Career and College Ready

Queens City Councilman Rory Lancman is upset about college readiness rates in the city. He says that students graduate from high school at twice the rate of college readiness. And if you go strictly by the stats, he's absolutely right. If you read his argument, it's tough to find fault with it.

But if you look a little deeper, there is an issue, and that issue is how we define college readiness. The way we do it is via a combination of test grades. Here's a report from Reformy John King that likens college and career readiness to rating "proficient" on NAEP. Diane Ravitch argues that this is an absurd interpretation, the same one that the Reformy Waiting for Superman film used to berate public schools. Here's a more recent NY Regents report, full of Common Corey stuff.

Who determines who's college and career ready? Well, it's not really a who, but a what. It's based on test scores. Students who get so many points on this test and so many points on that are college and career ready. Students who get fewer points or fail this test are not. So if we want to make our students college and career ready, how can we do that?

It's pretty simple, actually. We test prep them. And as we all know, there's nothing more inspiring to teenagers than sitting around prepping for some test. That will certainly inspire them. They'll look forward to college and career, because they got to sit for hours in some classroom endlessly practicing exercises designed to show them how to pass one test.

Actually there are studies that show teacher grades are a better indication of college readiness. Unsurprisingly, students who do well with high school teachers tend to also do well with college teachers. Rory Lancman hasn't considered that, since he read somewhere that too many city students aren't college ready. In fact, a whole lot of people read articles like these and assume that students aren't college ready. And honestly, how many people follow closely enough to understand that college and career readiness are just a bunch of arbitrary test scores that some overpaid educrat dreamed up in some cozy office in Albany?

A problem with state exam scores is that they are wholly inconsistent and unreliable. One year it's the English Regents exam and the next it's the Common Core English exam. Which one is better and how do you prove it? Unfortunately, standardized tests are not really standardized as they're subject to whatever trendy nonsense comes into vogue. Next year maybe they'll drop the name Common Core and give the same test under a new name, pretending it's different. Or maybe they'll change a few things and say it's the same. Who knows?

Also the grades don't really mean a whole lot either. They are forever raising and lowering lines. One year they want everyone to pass so as to conclusively establish the genius of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The next they want everyone to fail so as to prove every teacher in New York sucks and needs to be fired. Who knows where the lines are this year? Who knows what they mean, particularly when coupled with the ever-evolving test, which Rory Lancman and readers of New York newspapers assume to be perfect no matter what?

There are issues with teacher grades now, too, unfortunately. I myself have attended meetings, the themes of which have largely revolved around how we could pass every student in every subject no matter what. I'm afraid I'm far from alone in this. Teachers understand messages, and not only subtle ones. We get when we're being hit over the head with a sledge hammer. We understand what it means when schools are closed for alleged failure.

If you consider the entire situation, it's very hard to say who is college and career ready. If anyone really cared, or really wanted to know, they'd empower teachers to do what's right and use their professional discretion. Of course, in New York State, that's out of the question. You see, the folks in Albany set cut scores up and down to make them appear any way they wish. That's fundamentally dishonest.

The thing about people who are fundamentally dishonest is they tend to believe the same is true of everyone. That's why they think we teachers are all too crooked to grade the state exams of our own students. As long as the crooks in Albany assume us to be pathological liars, no one's likely to attach any validity to the predictive nature of our grades.

But if anyone really wants to know how kids are doing, and how ready they are, they will empower teachers. The whole vilification thing really doesn't work for anyone at all.

Excecutive Board Takeaway--Being Unity Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

 First, Mulgrew said something very interesting Monday night.. He seemed to suggest that there was some workaround to the Janus decision that would come around next year being negotiated statewide. That might explain why there's all the cozying up to Cuomo and a potential endorsement. But then he said both the country and state would be right to work next year, so it was kind of a mixed message.

I sometimes have issues with what UFT Secretary Howard Schoor says but in retrospect, he said two of the most important things I heard all night. First of all, in answer to my question as to why no one got to vote on the ATR agreement, he gave the only credible and honest answer, stating they don't need no stinking votes, thank you very much. Perhaps more importantly, he unwittingly answered the question that haunted me for much of Monday night's meeting--how could so many people get up in public and say so many stupid things? I'll get to that later.

I sat for much of the evening shaking my head, literally, as I furiously tried to record the statements of the Unity faithful. One in particular shocked me, claiming that he spoke to two ATR teachers who were really excited about the buyout prospect. As someone who regularly speaks to ATR teachers face to face, on social media, via unsolicited email, on the phone and elsewhere, I found that impossible to swallow. It's inherently frustrating to be an ATR, being a teacher yet not a teacher, and I saw little or no understanding of that from Unity.

This buyout is beneficial if you are either on the cusp of retirement or are so frustrated and beaten down you're ready to walk. If you've already filed your papers, hoping to grab a sub license, you're out of luck and probably angry about getting left out. I know one person who took a permanent but tenuous appointment who's not happy about finding this out right now.

However, I also know one person for whom this is tailor made. I won't share her circumstances except to tell you this came at a perfect time for her. While I'm happy she can walk away with an extra 50 thousand bucks, and take a dream vacation, send a kid to college, or whatever, I also know this is a bittersweet moment for her. She's kind of painted into a corner on this. While she will enjoy the money, she's not happy about being pushed into a position in which she has to abandon her career. And if not even she is excited about this, it's impossible to conceive that two random ATR teachers would be.

Here's my exchange with Schoor:

Arthur Goldstein--MORE--Given the near certainty of impending US Supreme Court decisions it seems a good idea for our union to expand, rather than abridge fundamental democracy.

In 2011, there was an ATR agreement voted on by the Executive Board and the DA. In 2014, there was an ATR agreement that was part of the UFT Contract, and of course we voted on that too. This year, we have an ATR agreement that was not voted on by the DA, or any rank and file, let alone ATRs. Clearly there is precedent for us to vote on ATR agreements.

Why was that precedent not followed this year?

Schoor—No obligation for us to have a vote on ATR agreements. I see there is a resolution and we can debate that.

Now this says a lot. In fact, there is not always debate over matters we introduce. More often, LeRoy Barr gets up to speak against it, and everyone in Unity understands they are to vote against it. Schoor knew we would debate it because that's what they planned. They somehow put out the bat signal, texting or emailing a bunch of people to get up and oppose our motion.

What continually shocked me was the sheer volume of people who had nothing to say but got up and said it anyway. Though they got up one after the other and defended the agreement, we hadn't even criticized it. All we asked was that rank and file, or at least Exec. Board and DA, get a vote on this. We pointed out that ATRs had no say in this. Oddly, almost every Unity speaker ignored our argument altogether. They got up in rapid succession and claimed this agreement was made in good faith. Yet no one had claimed otherwise. They said this gave ATR teachers an option. Yet no one had said it didn't. When you argue against something your opponent did not actually say, that's known as a strawman. It's a logical fallacy.

Admittedly, a few of the speakers defended the failure to permit a vote. Schoor, to his credit, was up front about it. Several said we trust leadership to make those decisions. However, it was leadership that permitted ATRs to exist in the first place, an egregious error they permitted in 2005, an error for which thousands of UFT members have been paying the price ever since. And it's the height of hubris for these same people to get up and insist ATR teachers ought not to have any voice whatsoever in their destiny.

As Norm Scott pointed out, it would have been very easy for them to take all the wind out of our sails by holding a vote that very evening. They could then have said, "There. You asked for a vote and you've had it." In their haste, that didn't occur to them. Instead they got up and spouted a great deal of nonsense.

A recent column on this blog bemoaned the lack of positive vision in many administrators. It's a big problem when administrators are focused on nothing but their own advancement. Unfortunately, the same issue exists in the upper echelons of UFT. A mind focused on defending the status quo at any cost is less than productive, and I have met many such people who are employed full time by the UF of T. Instead of looking forward for members, they focus on glorifying leadership. I'm surprised there aren't ten-foot statues of Michael Mulgrew in front of Queens UFT.

I'm encouraged by people in leadership who are smart, who focus on problem-solving and moving ahead. I know a handful of such people and hope to find more. But as long as they keep stocking the Executive Board and district offices with loyalty oath signers who possess little to no positive vision, it's gonna be an uphill climb.

UFT Executive Board June 5th--Homophobes Yes, ATRs No

6 PM—Howard Schoor calls us to order.

Speakers—

Not here at the moment.

Minutes—

Approved

President's Report--Mulgrew not here.

Staff Director’s Report—LeRoy Barr—PS 15 book giveaway event Saturday, Brooklyn PS 105 book event, also Saturday. DA June 14, Last EB June 19.


Questions:


Arthur Goldstein--MORE--Given the near certainty of impending US Supreme Court decisions it seems a good idea for our union to expand, rather than abridge fundamental democracy.

