of words for it.
I think it's a very bad precedent, and that we gave it away for less than nothing, as the "raise" that accompanied the draconian contract did not even meet cost of living.
I apologize if I'm technically off about the Fellows. However, more schools could close later in the year. The point is--this is no way to be treating decent teachers, and the UFT enabled it with the short-sighted approach to negotiating contracts.
Joel Klein has outmaneuvered Randi Weingarten every step of the way. I got in a long discussion with someone about her salary today. I don't begrudge her a cent. Double it, say I.
But she needs to do something to earn it. That doesn't mean sit down and take whatever comes down the pike.
Randi is earning her salary--she is protecting those she cares most about--her minions who work at the bloated Union.
I am in the system a long time myself but not long enough to retire...that is years off and I am in a struggling school.
I stayed in the system because I believe in my students and now feel duped. I stayed for the promise of job stability. Now I feel duped. I also worry about my pension--will I make it to 30 years? Will I be forced out by age discrimination??? Will my union care?
My school is not closing--NOT YET at least. Here is what my worries are--I have an okay commute and the hours work with child care right now (I have an elementary school aged daughter). If my school were to close, I might have to commute further or have later hours and that would be a huge hardship--if I could find a job....in my high school, many of the veteran teachers--great teachers--are being targeted and given U's.....for the most part, these are good teachers. I have found that as I have gotten older and have more responsibilities at home (my daughter and aging parents--no husband here--I am divorced and responsible for so many bills), I have less time to devote to being in school. I am still a great teacher, but can no longer stay until 5 PM every day, volunteer to come in to tutor on Saturdays and so on. Younger teachers not only might have the energy but also have fewer commitments (although grad school is one!).
I know I am rambling here, but I have to say that Randi Weingarten is not only destroying the years of gains our union has made, but is also directly responsible for destroying the careers and lives of veteran teachers.
The DOE used to complain that not enough veteran teachers were in these "failing" schools--as if only the teachers and not the socio-economic issues among other issues--were not the reasons that these schools fail....
It is sad, but I now have advice for all new teachers--GET OUT OF THE SYSTEM NOW!!! There is no future in it. (and thus begins the decline of public education and society) Thank Randi and Joel and Mayor Mike.
In the teacher's lunchroom today there was clipping of newspaper articles and much disussion about the closing high schools. The big question was "what will happen with all of those teachers?" I told them again, (just as I have been telling them since September), exactly what will happen: 50% will be hired back to work in the reorganzied school, this number will not be determined by seniority but by any criteria, or "rubric," that is created and/or manipulated by the incoming team. The rest of them will then join me as an ATR, working as a sub, lucky, (as I'm frequently told by the UFT), that thanks to them I still have a job.
The school that I was excessed to has a lovely teaching staff, and I keep trying to move forward and not dwell on the past; however, being a sub-peon is, as NYC Ed said, demoralizing, (at the very least), in my 26th year in the system. I'm still waiting for 25/55, but I'm not holding my breath. I am sure the new contract will pass, (I voted no), which may or may not have a buy-out for ATR's. People have to listen!!!
From Leonie Haimson at Class Size Matters:
Byron Scott of Channel 9 News just interviewed me about today’s announcement that five NYC high schools will be closing; the story will be on at 10 PM tonight. No doubt my comments will be cut to shreds as usual; so I thought I’d let you know what I said:
The pattern that we have repeatedly seen of closing failing large high schools down and opening up new small schools in their place sounds good; but in the end, it often hurts rather than helps our neediest students, leading to even higher discharge and dropout rates.
For example, Tilden HS has 300 special ed students and at least 300 ELL students, many of them sent there originally because other large high schools nearby were closed in recent years, like Bushwick, Prospect Park, Wingate and others.
Why? As we know from recent reports from the CCHS, Immigration Coalition and NY Lawyers for Public Interest, most of the ELL and special ed students will be excluded from whatever new small schools are formed in their place.
When a school is being phased out, no one cares about the students who still go there – they no longer count in terms of any accountability system. This may be one of the reasons we’ve seen a steady increase in discharged students over the last four years. In many cases, these students are denied the classes they need to graduate, even if these same courses are being given at the small schools opening up in the same building.
If they don’t manage to graduate in the few years that their original school continues to exist – and many won’t – most of the lowest-performing students will be discharged to “alternative” or GED programs, or transferred to other large high schools. These schools in turn will likely become even more overcrowded than before – and in many cases, destabilized.
In either case, many of the students at the schools that are were announced today as closing will likely end up as dropout statistics, or even worse, if “discharged” they will be expunged from existence, and not even counted as dropouts.
Today I spoke to a teacher at Tilden HS, one of the schools being closed down; he told me that school has never been given the resources or programs it needed to improve. He has many ELL classes that have 30 students or more – classes that should be no larger than 20.
Four of these five schools also had principals who graduated from the Leadership Academy. What this shows is that leadership alone does not help, unless classroom conditions are also addressed.
Until this administration has a plan to improve opportunities for all our students, including providing them smaller classes no matter where they go to school, we will continue on in this cycle of failure, far into the future.
Norm,
Where did you get the number of no more than 20 ELL students per class as a target? In Title I schools I believe the maximum is 30 students of whatever category. It's very common for ELL classes to get up around 30.
That number was reported by Leonie Haimson after speaking to a teacher at Tilden.
Heard about Lafayette HS closing this morning on TV while I was getting ready to go to work at my new assignment.
I joined Lafayette last year, and immediately had a run in with that famous Leadership Academy Principal, she who will not be named here.
Throughout the year, I received nothing but "U" observations, as did a number of my colleagues at Lafayette.
