Big Winners and Big Losers: Elections Have Consequences and the Victories for Liu and Di Blasio Are Big Wins for UFT, How Will They Impact the Contract Negotiations and Beyond?

 

The essence of democracy is in that polling booth, when you depress the levers and swing that handle, the mechanical clunk as your preferences are recorded and candidates are elected.

 

The NY Post, the NY Daily News and the conservative pundits and talking heads may rail against the “power of the unions,” what they are railing against is the power of democracy.

 

On the eve of the fist round of the primary election Green was nudging the required 40% and Liu seemed a long shot to make the runoff. The Working Families Party, unions, and, especially the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), rolled out the troops.

 

Teachers, paraprofessionals, the newly organized home care workers, the many retired members are loyal, and understand the vital importance of elections.

 

If Al or Sandy or Randi, and now Mike, endorse a candidate, you vote for them, you get your spouse and your kids to vote for them, you follow the age old labor axiom, “Support your friends and punish your enemies.”

 

The 150 Assemblyman, the 61 State Senators and the 51 City Councilman took note, the teachers union can get out the vote, UFT members live in every electoral district in the City, from the high rises in Manhattan (three teachers sharing an apartment), to East New York, to Jamaica to the Bronx.

 

Implications?

 

How will the election results impact the current DOE-UFT contract negotiations, and beyond?

 

In the short run, will the Mayor resolve the outstanding thorny issues: the ATR pool and the rubber room mess?

 

The intersection of politics and policy: significantly reducing the number of teachers in the rubber rooms is not difficult, the vast majority end up back in their school, they are sitting because they were arrested for a non-school connected accusation that will be dismissed or adjourned contemplating dismissal after months and months in the rubber room. Another group were accused of a “single incident,” perhaps getting into an argument with their principal or an accusation of striking a child. Again, after many, many months the charges will be dropped or perhaps pay a fine and return to their school. If the rubber rooms shrink from 600 to 200 why was it so large to begin with? Is it a political loss for the Chancellor and the Mayor?

 

If an agreement is reached that eliminates the ATR pool by the end of the school year, again, why did it exist to begin with? That clash of politics and policy.

 

In the last few years the Mayor has tended to side with the Chancellor, policy won out over politics, however that has begun to erode. The “save harmless” provision in the Fair Student Funding formula is increasingly looking permanent and changes were made to make hiring senior teachers out of the ATR pool more attractive, as well as threatening to recoup unspent school budget funds on October 31.

 

Third terms, of Koch and Pataki have been dreary, and, the city is facing a number of years of fiscal obstacles. Secretary of the Treasury Geithner may aver that the recession is over, it will not be over in the big cities for years to come. Remember this is year one of Stimulus dollars, a billion non-recurring dollars that are funding schools this year and next year and evaporate in fiscal 2011-12.

 

The Mayor wants to march into a very challenging third term with the teachers union, the most powerful political force in the city on his side. If the Department continues to dawdle over the full implementation of the amended school governance law, namely the return of the fully empowered superintendent, there is no question that upon return in January the State legislature will “fix” any ambiguities in the law.

 

Elections have consequences and in this round it was the UFT that showed it’s clout, democracy can be a “bitch.”

Does Race Matter? President Carter, Obama, Patterson and the NYC Teaching Corps, Should We Be Concerned About the Declining Numbers of Afro-American Teachers?

Former President Jimmy Carter raised a question that was simmering beneath the surface since election day, 2008.

 

”I think it’s based on racism,” Carter said in response to an audience question at a town hall held at his presidential center in Atlanta. ”There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president.”

The Georgia Democrat said the outburst was a part of a disturbing trend directed at the president that has included demonstrators equating Obama to Nazi leaders.

”Those kind of things are not just casual outcomes of a sincere debate on whether we should have a national program on health care,” he said. ”It’s deeper than that.”

Carter’s riff unleashed a hail of commentary. Afro-American  op ed-ers in the NY Times disagree, Charles M. Blow  sees “shades of gray,” while Bob Herbert  chuckles, is there any doubt?

Since race is on top of the 24/7 news cycle let me stoke the flames, does the race of a teacher/principal  impact student achievement?

There is a paucity of research, undoubtedly due to the possible consequences, if, in fact, the research is clear cut, that race matters, isn’t this an argument for schools segregated by the race of the staff?

In 2001 a Study found that, “…Models of student achievement indicate that a one-year assignment to an own-race teacher significantly increased the math and reading achievement of both black and white students by roughly three to four percentile points.

Thomas Dee in his 2004 Study ”The Race Connection“  avers, “…  among black students, the benefits of having a black teacher were concentrated in schools with higher levels of disadvantage and racial segregation.” However the study questions the teacher quality issue, were the white teachers of equal or lower ability?