In 2011, there was an ATR agreement voted on by the Executive Board and the DA. In 2014, there was an ATR agreement that was part of the UFT Contract, and of course we voted on that too. This year, we have an ATR agreement that was not voted on by the DA, or any rank and file, let alone ATRs. Clearly there is precedent for us to vote on ATR agreements.

Why was that precedent not followed this year?

Schoor—No obligation for us to have a vote on ATR agreements. I see there is a resolution and we can debate that.

Mike Schirzer—MORE—Jason from Art and Design couldn’t make it. Asked me to report. Probationary teacher was asked to spy on union chapter and report on meetings. Confessed this to DR Alice O Neil. Article 23 was good step but they want more steps. People given low ratings, afraid to have chapter meetings. UFT sent chapter advocate who saw principal threaten the chapter. Asks that Mulgrew visit. Can UFT pursue case against principal for anti union animus?

Wayne Clark—Ms. O Neil cannot answer question because we just completed investigation. There are points that show he is targeted and intimidated. I was contacted by SLT chair, asked about SLT behavior protocol. Answered their bylaws control it. We see pattern of investigatory processes to intimidate. People want a quick fix. I agree with some of their arguments. I would like results. Superintendent Marisol Rosales part of problem.

Schirtzer—MORE--Started out only as CL, now other unionists being targeted. No quick fix, but they need something.

Clark—I have held chapter meetings, though not this year. Union presence is there. Group of fearful people, which is understandable. We have won APPR complaints. We will give them due process and keep on pressure.

Sterling Roberson—At Art and Design, Alice and I have gone into building. Bottom line is we make sure they have ability to have meeting. Principal was unavailable when we were there. We do have meetings. Idea is what happens after that. Will update.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Outstanding success was CPE 1. Have new principal, all are glad. Were charges raised that had no basis, letters excluding parents. When they do these things we need to seek redress. How are we going against those who raise false charges?

Schoor—We’ve been talking, but I will update on CPE 1. Met with parents, admin, school safety, will hopefully go forward with acceptable plan. Will pursue other means of redress. Looking at which supes work with us and which don’t.

Marcus McArthur—MORE—New approach to admin, like CPE 1 and Art and Design. Said our strategy was to focus on supes. Have those conversations begun? What can you share about dealing with principals?

Schoor—Yes, we have had and will have consultation next Monday to highlight various supes. Evolving process. Looking at it carefully. Will do something. Not sure what. Chancellor says she has best supes ever.

Kuljit S. Ahluwalia—New Action—ATR agreement—buyout package publicized. Is there an ATR workshop? Is Eval process the same? Can they be forced to teach out of license? Money not everything.

Amy Arundell—Meetings every September about rotation, assignments, interviews. We take individual questions. Have had meetings every year for five years. This agreement limited to two things.

Kuljit S. Ahluwalia—New Action—Those who do opt for package—Are they entitled to lump sum payments?

Arundell—If they retire, they get lump sum. If they resign, they don’t.

Schoor—better than last 20K agreement.

Tom Brown—We will answer pension questions for any ATR. Will give individual consults.

6:21—Mulgrew arrives.

Mulgrew--Says we had CTE team from NYC come in first at national. Horace Mann HS.
Now four mayoral control different bills in Albany. Some give charters some, some give everything,

We have a waiver bill in case of Janus. NY Post not a fan. Some GOP support in Senate.
Thanks Amy, Ellen Procida for ATR agreement. We have right to negotiate for ATRs. Convinced City Hall we need this issue to go away. Nothing stopping city from placing people if they want to. We will see where they move. Thanks Tom Brown and pension people.

Everyone’s situation is different, and people should go to borough liaisons for info. Emailed all ATRs we are aware of.

Finished city budget Friday. Had great state budget, will see where mayoral control goes, but there is support for education and community learning schools, pre K. Want strong city budget.

By next year we will be right to work state and nation.

We got everything we asked for. Increase in teacher choice, CLCs, PLC, Brave, Dial a teacher. We

had a breakfast here and people spoke to program people. Paid huge dividends because they understood programs.
some tie tax credit. Our main issue in Albany.

6:29 Mulgrew leaves.

Schoor—ATRs came up at many meetings. Not done until it’s done.

Report from Districts

Tom Murphy—Retiree luncheon. Many winners, 50 and 60 years. Going to rally tomorrow on kickstarting 2018 campaign.

Janella Hinds—Very proud to report on prom boutiques. Served 4,000 students at various locales. Partnership between middle schools and high schools. Need more men’s clothes but everyone left with something. Thanks Adriana O Hagen and Ellie Engler.

Tom Brown—TRS board divested from thermal coal companies, and divestment has been completed. Working with Mercer to assess impact of climate change on our investment portfolio. Global Climate Index AODP ranks which funds have least harmful effect on environment, TRS 40 in world and 9 in US.

Political report—Paul Egan—Thanks members for coming out to City Council, for breakfast. Will be elections before big one in November with Constitutional Convention. AFL group has website. Will be flyers and info that is downloadable.

We have more endorsements. Adding Francisco Moya, well known to us, will be loss in Albany. Opponent is Hiram Monserat, about as corrupt as you will find. Various other names.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Given what we are facing in DC, what we do elsewhere matters a lot. We need to make sure we have solid people in cities and localities who share our values against hate and fear mongering. Fernando Cabrera calls himself social conservative. Says people don’t know how conservative his district is. Funded by right wing super PAC. Also homophobe and open about it.

Given where he stands, we cannot trust him. Strongly recommends no endorsement. In addition, ambivalent on public funding for private education.

First 7 pass.

Egan—Disagrees about Cabrera. Has voted with us on every issue. With regard to homophobia, I think this is an exaggeration. He is a minister with religious belief. Has not gotten up and voted in that regard. He isn’t perfect. DRs brought him in. We talked about legislation in regard to gay marriage, has never voted against it. Spoke about charters, has not made any votes in regard to that. Says his track record justifies endorsement. We never know what they will do in the future.

Schoor—Calls Vote—endorsement passes.

Egan—Contingency resolution—Things happen, and in some races we have not made recommendations because we haven’t gotten everyone in. Will be a primary. Allows Exec. Board to vote on any endorsements between June and September.

Passes.

Mike Schirtzer—-MORE—Motion to Vote on ATR agreement. Text below:

Whereas the UFT Constitution states in ARTICLE V EXECUTIVE BOARD-SECTION 6.  that "The Executive Board shall direct the affairs of this organization"

Whereas ARTICE VII DELEGATE ASSEMBLY- SECTION 6 states "The Delegate Assembly shall have the power to legislate all matters"  and has repeatedly been referred to as "the highest decision making body of our union" by President Michael Mulgrew

Whereas UFT members under the title "ATR" do not have a chapter of their own, nor a chapter leader or delegate

Whereas an agreement regarding  the status of ATRs was bargained and signed by representatives from the UFT and City of New York without the formation of a committee to do so, nor a vote by this executive board or the DA

Resolved that there will be meetings in the five  boroughs for ATRS to discuss and vote  on any agreement regarding their status

Be it further resolved that the UFT DA and Executive Board will discuss and vote on any agreement in accordance with the UFT Constitution  and consistent with our union's democratic process 


Mike Schirtzer—-MORE—We know there was an ATR agreement. Concerned it was without democratic process, sets bad precedent. We will face Janus and we have to engage membership. DA highest decision making body. ATRs have no chapter or delegate. Should have been ATRs on committee.

Unions are under attack Public schools under attack. We have to involve members. As a union and exec. board we have responsibility to follow democratic process. We the UFT need to consult with people whose lives will be affected.

I know that whenever we raise a resolution everyone is obligated to speak against. If we said sky was blue Unity would say it was green.

Ellen Driesen—Can’t speak for every DR, but all of us have relationship with ATRs. I hear a lot that they want a buyout. I don’t think having an ATR in negotiation is good idea because pool is fluid. Important it go to CLs and DRs.

Stuart Kaplan—Spoke to two ATRs today. Were excited about opportunity to decide. Is an opportunity. We deserve to give ATRs that opportunity. No one would deny ATR the decision. Many demonized in media. We don’t negotiate for some. We negotiate for all.

Maria Callo—There will be open meetings. We represent ATRs. They do not need their own CL or DR. That’s what UFT leadership is here for. They deserve the right to bargain on their behalf. Reminding everyone that ATRs have a great opportunity. We cannot think about a small little part of a couple here or there.

Dolores Sozopone—We have always had a union leadership battle for us. ATR issue going on for long time. Have given elected officials authority to negotiate for us. That’s what they have done. Let ATRs make decisions for themselves.

