My MOSL and Me: Luck Looms Large Among the Many Factors Out of My Control

Students took the Global History and Geography Regents last week.  In addition to fifty multiple-choice questions and a document-based essay with short-answer scaffolding, students had to write a thematic essay on belief systems.  They had to discuss a central belief of two systems as well as the spread of each system and its effects, once transplanted.

Some teachers were relieved.  They had guessed the question correctly.  They had given a similar question on their final.  They had reviewed the topic a day or two before.

I was a little less lucky.  I reviewed the topic a month and a half earlier...when we were first asked to begin our review.  I had not tested the same topic on the final.  I had not reviewed it again, a day or two before.  Looking on the bright side, if I hadn't reviewed it with them at all, they would have either needed to remember it from two falls back--when they were ninth graders--or from their own self-regulated review.  The latter doesn't happen much these days.

As we all know, it is one day of testing that is supposed to reflect best on our full year of teaching and the totality of knowledge absorbed by our students.  And besides needing to review like crazy to (ironically) try to prove that we are good teachers, we need loads of luck to correctly predict essay topics.

Some of my colleagues pat themselves on the back.  They mentioned this or that which their students can use as outside information for the DBQ.  I know better.  You know something and you mention it, but the test is not measuring the teacher.  The test is measuring the brain of a sometimes distracted teenager.  It was important to you that you mentioned "x," but it went in one ear of your student and out the other.  Your students were dreaming about "y."  It's probably a heck of a lot more interesting!

Despite the optimism of the most optimistic, most student essays will leave something to be desired.  Many kids may be able to explain a number of tenets of each religion, but the thematic question demands a discussion of the spread of the belief systems.  Here, I know students will sadly fall short.

It's not that we failed to teach them.  We merely failed to focus upon what the test makers chose to focus upon this year.  If we focus upon it next year, the test makers will have already moved on to something else.  Will we be able to guess it?

As the forces of "reform" fight to revoke tenure, the challenging nature of future Common-Core aligned exams may soon prove in a single day of testing (just three-hours time) that we are all failures, worthy of being held back or fired.

But for now, it's June.  The summer vacation will soon be upon us.  You've done the best YOU can do.  And you've even tried to spread the word about the stupidity of this system.  So, let's live for today...while the Governor and his supporters in Albany try to find new ways to eliminate our tomorrows!  "Sha-la-la-la-la-la, live for today and don't worry 'bout tomorrow..."

What Would Happen if You Gave Tests Like NYSED Does?

I've been reading that the Common Core math tests will be a rousing success, because their passing percentages will be the same as the Regents math tests were. That way, no one will say, "Gee, Common Core is failing everyone, and therefore it sucks." Thus, there will be no torches and pitchforks over at the gubernatorial palace, or wherever  Andrew Cuomo keeps his coffin, or his oversized ego, or whatever it is that motivates him to behave as he does.

On the other hand, imagine if you were to give tests on such a basis. You'd have to say to your students, "I can't tell you now how much each question is worth. I'll have to see how many people get it right or wrong first. What I can tell you is this--70% of you will pass, and 30% will fail." What would your students say to that? And what if your plan, as was John King's, was to pass 30% and fail 70? Would Arne Duncan give you an award and make some idiotic remark about how wrong the soccer moms are? Would he say this proves the kids aren't as smart as the moms think they are?

Because if he didn't, you'd be facing a world of problems, especially if some parent called to complain about your grading policies. I don't know about you, but one of the things my AP looks for on tests is point values for questions. In my school, it's unacceptable to write a test, decide which percentage of kids I want to pass, and then grade accordingly. After all, were I to do that, I wouldn't actually be writing a test. A test is supposed to measure what my students have learned, not memorialize a decision I'd made beforehand.

In fact, if I just want 70% of kids to pass my test, why does it even need to cover the subject I teach? Maybe I won't bother to write an English test. I'll photocopy an old Earth Science Regents exam and make everyone take that. What the difference? 70% of the kids will pass, just like I wanted. Who cares if the overall scores are low? When I give tests like those, I'm not actually measuring anything. I'm just using a useless document as quasi-tangible evidence that my prediction, which will come true regardless, is actually based on something.

Since it doesn't matter what the test covers, and since 70% are going to pass no matter what, why should we even bother with this school stuff at all? Isn't it expensive to send kids to school, even those charter schools I keep reading about? Couldn't we convert all that unprofitable public school real estate into condos for gazillionaires? Since everything is based on tests, and since the tests are basically meaningless, why don't we stop making kids wake up early in the morning and just let them take tests on their home computers? Who cares if they cheat? It doesn't matter because 70% of them are still gonna pass.

That's the NYSED model and Andrew Cuomo wants half of teacher ratings to depend on it. And our union leader thanked the Heavy Hearts in the Assembly for passing it. There's a Chinese saying, "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice." It kind of means you have a whole lot more experience than another person. You don't need to have eaten much salt to assess the quality of program Andrew Cuomo and his Heavy Hearts Club envision for our public school students. 

Evaluation Blues

Yesterday I spoke with a young teacher who told me this was his worst year ever. I asked him why and he told me it was the evaluation system. He says it has him and everyone on edge. I asked whether he had gotten a negative rating and he said no, he hadn't. He was just feeling a general vibe of uneasiness. He told me our school wasn't what it used to be four years ago.

One of the things I found really shocking was that this is a guy who generally complains about nothing, ever. He has this very positive vibe, and this makes me think he must be a great teacher. I would be very happy to have someone like him looking after my kid. He told me that, though there is a whole lot of focus on test scores, that he doesn't worry about that first and foremost. Who knows where our kids come from? Who knows what they have going on at home? It's our job to show them there's a whole world of possibility out there.

I agree with that. Particularly if home is a place of uncertainty, or worse, there's a need for kids to see adults who are getting by. There's a need for kids to see there is possibility, that there is a way to maneuver through this world while managing to stay happy. That's why it's counter-intuitive, not to mention idiotic, to stress out teachers to the breaking point. If this teacher feels stressed out, then so does every teacher.