A 2007 Study reworks the Dee data and concludes, “Dee’s result is found after confirming that there was no association between assignment of an own-race teacher and student characteristics, i.e., sorting of students did not transpire. We extend Dee’s work by including the effects of student innate ability and teacher gender on student achievement. Our findings indicate that once these two variables are taken into consideration, sorting of students does transpire, and matching students and teachers of similar race has no statistically significant affect on student achievement.

Claude M. Steele  opines that “stereotype threat” may play a major role in diminished achievement among Afro-American college students, “When capable black students fail to perform as well as their white counterparts, the explanation often has less to do with preparation or ability than with the threat of stereotypes about their capacity to succeed.”

The percent of Afro-American teachers in NYC has declined steadily since the beginning of the Children First Klein initiative, down 10%. (from 22% to 20%).

The Tweed leadership is overwhelmingly white, and male.

The lesson du jour these days is the workshop model. A significant part of a lesson is devoted to a collaborative activity, groups of students working on a problem, reviewing subsets of “data,” perhaps measuring and charting, finding the main idea, analyzing documents, the students, as a group, discuss their analysis and reduce their findings to a report, maybe filling out a prepared guide, and, reporting back to the whole class, and having the class comment on their findings.

All too frequently the teacher struggles, kids “socialize,” wander away, pout, and as the teacher moves from group to group s/he urges, orders, cajoles, pleads and “negotiates” with the students. The reports, unfortunately, too often reflect the work of only one or two kids in the group, and, is well below standards.

The lesson “succeeded,” but the patient?

I’ve watched Afro-American teachers who are incredibly strict and demanding. The kids must enter the classroom in an orderly manner, take their seats, open their books and commence work. The teachers asks questions, demands response, no excuses, no backtalk.

Lisa Delpit, writing in 1996, “described how popular progressive pedagogies of that time like Whole language, while claiming to represent the best learning of all students, did not in fact match the learning needs of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with whom she worked.”

A white teacher with many years of service complained to me about his younger Afro-American principal and invited me to his classroom. He clearly knew the material, was well-prepared, however, the kids were disengaged, restless, and some misbehaved. I asked him, “How did you think it went?” He replied, “It was as good as you can expect from these kids.”

He complained that the principal “called him out,” told him that everyone, from the kids to the teachers and the principal had a responsibility to get better each and every day. From the first year teacher to the twenty-five year teacher, and he would not accept the comment “these kids” as an excuse.

In my view the principal, who was Afro-American, was correct.

At the end of the school day the principal pointed at the window, “It’s like a Le Mans start, the race to the ‘burbs,’ some are good teachers, but for most of them it’s only a  9-3 job.”

Clearly a complex issue: Why do Caribbean teachers and Afro-American kids frequently clash? Why Afro-American teachers from the suburbs, who have no rapport with inner city students accept below standard work?

Michael Meyers in a NY Daily New op ed writes, “Being black is not enough.”

Up to date data shows that 76% of NYC school system students are of color, 34% of the staff, should this be of concern?

I have seen Afro-American principals and teachers who failed their students, and extraordinary white teachers, however black teachers/principals can be role models and mentors.

I was walking down a street with a black teacher, kids walked by and greeted him by name, adults nodded, he saw the quizzical look on my face. “I’ve been a teacher, a dean and a coach, I live in the community, they know me I know them. I don’t take any crap, I tell them they have to work twice as hard to succeed, and may of them do.”

How do you measure and reward his contribution?

The subtext of every conversation is race, gender and class, and, we shouldn’t avoid difficult conversations.

What Happens During Contract Negotiations? Table Pounding and Foot Stomping or Numbers Crunching and Parsing … Creating a Contract Acceptable to Teachers and the Public.

 

 

 The name “chaos theory” comes from the fact that the systems the theory describes are apparently disordered, but chaos theory is really about finding the underlying order in apparently random data.

 

In summer of 1975 both the mayor and the chancellor were “friends” of the union. Days before the opening of school the “friendly” mayor and chancellor laid off 16,000 teachers and the union, that was in the midst of contract negotiations went on strike.

 

25,000 teachers packed Madison Square Garden and Al Shanker gave a rip-roaring speech that ended with the entire crowd standing and chanting “we won’t go back until we all go back!”

 

A few days later the strike was settled without the 16,000 teachers returning. By 1979 all laid off teachers were offered jobs, many had moved on to another positions and never returned.

 

Thirty-four years later I still meet teachers  who were laid off in 1975 and dislike Al and despise the union, feeling they were betrayed.

 

Mulgrew’s rather meek speech to union delegates calling for a speedy contract and limited bargaining goals  acknowledges a deteriorating economy.

 

The billion dollars of federal stimulus dollars will end next year and while Bernanke and Geithner opine that the recession is over, tax receipts in New York continue to decline, the State legislature will return after election day to make further cuts.

 

Perilous times to be involved in contract negotiations.

 

What actually happens at  a negotiating session?

 

* the 300 member negotiating sitting on one side of the table and Bloomberg on the other?