Janella Hinds—ATR not iicense or title. They have an opportunity. We as leadership speak to members of that status all the time. We are engaging. Democracy takes on different forms.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Wants to recognize positive comments. I know that we as union stay in contact with ATRs. There is no assumption of anything but good faith. I believe agreement is good, but I haven’t seen it.

Schoor—on website.

Halabi—Point of resolution is not about fluid status but about concrete group of people. To build our union and make it stronger there should be some sense of consultation. Support is not the same. Challenging us to bring more of our members into our decision making

Priscilla Castro—calls question.

passed.

Resolution—fails on party lines.

We are adjourned.

Thanks to Jonathan Halabi.

Educational Leadership--The Right Person for the Job

Every day I read the education stories and some days they are simply amazing. Here's the story of an assistant principal who's a serial liar, scamming teachers for cash with various sob stories, getting caught, and then moving up to a better gig on Long Island.

Long Island, evidently, is a really cool place for aspiring supervisors. I remember the former principal of my daughter's junior high school not only for his overuse of the word, "illustrious," which I found disturbing, but also for getting caught somewhere having non-consensual sex with a 16-year old. Turns out he'd also lied about his criminal record. Go figure.

There's something called Sayre's Law, that posits academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. I wonder how many of us have seen this at work. I can't think of anyone I know who hasn't come across an abusive supervisor. Of course none of us are perfect, and none of us treat everyone fairly all the time. Some people now believe that the use of rubrics mandates fairness and precludes human shortcoming altogether. Of course those people are idiots.

I'm sensitive to stereotype, particularly since I see it so frequently directed against teachers. I want to be careful not to do the same to supervisors. Much as I hate to admit it, I've had positive relationships with my supervisors for most of my career. I'm also gonna go out on a limb here and admit that not all of us teachers are perfect. Sometimes we make mistakes. Let's take it a step further and admit outright that, despite all our complaints about supervisors, almost all of them come from our own ranks.

As such, we are not blameless. There are those of us on a mission to do whatever the hell we are told. When the DOE says the workshop model, or whatever, is the solution to all the ills of humanity, we do the workshop model every goshdarn day. If they say sit in a rocking chair for fourteen minutes, we make sure not to do it for fifteen, as that would likely as not precipitate the end of the world. I think, to be a good teacher or supervisor, there needs to be some level of vision or imagination independent of the top-down messaging that comes down from city, state, or fed. I can't imagine there are a whole lot of students running around saying, "Boy, that workshop model changed my life.Thank goodness Ms. Grundy used it fourteen minutes every single day without exception."

There are also those of us who long to escape the classroom. That's a hard one for me to fathom, because the most rewarding moments of my career happen there. In our classroom last week, we showed an I Love Lucy episode called Job Switching. This was the episode where Lucy worked in the candy factory. We used it to spur conversation about perceived gender roles and also what makes a good job. I'm gonna brag here--when our students wrote about what's important in a job, several not only said doing what makes you happy is a key factor, but also cited yours truly as someone who's clearly happy at work.

Of course if I weren't happy, it would be hard for me to be a good teacher or role model. Now how would I deal with that? One way, of course, would be to seek a move upward. I could take courses in supervision, get the license, cozy up to some principal or other, and end up running a department. No more of that tedious classroom crap for me. Instead, I could tell all the other teachers what to do. Only I never liked doing it, I therefore never did it very well, and now I'm giving others advice. Where is that gonna lead?

What if the only thing I actually care about is my own advancement? What if that overrides any interest I have in helping teachers or students? How far can I get with that outlook? Judging from the various Principals from Hell I've encountered this year, I'd say pretty far. While we've seen one removed, there are still a bunch of them standing tall.

I don't think ambition is necessarily a bad thing. If it's coupled with a positive individual vision, maybe that person can make wide positive changes and expand them on the way up. But when ambition is the only thing, particularly when it isn't accompanied by appreciation for or love of the classroom, we get departments, schools, and entire systems going entirely in the wrong direction.

It's on us to keep a lookout for that, and to sound the alarm when we see it. As the Trumpies move to weaken our union and intimidate us, we can't forget that for one moment. Trump can appoint a non-teacher who's never held a job before as Secretary of Education. Andrew Cuomo can deny mandated CFE funding to NY schools and claim to be a student lobbyist. NYC can appoint insane principals and Boy Wonder supervisors. But there have to be real educational leaders somewhere.

My advice? Step up to a mirror and look for one.

Boy Wonder Goes Norming

Crap this is boring. Blah, blah, blah, triangles. Square this, square that. If only I can keep my eyes open for long enough to write this down...13, 14, 15 kids raising their hands. Let me make a quick note....

Only two students raised their hands.

That's show 'em. Jeez, what is this idiot next to me writing. How the hell did he ever get to be AP? Asked penetrating questions.  Heh. "Penetrating." I don't even know what this teacher is talking about. Jeez, is it fifteen minutes yet? That son of a bitch chapter leader will toss another one of my observations if I don't stay for the whole 15. Man why do they make this so damn hard?

Ineffective.

That makes me feel just a little better. Well, sorry, but this teacher just doesn't make me want to go out and draw these triangles. I mean, she isn't even wearing a skirt. When I get my school, all the teachers will wear skirts.

Let me look over at what that son of a bitch at the next desk is writing. Highly effective? Students are engaged? What drugs is this guy taking and where can I get some? You know, I kind of hate walking all the way to the barber shop to buy drugs.I wonder if there are some kids in the building I can buy from. Maybe I could raise a few grades and get them for free. Oh man. I just wrote that on the school iPad. Let me cross it out. Do those tech guys see this stuff? Maybe I should buy my own iPad.

I'm gonna have to talk my pal in the next seat into lowering those ratings or there's gonna be even more norming. I don't want to spend even more time with one of those assholes who rates everyone effective. Jeez, why can't we just go out last period Friday and write up the teachers who have too many absent kids?  Man, I cannot stop thinking about that Popeye's commercial. Two pieces of chicken, two sides and a biscuit for five bucks? For ten bucks, you buy two and that's a meal. Plus at Popeye's you can refill the drinks, so fifteen Coca Colas is not out of the question. Mmmm. Fifteeen Coca Colas.

Three minutes and forty five seconds and I'm outta here. But no. This bozo's shaking his head like he wants to stay the whole period. Can I just leave even if he stays? Oh my gosh he's writing again. Excellent engagement? What the hell is up with that? These kids are all sitting around drawing triangles. They're talking about a bunch of crap that I can't even understand. And they aren't even throwing in big words. Where's the rigor? Where's the grit?

Ineffective.

Oh my gosh this idiot is writing highly effective and I'm not even high. Jeez, are we gonna have to talk about this crappy lesson? I have to get to the barber shop and it's at least a twenty minute drive over to Popeye's. Man, why can't they build one of those joints around here? Nah. Then I'd have to share the chicken with the students and that bitch Feinstein. They'd all be, "Oh, I saw Mr. Wonder at Popeye's."

Oh crap! A fire drill! And me with only two minutes to go. What a waste of time! And now this idiot is going to want to talk about how wonderful the lesson is. Maybe I can slip off to my car. I could probably get over to Popeye's have a nice fifteen Coca Cola lunch, make a quick run to the barber shop, and get back to the school in an hour or two. I'll say I was inspecting the perimeter. Jeez, where did I hear that word? What does that even mean? Well, probably no one will ask.

Oh man! This guy wants to talk to me about the lesson. We can't write it up. Doesn't he know that? What the hell is the point? Hmm... maybe I could write the teacher up during the fire drill. Look at that. She's just standing there talking to some student. And a lot of the kids are just standing around doing nothing.

Ineffective.

I don't care I'm writing it up. And if the other guy doesn't, I'll call it dereliction of duty. That's the ticket. You know what's wrong with this system? The idiots they hire. I don't know how this guy ever became AP, and I'm never going norming with him again. When I become principal, you can bet I'm not bringing this douchebag with me. He loves this, he loves that. Highly effective all over the place.


I can tell you one thing, that guy is never gonna make principal.

The School Paper and Tough Teachers

The New York Post ran a piece Sunday on a school paper that the principal deemed unfit to print. The article includes the actual paper, which I found well-written, especially for a high school paper. I did not detect any anti-school bias beyond mentioning qualities students found undesirable in teachers. It didn't mention any teachers by name or deride anyone in particular.

I did notice, though, that most students surveyed seemed to prefer a "tough" teacher.  That's a difficult term to define. I demand that my students stay awake, do assigned work, show effort, and pass tests if they want to pass the class. Does that make me a tough teacher? I don't know. The Flushing students say that students themselves are the best judges of who is and is not a good teacher. I'm not 100% sold on that either, but there's some truth to it.