It's easy for Michael Mulgrew, who has not taught in years, to stand around and say we have fewer bad ratings this year than in years past, so the system is a victory. I can only suppose it's also easy for Mulgrew to ignore the fact that this is the very thing that motivated Andrew Cuomo and his Heavy Hearts to worsen things for working teachers. For Michael Mulgrew, it really doesn't matter whether that plan causes more teachers to get bad ratings. Because there's always a silver lining. Under my leadership, 95% of UFT teachers didn't get fired this year.

Under UFT Unity leadership, the Teacher Improvement Plans were 8% less degrading and humiliating than last year. Under our leadership, 12% fewer teacher meeting weekly with the supervisors who rated them ineffective have contemplated suicide. Under our leadership, we haven't had a catastrophic natural disaster in over two years.

Unfortunately, when you live in a system where absolutely everything is a victory, no one feels it when things are bad. No one knows when things are bad. Things are not permitted to be bad. And the great thing is most representatives have actually signed an oath to perpetually agree that this is the best of all possible worlds, the best of all possible school systems, and the best of all possible evaluation systems negotiated by the best of all possible union leaderships.

I'm not sure what I would say to such people if I had signed the oath. I suppose I could trot out the stat about fewer people getting bad ratings. But I know if the guy I spoke to yesterday is stressed out, so is every working teacher. That's not how you treat role models for children, not if you actually care about those children. 

Extra Credit: Name the bluesman in the photo.

The Genius of Merryl Tisch

Thank goodness we have a visionary leader like Merryl Tisch in charge of our Regents. After all, if she weren't highly qualified, why would she have all that money? And then, of course there are her brilliant tactical moves to attack the corruption that pervaded our lowly and unexamined profession.

First, she determined that no teacher was trustworthy enough to grade her precious tests, because God forbid some corrupted pedagogue should change some kid's grade from 64 to 65. It would surely be the end of Western Civilization. After all, those tests are so precisely engineered that there is no room for error.

My kids, of course, shouldn't even be taking a test like the English Regents exam, because, well, they don't actually speak English yet, but why fritter away our time dwelling on technicalities? The point is, the decision has been made, and the tests must go on. As long as I'm grading total strangers in whom I have no interest, everything should be fine.

And what's more, I can get paid for it. I got multiple invites to do so. Every time I deleted one message, another appeared. YOU MUST ANSWER BY THIS DATE OR YOU"RE SCREWED FOR ALL ETERNITY! Wow. That's a little harsh. But then, a reprieve. WE'VE EXTENDED THE DATE, LUCKY YOU! PLEASE PLEASE SIGN UP TO DO THIS THING!!!

I didn't, of course. I have no interest in grading tests of strangers, for love or money. But holy crap, it must cost a lot of money to pay all these teachers to grade these tests. But it's money well-spent. After all, there was that time where they put all the tests on a truck to Connecticut or someplace where they were gonna do this super-duper scanning to make everything fair, but a bunch of tests fell off the truck.

How many dollars are they now spending to get teachers to do what they used to do for free? Who knows? Who cares? The important thing is people like me no longer get to grade their own students. What a disaster that is. Of course I do it every day, all year, but on this particular day the only thing I care about is that they pass, for any reason, no reason, and by any means possible. Because the only way I can validate my worth as a teacher is to make my kids get a good grade on a test that measures nothing whatsoever that I actually teach.

And to prove to Merryl Tisch that my kids can pass a test that measures nothing I teach, I will cheat. I will change grades. I will ignore errors. Hell, I'll sit in the classroom and write 30 papers myself and grade them all. Because that is the sort of corruption that pervades my profession. Not like the upstanding paradigms in Albany, where only two of the three prime powerbrokers have been indicted, to date.

Thank goodness Merryl Tisch has caused NYC to spend tens, hundreds of thousands, who knows how many dollars to pay teachers to do something that used to be part of their jobs. The only thing that will top that is when she shuffles around thousands of administrators to evaluate teachers they neither know nor care about, so as to make sure that home administrators don't give their teachers good ratings.

Maybe, since no one will be around to actually administrate schools, things will run better. Or maybe they can just pay more people to do that stuff. After all, there's nothing more efficient than spending taxpayer money for no good reason. She may not know doodly-squat about public education, but Merryl Tisch is an unparalleled expert in spending our money.

The Tripod Survey

In late May, teachers in some schools were asked to distribute Tripod Surveys to one of their classes.  Although the results of the survey will not be used to officially evaluate teachers...yet, administrators and teachers will view the results.

I would guess most teachers saved the survey for the class most likely to yield positive results.  I would have preferred to give it to my ninth graders, but I had three days in which to give the survey and they were busy with presentations.   By the time I gave the survey to my very vocal, but truly likable tenth graders, they informed me they had already completed the survey seven or eight times.

So, what's the nature of the survey?  Students were asked about the behavior and participation of their peers.   Students were asked if lessons were interesting.  Did their teacher seem to care?   Did the teacher explain things well?  Did students learn a lot?  Did the teacher assess student understanding?  Did the teacher have high expectations?  Were lessons student-centered?  Did teachers give feedback and make corrections?

Many of the questions intentionally overlapped with one another.  I would have preferred some different questions, however, like:

What is the size of your class?  Do you think it negatively impacts your teacher's ability to help individual students?  Do you enjoy test prep?  Do  you enjoy taking tests?  Do you think a single, high-stakes test score adequately measures your abilities, as exhibited to your teacher, throughout the year?  Did the curriculum actively promote your awareness of current issues and encourage you to work toward a better future?  And, in all honesty, did you study for more than an hour outside of class each week?

So much for my questions...

As with all data, I am sure the Tripod Survey results must be taken with a few grains of salt.  If student behavior is poor, is it necessarily the fault of the teacher?  If students do poorly on tests, is it necessarily the fault of the teacher?  

And, if the lessons are not interesting, is it ultimately the fault of the teacher or is it the fault of an overemphasis on the importance of standardized testing?