 

* Mulgrew making a rip-roaring table pounding speech?

 

* Screaming, yelling and finger-pointing …?

 

Actually the time is spent analyzing the cost of demands and parsing possible contract language, and an awful lot of waiting for the other guys to respond.

 

 ”Negotiations” are on-going, not limited to the “contract season.”

 

In the Spring the DOE and the UFT negotiated a plan whereby the DOE would pay the difference in salary between school average salary and teacher salary for one category in the ATR pool hired by schools.

 

This week’s P-Weekly (Principal’s Weekly) the Department acknowledges that the union had a partial win in an arbitration and chapter leaders can now have limited access to school budget data. The wording was probably screened by the union.

 

A number of the bargaining demands are “win-wins,” beneficial to both sides, and can help “sell” an agreement to the public at large, such as the demands streamlining the 3020a teacher discipline procedures.

 

The negotiations are divided into budgetary demands, things that cost money, and non-budgetary, all else. The reason why the union does not negotiate class size as part of the contract negotiations, the dollars would come out of the salary package.

 

“Sitting around the negotiating table” are in-house lawyers, some from the union and the department as well as outside counsel, “numbers” people, the City Office of Labor Relations, key union and department staffs with particular expertise. The “sides” exchange “concepts,” number analysis, and, eventually suggested contract wording, changing a comma here, adding a phrase there until all parties agree. Sometimes the wording of  a section is unclear on purpose, the sides couldn’t agree, so they add ambiguous language. A “concept” can be placed in the contract as a concept, details to be negotiated later in the hope that by the time of the next contract the idea can be incorporated.  Issues below are bound to be “on the table,”

 

* Finding agreement on how much each per cent of a raise costs the city?

 

* If the contract adds H1N1 to the childhood diseases exemption list, how much would it cost the city?

 

* If the union and the department agree to go beyond the pattern, how do they justify it?

 

* Can you exhaust the ATR pool in such a manner that will satisfy all parties?

 

* The current contract has a limited no-layoff clause, will the parties agree to continue the clause?

 

The department and the union jointly agreed upon a confidentiality agreement, no public statements, no leaks to the press. Both sides have been negotiating agreements since 1961 and know that negotiating in the press only postpones a contract.

 

Contract negotiations can resemble “watching ice melt” as the other side mulls over an offer for hours or days and those incredibly tense moments preceding a final agreement as the union negotiators debate whether to accept the offer, how the membership will react, and can they get “more,” or risk all.

 

 

The Spector of De Touqueville: The Power of Teachers and Parents In the Democratic Arena of Politics

 

There are about seven hundred school districts in New York State, and 1450 schools in New York City. Teachers, union members, in every single nook and cranny of the state. Add to the mix other titles represented by teacher unions, paraprofessionals, school nurses, and, the UFT recently organized home child care workers, almost all of whom live in communities of color.

 

Politics is the lifeblood of a democracy, the ability of ordinary citizens to express their opinions at the polling place.

 

A billionaire, the creator of a massive financial communications empire, spent skads of his own dollars in a campaign for the mayoralty in 2003. Those of us without billions can band together through community and/or ethnic organizations, through labor unions, and endorse candidates, collect voluntary contributions, build campaign structures: phone banks, mailings, building a constituency for a particular candidate.

 

On Wednesday, September 16th, three of the winning UFT endorsed candidates thanked the standing room only thousand plus Delegate Assembly. John Liu (Comptroller), Bill Di Blasio (Public Advocate) and Daniel Dromm (a teacher running for  City Council seat, who defeated an incumbent) basked in the adulation of the  delegates, and calculated the impact of a well organized, well-oiled union political machine.

 

In the 1830s Alexis De Touqueville marveled at the ability of Americans to form associations,

 

“Americans of all ages, all stations of life, and all types of disposition are forever forming associations…In democratic countries knowledge of how to combine is the mother of all other forms of knowledge; on its progress depends that of all the others.”

 

Liu and De Blasio will be in runoff elections on September 29th, there is no question that the union endorsement vaulted them into the runoff.

 

The face of the New York City electorate has changed dramatically in the last eight years and the Obama push last year registered many new voters and many voters of color.

 

Having already spent tens of millions of dollars one would expect the incumbent mayor to be ahead by 20 or 30 points in the polls. His lead is in the 10-15 point range.

 

While the mayor has made  education the core of his campaign his policies have united oft times fractious, to use De Touqueville’s term, associations.

 

It is unlikely that with contract negotiations in progress the teacher union will make an endorsement. I’ve meet many teachers who voted for Bloomberg twice, but not a third time. Perhaps his biggest albatross is Joel Klein. Joel, who has spent a lifetime as an aggressive litigator, can’t avoid that flip comment, his malady, foot in mouth disease, has succeeded in driving together teachers and parents and the range of associations around the city.