Of course, there is the strong possibility that this administration did not favor "tough" teachers. Maybe there is the preference that everyone pass everything no matter what. I can certainly understand that temptation, given the rich history of closing schools in New York City. And if you choose to be a "tough" teacher in that atmosphere, you do so very much at your own risk. 

As chapter leader, I've seen more than one "tough" teacher in trouble. Tough though you may be, given Chancellor's Regulation A-421, you can't really talk tough to kids. Of course much of this is open to interpretation, but if you say, "Good morning," in such a tone that a student takes offense, if the student complains you'll be sitting in front of the principal explaining why you said it this way instead of some other way. I have not been called in on that particular complaint, yet, but I could certainly imagine it happening.

Verbal abuse is very much in the ear of the beholder, so if you're prone to sarcasm, like me, you have to be very careful of what you say, and to whom you say it. I will only speak sharply to students who I know will give it right back to me, and I probably shouldn't even do that. To me, there's a lot of joy in watching newcomers argue with me. But I'd never think of making a sharp remark to a kid who wouldn't give it back.

When I have an issue, I usually take the kid out into the hall. Even that, though, is not 100% effective. A few months ago, I took a kid into the hall and told him point blank to stop sleeping in my class. I pointed at him, and he asked, "What's that?"

"It's my finger," I informed him.

The kid then went on a rant about how upset he was about my finger. The problem was not his sleeping in class, but rather my finger, which I was misusing. What if he'd gone to the principal and said I pointed at him while telling him to stop sleeping in class? Would there be an OEO report? Would I be up on charges? Would there be a piece in the paper stating that I'd pointed at a kid while telling him not to sleep in class?

You never know. Stranger things have happened. So how can you be a tough teacher when A-421 hangs over your head like the Sword of Damocles? How do you know whether saying hello to students might make them feel belittled or ridiculed? Of course, you hope that administrators will see through such nonsense and nip it in the bud. But then you see cases like Monica Garg at CPE 1 putting people up on charges simply because she evidently found them inconvenient, and you wonder.

City agencies seem to regard principals as prophets, perpetually walking down Mt. Sinai holding the Ten Commandments. Any goshdarn accusation they make, no matter how trivial or preposterous, is the living gospel in their eyes.  Fortunately, after a loud and sustained public outcry, Garg was stopped in her tracks at CPE 1.

But how many teachers are sitting around in rubber rooms for equally frivolous reasons? How many are there for being "tough" when the principal's directive was pass everyone no matter what?

On Class Size--Pay More, Get Less

That's what's happening in Fun City today. Even as the Daily News complains payroll is up by $159 million, we might not be seeing a concurrent improvement in services. Actually, even the article admits that's a 1.57% increase, so I'm not sure why it merits attention. Teachers just got a raise, a good portion of which we earned a decade ago, but it's so recent it's probably not reflected in even this modest increase.

The fact is that this money pays for fewer classroom teachers. Back when Emperor Bloomberg ruled New York City, he decided to stop frittering away money on classroom teachers. At first he huffed and puffed and tried to blow up seniority rights. He threatened to fire a whole lot of teachers. After Bloomberg failed to remove them, he was faced with firing new teachers, you know, the ones who aren't evil like those of us with experience. UFT made a deal to forestall firings, and Bloomberg simply didn't bother replacing teachers who left.

This might seem like a win-win, but it depends where you look and who you ask. For example, if you asked the folks at Tweed, the ones who place Children First, Always, they'll tell you this is the best of all possible worlds, we live in the best of all possible times, and our kids are in the best of all possible classrooms. I guess if you ignore Brexit, Trump, kids learning in closets, bathrooms, trailers, hallways and elsewhere, you might be in agreement.

But there's something that teachers on the ground see that the idealists haven't picked up on. The UFT Contract has not substantially changed on class size. In fact, it hasn't evolved in over half a century. But as far as I can see, maximum class size has pretty much become the norm. I have spent an awful lot of time with our 50-plus page master schedule this year. Classes are 34, 34, 34 and 34. Of course there are exceptions, particularly in gym and music, where they are 50, 50, and 50. And there are exceptions. You'll see 33, 32, 49 and 48. But they're now the exceptions.

Is it any wonder that we have thousands of oversized classes? I've spent all year fighting oversized classes in my school, and mine is far from the worst. Despite an arbitrator's ruling that all class sizes be fixed, when that proved to be too much trouble, we had a "compliance call." This resulted in extra teachers licensed in the subject area being assigned to assist. It's not ideal, but better than nothing. Yet still now, with only a handful of days left, not all classes are in compliance with even that modest demand.

At the UFT Executive Board, Unity members are outright indignant at any suggestion that our class size regs need improvement. They formed a committee, they say, they're discussing it, and that ought to be good enough for anyone. We gave up money for these class size regulations, they say, even though virtually no one in the room was teaching at the time these regulations were established.

Actually, the amount of money the Daily News bemoans is a relative drop in the bucket. If we're really gonna focus on what the public wants, we need look no further than the parent surveys, consistently ignored by the DOE. When offered the option, what public school parents want is lower class sizes. As a teacher, I couldn't agree more.

But what we end up getting from the people who muster the audacity to claim they put "Children First, Always," is education on the cheap. Pack 'em in, hope for the best, and blame the teachers if they fail. We have a cookie-cutter rubric to rate teachers and class size plays no part in it whatsoever.

Do you want to know who really places children first? First there are the parents. Those of us who actually send our kids to public schools care a lot about what goes on. Secondly, there are the teachers. Of course we care about learning conditions, if for no other reason than learning conditions are our teaching conditions. We get up every morning to serve these children, and for that we are treated like criminals by administrators and periodicals right up to the New York Times and our pussy-grabbing President.

If NYC wants value for its dollar, it will demand that newly-progressive Governor Cuomo cough up the money for class size reduction mandated by the CFE lawsuit, Otherwise, putting children first is nothing but more lip service.

Will NYSUT and UFT Leadership Endorse King Andrew?

It's good that NY will help students pay for school. It's certainly an improvement over students not being able to afford school. Personally, though, I don't trust Andrew Cuomo as far as I can throw him. I understand that he's not being openly hostile to teachers at the moment. Despite that, this is a man without convictions, a man with no moral center, a man who puts his finger up to the wind and goes whichever way blows toward the Presidency.

Andrew Cuomo, having watched the results of the 2016 Presidential election, has decided the way to go is becoming Bernie Sanders Lite. And lite he is, given that he ran for the Governorship on a platform of going after unions. He's taken all sorts of money from charter school enthusiasts, and had no problem speaking at one of the Moskowitz Academy rallies. He's imposed junk science ratings on every teacher in New York. He's introduced Tier 6 to government employees. He's imposed a tax cap that means municipalities can't raise their school budgets by more than 2% without a super majority, and bribes residents with a tax refund for failing to invest in their schools. He's also failed to comply with the CFE ruling to give sufficient funds to city schools.

Nonetheless, that's not what he wishes to be known for. Right now, he wants to make tuition free for a lot of students, and I believe he actually stood with Sanders somewhere. Of course, it's not precisely a free ride. You have to be in school full time and complete it within a prescribed time frame. And you have to live in New York for as long as you receive the scholarship. Cuomo has now relaxed those rules a little. If you're in the military, or if you face extreme hardship, you get a break. Of course, if you do have to pay the money back, it's interest free. That's a better deal than I got.

All in all it's a definite improvement. It will help a lot of kids who I serve. So you take this, along with the "moratorium" that Cuomo's imposed on certain 4-8 state tests, and you could conclude that he's a new man. Of course, you'd need to disregard Tier 6, APPR, CFE, the budgets, and the state reg that NYC has to pay rent for charters whether or not it approves them. You'd have to assume he isn't still bought and paid for by "Families for Excellent Schools" and all the various astroturf orgs that hate us and everything we stand for.

I'm afraid I can't make that assumption. What really bothers me is that UFT and NYSUT leadership will perhaps make it anyway and endorse him next election cycle. I think that would be a mistake. Just because a self-important, self-serving, disingenuous, morally bankrupt politician makes a few moves toward evident lucidity doesn't mean that he's changed.

Even before Cuomo started pretending not to hate us, we kind of gave in to him. Who can forget our failure to support Zephyr Teachout in the Working Families Primary? Who can forget our failure to support her in the Democratic Primary? And who can forget our failure to oppose Cuomo in the general? I was not a fan of his GOP opponent, who had pretty words for us but opposed the Triborough Amendment that kept our contracts in force after they expired. I did, however, vote for Green Howie Hawkins both times Cuomo ran.

All in all, the man is a loathsome reptile. He will turn on us at any moment he deems convenient. It would be an enormous mistake for us to ignore that. 