From UFT Unity--Stereotypes, Juvenile Insults, and No Regard for Members in Trouble

I went to the DA last week. When you enter, you are greeted with flyers from UFT Unity, New Action and MORE. Sometimes I read them. Sometimes I do not. Last week I had other business and tossed them out as I exited. But someone sent me a scan of the Unity flyer last week. It portrays all those who dare question Punchy Mike Mulgrew as contrary imbeciles shouting, "The sky is falling."

It speaks of the contract Mulgrew negotiated but somehow forgets to mention that UFT members don't actually get the money until over a decade after most city workers did. It neglects to mention the second-tier due process it negotiated for ATR teachers, or the fact that several of them have lost their careers for the offense of not reporting to interviews of which they may or may not have even been aware. It neglects to mention the fear and loathing that pervades our ranks since Punchy Mike negotiated the current APPR. Forget about the impending draconian version for which he thanked Andrew Cuomo's Heavy Hearts Club Band.

The pamphlet harps on the fact that Unity opponents have never been in control. This is interesting, by way of non-comparison. In fact, Unity, in this very handout, is striving to make sure they never gain control. It's ironic to hear them complain of their very success. But this is the sort of rhetoric you get from the visionaries who failed to recognize Cuomo as an opponent until a full five years after he announced he was going after union.

One reason opponents have never been in contol is that Unity has taken many steps to ensure its iron-clad monopoly. It keeps the faithful that way with loyalty oaths it exchanges for free trips to conventions and patronage gigs. And while I know some very smart people who work for the union, I've also encountered people who clearly aren't smart at all, just along for the ride on the gravy train. As a high school teacher, it's insulting that we alone are not trusted to elect our Vice President. As a chapter leader, it's insulting that we aren't allowed to elect our District Rep.

It's a fact that more retirees than active members voted in the last election. It's a fact that Unity maintains a UFT office in Florida from which non-teachers like Michael Mulgrew can campaign, and from which working teachers who might oppose him cannot. And while Unity accuses its opponents of cynicism, it's a further fact that fewer than 20% of working members found it worth their time to vote in the last election. If there is cynicism, it's certainly engendered by UFT Unity policies.

Here's a fact--it's no fun opposing the Unity juggernaut. It's no fun being excluded from every single decision made by the union. I am an activist, and I would love nothing more than working with leadership to make things better for members. Unlike Punchy Mike Mulgrew, I'm in school every day, I see kids every day, and I hear the voices of working teachers every day. That's what motivates me. Unlike a whole lot of Unity faithful, I am not motivated by free trips or patronage jobs.

That's why I cannot support charter schools, mayoral control, junk science teacher ratings, two-tier due process, erosion of seniority privileges, collusion with Bill Gates, contracts clearly inferior to those of our brother or sister unionists, or dumping the worst pattern ever on those same brothers and sisters. I want what's better for working people, not what's convenient for me or Punchy Mike.

UFT Unity assumes its readers to either have signed the oath, drunk the Kool Aid, or more likely, to be utterly ignorant of every demonstrable fact on this blog. If that isn't cynical, I don't know what is. It's disappointing that this is the best argument they can muster--reheated nonsense rendered even more baseless with every concession they embrace.

To judge from this piece of paper, you'd think working conditions were minor technicalities. Talk to someone who lost his job for not showing for an interview. Talk to someone facing job loss via Mulgrew's APPR. Talk to someone whose rating got dragged into the gutter by junk science VAM. Talk to an ATR teacher who got discontinued for no reason whatsoever.

I can only suppose the person who wrote this pamphlet talks to none of these people. I talk to all of them, someone has to represent them, and this pamphlet makes clear it is not UFT Unity. 

Saying Goodbye

I went to a retirement party last night. It was beautiful. Sometimes these things are overdone and feel like a Bar Mitzvah, but not this one. It was in a relatively quiet room at a bar/ restaurant, and I was pretty happy they didn't make us wait until ten o' clock to eat. I've been to a few like that, and because I get up ridiculously early, I tend to leave those pretty hungry.

But that wasn't the best part. For one thing, this teacher drew a varied crowd. The cafeteria staff, students from the last three decades, paraprofessionals, and at least three administrators showed up. The stories about how this teacher touched the lives of her students were incredible, and most of them came firsthand from the students themselves. A paraprofessional stood up and told a story about how this teacher had turned around her daughter for the better.

Even more shocking, this teacher got up and sang a goodbye song, homemade, to the tune of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and oh my gosh, she could really sing. I say this as someone who winces at music concerts where the orchestra or chorus plays out of tune, even when my own daughter is part of it.

I listened to speaker after speaker testify to her extraordinary dedication, her depth of character, her unwillingness to settle for second best from her kids. They painted a picture of someone whose loss would be felt by many. They painted a picture of someone it would be very tough, if not impossible, to replace. This is a humble person who doesn't go around singing her own praises.

I don't tend to trust people who sing their own praises. It's pretty much always better if someone else does it for you. It's certainly more credible.  But here's the thing--when you work in a huge building with a humble and unassuming person for a long time, you may not ever find out what exactly that person does. And that's kind of a shame.

I know the program this person works in, and it's a great program. I know they've helped a lot of kids in my school. and a lot of kids who I also serve. That's why I went to this party, even though I knew I had to get up very early. But for the first time in many years of going to such parties, I left with regret, for not having gotten to know someone who's clearly a very special person.

I'm thinking now about the Joni Mitchell song, "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got till it's gone."  I'm gonna try to make it not always seem to go that way from now on.

UFT DA Not Ready to Vote No Confidence in Reformy MaryEllen Elia

                        President’s report

Mulgrew thanks DA for our work (but notably, does not offer us cake). Says we have implemented contract but not far enough. Says we had no idea Cuomo would become nemesis. Makes me wonder why he chooses to disregard those of us who recognized this five years ago.

National

AFT has started process on presidential election next year. Pension cuts are threatened throughout country. Concerns about how US Supreme Court may rule. Says our enemies are really bad and evil, have cut revenue via tax systems. Boasts of surplus in NY because we fought back austerity measures. Speaks of other locals with huge increases to health care. 

