Don't worry I hear Randi is fighting to make sure surreptitious spying is only 20% of your evaluation.
Unitymustgo!
It's sad they effectively offer a disincentive to help these kids. But someone has to do it, and I'm glad there are still teachers crazy enough to volunteer.
A few years ago I taught in a school that housed the "super gifted". My class was located in the same pod. We had to keep a list of all of the TAKS objectives our students failed on a practive test and document what we were doing to ensure these students passed the real test. My list was a mile long, and the "super gifted" teacher had the super short list. It wasn't fair to compare her test results to mine, but, of course, they did.
And the sad thing is that even if they pass the regents, they can barely write a coherent sentence or read a book on their own. Rhe whole thing is a joke.
Another thing on evaluating teachers by test scores:
I am probably more "pro-testing" than most commenters here. However, I have a major problem with such evaluations -- even if they go by percent improvement and not just nominal scores.
I am not the best classroom manager ever in this, my 4th year of teaching, but neither am I the worst. Every year, two of my three classes are rather poorly behaved. This year, one of them is...well, as awful as they come. Though I have tried positive incentive schemes, and I recognize that they must be adjusted to fit individual students' needs, there are simply no schoolwide sanctions for chronically disruptive students (and when I say disruptive, I don't mean chatty Cathys...I mean arguments, cursing, chasing around the room and the like...every day). With nothing to worry about, the kids know who rules the roost, and I am lucky if I get in 20 minutes of teaching in a 2-period block.
And then I should be judged on these same students' test scores?
By the way: When I referred to "such evaluations" above, I was referring to teacher evaluations, not standardized tests for the students.
When the powers that be recognize that someone has not told the students that their brains are all supposed the learn with only one type of method and in the same amount of time, maybe things would be different. God Bless those newspaper columnists and politicians that don't recognize there are so many other factors that effect a child's improvement.
The kids are now coming into high school with no basic skills whatsoever with more kids than ever. Some get thrown into fake "remedial" programs with the same 34 kids as all the other classes; these are the "unlabelled special ed" kids whose parents may have refused to sign or just didn't want to recognize a problem. Of course, special ed is more expensive so why not "find alternatives" and call it a "success". I can't believe just how lying and corrupt the BloomKlein administration has become. They give out needless (yes needless) contracts. I just heard about a pre K program in one of the outer boroughs having the parent applications now going to some place in Pennsylvania for processing. Hey what was wrong with the in school processing? It certainly worked all these years and has been a tremendously popular program due to the great teachers who have been in it for years, nurturing and teaching the little ones in that community. Applications were processed basically by paraprofessionals involved with family outreach. Now, someone in Pennsylvania is "processing" these same applications. It's all about smoke and mirrors, test scores so administrators can get their bonuses, and passing the kids at any cost. These non educators really know how to run a school system into the ground.
More good stuff coming out of Jamaica High School from one of my colleagues. It's an honor to be the Chapter Leader of an activist school.
James,
I was surprised you didn't comment on the UFT Charter School. You and Norm always seem to find "insider" information. So what do you know??
With the new Gates school how much of the Jamaica High School building will be given to it? My guess probably a floor or almost 30% of the building.
This is probably just the beginning of closing down Jamaica as a large high school.
Schoolgal,
Some ICE'ers have been working with people on the UFT Charter school story for many months - and rather than throw it out there, held if for Elizabeth Green, who does a bang up job. There's more but whether it comes out depends on people's willingness to go public - as you know in today's environment that is problematical. Let's just say the UFT arrogance has treated people shabbily - enough to raise a bit of a stir, at least privately to ICE.
When the charter school was first announced, an open meeting was held at 52 Broadway and a bunch of us went to ask basic questions - all of which were shunted aside.
Randi put me on the original charter school committee back in the 90's after Ed Notes called for teachers to start charter schools as a way to take the system away from the idiots running it - at the time I thought the UFT rather than start its own school, should provide assistance to teachers who wanted to start schools but Randi wanted a partnership with City College to start a UFT school. When they pulled out the committee died.