 

His comments about pushing to layoff ATR pool teachers has resonated in every school around the city and angered all staff members.

 

Chris Cerf, Deputy Chancellor for Politics, has skipped from Tweed to the Bloomberg campaign, reportedly to organize charter school parents.

 

Will charter school parents, almost all of whom are of color, vote for Bloomberg over Thompson?. In the early days of the presidential primary season Hillary Clinton was polling very well among Afro-American voters, on election days 90% of the Afro-American votes flowed to Obama.

 

The lesson of primary day is that labor voters, and, especially the teachers’ union, can bring out their members, as well as influence parents.

 

Thompson is still a very long shot, however, for electeds around the city, as well as aspiring electeds, opposing the Mayor and Joel Klein is simply “good politics.”

 

I was speaking with a former school board member,

 

“Yes, if an elected official who had passed legislation and drove dollars to our district asked us to find an $18,000 school aide job for a constituent we would find the job …. now when some partner in a white shoe law firm calls Joel he finds a $130,000 job for the partner’s kid … what’s the difference?”

 

Even Bloomberg’s turf, Manhattan, voters have lost their enthusiasm. The overcrowding debacle, coupled with the financial meltdown has made local public school more attractive. Parents seeking public school seats have been frustrated, shuttled from office to office, and electeds are totally out of the loop.

 

Stonewalling legislators, and trekking to Albany, hat in hand to ask the very same legislators for help has only succeeded in alienating the representatives of parents and teachers.

 

Bloomberg may very well win on November 3rd, it will be a close vote, however the City Council, probably with a much less compliant City Council Speaker, and the Albany contingent, will not not go away.

 

A prime example is the newly amended Governance law, unless it fully complied with in a timely manner I would expect the legislature to make substantive changes.

 

As former Speak Tip O’Neill opined, “All politics is local.”

 

DOE-UFT Contract Talks Begin: With Musings to Questions from Teachers and Parents with the Spector of Randi Weingarten Hovering.

 

 

Left early. Please bring the money or you keep the car.

The closing lines of the Thomas Crown Affair (Steve McQueen to Faye Dunaway). 

 

 

The UFT, the NYC teacher’s union and the City of New York formally kicked off contract negotiations, as reported by Anna Phillips on Gotham Schools. There were no press conferences, no verbal assaults, no strutting, both sides have done this many times. The contract ends on October 31, however, under NYS labor law the expired contracts remain in effect until the successor contract is negotiated.

 

Are the rumors about two year contract with raises of 4% each year true?

  

In the recent MTA-TWA fact-finding the head of the NYC Office of Collective Bargaining Jim Hanley testified that the City had put aside 4% a year for two years for the UFT negotiations. The concept of “pattern bargaining,” each contract impacts on the other, is firmly embedded in public employee labor negotiations.

 

In the last two sets of UFT negotiations the City explained that the increases of 43% were justified because the union agreed to an increase in the length of the school day (150 minutes a week) and in the school year (two additional days). The additional time was converted to a dollar value and the City explained that the contract was within the pattern. (time for dollars + the pattern)

 

How can the City afford any raises in this economic climate?

  

Another concept in public employee labor negotiations is “ability to pay,” the City could claim that the deteriorating economic situation makes the pattern impossible.  City and union economists would duel over the future fiscal status of the City. The union could claim that the Tier 5 agreement for “newbies,” newly hired teachers in 9/09, will save the City millions in future years, increasing savings in each year as more and more teachers enter the system at lower pension costs. The City pension costs have escalated substantially as the public unions have increased benefits over the last few years.

 

Aren’t pension and tenure and layoff rules embedded in State law? How can the City and the Union agree on items that require legislation?

  

It is commonplace for both parties to agree to support legislation on items agreed to in the contract that require legislative action. The best example are pensions. The City and union negotiate changes, with “triggers,” if an agreed upon actuary places a  stamp of approval on the numbers the proposed changes are introduced as bills in Albany.

 

The NYS Constitution prohibits any reductions in pensions for current or retired employees. Tenure and layoff rules can be changed by legislation, and, they have been in the past.

 

Are there any rules that regulate the actions of the parties?

 

The NYS Public Employees Relations Board (PERB) regulates the organizing of public employees and management-labor interactions, including labor negotiations. See here for  detailed discussion. PERB will only involve itself if the parties cannot reach an agreement by the contract expiration date.

 

Who represents the public? Who represents the parents in the negotiating process?

 

The public is represented by the Mayor.

 

What role will the Chancellor have in the negotiations?

 

As much of a role as the Mayor grants the Chancellor. Every 1% in salary increase costs the City in excess of 100 million dollars. The non-budgetary issues: the ATR pool, excessing rules, tenure, are primarily in the domain of the Chancellor.

 

How does the November 3rd Mayoral election impact the negotiations? Is it possible that the union and the Mayor have already made a “deal”?