Says it’s tough to get things done because DC is very focused on upcoming Presidential election, that many want to take, I suppose Hillary, down.

State

NYSED—we will have a new evaluation system next November 15th, maybe. Waiver application may be available for one year only. Believes by next September there will be another system. Says when we have momentum we will make system better.

Stresses it was important to get this out of governor’s hands and to NYSED. Says that is our strategy. Ridicules choice of November 15th to enact evaluation system. Screams about it repeatedly.

Mentions tuition tax credit and charter cap still face us and thanks those helping us. Mentions tax credit is now tied to rent control. Says the well-being, shelter and safety of 2 million people is tied to a tax credit for billionaires. Says we have informed people about it but questions why he did it. Says it will cost teachers $300 to get promised $200 tax credit, and that only very rich will be able to take advantage of it.

Says 13 million has been spent to raise charter cap and push tax credit. Says charter push is to destabilize public education. Says now presidential candidates will openly say charters are an attempt to privatize education.

Local

Mayor pushing for mayoral control, but public is not receptive. Mulgrew says Bloomberg has tainted mayoral control. Says UFT supports mayoral control with checks and balances. Gets scattered applause. Speaks of our support for rent control.

Chapter leader survey—Says we need more info to determine whether contract is being implemented. Says he may get more people to schools to help build chapters.

Renewal schools—Says it’s tough but better than school closures. Says no member is mandated to work extra time, but it is available for pay. Says we need to make those schools work to prove we know “how to fix failing schools.” Speaks also of “out of time” schools that don’t need anything done until September 2016.

Mulgrew speaks of difficulty of being a chapter leader, and thanks outgoing chapter leaders.

Mulgrew says he wants to celebrate our schools and let people know how we’ve kept schools moving despite 20 years of mistreatment from Bloomberg and Giuliani.

Thanks all of us and wishes us a good summer.

                                                               Leroy Barr

Speaks of Spring Conference. Says it was fantastic. Says we gave a million dollars for Albert Shanker scholarships. Wishes a safe and restful summer

                                                               Questions

CL Paula Washington—Could you clarify what Weingarten said about negotiating reduction of high stakes testing? Mulgrew says it is law of the land, NSEA and RttT mandate you must follow their policies if you want Title 1, 900 million in NYC.

CL IS 303—Where do we stand on CCSS with NJ giving it up? Mulgrew—Christie talks but isn’t giving up Title 1 funding. Mulgrew says state must have standards but it no longer has to be CCSS. He says politically CC can’t survive. With teacher eval. tied to testing while CCSS is introduced there should be 2-3 year waiting period.

CL PS 25—A lot of schools closed SAVE rooms under Bloomberg. What is status of SAVE law? SAVE law says there must be room, must be plan, and must be part of safety plan. Says there must be plan, must not be recreation.

James Duncan, CL—What should we do to be ready for next year re MOSL? Problem is DOE doesn’t have regs to answer that. Keep all existing committees in place. Mulgrew says matrix will be pivotal next year. Says admin opposes matrix because it takes power away from them and empowers members. Says it’s not true. Says he’s “heard all the rumors and it’s just factually untrue.”

CL—Comp time—which seniority? School. How do we prove it? Ask. Call UFT if you don’t know.

Jim Myer PS 32—Can we have evaluation clarified as to how points work? Mulgrew says we got rid of points “because of the silliness.”  Myer asks about inequality of class sizes, and perhaps that should be considered. Mulgrew says “class size is a biggie.” Asks why some kids get more money than others, says if we got what we were owed we could lower class size.

CL thanks Mulgrew. Says he hears a lot about candidates but is not interested. Says he’s interested in work we do for our chapters. Says we don’t do enough to build chapters. Says we need to inform members. Mulgrew says if you listened to his report, “you gotta change what you do. We don’t like data but we’re gonna have to get over it.” If key to contract is strong chapter, we aren’t implementing unless we have one. Mulgrew says strong chapter means you make school work with those who work there, and does not necessarily entail war with principal. Says CL is endorsing what he already said.

                                                         Motions

Mulgrew recuses self as chair. Bearded man takes over and fails to introduce self.

Mulgrew introduces motion for this month. States name of high school he somehow represents. Wants to affirm we celebrate public schools and great work done by UFT members. Much joking about rules and such ensues between Mulgrew and bearded man. Is hilarious, they seem to think. Chair returned to Mulgrew.

Jia Lee moves for resolution of no confidence in MaryEllen Elia. Jia says we’ve made many compromises, but they have come with sacrifices. Compares Elia to King Tisch. Speaks of support of CCSS and high stakes tests. Raises this for next time.

Janella Hinds speaks against. Says we don’t know who Elia is. Says there was good partnership in Hillsborough. Says we do not select commissioner. Says our positions must be grounded in reality. In absence of clear understanding it may be shortsighted to say no confidence. Asks for vote of no.

Resolution does not carry. Mulgrew moves to close motions.

                                                       Resolutions.

“I’m resolution number one,” says Mulgrew. Recuses self. Guy with beard returns. Mulgrew, from floor, says he is of William E. Grady High School.  Says we do a damn good job in largest most challenging school district without any help from those who were supposed to help us. Says we need a complete plan to celebrate every place our members are doing a good job, despite what media says. Says it is not an anger campaign, but a happy campaign.

George Altamare, Exec. Board, says he is happy to see resolution.

Resolution passes.

David Garcia Rosen  Sports—Some high schools get money while others are told there is not enough. Small schools movement have caused segregation depriving them of activities open to others. Says NYC system is separate and unequal. Says res will put pressure on city to allow more students to reap benefits of sports.

Janella Hinds—speaks in favor of substitute res. Mulgrew rules her out of order. Hinds speaks against resolution.  Tells her to rise against resolution. Says she is speaking against it, for reasons she articulated, though I failed to hear them.

Ken Achiron—Rises to offer substitute motion. Motion seconded.

Megan Moskop—point of order—Does sub resolution get raised before discussion of first? Mulgrew—yes.