Puerto Rican Teachers on Notice

This is a letter that teachers in Puerto Rico received. It says they're going to be reassigned, somewhere.Where? Who knows?

This is something that once happened to us. It was before I started teaching. I remember hearing about it at a borough meeting. We had a fiscal crisis in NYC and the contract was basically a quaint memory. Teachers were fired en masse. Those who remained were sent wherever to do whatever.

Of course, as big as NYC is, getting around there is just a matter of time. Maybe you spend too much time traveling, but Puerto Rico can be worse. There are more mountains, for example, in Puerto Rico than NYC. I don't think there's a subway and ferry system, or a lift to cross mountains with, but you can correct me if I'm wrong. There also aren't a whole lot of job opportunities these days.

I often heard stories about purged teachers in NYC who went into business and were successful. Some of my former colleagues would tell me they were jealous. I'm sure that wasn't 100%, of course, and there weren't any studies about what happened to all the former teachers. Puerto Rican teachers face worse prospects, unless they can figure out how to skim off the vulture capitalists who are sucking the lifeblood from their island.

Of course there are people of conscience, and few forward-thinking people want to see their schools drained of resources. There are not many people who want to see pension promises reversed, although we see that here on the mainland as well. There are just not a whole lot of great prospects over there right now.

This leaves one option for those with the means, and that's leaving the island. Maybe they can join the UFT. Who knows? That may solve the issue for a few, but what about those who remain? They're still stuck paying back predatory loans to people who have no regard whatsoever for their welfare. Unlike our President, who declared bankruptcy multiple times, they haven't got that option. And for some reason I don't envision the Trump administration bailing them out either.

I hear they've already experienced a whole lot of loss. I don't know--maybe if everyone just left, the vampires would have far fewer bones to pick.  Should we encourage them to come here? Should we somehow make it easier for them to get bilingual and/ or ESL certification so they could help us out in their time of need? Should we maintain our focus on trying to help the people that remain? Would it be possible to do both?

At the UFT Executive Board last week, we passed a resolution of support, though we seemed to limit it to one union. Also UFT supports collective bargaining but not collective action, the notion of which was entirely alien to at least one hand-picked Unity Executive Board member. Those in FMPR is 32,000 according to Wikipedia. However, I hear that AMPR is exclusive representative, that teachers were not permitted to select FMPR, and that FMPR is now really around 4500. FMPR is not officially recognized by the government for their rabblerousing. It's not recognized by AFT, I suppose for disaffiliating with AFT. Nonetheless, 4,500 people is a pretty large group to have no representation nowadays. (Actually 20,000 NYC high school teachers have no representation in NYSUT, NEA or AFT, so I kind of know how they feel.)

This notwithstanding, we on the high school executive board supported the resolution. I spoke in favor of it. I continue to be mystified as to why we can't give blanket support to all our brother and sister teachers. This is a crisis, and I know how I'd feel if I got a letter like this. Time for Puerto Rico, and for us, to get over our sibling rivalry and offer full-throated support to all teachers.

Thanks to Aixa

Restorative Justice? Maybe Sometimes, but Not Always

I don't oppose restorative justice. I'm for whatever works. I read with interest this piece on using it, and I suppose, particularly at an elementary school, it's best not to use punitive measures where they aren't called for. I also wonder, though, whether sometimes this is pushed at the expense of issues like suspension, which I think needs to remain an option for us.

A few weeks ago, we administered the NYSESLAT in my school. My job was monitoring the test. I'm gonna say right here that proctoring is one of my least favorite activities. To me, it's like watching paint dry. Of course, there are those little moments that spice it up.

A young man walked into the auditorium talking on a cell phone. I immediately walked up to him and told him he had to leave. His response was to repeatedly instruct me not to touch him. I found this odd because I had no intention whatsoever of doing so. I have no idea what gave him any impression otherwise.

I told the young man the auditorium was full of English Language Learners, and that they were taking a standardized test. He said, since they didn't know English, that his talking wouldn't disturb them. That was pretty clever, I thought. Less clever, though, was his repeatedly calling me a moron. I followed the young man as he walked through doors and outside. I've been working in this building 20 years and never realized we had doors on that side, so I guess the young man knew the building better than I did.

I just kept walking with the young man, and talking to him. He refused to identify himself and kept reminding me that I was a moron. I had no plan but just kept talking. Luckily, one of my colleagues noticed our discussion in the auditorium. Actually, I suppose everyone did. But a few minutes after I got outside, a dean walked out, spoke the young man's name, and I instantly walked back into the building and wrote the whole thing up.

I later learned that the young man had blown past two of my colleagues outside the auditorium. Evidently they were not crazy enough to follow him. I was, and I'm glad I did. The student was suspended and I'm not losing any sleep over it. As much as I hate these tests, my kids have every right to take them in peace without undue distractions. To me it was unconscionable to show such disrespect for these kids.

Hey, if there's some method that works, if there's some circle to sit in, if they want to do whatever it's fine with me. But I really felt that not suspending that kid would have sent a message that anything goes, you can do whatever you want, and that admin would sit by and let it happen. I'm glad that mine didn't.

I'm open to better ideas. Feel free to leave them in the comments.

May 22 Executive Board Takeaway--Chutzpah on Parade

There were both good and bad moments last Monday. My favorite was when CPE teachers presented Howard Schoor with their t-shirt. I asked him to wear it and indeed he did. He spent the rest of the evening with a green CPE 1 shirt over his shirt and tie. This was an indisputable victory, and of course it merited celebration.

Another bright spot was Janella Hinds, who told us she was meeting with DOE to bring back Regents grading to high schools. Visiting other schools has been disastrous for lots of my members, and our administration, among others, has tried scheduling midterms exams and even classes during January Regents week, with miserable results. It's ridiculous that the Board of Regents doesn't trust us to grade our students, something we do all the time. It's even more ridiculous that the city doesn't trust us to grade students in our buildings, and spends millions that could be used to reduce class sizes to pay us for what used to be part of our job.

I'm afraid I was less enthusiastic when Schoor suggested that Michael Mulgrew was solely responsible for the CPE 1 victory. I don't mean to diminish Mulgrew's role in this. He may have worked a lot for it. But it's outrageous to ignore the contributions of CPE 1 faculty, parents and community. They came together, stayed together no matter what, reached out for help everywhere and anywhere they could, and didn't give up when the odds were against them. I also have to say that we in the high school exec. board supported them in every way we could.

This notwithstanding, it's not really good policy to attach all success to one single person. Was Mulgrew solely responsible for the atrocity of Moskowitz moving in to JHS 145? I'd argue no, he wasn't. But if you're going to singlehandedly take responsibility for success, you also have to shoulder defeat. We are union. Theoretically, at least, we stand together as one. We share responsibility both in success and failure. The Unity MO, taking 100% credit for success and zero responsibility for failure, is preposterous and unsustainable. We rise and fall together, that's the most fundamental concept of union, and that's why we need to work together for our common goals.

Sadly, that's not how leadership sees things. The next major item on our agenda was a resolution to support our struggling brother and sister teachers in Puerto Rico. Of course I support that idea, along with our entire high school exec. board. I spoke in favor of it. But I didn't feel qualified to do so until I did a little research. I asked my friend Aixa Rodriguez what I could say and she put me in touch with Mercedes Martinez, President of the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico. The situation sounded pretty dire. Based on what she told me. here's what I said:

If we’re gonna be public school proud it means standing up not only for ourselves, but also for our friends and neighbors.  I spoke to Mercedes Martinez, President of the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico, who tells me another few hundred schools are to be closed to raise millions of dollars to pay the criminal loan sharks who’ve purchased the debt. Tens of thousands of teachers are facing pension loss, and also furloughs which will mean immediate cuts in salary. In Puerto Rico, vulture capitalists have converted human misery into a financial bonanza.

Puerto Rican teachers face criminalization of protests and years of jail time if they strike. In fact it’s likely they will do just that, and they need our support. Allowing this in Puerto Rico is tantamount to allowing it everywhere. It behooves us to do everything in our power to stop it dead right there. I urge support.

Mike Schirtzer then said we ought to add FMPR to the resolution, and also add "collective action" to our support of collective bargaining. Evidently, though, there is a history with this union. FMPR broke off from the AFT, and are therefore unattached to our parent organization. The question then becomes does that mean we can't support them? When Mike told me about this early in the evening I tried to imagine on what grounds they would oppose it. I couldn't come up with anything.

But I didn't have to wait long to find out, because LeRoy Barr stood up and said we had to clear these things with the AFT. I don't really know what that entails, but the fact that this union had specifically pulled out of AFT indicated to me that chances were somewhere south of excellent.

