Better Recork that Champagne

A few days ago I reported that anyone with three or fewer classes was exempt from the Advance system of junk science grading. I based this on a PowerPoint I was shown, from someone who wrote it in good faith. Over the past few hours I've learned that this is in dispute. A highly-placed source in the UFT tells me that it's not true, and that 40% teaching entails only two, rather than four classes.

On the other hand, I have a reliable source for the other info, who I'm sure gave it to me in good faith. The question is whether the denominator for a teacher day is five or eight. I apologize to anyone who was partying all weekend as a result of my blog. It's been my experience that whenever a DOE source and a UFT source are at odds, the UFT source is always right.

I certainly hope my UFT source is wrong this time. To my mind, the fewer people trapped in Dracula's Castle, the better. But I tend to think this source is correct. I'm told that this was a message received from DOE as of 10 AM this morning.

I discussed this with another chapter leader, who said it's more likely the DOE wishes to ensnare as many hapless teachers as possible. I believe that. I believe it's populated with fanatical idealogues who believe whatever Bill Gates pulls out of his hind quarters, and don't care whether or not it will take him ten years to discover whether he's right or wrong.

That's what we get for the crime of dedicating our lives to helping children.

Will this system get better? It's possible it could under Bill de Blasio. If he really follows up with his words, it can be improved. It can't be good, because the entire system is terrible, based on junk science as it is. But it can be made to conform with more reasonable systems, likely every single one but the immensely complicated one we NYC teachers face.

Time will tell.

Update: I've confirmed that any teacher with more than one class will be evaluated the groovy new junk science way. I apologize to all those whose hopes I've just dashed.