Achiron—Says all children should have opportunity but we shouldn't create opportunity for one student by depriving another. Says system is segregated but position is charters and small schools exacerbated segregation, not large schools. Says res. would ask that everyone’s gym would be open to permits and belong to no one and everyone. Says it would create disruption, taking ability to run teams away from many schools.

Mulgrew takes privilege as chair. Says he believes every kid should have opportunity. Says if we pass resolution City Council will slash budgets. Says our position on CFE is we should take from richer districts and give to us. Asks if we can come up with resolution that makes it clear we are not pitting one school against another. Says he understands rationale for both of them, and that they divide us where we have common ground.

Asks if parties can come with resolution to go after PSAL, and plan for children to have access to teams. Says we will push for all kids to have access. Seems to want parties to come to agreement.

Rosen—we have been researching since 2011, have discussed with UFT. Says res he put forth should be voted on. If it doesn’t get through we will work on it. Students need to know whether or not UFT supports them. Says there is enough money and facilities to go around.

Move to table—will require two-thirds vote.

CL Claude Atkinson—Asks Garcia to reword reso as health rather than civil rights issue.

Mark Korashan—Moves to refer resos to exec. board. Mulgrew asks if it is motion to table. Parliamentarian says it is.

Motion is tabled.

Point of order CL PS 163—First motion was too important not to do properly. Asks for revote. Mulgrew does revote.

Revote passes.

Paul Egan—Resolution—should there be elections before next DA, Exec Board will endorse. Expects council races.

Marjorie Stamberg opposes because Exec. Board supports capitalist candidates. Says UFT is working class. Says we should oppose GOP, Democrats and Greens and need our own party.

James Cochran CL speaks in favor of motion—says he’s OK with board as long as they endorse people who get him “bigger piece of the pie.”

Mulgrew says we’ve had speaker for and against which is “ettiquette.”

Motion to renew rent regulations. Affect 2 million residents. Need to support extension and strengthening.

Isabelle C. Wagner, delegate—Is one of rent-stabilized tenants. Speaks in support. Says people really need it, she can’t afford to stay where she is otherwise.

Joan Haymont—asks to amend—change middle class to working class. Seconded. Says she would like to roll back rent stabilization to rent control. Asks for communist revolution.

Gloria Brandman, CL—supports resolution,  asks additions. Mulgrew rules her out of order

Point of order—Mary Ahern, CL—time is up. Mulgrew—resolution started before time, so he let it go. Mary says she was upset when we never got opt out resolution.

Questions called.

Vote inconclusive.

Mulgrew has people stand. Still inconclusive. Mulgrew asks for vote on 19th floor. Mulgrew sees 26 in favor, 8 oppose. Mulgrew says amendment passes, res passes.

Mayor de Blasio and the Trailers

 To the left you can see my workplace of many years. Home sweet home for me and hundreds of ELLs over the last few years, until my supervisor kicked me out to protect a much-coveted second-floor classroom. I'm pretty happy there in that I have an LCD screen and can use technology for the first time in my 30-year career. It's so much easier to teach ESL when you can project huge visuals at will.

I was pretty surprised to learn that, unlike his predecessor, Mayor de Blasio actually plans to get rid of the trailers in NYC. Having spent over a decade in those moldy monstrosities, I'm the first to applaud that action. In fact, I'm up for bringing a bunch of lawn chairs, setting up a barbecue, and having a huge party in celebration. But unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. What surprised me most was the note in the Mayor's Capital Plan to take down our trailers.

This was a particular surprise since no one had alerted me, or as far as I could tell, anyone else in our building. In fact, Class Size Matters estimates that fewer than 20% of the seats needed in Queens high schools are going to be created. How, then, can you eliminate existing seats? I'm not a math expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I'd love to know how this is done. Or even why this is done.


In our school, we use all eight of our trailers every period of the day. While the DOE is unable to calculate how many kids use our trailers, I don't find it that difficult. 8 times thirty is 240. Multiply that by ten, for our ten-period day, and you have 2400 kids using our trailers each and every day. If you take away our trailers, we will lose all that space. How will we make up for it?

When I became chapter leader six years ago, we were severely overcrowded. I wrote about it in the Daily News and worked very hard to get it covered in the Post and the Times, among other venues. Colleagues reported that Klein and Bloomberg had to acknowledge us on TV. Then UFT VP Leo Casey helped our School Leadership Team get a meeting with Tweed in which we agreed to limit enrollment, and we managed to slow things down a little.

Unfortunately, when and if Mayor de Blasio closes our trailers, he's made no provision to place our kids anywhere else. I know our principal dreams of adding another floor of classrooms, and perhaps a culinary program. It's a great idea, but it will cost a whole lot of money. I don't see anyone offering it, and unfortunately all the hedge fund zillionaires are placing their lot with Eva Moskowitz. If Cuomo and his rich pals get their quasi-voucher program there will be even less money for lowly public schoolchildren.

I told multiple callers from UFT leadership that I refused to work for Bill Thompson. Instead, I worked for Bill de Blasio, I contributed to Bill de Blasio, and I went to his inauguration. It was a beautiful day, though we were all pretty much freezing our butts off.  I very much support Mayor de Blasio's initiative to get NYC kids out of trailers.

But, Mr. Mayor, if you take kids out of trailers you need to provide some other space for them. I don't want kids coming to Francis Lewis High School or any other school at 6 AM, staying until 6 PM, and eating lunch at 9 AM. Please find a reasonable alternative for us, and for other city schools, before you knock down those diabolical little boxes.

Why Teaching is Still Better than Russian Roulette

There are a lot of naysayers about the revolutionary new APPR system that UFT President Michael Mulgrew helped negotiate. There are even more people complaining that, when the Assembly moved to make the system even worse, that Mulgrew actually thanked them and declared the Twitter campaign, the one in which he did not participate, a rousing success. These people, of course, ignore the beauty and wonder of the new system.