What really shocked me, though, was when a Unity Executive Board member got up in front of God and everybody and asked what collective action was. I mean, collective means together, and action means to do something. I was in Lawrence last week, picketing with teachers from various unions, including UFT. That's collective action. As Mike Schirtzer said, the various strikes in which UFT participated were collective action. In fact, the UFT theme these days, Public School Proud, is also collective action. Our Immigration Forum was collective action. Opt-out is collective action. Electing Christine Pellegrino to the NY State Assembly is collective action. In fact, having the union meeting itself is collective action.


Everything we do as a union is collective action, yet this particular handpicked Unity Executive Board member was entirely unfamiliar with that concept. Perhaps a better question would be what do we do that is not collective action. For my money, one example is having one person make all the decisions, going along with them without question, and hoping like hell to keep that after school gig answering phones or whatever the hell you do, and therefore shutting your mouth when it's high time to speak.

With the specter of "right to work" hanging over the United States of America, we've got a lot of work to do, and we need all the friends we can get. Maybe, instead of dwelling on our political squabbles, we should look to expand collective action and solidarity with all our brother and sister unionists, including FMPR. This is particularly true when their cause is our cause. Otherwise, I don't know how we're gonna weather Donald Trump and his band of faux-patriotic alt-right slimeballs gleefully trying to lead us on some coal-powered airplane back to the nineteenth century.

Student Perception Survey 2017

1. How high do you jump up and down every time you go to this teacher's class?

a. very high   b. high  c. somewhat high  d. a little bit  e. I don't jump at all. The teacher sucks.

2. What do you say when you raise your hand in this class?

a. OOH! OOH! OOH!  b. OOH! OOH! c. Ooh. d. Blah  e. I don't raise my hand. The teacher sucks.

3. Does the teacher give you candy?

a. always   b. usually  c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

4. Does the teacher come over to your house and do your homework for you?

a. Yes. b. Yes, but only for his class. c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks

5. How often does the teacher make you explain your answers?

a. always. The teacher sucks. b.  Usually. The teacher sucks. c. Sometimes. The teacher sucks.
d. Rarely. The teacher sucks.  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

6. How much do the teachers stupid rules cramp your style?
 
a. always. The teacher sucks. b.  Usually. The teacher sucks. c. Sometimes. The teacher sucks.
d. Rarely. The teacher sucks.  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

7. Does this teacher control the class well enough, or does she suck?

a. She controls the class well enough. b. She controls the class well enough, but she sucks anyway.
c. She doesn't control the class well enough, so she sucks. d. She sucks at controlling the class.
e. She sucks at controlling the class, and she sucks in general

8. Does the teacher roll out a red carpet every time you enter the classroom?

a. always   b. usually  c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

9. How often are you so thrilled to be in the class that you don't think about food, sex, video games, or your iPhone?

a. always   b. usually  c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

10. Is the teacher always bugging you to do stuff?

a. always. The teacher sucks. b.  Usually. The teacher sucks. c. Sometimes. The teacher sucks.
d. Rarely. The teacher sucks.  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

11. Does your teacher jump up and down because she's so viscerally excited to teach your class?

a. always   b. usually  c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

12. When you're with your girlfriend or boyfriend, how often do you focus on this teacher's class instead of one another?

a. always. This teacher is ruining my life. b. often. Man I wish this teacher would get out of my face. c. Sometimes. This teacher really sucks. d. Rarely, but only to make jokes about her. e. Never. Why would I think about that moron?

13. When the teacher makes you do some ridiculous impossible crap, how often does he insist you finish it no matter how stupid it is?

a. always. The teacher sucks. b.  Usually. The teacher sucks. c. Sometimes. The teacher sucks.
d. Rarely. The teacher sucks.  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

14. How ignorant is this teacher?

a. very   b. really  c. extremely  d. a whole lot  e. This teacher sucks.

15. How boring is this class?

a. very   b. really  c. extremely  d. a whole lot  e. This teacher sucks.

16. Will this teacher give a golly gosh darn what you are doing three years from now?

a. No  b. Nah  c. Uh-uh  d. Nyet  e. Fugeddaboudit

17. How often does this teacher tell you how much you suck?

a. always  b. too much  c. every day  d. continually  e. a lot, but the teacher sucks more

18. Does this teacher genuflect when you enter the room?

a. always   b. usually  c. sometimes d. rarely  e. Never. The teacher sucks.

19. How bad is the teacher at controlling crazy students? We don't mean you, of course.

a. terrible  b. no good  c. negative  d. horrible e. awful

20. How hard is it to understand the stupid things this teacher says?

a. really hard   b. very hard   c. impossible  d. forget about it  e. The teacher sucks so I don't listen.

21. How good is this teacher at pretending to care about you?

a. not very  b. not at all  c. doesn't even try  d. Who cares? e. This teacher sucks.

22. Does this teacher care if you understand?

a. no  b. no   c. no  d. no  e. all of the above

23. Does this teacher write individual lesson plans for each of her 170 students?

a. no  b. no   c. no  d. no  e. all of the above

24. How awkward do you feel talking with this weirdo teacher?

a. very   b. really  c. extremely  d. a whole lot  e. This teacher sucks.

25. If you walked into the class upset, the teacher would...

a. ignore you  b. scream at you  c. throw a cheeseburger at you  d. make it worse  e. all of the above

26. Would you rather be with this teacher or a cute puppy dog?

a. Are you kidding?

27. How much have you learned from this teacher?

a. nothing  b. less than nothing  c. diddly-squat  d. nada e. The teacher sucks too much to listen.

UFT Executive Board May 22, 2017--Good News at CPE 1 y Problemas en Puerto Rico

Howard Schoor, Secretary calls Anika and Cindi from CPE 1, they thank us for our support. Principal asked to step down. Two teachers returned to classroom as of tomorrow. Giving CPE t-shirts for people in dais.

Schoor—CPE 1 great success for UFT, for our work, very proud. Day Marilyn went back he was there, parents were celebrating, great response from kids. Jackie Bennett was there today. Howard wears CPE t-shirt.

Speakers—

Aixa Rodriguez—on resolution for support for Puerto Rican teachers. Asks that all unions be named and FMPR be included. President coming in June, would be great gesture of solidarity to include them. Super important to create sense of unity with all parents, kids and teachers. Situation worsening daily. Would mean a lot if we stand with them regardless.

Schoor—says we’re with you.

Fran Meyers—Adult ed.—says union members unite to fight abusive administrators—says adult ed. principals and APs have been abusing powers to give U ratings. Says they are impossible to fight, rigged at 99% rate for principals. Defines grievance as per article 22. Says admin needs to be honest. We shouldn’t be told we can’t grieve it due to post-ob. Supe Mills handpicked cronies who abuse powers. Reports written to denigrate teachers. Standards used as battering ram, applied without regard to level. We have to fight for this before we are fired. Day to day methods for individualizing instruction should be left to teacher. Many U ratings and unjust firings. Irrational and abusive use of observation system must be stopped to preserve dignity of profession. Asks union support grievances as per article 22, before teachers lose jobs.

Catlin Preston—CPE 1—Thanks UFT leadership, especially Howie and Ellen Procida. He is exonerated. Was long 14 months. Was reassigned as CPE 1 fight happened. Speaks of teachers languishing in reassignment, a twilight zone with no clear path forward, no guidance. Can be dispiriting, especially when you don’t know what you’re accused of. I am proof administrative abuse takes place, and that there are real consequences.

My exoneration indicates that charges were not substantial to begin with. Extremely grateful for due process rights, for salary, pension but dignity, professionalism were assaulted. Thought about quitting. I was found not guilty. I also have feeling of wanting more from UFT, ground level support, my mind stays with those teachers, They were dedicated professionals. We shouldn’t apologize for abusive admin. We need to balance investigatory power of admin.

Schoor—Minutes—approved.

Mulgrew arrives 6:15—

Schoor—only one person at UFT responsible for CPE 1. He made sure our members were made whole.

Mulgrew—AFT says they have none of those rights and are gone for allegations. Doesn’t mean it’s OK because we have these rights. You wanted your school back, you have it. Make it run, make it shine, and show everyone that’s why we do these fights.
Betsy DeVos giving speech, many cuts, charters vouchers, tax credits. PD cut. In our city we are the place that shows what public ed is. We will always have challenges and always learn something new. They have screwy ideas—they have ability to reassign but someone needs to monitor those who make the decisions. When it’s done from abuse, that’s why it’s in their interest to do better. If we’re all fighting DC, if LA controlled by “reformers,” that’s what we’re dealing with.

When I talk to city I tell them we’re in it together, and this is not good for public ed. Hoping there will be more changes. Was an enlightening process. We have to move forward. Will see what happens in DC. Thinks we can block but we may have to mobilize. Mayoral control now tied to tax credits. I am not involved because we don’t like this version. Was very smart to not tie to charters, to appeal to upstate. Working on good things up there.