 

The answers are “complicated.”  On September 13th the Mayor is up in the polls by ”only” 15% … in spite of spending many, many tens of millions of dollars. Every newspaper has endorsed Bloomberg, and so have scores of elected officials, and Bill Thompson, his challenger, has no money. It would appear that Bloomberg will coast to a victory. If the gap widens perhaps, just perhaps, the Mayor will drive a harder bargain. If the gap narrows, maybe, the Mayor will want to resolve the contract before the election. Will resolving the contract before election day translate into more votes for the Mayor?  All speculation, and speculation could impact the direction of the negotiations.

 

The union switching policy, supported the Mayor retaining control of the PEP, continuing his control of schools. The union agreed to a lesser pension system, Tier 5, for new employees. In spite of a close relationship with Bill Thompson the union has thus far stayed on the sidelines.

 

The Mayor has supported upgrading the teaching corp by offering competitive salaries and has supported Joel Klein in his efforts to attract potentially high quality employees, as well as supporting the Chancellor in his efforts to rid the system of older employees, and, especially the ATR poll scheme.

 

The school bonus plan is now paid for by tax levy funds, and clearly the plan was driven by the Mayor.

 

The union and the Mayor have a “relationship.”

 

Will Mulgrew and the Mayor address the larger issues of individual merit pay, changing excess/hiring rules, rubber room, etc.?

 

The ATR pool, according to the NY Daily News is costing the City $137 million … unsustainable in an era of severe budgetary stress.

 

If there is a timely contract I would suspect a “simple” contract, with the “larger” issues pushed forward. Than again, this is New York City, and will the ghost of Randi Weingarten want to use the UFT contract on the national scene, and a Mayor with visions that reach beyond New York City. Perhaps the DOE-UFT contract will be a national model.

 

 

Who actually approves the contract?

 

On the union side the Executive Board, followed by a secret ballot referendum in which all active employees vote. In 1995 the contract was defeated … a similar contract was approved about six months later.

 

On the City side the Mayor approves the contract, technically I believe the PEP must also approve, but with a majority appointed by the major it is a rubber stamp. The City Council plays no formal role. The Comptroller can certainly comment, but has no legislative responsibility.

 

The ”budget hawks,” the not-for-profits, the think tanks, the pundits, the newspaper editorial boards will all chime in.

 

Will the UFT members approve a contract with a substantial raises but includes other issues that are perceived as “give-backs,” like the weakening of tenure?

 

The UFT elections will probably take place in February – April, and the members can express their pleasure/displeasure with union leadership on their secret ballot.

 

The predominant caucus is the Unity caucus, all union presidents have been elected from the Unity caucus. The opposition caucus in the 80’s and 90’s elected the high school members of the Executive Board, and, occasionally the High School Vice President. That will no longer be possible. In a change in the union constitution all the officers are elected at-large. Even if a majority of high school teachers vote for candidate “A,” if candidate “B” receives more overall votes candidate “B” is elected.

 

In the last election Randi Weingarten received almost 90% of the vote.

 

The UFT members get “two shots at the apple,” a vote for or against the contract, and for or against the union leadership that negotiated the contract.

 

What happens if a contract is not negotiated by election day and months go by?

 

PERB assigns a mediator, if no progress is made an impasse is declared, a fact-finding panel is appointed, the fact-finders listen to testimony and review evidence submitted by both parties and issues a non-binding report. The fact-finding report is not binding, but usually is the basis for a settlement. The process is lengthy and could take many, many months … could run into the fall of 2010 … and the issuance of the report does not guarantee a contract. See recent fact-finding reports here  and the a prior UFT-DOE report here.

 

As a young teacher I worked as a Network Strike Coordinator planning out the distribution of picket signs, who would picket which school, etc. It was Sunday afternoon and unless a last minute settlement occurred the strike was on.  We were working in Vivian O’Neill’s home, her husband was the UFT Middle School Vice President and key member of the negotiating team. He staggered into the house after a “round-the-clock” negotiating session, he turned to us and said, “It’s almost done … we all need a few hours of sleep and we’ll wrap it up.”

 

The strike started on Monday and lasted 13 days.

 

It’s never over til it’s over.

 

 

The ATR Kerfuffle: Why Eliminating the ATR Pool Is Essential Before We Consider Bringing About Substantive Changes in Teacher Evaluation and Compensation.

 As of Friday, 1757 teachers who had been cut from closing or shrinking schools didn’t have a classroom to report to tomorrow – despite 1500 open positions at schools.

  

An additional 137 assistant principals – whose salaries collectively are more than $14 million – were in the same situation.

  

The pool of teachers, who work solely as on call substitutes, has cost the Department of Education $200 million in the past three years.

NY Post, September 8, 2009

  

The Chancellor proudly asserts that he converted the school system from a seniority driven hiring system to a principal based system … no teacher is assigned to a school without the approval of the principal … at what cost?

 

The problem is the Chancellor has created a canard, a straw man, a school system that never existed.