For one thing, as Mulgrew frequently points out, the number of poorly rated teachers is lower than it used to be. Sure, in the past, a negative rating did not come with a humiliating Teacher Improvement Plan, where you sit every week with the person who gave you a crap rating and soak up his insights on why you suck or how you should observe the ducklings who follow him blindly into whatever. Sure, in the past, the burden of proof to establish your incompetence was on the DOE, and you did  not get observed by the UFT Rat Squad to determine whether or not it would remain that way. And sure, two negative ratings did not automatically send you to 3020a.

But if you have a free pass to the next meeting in Schenectady, if you want that free tuna wrap while the proles all slink away from the delegate assembly, and if you want that all-important patronage gig or the possibility of a lucrative union career outside that inconvenient classroom, you don't think about that stuff. You do as you're told, question nothing, and champion mayoral control, charter schools, high-stakes testing, junk science and Common Core for the kids you serve. Because after all you're a role model and how will children learn to suck up and surrender their principles if you don't lead by example?

What Mulgrew has yet to touch on, of course, is the clear advantage our current APPR system, or even Cuomo's new system has over Russian Roulette. Now everyone knows Russian Roulette is a game in which 5 of the 6 chambers of your cartridge are empty. So you have a one in six chance of actually killing yourself. But in APPR, your chances are considerably less. Let's say Cuomo achieves the Jack Welch model of shedding 5% of teachers each year, whether or not they actually deserve it. Every teacher will then have a 19 to 1 shot at keeping his or her job each year, and it seems to me that everyone would have a 50/ 50 shot of making it to ten years. 

So for all those nagging critics who say, oh, teachers shouldn't be judged on baseless systems like VAM or so-called growth models, for all those who are freaked out over the possibility of being fired for no reason, for all those who teach kids who don't speak English, kids who have severe learning disabilities, or even kids who never study, stop your whining. Take a look at Christopher Walken, above. He made believe he was playing Russian Roulette and his career turned out fine.

All you need to do is make believe we're working under a reasonable evaluation system and for all you know, your career might turn out fine too.

Charter Schools: Is the Class Half Full or Half Empty?

There are more than a couple thousand charter seats supposedly sitting vacant in NYC.  And this, at the same time as the public schools suffer severe overcrowding.  Some of the most successful charter schools apparently fail to adequately "backfill."   As students leave, they are not replaced.  NYC's charter schools left 2500 available seats empty last year.   And, all this, while some charters agitate for lifting the cap, claiming seemingly endless waiting lists (which the U.F.T. would like audited).  Since the City must pay rent for these schools, shouldn't their facilities be fully utilized?   So, is the class half full or half empty?

If you love charter schools, the class must be half full.  Student attrition occurs.  In some schools, the attrition occurs disproportionately at the expense of the behavioral problems and the low scorers.  The remaining students stand academically stronger.  There is none of the disruption that occurs with the arrival of new students, with varying levels of skill, continually, throughout the school year.  If you teach in a public school, you are used to welcoming new kids into your classroom as late as June.  It may not be convenient, but it's a necessary disruption.

If you believe in public education the class must be half empty.  Read Leonie Haimson's "Fact Sheet on School Overcrowding and the Capital Plan."  A third of NYC's elementary schools are 138% (or more) above capacity.  Some schools have long had trailers, many now decrepit and rotting.

Why must there be so much overcrowding in City schools when the problem could be easily eased if some charters would take on more students, truly serving the public?  Overcrowding brings problems.  Kids cram the hallways. Libraries are lost.  Kids are stuffed in closets to receive special services.  School lose their gyms.  Lunch periods may begin before people have had their breakfast.  Teachers face too many students with too many needs.  Too many obstacles to success.  Most recently, the arbitrator's solution to over-sized high-school classes has been relieving teachers of their Circular 6 duty during their free period; teachers need no longer tutor or run a club.   But how does this solve the crisis of overcrowding?  Just how does this help students?

Let all charter schools backfill.  Let them open up their 2500 seats to help reduce the overcrowding in the system.  Let them serve the public rather than exist as places of special privilege.  Let them not claim superiority when in effect they operate as a system outside the system.  Instead of offering a solution for public schools, some of the most "successful" charters turn their backs on the real problems that plague public education, overcrowding, lack of resources and, in some cases, kids who can't keep up.  By straining and sorting students as they eat up public funds, some charters actually make the situation for public-school students far worse.

So, we could sit around and debate whether the class is half full or half empty, but why don't we just fill it up!

Me and Julio

This is Julio. He's the newest addition to my family. He weighs all of ten pounds, but apparently he's a public menace. I know this because today I took him to the festival on the Freeport Nautical Mile, and a cop stopped me and told me I wasn't allowed to walk a dog on the street.

"Where else are you supposed to walk a dog?" I asked.

But it turns out, according to the cop, if he let Julio walk the mile, he'd have to let every other dog walk it too. So, dejected, Julio and I walked around the block. I saw another guy walking another dog, a really big one, and asked if he'd had any problems.

"I had no problems at all," he said.

I said I was surprised, since my little guy got bounced.

"Well, you're not a cop," he said to me.

"So there's one rule for cops and another for citizens?" I asked.

"That's not what I said," he replied.

"But that's exactly what you described," I said.

After that, the guy walked on the other side of the street and didn't want to talk to me or Julio any more. I turned the next corner and got back on the mile, where I saw several other dogs, and several other cops.

It must be good to just make up any rules you feel like, whenever you feel like it, and enforce them with anyone you feel like.

Up Against a Rubric Wall

Rubrics are the great equalizer. Once you have a list that goes up and down, with various levels at every point, everyone will know what is expected. You are this square, you are that square, and that's the only possible square in which you can reside. Fair is fair, square is square, and you are there without a care. We have extracted that inconvenient human element with 100% efficiency.

Of course, sometimes people see things differently. For example, your supervisor may be batshit crazy. Or maybe he hates you and everything you stand for. Or maybe he holds a grudge for that year you shared the classroom when you failed to erase the board. On the other hand, perhaps he loves you. Maybe he has an entire wall of his studio apartment covered with your pictures. Maybe he has torrid fantasies about you in or out of your classroom. Who knows?