To CPE 1, it’s your school, you have it back, do what you always wanted. We’ll make sure everyone sees that’s what happens when you treat ed. well.

Mulgrew is given CPE t-shirt, leaves, 6:22.

LeRoy Barr—Spring conference May 13, crowd applauds Dr. Barber. On UFT.org. May 15, immigration forum. Thanks E. de Jesus, Ashraya Gupta. Tomorrow Shanker scholarships 5:30. DA June 14, EB June 5. May 25 prom event. 3K dresses and suits, handbags, shoes, jewelry. Wed. in Bronx UFT.

Questions

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—We have now seen both Marilyn Martinez and Catlin Preston brought up on charges. Despite the fact that they seemed to have no validity whatsoever, and were in fact determined as such, OSI saw fit to take them both out of their classrooms. It seems like they will support just about anything that comes out of a principal’s mouth. Clearly, what with the various Principals from Hell we’ve been hearing about at these meetings, that is an issue. No one wants our members dragged through the mud for no reason. How many teachers are currently reassigned, and are we dealing with the abuse of the investigatory process by OSI and their friends at DoE legal?

Schoor—We will get number. We are looking at process. Found principals make decisions. If there is a complaint, OSI seems to ask principals. Seems to be problem. We will look at it.

Mike Schirtzer—MORE—HS Applied Communication members continue to face attacks. Culture of fear. Looking for any help. What steps being taken to remove principal?

Schoor—Carmen Alvarez has been in school. Many special ed. complaints. Janella going next week—says DR in school weekly, we are in constant communication.

Schirtzer—What are we doing right now. They are under constant attack.

Hinds—collecting info, visiting.

Rona Freiser—another meeting today. 30 members in schools. Dealing mostly with two or three. Working with CL. Trying to figure what’s best for all. We are on top of everything and working with CL. Recall for CL didn’t pass. Many people going in building.

Schoor—We can’t just say principal is terrible. We need facts, can’t generalize. Will take time we will get there.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action—Tremendous day when we can overturn something like this. Supe, Estrella, temporarily removed. If I have a friend, do I say you now work with decent person, but other returning. Bad supes real issue. This is not normal. Elaine Lindsay in Queens is not. When they show abuse, direct abuse, our strategy doesn’t work. What do we do with abusive supes?

Schoor—We have been looking at supes. We will be doing something. Stay tuned. We expect full membership of UFT to get involved.

Kuljit S. Ahluwalia—New Action—Seems to be concern over what’s going to happen in September to ATRs. What can you tell us?

Schoor—Still meeting, but don’t yet have agreement. Would be unfair bargaining to say now. City and we want agreement. Maybe next meeting.

Ashraya Gupta—MORE—Proud at immigration forum. Randi said we were no longer in control of populism narrative. What strategies are we thinking of applying? How are we reaching out to members? Forum was people already with us.

Schoor—We discuss everything, working with NYSUT, AFT, everything connected, Will have something members can partake in.

Marcus McArthur—MORE—PD hours—what should teachers do to get CTLE hours they now need. They are registered but now want to know how to get hours.

Evelyn de Jesus—Members need 100 hours. ESL need 50 in ESL, others 15. UFT in summer and September will have series of workshops, and we can go to your school and offer hours. We can do L or special ed. hours. Training people to turnkey in summer. DOE now provider. If you go to DOE workshop make sure there is approved provider.

Report from Districts

Pat Crispino—SVA grad, Bennie Lye, killed in head on collision. Moment of silence. Asks for gofundme contributions.

Dolores ?—Ed. liaison for Manhattan—There are many things union does—Ed. liaisons in every borough, help with licensing and certification. Have been able to reduce number of teachers in danger with support.

Janella Hinds—met with DOE about Regents scoring. Are awaiting response. Will share.
Missed name—12 annual scholarship dinner SI—raised funds for summer camp, tech devices.

Margaret Dalton—Thanks Manhattan staff for support with para day of learning. Gives Evelyn de Jesus thanks. Thanks Ellie Engler and presenters.

Mindy Carter B.—Thanks people for coming to speech and hearing month. Displayed in UFT lobby. 11th year.

Helen Greisen—Spoke of Public School Proud celebration of arts. Been in many schools. Seen incredible things from children and teachers. Friday we had 7 or 8 schools perform. Will be video. Ended with Public School Proud chant led by supe.

Evelyn de Jesus—Thanks Queens office for visiting Lawrence Teacher Association. Issues with community, private schooling, tremendous turnout. Everyone thanked us. Attack on them is attack on us.

Political report—Paul Egan—tomorrow is election day in AD 9—Christine Pellegrino running. If you live there, voter for her. 1K UFT members out there. Low turnout. With exception of 2 districts, all budgets passed. Thanks people on continuing basis for school visits to City Council offices.

Schoor—City Council members were here, hearing about programs we want them to continue funding.

Evelyn de Jesus—resolution about Puerto Rico, cuts in services, ed., health care, at heart of our unions. Been there 4X, 33K active teachers,48K members. Asked for help. 378 school closings. 3K teachers came to mainland. Average salary 17.5K. 6.25 gallon for milk No social security for teachers. GOP offering no help. This association shares our values. These are our people Puerto Ricans US citizens. 3.5 million.

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—If we’re gonna be public school proud it means standing up not only for ourselves, but also for our friends and neighbors.  I spoke to Mercedes Martinez, President of the Federacion de Maestros de Puerto Rico, who tells me another few hundred schools are to be closed to raise millions of dollars to pay the criminal loan sharks who’ve purchased the debt. Tens of thousands of teachers are facing pension loss, and also furloughs which will mean immediate cuts in salary. In Puerto Rico, vulture capitalists have converted human misery into a financial bonanza.

Puerto Rican teachers face criminalization of protests and years of jail time if they strike. In fact it’s likely they will do just that, and they need our support. Allowing this in Puerto Rico is tantamount to allowing it everywhere. It behooves us to do everything in our power to stop it dead right there. I urge support.

Mike Schirtzer—MORE—Motion to amend. Wants to add FMPR to resolution in various places. Asks we add “collective action” to demand for collective bargaining. We know there are divisions among teachers.

Stuart Kaplan—Point of info—Can you clarify what collective action is?

Schirtzer—MORE--aware of divisions, but when teachers under attack we have to show solidarity with ALL teachers. Students and professors have led boycotts, strikes, occupations. Talking about what George Altomare always talks about when he celebrates union. We must recognize and respect what happens in Puerto Rico.

LeRoy Barr—Speaks against amendment. There were emails about this with President Mercedes Martinez. Convo was she has to go through AFT. We do things through AFT for national issues. We come out with positions as they relate to NYC. When we invite others we always coordinate with agent responsible for bargaining or who has relationships at those levels. It’s AFT and NEA. Was back and forth. It was with President of the organization. Told them it has to go through AFT. Speaking in favor of all people in Puerto Rico. Against anyone making low wages, but this goes through AFT.

Jonathan Halabi—New Action--With all due respect, standing in solidarity means only we can speak. AMPR has relationship with us. We should find a way to reach out to brother and sister teachers.

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—Are we going to add collective action to our resolution?

(Evidently it is included in what Unity is voting against.)

Motion fails.

Original motion passes.

We are adjourned.

Screw Thy Neighbor

It's probably true that no matter how bad things look, there's always someone worse-off than you are. In no less than the alleged bastion of liberalism The New York Times, there's a piece by reformy Kevin Carey, extolling the virtues of value added. And while Carey pays lip service to the American Statistical Association, nowhere does he mention their key finding--that teachers affect the test scores of their students by a factor of 1-14%.

That's fake news, right there in the Times, on the topic that tortures working teachers more than any other. Peter Greene pointed out on Facebook (and now on his blog) that, despite the professed hope for more teachers on the right of the value-added bell curve, it could never actually happen, you know, because it's a frigging bell curve! Equally vexing, for reasons I will never fathom, our union leadership seems right there with Carey.

Exhibit A that things could be even worse is Lawrence, New York, where a bunch of parents who send their kids to religious schools have taken over the public schools. Screw the teachers, they say, as they deny them a contract for seven years. Screw the children, they say, as they demand reversals in class size restrictions. These people, in a town populated by veritable mansions, want to keep their taxes low, ensure services for their own children, and everyone else, evidently, can go to hell. They're building on the East Ramapo model, which ensures transportation for their own kids, and starves the schools full of other people's children to keep their tax rates down. This may or may not be exacerbated by the reprehensible Cuomo tax cap of 2% or rate of inflation, whatever is lower.