I realized that there was no way teachers would ever be allowed to actually run their own schools and any idea that they are running the UFT charter school, which has had a wee bit of turnover according to the Green article, is a myth.
I was hoping you would get the scoop from those who left. I could only imagine the pressure on these teachers to make the UFT look good would outdo the worst admins in the city, My school recently had to put on a dog and pony show because our site is always chosen for a principals' conference. You would think we were the window dresses for Macy's Christmas display.
Sometimes it seems people are more afraid of the UFT than Klein. I'm betting the Tweed gang were not unhappy to see that story on the charter school, so a teacher that speaks out might actually be a hero to them. Teachers who have left may feel they will be a target if they speak - concerned the reach of the UFT into the lower depths of the DOE (we know there's collaboration through the ease with which some (not all) Unity people get a transfer or placed somewhere. Could the UFT put the kabosh on someone and get them blackballed?
Though on the surface I seem to be contradicting myself about collaboration, there are many levels of collaboration right down to the former district machines that are still operating beneath the surface, waiting to resurface. I actually ran into some of the heavy hitters from my old district at the UFT rally.
The more I read of the shenanigans in your fair city, the more disinclined I am to submit my application to the NYCDOE!
Norm,
First of all, I never expected these teachers to be identified, However it speaks to the lack of professional reporting by all our major newspapers.
There is so much omission to stories nowadays. For instance, how can the Post publish an article on a principal who believes overcrowding is a good thing without getting any teacher comments? This UFT Charter School story also lacked comments by the teachers (without having to identify them).
I and others have stood up to Randi when she visited my school(Not that it made any difference to her) We did get Ronnie Jones hot under the collar. He yelled at us for not backing a contract with 25 year longevity. We (and others) bit back, and as a result it was lowered to 22 years.
If your telling me we also have to fear this union (which I do believe) than what chance do we have of changing the leadership?
Schoolgal:
The reality is that most teachers will not talk to the press - I heard this at the AERA event I attended yesterday where Jennifer Medina of the Times said that. In many ways I don't blame them -- your words can be distorted and it comes out in a way you didn't intend. Or you just plain said something dumb in the heat of the moment. That's why I always talk to the press in background.
"If you're telling me we also have to fear this union (which I do believe) than what chance do we have of changing the leadership?"
I never did think we had a chance of changing this leadership. So many years of contact with the Unity machine in schools, at DA's, even at AFT convention where you see almost 1000 of them in one place for days - in all the restaurants, etc. Very eye opening and it gives you a sense of the enormity of the machine with the patronnage and perks and how tiny groups like ICE and TJC can barely scratch the surface. All we can do is try to build a movement that becomes strong enough to pressure the leadership into compromises.
But before we can get even there, as a precursor, there is a need to bring the issues teachers face to them so they can make a more informed decision about union activity. That is why some of the in depth discussions we've held in ICE and at the Teacher Unite forums, which have attracted 50 teachers, many of them new to the system - a drop in the bucket of course, but each one has access to other teachers in their schools. So hopefully there's a multiplier effect going on. But this is one reason some of us in ICE have been putting time into the forums instead of the usual head busting with Unity at the DA and other places.
This is a long range project and it will take events similar to the 2005 contract stuggle which mobilized so many people. Randi was smart enough to see the danger of that and moved very quickly and effectively to tamp that down. There was certainly a higher level of sensitivity in the union for a while and also surface attempts to make thing look more democratic - like the 300 person negotiating committee which fooled a lot to people into thinking they were having a say.
Randi is very skilled at doing these things to manage the members. This is where she puts much energy and resources to put out potential fires. If there were more active opposition people in schools, there would be too many fires to put out - but we are far from there at this time.
With her time being split with the AFT, there's no one on the scene here with her skill (or paranoia) to do things like read the blogs to monitor things like she does. She's 24/7 and smart and that has made her a tougher target than seems obvious to people who see her in action only from a distance.
And she will make sure some form of mayoral control exists. She will call it collaborative, but as we have seen in the nebulous wording of the contract, mayors will find a way around it.
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