It was obvious to me that the school was under utilized, and in view of all that she who will not be named did to me and my colleagues, the woman was sent there to deliberately downsize the school so that Bloom/Klein, et.al., could take the real estate and do something else with it. Throughout this ordeal, my colleagues and I heard from the UFT that "my hands were tied" from the Unity person there (he, too, shall remain nameless).
I'm now reminded of that famous poem where the person laments that when they came for him, "there was no one left to protect me". Well, the inevitable has happened. According to what I've read in the papers, Madame Weingarten is already making plans with the DOE to turn poor Lafayette into "schools where students want to go, and teachers will want to teach". WOW! The body is not even cold yet, and the vultures are circling enmasse. And, what will happen to all of the people there who were forced to become ATR's, were discontinued last year, received "U" ratings, etc.? Oh, well...... In my case, I've yet to hear from the UFT about when my hearing will be held, apparently, my case was dropped from the UFT's radar.....
To hear Madame Weingarten say that people should not be surprised at Lafayette's closing in light of their problems, smacks to me of a
callousness that ranks right up there with the Bloom/Klein administration's sneakiness and M.O.
Keep 'em working, until the end, use people, collect union dues, and then drop them like hot potatoes.
How bizarre the educational system is in New York City.
Hope that the Three Stooges trio of Bloomberg, Klein, and Weingarten can live with themselves after doing what they've done to destroy
peoples' lives and careers, all while they are hiding behind the facade of "improving education". Seems to me that they are much more concerned with lining their pockets, and leaving behind a legacy that will improve their stature with the business community, rather than the constituents of the school system.
Happy holidays......
What a shame that high school teachers who have been victimized by the triumverate of evil (Klein, Bloomie, and Randi) can't go and speak to elementary (and even some middle) schools. Just because this particular group is not as likely to fall victim to a restructed school and excessing doesn't mean this new contract is the "good deal" they think it is. Sadly, it seems to me that many of my colleagues simply don't care about fellow union members. This is just another way the union is being eroded.
So, four out of the five HS slated for closing are headed by Leadership Academy principals, eh?
Why doesn't the Post run a headline that says,
80% OF LEADERSHIP PRINCIPALS FLUNK!
You know that these clowns, er, Leadership grads, will land on their feet, with assistance from our brilliant chancellor, the esteemed Joel Ex-Prosecutor Do-No-Wrong Klein.
Too bad teachers can't get the same treatment.
Oh, did I ever mention that my former school, which is an elementary school, was headed last year by a Leadership Academy grad? The evil is spreading everywhere! (Why do I get the feeling that we are in a low-budget horror film, trying to get the warning out to the people, but they're just not listening).
I started my teaching career in a large failing high school that was closed and the building reopened as four small schools. So instead of paying one principal to supervise 3000 kids, they paid four principals to supervise 750 kids each.
Eight years later one of the four is a SURR school. I think people like Bill & Melinda Gates are well meaning and generous with their money, but it's sooooo misplaced. They will give millions to any Ivy League program that calls for smaller schools though I've yet to see any benefits.
I find it somewhat strange that the closings of these schools was announced after the contract vote.
I already posted that one public school may turn charter. Again misplacing many qualified teachers.
Solidarity and seniority will go the way of the dodo.
This is off topic, but I'd be interested if anyone has heard similar phraseology from Admins. Last June my boss in Whitestone excoriated our JHS facukty with these words, "I know you work hard, but now you have to work smarter and harder." Since I had never heard a prin. direct such drivel to her staff, I thought leaving would be the best option. The Prin of my old school asked me to come back. I did. She has been on a warpath lately, as we are an empowerment school and she fears the quality review. We've been having teams of teachers face administrative inquisituions. Today's group reported that they were told. "I know you work hard, but now you have to work smarter and harder." These seem to be too similar to be anything but talking points. Anyone heard anything along these lines?
I've not heard those precise words, but I've heard a lot of talking points from my principal. This is a top-down system, and I've seen you describe it very well on Edwize.
Much of this was enabled by the current contract. Maybe Randi doesn't fight for us because she feels it would make her look too extreme. Maybe she thinks Hillary will win and make her secretary of education. Personally, I think Randi would make a great secretary. She's very good at following directions, and rarely questions authority.
And as Schoolgal says, it is kind of strange these announcements came out right after the contract vote.
If you Google the phrase "work smarter and harder" there are almost ten thousand references. That's right ... ten THOUSAND!
It's standard business-speak ... despite the fact that it actually has no decipherable meaning.
Why am I not surprised that such a phrase is popping up in education, since we're being overrun by privatization fanatics?
Be worried ... be VERY worried.
"Education is the silver bullet. Education is everything. We don't need little changes. We need gigantic revolutionary changes. Schools should be palaces. Competition for the best teachers should be fierce. They should be getting six-figure salaries. Schools should be incredibly expensive for government and absolutely free of charge for its citizens, just like national defense. That is my position. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet."
- Sam Seaborn, The West Wing
I borrowed this line from Portable Princess...thanks for the line, I hope you don't mind me borrowing it; it just seems so apropo of the above discussion.
I am worried, particularly since the people currently spouting this piece of corporate babble are doing it in response to their E Mails and workshops. They don't have any clue what they are supposed to want in terms of teacher performance.
We had eight teams of teachers go through the I.S. version of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition. Plenty of criticism was laid on us, but not one coherent instruction of what it was the Prin actually wanted us to do. Yesterday a team went in and made a presentation. The Prin and her "cabinet' were so impressed that the team will do a PD for the whole staff. They saw something they liked, but something they had had no ability to describe to any of us who were prviously grilled.
Imagine if we ripped student after student without any expalanation of what we were after, rubric is the word I believe, and only stopped when one kid finally gave us something we thought was good.
This is the quality of supervisor we have today and when coupled with a top down corporate mentality and no tenure protection for principals, you bet I'm worried.
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