Of course, things need not be so extreme. Thinking people approach one another differently. It's not necessary to lecture and instruct on differentiation when your audience has a modicum of intelligence. Of course, if that's not the case, all your lectures and theories go out the window because non-thinking people tend not to receive or process new information very well anyway.

But regardless of what qualities we have, good, bad or otherwise, we all have our prejudices. We all like certain people better than we like others. And supervisors, too, see us all differently. I hate to be the one to break you this news, but despite everything you've heard, there is no way on God's green earth that every supervisor rates the same lesson in the same way. It doesn't matter how many times they've been trained. It doesn't matter how many times they've been retrained in whatever the rubric wants this year, last year, or next year.

Can I get rated highly effective while you get rated ineffective? Sure. Why not? Maybe I got rated for minute one, which was amazing, while you got rated for minute 7, which sucked beyond all possible question. Or maybe minute 7 was the bestest thing ever but the supervisor wasn't wearing glasses. Maybe his prescription is out of date. Maybe he woke up and put on his wife's glasses instead of his. Or he's Mr. Magoo, can't see at all, and only hears the voices in his head.

But that's the hand you're dealt. And unfortunately, no matter how precisely Charlotte Danielson words her rubric, it's always subject to interpretation. It's really too bad she sold out and allowed her framework to be used for high stakes evaluation. As a supportive and motivational instrument, it could have been used to improve education for children.

As is, it's used to fire teachers. Amazing we live in a society so obsessed with doing such a thing.

MaryEllen Elia and the Middle of the Road

Florida, land of Jeb Bush, is one of the least teacher-friendly states in the union. So it's kind of surprising to read that Revive NYSUT leadership is encouraged by Florida import MaryEllen Elia as state education commissioner. What would it take to discourage them? Attila the Hun? Perhaps the Regents considered him but rejected him for having been dead for centuries. But why should that deter them, since dead ideas are pretty much what NYSED trades on?

For example, here's a snippet from reformy Chalkbeat NY's piece, from which their "Rise and Shine" characterizes Elia's tone as "middle of the road."

Elia emphasized that, in her own view, state tests should not be the only metric used to rate teachers and principals...

Actually, I know of no one who says state tests should be the only metric used to rate teachers and principals. But let's look at what "middle of the road" entails. Apparently, it means you are somewhere between the highly regarded American Statistical Association, which has determined that teachers account for somewhere between 1 and 14% of test score variation, and no one. This is what passes for reasoned discourse on education nowadays.

On opt out, here's how Elia came in:

"Opt-outs are no good for teachers or parents."

This, of course, was before she even began her gig. Now, according to Chalkbeat, she's really raised her game.

Asked about the New York’s growing number of parents opting their students out of the state tests, Elia cited her experience in Hillsborough County, the large Florida district she oversaw for most of the last decade. Town hall meetings there helped explain the changes to parents and keep opt-outs low, she said.

Doubtless Elia, not having troubled herself with the most cursory research, would be surprised to learn we've actually had town hall meetings in NY. The first resulted in testy, tone-deaf John King pulling out, calling public school parents and teachers "special interests." Evidently, we should listen uncritically to utterly objective billionaires like Gates, Broad and the Waltons, who know what's good for our children (but not theirs, of course).  Critical reading should be reserved for Common Core tests and eschewed in everyday life. Doubtless New Yorkers can't wait to have more meetings with yet another figurehead who made up her mind before even showing up.

The incoming commissioner also reiterated her support for charter schools — noting that Hillsborough County had 45 — if they are shown to be improving student performance.

That's middle of the road, right? After all, some charters get better test scores, and that is the only factor that's important. That's reasonable, isn't it? And as for the ones who don't, well at least they don't have those awful union contracts that give teachers due process, and what reasonable person opposes firing teachers? Elia continues:

“I think there’s a place for quality teachers to go in and give feedback to their colleagues and their peers,” she said. Exactly how much test scores should account for depends on the rest of the rubric, she said, adding that she did not yet fully understand New York’s method for calculating teachers’ value-added scores.

Well, who does? And why should she bother to have studied it? After all, she's only going to preside over the system. And maybe the calculation method is totally incomprehensible anyway. That's a good reason to not have kept up with it. Apparently the middle of the road position is to support a system that judges teachers on junk science while not even pretending to understand it.

Extreme positions, on the other hand, are quite different. There's the extreme position, evidently held by no one, that test scores ought to count for 100% of a teacher rating. Then there's the other extreme position, taken by wild-eyed radicals like Diane Ravitch and yours truly, that we ought to consider things like research and practice in education, and reject absolutely every form of junk science.

Therefore, MaryEllen Elia is in the middle of the road. It's quite gratifying it is to know that Revive NYSUT is "encouraged" by that.

Doubtless we're in good hands all around.

“During her first school visit, Elia told teachers, ‘Opt-outs are no good for teachers and no good for parents.’ It is concerning that she would make such a judgement prior to reviewing New York State Common Core tests or exploring why the resistance to those tests has been so strong.” said Ruth Quinn, a school board member from Ulster County. - See more at: http://www.nysape.org/albany-continues-to-ignore-parents-ensuring-the-optshyout-movement-will-grow.html#sthash.7BG9QqsK.dpuf

“During her first school visit, Elia told teachers, ‘Opt-outs are no good for teachers and no good for parents.’ It is concerning that she would make such a judgement prior to reviewing New York State Common Core tests or exploring why the resistance to those tests has been so strong.” said Ruth Quinn, a school board member from Ulster County. - See more at: http://www.nysape.org/albany-continues-to-ignore-parents-ensuring-the-optshyout-movement-will-grow.html#sthash.7BG9QqsK.dpuf

Mr. Eterno Takes a Position

I'm very happy for my friend James Eterno now that he's won a delegate spot in the UFT. I know, for him, it's ritual, second nature, to go to the DA. I always enjoyed his accounts and have been trying to follow in his footsteps. For my money, James is the best chapter leader in the city, and the only way they could take him down was to actually close his school. What a shame to lose someone so knowledgeable, so qualified, so ready to put himself on the line for UFT members.