 

Prior to 2002, the beginning of the Klein stewardship 700 of the 1200 schools had opted for the School Based Option (SBO) Personnel and Transfer Staffing Plan, a committee of teachers, lead by the principal made all hiring decisions.

 

The remaining schools fell under the UFT Contract Seniority Transfer Plan. Half of all “vacancies” were listed for transfer, the remaining positions fell within the discretion of the principal. Vacancies were narrowly defined, retirements, resignations and terminations, most vacancies did not fall under the definition, most were created by leaves, commonly child care leaves.

 

The school districts (at the high school level the individual schools) chose which half of the vacancies to post. It was commonplace to list the bi-lingual Mandarin position, not the Common Branches. By my unscientific count fewer than 10% of the vacancies were filled by seniority transfers.

 

My former district hired about 100 new teachers a year, about ten were seniority transfers, in a highly desirable district. In many “undesirable” districts/schools there were no seniority transfers. The Chancellor constantly pointed to unsatisfactory teachers who fled from school to school using the Seniority Transfer Plan … the problem … he couldn’t point to any examples!!

 

This is year one of years of budget reductions, the stimulus dollars will end in another year and we are many years away from a fully recovered economy. Wasting, to use the NY Post’s numbers, $200 million is an immoral abuse of power to further ideological ends.

 

We must end the ATR system now!!!

 

Some suggestions from a long time observer of the scene.

 

1. The UFT and the DOE negotiated a “buy-out” clause in the current Contract, the details of which have never been agreed upon.  The “buy-out” should be made available to pedagogical employees over 50 years of age with more than 20 years of service. The clause calls for binding arbitration if an agreement cannot be reached – the parties should proceed with discussions, and, if necessary, an expedited arbitration.

  

2. All ATRs will be permanently assigned to schools within license, (see caveats below) as regular classroom teachers, no school with fewer than 500 students will receive more than one ATR, others will be assigned to schools taking into account the size of the school.

 

3. In year one the cost of the ATR will be absorbed by Central, in year 2 fifty per cent will be absorbed by Central. In year 3 and subsequent years all costs will be born by individual schools.

 

4. If the ATR has been in the pool prior to September 1, 2008 a special procedure shall be utilized.

 

     * A committee of five, two assigned by the DOE, two assigned by the UFT and one jointly agreed upon shall interview the teacher and determine whether the teacher is “qualified” or “unqualified.” If the ATR is found “unqualified” they may opt to participate in a demonstration lesson, or, where appropriate according to title, a display of their skills. If found “qualified” they will be assigned pursuant to # 2 above.

 

     * If an ATR is determined to be “unqualified” they will be required to participate in the Peer Intervention Plus program.

 

5. Commencing in the next school year all excess pedagogical employees  will be required to attend hiring fairs and will be required to participate in the interview process. If the excessee fails to be permanently hired after one school year they will be required to participate in the procedures in # 4 above.

 

Additionally the Fair Student Funding (aka Weighted Student Funding) system must be revised. Yes, dollars should follow kids and the funding formula should be transparent, but, and a really big but,

 

* School that would have lost funding under FSF have been “held harmless,” schools that would have gained funds received the additional funding. “Hold harmless” should be phased out over an extended period of time.

 

* Teachers carry their full salary, making higher salary teachers more expensive, and undesirable. There is not a scintilla of evidence that this system impacts student achievement. Other school systems that have implemented FSF count teachers equally, not using actual salary. Equalize the playing field – a teacher is a teacher.

 

In the last few weeks the Department hired a well regarded research institution to continue the Value-Added Teacher Data Initiative, and the Department and the UFT jointly agreed to sponsor a Gates funded study of teacher classroom impact – video taping of lessons, interviews, etc. assessing the impact of teacher behaviors/strategies on pupil achievement (see here for a different, but interesting program using video to assess lesson effectiveness/impact).

 

If we are to move forward, to take a collaborative look at teacher evaluation and compensation the “board has to be cleared.” The union cannot be expected to investigate, to take a fresh look at traditional core values, that may be abhorrent to some members, when the Department insists on policies that appear punitive to virtually the entire teaching force.

Krugman, Duncan,Weingarten and Dr. Pangloss in the Best of All Possible Worlds

 

 

 

As a million children trek back to school we can feel confident that “all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds,” after all, according to the Department of Education 97% of all elementary and middle schools received grades of “A” or “B.”  Dr. Pangloss at Tweed.

 

 

The Education Equality Project folk, the guys leading the Duncan agenda sound similar to the “freshwater” economists described by Paul Krugman in his September 6th New York Times Magazine and the failure of economic analysis before the meltdown of 2007. The “freshwater” economists (from the Milton Friedman U of Chicago school), neo-Friedmanites, see the power of the marketplace as driving our recession-proof economy.