And while I was shocked by what happened in Lawrence, I'm even more shocked to see this model attempted elsewhere. I've received several letters now of failed attempts of school board takeovers in various New Jersey towns, but one is the most disturbing I've received, and I'll post it below. It's about an election takeover attempt at Ramapo Central:

They didn't get on the board but people are panicking. Our tax base is shrinking fast. We were afraid that they would get in as write-ins at the last minute. They've been buying up houses in the area and renting them. They have proposed a 2000 student yeshiva across from our school building on Cherry Lane Avenue. The Ramapo supervisor, who just got convicted yesterday enabled the permits for this monster on a two lane road in a residential neighborhood. When the district decided to curtail their insane bussing needs, they flooded our board meetings and accused our board of anti-Semitism. http://www.lohud.com/story/news/education/2016/09/16/state-denies-request-halt-ramapo-central-bus-changes/90508278/ We all fear that it is a matter of time before they try to take over our board. We have asked the State to allow us to change our name to Suffern Central to attract people into the district and differentiate ourselves from East Ramapo. We are fighting this but it feels hopeless! Thank you for any help you can give us.

It looks like East Ramapo is a model they wish to spread. While I studied religion as a child, I must've missed the Commandment to Screw Thy Neighbor. But there is indeed an explosion of private school students in need of busing, along with concurrent demands for enhanced services. I guess you can call it democracy when a locality decides to enforce policies that favor one ethnic group over others. You can look away from the outright bigotry inherent in such policies and say this is what the people want.

But when people want racist and bigoted policies, well, they kind of need to be stopped. History is replete with examples of oppressed minorities and I'm not even gonna try and enumerate them here. It's curious, to say the least,  that one such minority would think about it and determine the solution is to populate one small space, become the majority, of voters at least, and then decide to oppress others.

I guess that's one way to approach the situation. And these days, with an administration in DC whose watchword is "ethics-shmethics," it seems par for the course. Much as I believe in democracy, though, I don't think it trumps human rights or fundamental decency. I don't think there are many things more fundamental than educating children. While we've managed to screw up royally with health care, that's not justification for moving backward on something we've gotten right for the most part.

We as unionists are in a very precarious place, with national "right to work" a virtual certainty over the next year or two. There are several areas we'll need to assert ourselves in order to not only support our members, but also keep them within the fold. To me, this certainly looks like one of them.

Sitting Here in Limbo

Yesterday, after calling in all week, Nassau County finally told me to report to jury duty. While my co-teacher gave a test we'd prepared, I drove in to parking lot 14 of Supreme Court Drive and reported. I went through the metal detector, filled out a form, and sat myself in a big old room looking at what appeared to be a judge's bench.

Actually, though, it was some sort of prop to make us feel the gravity of our situation. Above the bench was a huge screen that rolled down so we could learn about what a trial was. I watched the video, but I've also watched a lot of Law and Order. All due respect, the TV show explains the same process just as well, but more dramatically. I rated the video developing.

Then there were a lot of calls to our sense of civic justice. You would want to be judged by someone objective, like you. It was nice that they gave me such credit, not knowing me from a hole in the wall. It's important you do this duty, they said. It will just take a few days, usually, unless of course it takes longer. If your employers have more than ten employees they need to pay you the 40 bucks a day you earn, but just for the first week. I wasn't clear whether the county would pay you the daily 40 bucks after that, but I was pretty glad to have a union job where I get my full salary.

I watched the people around me. I had brought a book called Razor Girl by Carl Hiaasen.  Hiaasen writes about Florida, about the outrageous people who live there, and about the incredible self-serving deeds they perform. I got a pretty good start to that book. At first I seemed to be the only one in the room who'd brought a book, but eventually I noticed two others.

Maybe some people were reading books on their phones, but most I saw seemed to be on Facebook. Naturally I too got on Facebook to make these vital observations. An hour passed. Another hour passed. I got on Yelp to see if there was any good place for lunch. They guy who spoke to us said 12:30 was lunch time, but that they wouldn't pay for our lunch or transportation. He suggested we go and eat in their basement lunchroom, but I didn't see any rave reviews on Yelp.

At 12 I started to wonder what was going on. As the minutes ticked by I began to become curious whether anyone was going to call us. 12:16 passed by. 12:26. At 12:27 a guy got on the microphone and said lunch would be delayed. I was disappointed because I had found some sort of cajun/ BBQ diner a few blocks from the courthouse worth checking out.

But the message was one of hope. Evidently, there was nothing whatsoever happening for us in the courthouse, and they were going to send us all home. Our jury duty entailed sitting around in a freezing fake courtroom for two and a half hours, and they weren't calling us again for another six years. They sent us to a smaller room and gave us all certificates.

I actually had a date to go out to a cool Korean BBQ joint in Queens with my department, and my friend Jia came all the way from Manhattan to join us. Before that, I actually reported to my school and helped my co-teacher grade our test. Well, it was in the neighborhood.

Today my wife, my daughter and I are taking a defensive driving course at our library, which means we'll all sit around in some room for six and a half hours. This should be yet another day of big fun, punctuated by a thirty-minute break during which I shall drive home very fast, walk my dog, and drive back very fast.

I guess, as a teacher, I will refrain from bringing my book to the all-day funstravaganza. I don't think I'd like it if someone did that to me.

East Ramapo Comes to Lawrence, Long Island

You've probably read or heard about East Ramapo, where a bunch of private school parents took over the public school board and essentially decided to strangle the public schools to death, or drown them in a bathtub or something. They just had their budget rescinded by the state because they planned private school busing on days public school doesn't meet.

I had no idea this sort of thing was happening 20 minutes from where I live.  UFT VP Evelyn de Jesus asked if I would come out and stand with the Lawrence teachers, who've now gone over six years without a contract, and I did. I've been a UFT member since 1984, and I certainly remember various times we went years without a contract. So of course I sympathize. But after speaking to teachers on the picket line I realized this was more than just waiting on a hostile mayor.

Evidently the Lawrence school board is now populated entirely by parents who send their kids to yeshivas, private religious schools. And these religious parents appear to have determined that the needs of their children supersede the needs of the rest of the riff raff living there. So why not close down a few of those useless public schools and save a few bucks?

As for the teachers, the last time they got a contract, they had friends on the board. But those days are gone. I mean, a contract usually entails more money, and why should the current board give a dime for community? That would mean, you know, paying taxes and stuff. Do you have any idea how much it costs to maintain even a modestly sized McMansion nowadays?

One of the stumbling blocks to reaching an agreement is class size. A teacher told me the new board wants to raise it. Evidently they can't waste time even pretending to care about the children of their neighbors. The teacher told me that once they raised the class sizes they could then fire all the teachers they didn't need, which would leave more money to bus their own children and provide more services to the yeshivas, wherever they may be located.

Randi Weingarten got up and gave a speech about how basic tenets of Judaism entailed caring for members of our communities. I'm not very religious, but that's certainly a value I share. I respect people who are religious in general, but I'd deem people who say, "I've got mine, screw everyone else," to fail the spiritual litmus test, whatever it may be. I don't know what the school board members would've said to Randi's speech, but I also don't know how they sit in temples and expect God to respect them. In fact, I don't even know how they sleep at night.

I had another question, though, and this one bothered me even more. How on earth could this be going on maybe 15 miles from where I live without my even having heard about it? Why isn't this story plastered all over our local rag Newsday? Why isn't there an op-ed in the Times about it?

This is an outrage, and word has not really gotten out. Please consider this to be word one. I'm hoping to see more words about it elsewhere. I saw reps from unions all over the island today. I think it's a good start but it's not enough.

I'm more than happy to support my union when we do the right thing, and I was glad to be there. That's me with that big UFT banner, wearing red for public ed. For Lawrence teachers to get a contract, we're gonna have to do more than wear the correct-colored shirt. We're gonna have to drag that miserable school board into the limelight and let the whole world know what they're doing.

I'll let you know right here if they take another action, and maybe we'll call our friends in the press and let them know too. Nothing disinfects quite like sunlight. Honest to God, I haven't got the faintest understanding how anyone could consider themselves religious and treat their own community like garbage.

Say what you will about Donald Trump, but at least he doesn't pretend to be interested when he has to go to church. He states his concerns openly--chocolate cake, ogling his adult daughter, and pussy-grabbing. When he talks about the bible, or values it's hard to imagine even his supporters not recognizing that as empty lip service. But who knows? As Lily Tomlin said, "No matter how cynical you get, you just can't keep up."

Despicable people tend to remain that way no matter how frequently they sit in church, or temple, and pretend to be otherwise. If there's anyone around my neighborhood rivaling the "ethics-shmethics" level of Donald Trump, it's the Lawrence school board.