 

 

“…in the real world, economists believed that they had things under control: the ‘central problem of depression-prevention has been solved … the economics profession went astray because economists, as a group, mistook beauty, clad in impressive-looking mathematics, for truth.”

 

For Duncan, the answer to the education ills of our nation is the imposition of his market driven model on the fifty states and the 15,000 or so school districts. Rather than waiting for the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) the Secretary of Education is using the billions of dollars in highly prescriptive Race to the Top  fund to change the face of education.

 

 

The Chicago-based “freshwater” economists who assured us we had entered a world without any fear of recession appear to have influenced Arne Duncan, who also is wedded to the miracles of the marketplace.

Arne’s message: You want the money, remove caps on charter schools and any restrictions on the use of student achievement data to evaluate teachers.

Create a school system based on competition (“Dewey be damned!”),

 

 

* Encourage the creation of an unlimited number of charter schools that can compete with public schools. Low achieving schools, whether public or charter will be closed.

 

 

* Collect data: input data around teachers (levels of education, number of degrees, seniority, special training, race, gender, teaching styles, levels of collaboration, etc.) and output data around students (test scores, attendance, discipline, college acceptance and success, longitudinal studies, etc.)

 

 

* Establish national standards and a uniform testing system, perhaps National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

 

 

* Base teacher recruitment, retention, tenure and remuneration on the results of an analysis of the many data sets.

 

 

Ultimately the marketplace will drive out low functioning schools and low functioning teachers and create a national school system in which success, school success and teacher success, will be data-driven. The power of states, school districts and teacher contracts will be trumped by the marketplace.

 

 

With the Congress totally enmeshed in the health care imbroglio the only critics have been the teacher unions.

In a 28-page response  to the proposed Race to the Top regs Randi Weingarten offers detailed criticisms and suggestions.

 

 

…we would use the following criteria to review the proposals in the draft notice: Do they help students? Are they fair to teachers? Are they transparent to the public? Do they require shared responsibility? … the ED proposals succeed in some areas and fall short in others.

 

We believe that bypassing the legislative process is inappropriate and not in keeping with the goals of ARRA.

 

…the promise of additional funding is a heady incentive to sign on the dotted line. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that funding alone will create good policy.

 

True reform require more than funding alone; it requires valid, reliable, sustainable and fair policies, thoughtful implementation and the collaborative approach necessary for success.

 

There is obviously a role for student achievement in teacher evaluations. However standardized assessments should not be the sole or predominant measure in a teacher’s evaluation … under the ED’s proposal, a teacher’s livelihood and career could depend upon an overreliance on an unproven idea.

 

…the AFT supports: develop meaningful and effective teacher evaluation systems that can measure performance and inform decisions in a way that helps students and is fair to teachers.

 

It is imperative that we find common ground on teacher quality and compensation, namely, how to continuously develop, fairly compensate and accurately evaluate teachers on an ongoing basis.

 

… we believe that these proposed regulations overstep the letter and intent of the law.

 

…our states and districts and unions, which rightfully will be asked for statements of support, should not be presented with a Hobson’s choice. They should, instead, be able to enthusiastically embrace a chance for real innovation, real collaboration and a real commitment to building programs that are branches on a growing, vibrant tree and not, as the adage warns, branches without a tree.

 

Will the ED pay mock, polite obeisance to the objections/suggestions of  Randi and move forward?

Are the unions serious about utilizing student achievement data, to some extent, in teacher evaluation and compensation? Or, simply delaying and hoping that Congress will extinguish the Duncan agenda?

 

 

In about two months the ED will release final regulations and we will see to what extent the union concerns are addressed?

 

 

In NYC the Department and the UFT have jointly embarked on a study of the many faceted impact of teachers,

 

Both the United Federation of Teachers and the Department of Education will be collaborating with independent researchers on this project because we all recognize that the work of teachers must be measured in ways that are fair and valid. Nationally, current measures of teaching rarely take into account the full range of what teachers do (no single measure really can), or the context in which they teach. The Measures of Effective Teaching project, on the other hand, begins right in the classroom and will explore a broad array of teacher measures: video observations, surveys, and student growth. It will compare these measures to each other, and to nationally recognized standards, and it will look at their inter-relatedness. It will be informed by actual teacher practice.

In other words, the real work of real teachers in real classrooms will be central to every aspect of this project.

Have we entered a new period of collaboration in NYC, and, as some predict a 4% + 4% contract with no give backs? or, is NYC just one battlefield in a national struggle to change the face of public education?

Then again, in the world of Dr. Pangloss and Candide,

This world was meant for our content.
It was not made at random,
And all bad things are truly good
When they are rightly understood
By those who understand ‘em.
Quod erat demonstradum.

 

 

Advice to New(er) Teachers, and Older Ones Also, Build Teams, Trust Colleagues and Never Blame the Kids.

Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.

Satchel Paige

Some years ago the union sent me up to Edmonton, Alberta, the home of school-based budgeting, to attend a conference. We visited a number of schools and asked many questions: teachers and supervisors were in the same union, supervisors evaluated teachers,  teachers evaluated supervisors and parents evaluated everyone, and the results were all online on a public website.  It was a totally different teaching culture.

 

I was visiting one of the Edmonton schools, kids were released early one day a week for staff development. The principal explained the PD was teacher designed and invited me to sit in. He wandered in and reminded the staff that their “personal wellness plan” was mandatory and due the next day. I was baffled.

 

He explained to me that teaching was an extremely stressful job. He required every staff member to submit  a “personal wellness plan:” what are they doing to take care of themselves. They could come early and jog with the principal, one grade had a yoga group, some meditated, everyone took it seriously. An exemplary school leader!

 

1. Forget all those checklists: Draw up your own personal wellness plan.

 

The distance from Obama/Duncan/Bloomberg/Klein policy screeds to the classroom teachers is that of Earth to Alpha Centauri.

 

How many times have I heard: “I’m from the District Office, I’m here to help you.” 

 

Superintendents, Chancellors, Principal and Assistant Principals come and go … the constant is your colleagues and, of course, the kids.  We shared lesson plans, sipped a few on Friday afternoons, played touch football on Saturday mornings, banded together and worked as a team.

 

A skilled school leader can lead and be part of a team of inquiring, collegial teacher-colleagues, the results can be miraculous … and all too rare.

 

2. Trust and Depend Upon Your Colleagues

  

I never saved my lesson plans, kids changed, I changed, the world changed, and I enjoyed the intellectual exercise of creating that one act play that we call a lesson. When a teacher tells me they have no life because they spend every spare minute marking papers and planning I tell them they’re doing something wrong. The inspiration that results in that creative lesson may come from listening to a symphony, or the latest hip-hopper, reading poetry, reading a novel: jumbling those neurons.

 

One day the class explodes with student to student interactions and the next, a dud. Go home, think about it, and create that next one-acter.

 

3. Never Blame the Kids

  

Yes, that sweet looking girl in the third seat, second row may be the “bad seed,” she is what she is.  Kids can be a pain in the ass, insolent, nasty, rebellious and absolutely and totally frustrating. So what?  They may live in a gang infested housing project, have parents with substance abuse issues, be plagued with medical and emotional issues, come from a college educated, upper middle class home, they are what they are and we can’t change what happens outside of school.

 

To change kids behavior we have to change our behavior. We have to seek out that lever that motivates each individual kid. Some days the light bulb goes off, that “ah-ha’ moment, and on others we confront that angry kid who hates everything and everybody. What happens? We try again with something new the next day. Blaming kids is a cop-out.

 

4. You’re a Role Model, Accept it and Act Accordingly.

  

A  professor in an elite university called an inner city principal and asked if he could bring his class to her school, sit in on some classes and talk to some kids. The college kids showed up in ripped dungarees and tie-dyed t-shirts. The principal asked them if they would dress the same way if they were visiting a school in Scarsdale, the kids said,  ”no,” they would wear shirts and ties and dresses. The principal told the elite, college kids that they were disrespecting her school and her students, and one could consider their attitude racist, and told the professor and his students to leave.

 

Whether we like it or not we are role models. What we say and what we do is scrutinized by kids and parents. Our kids may live in poor neighborhoods of color, their parents may not speak English and they may use hip-hog lingo, it is our job to provide the level of instruction necessary to bring our kids to a college entry level. If we don’t respect kids and their families why should they respect us?

 

5. Are You a Good Teacher? How Do You Know? Become a Reflective Practitioner.

  

Teacher after teacher on blog comments avers “I am a good teacher.” Who determines whether you are a good teacher? The data? Your supervisor? Your parents and your kids? Your colleagues? Yourself? It’s not any easy question to answer. When you adjust data for external influences (student attendance, etc.), in my experience teachers fall within the “average” range. When I see some kids rushing to class and other dawdling, and ask them why, they respond, “Mr. Smith doesn’t allow us to be late to class.”  Kids may be late to school, late to class, they’re never to basketball practice, “If we’re late coach sends us home.”

 

Demand excellence in every teacher-student interaction.

 

In almost every classroom I see teachers working hard, however, too often I see disinterested students. I hear teachers object to going into the hall during class changes, “I’m a teacher, it’s not my job.”  The “it’s not my job attitude” is unfortunate, and characterizes mediocre and failing schools.

 

There is a huge difference between working hard and working smart. If you don’t “connect” with your students it’s not their fault.

 

I frequently hear, “just let me close the door and teach.”  If you are “teaching” and the kids are not learning are you an effective teacher? And, if not, why not?

 

Teachers have a professional and moral obligation to get better, each week, each month, each year, whether a first year, a second year or a twenty year veteran.

 

And Satchel Paige was right … these days there are plenty of aspiring teachers … you gotta keep getting better.