James has also been very active in trying to get a voice for ATR members. James thinks ATRs should have a functional chapter, like secretaries, guidance counselors, or paraprofessionals. UFT leadership disagrees. They say ATRs are represented by the chapter leaders of the various and sundry schools through which they pass. In theory, well, that doesn't even work in theory. If I'm in school A this week, represented by CL A, how the hell is CL B from school B gonna help me next week? I have to start from scratch with a new person I don't even know. I'm not feeling it.

When ATRs complain they are not represented in the DA, leadership says, no, you are entitled to run for CL and/ or delegate of the school in which you are working as of May 1st. Never mind that you may not be there May 2nd. Never mind that no one knows you from a hole in the wall, and you have to run against people who've been around for decades. This, to leadership, is a reasonable process.

And James may be used by leadership as an argument the process works. Who knows? After all, he won. I'd have voted for him. James is one of the people on whom I rely for advice. When odd things happen, it seems like most of them have happened to him before. He seems to know every clause of the contract, and if he's unsure he dives right in to check. But ostensibly at least, his job entails representing a school in which he probably won't be working in September. That's absurd, isn't it?

One of the issues for someone like James is he's never signed the Unity loyalty oath. That limits your mobility within union to absolutely nothing. Were things different, he might be a delegate without all that inconvenient being elected. For example, in a nearby school, a friend of mine defeated a Unity chapter leader. But the deposed CL was delighted to find that, despite having lost the faith of her colleagues, the union was happy to keep her on as a rubber stamp in NYSUT and AFT, and also doing whatever the hell it was she did for UFT.

No such luck for James. All he's got going for him is absolute competence and decades of experience. So leadership is now in the position of having to explain why someone who doesn't even work at a school represents it. And when ATR teachers complain they have no representation, leadership can say, hey, look at Eterno. You too can run for chapter leader or delegate of a school in which you don't work. What's better than that?

What's better than that is real representation for all ATR teachers, not just those as extraordinarily knowledgeable and capable as Mr. James Eterno.

Note to UFT/ NYSUT/ AFT--Endorse Bernie Sanders

I'm friendly with a few people in UFT Unity. I certainly don't agree with their party platform, but I don't take that personally. These days, I don't make it personal here unless one of them does first. I was speaking a Unity member the other day, bemoaning the rather miserable state of things, and that person asked me, "What would you do?"

I mentioned things from the past, like failing to oppose Cuomo when he was running, like Weingarten's back door endorsement via Hochul, like failure to stand up when Eva Moskowitz eviscerated what was supposed to be mayoral control by forcing us to pay for charters whether or not we wanted them. But the question, of course, is what would I do now?

Right now, if I had any influence whatsoever in leading my union, I would endorse Bernie Sanders for President. I know there is some history with AFT President Randi Weingarten and Hillary Clinton. I know we endorsed Hillary when Randi was UFT President. In fact, I voted for Hillary in the primary against Barack Obama and given his education record, I don't regret that at all. But, while I doubt she could be much worse, I'm not entirely persuaded Hillary would have been better.

Bernie Sanders just told the world he would dump No Child Left Behind. He opposes for-profit prisons and I don't see him jumping up and down demanding for-profit schools either. He's a strong supporter of unions. He believes in women's rights and universal health care. In short, he supports working people. In fact, he goes so far as to say that the wealthy should pay their fair share, and I'm not sure I've heard that sort of talk, or believed it at least, in decades.

If the union wants to let us know they've changed, they need to dump the same old, same old of endorsing corporate sweethearts and making costly mistakes. Hillary's popularity was at its highest point when hubby Bill left the Oval Office. Since then it's been going steadily downhill. She even managed to lose the presidential nomination to relatively unknown Barack Obama, something most of us deemed impossible. I signed a petition to get him on the NY primary ballot, and told the person who gave it to me he had no chance. Here in NY, he really didn't.

It's time for us to stop endorsing people like Bill Thompson, who publicly told the Daily News the city couldn't afford to give teachers the raise it gave everyone else. It's time for us to stop endorsing people with corporate ties the likes of which Hillary Clinton has.  It's time for us to stand with working people, people like ourselves, people like the students for whom we hope to leave a route to middle class.

Bernie Sanders is step one. 

To Tell the Truth: Would the Real MaryEllen Elia Please Stand Up--or Sit Down?

 

Mary Ellen Elia seemed to be on her way down before being unanimously propelled upwards by the N.Y.S. Board of Regents; she was chosen as the replacement for NY State Ed. Commissioner, John King.  Only in the world of ed. deform can people on their way down suddenly be catapulted to new heights.  Witness John King, now working in D.C. by the side of Secretary Duncan.

Fired from her job as superintendent of the Hillsborough County Public Schools by a 4-3 vote earlier this year, it seems people mostly either love or hate Elia.  There is little middle ground.  So, what will be the case in NY?   In her favor, Elia taught for nineteen years in western New York, serving as a reading specialist.  She survived ten years as a superintendent in Florida--where one had to sink or swim, reformy-style.  She was chosen as the 2015 Florida Superintendent of the Year and nominated for a national title.

But was she nominated for all the wrong reasons?   Elia supports the use of high-stakes tests in the evaluation of teachers and their schools.  She supported the Common Core before her state scrapped it.  While in Florida, she won a $100 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates to implement test-based evaluations of teachers.  Referring to her time in Florida, she stated, "We were one of the first states that implemented high-stakes tests, and I am [sic] favor of having tests that are fair, reliable, and valid." Does she also favor turning schools into test-prep centers?

Elia has been criticized by civil-rights groups and those who champion special-needs children.  She supported merit pay and "school choice" in Florida.  Despite her calls for accountability and transparency, it seems she tried to hush up fatalities in the school system, including one on a bus.  In another incident, a child with Downs Syndrome tragically wandered from the school building and drowned.

According to Chalkbeat, Elia promises to communicate.  But what will be the nature of these communications? Some people see her as just the right person to create a "shift in tone and style" while not giving an inch on ed. "reform."  Others paint a record of a superintendent who relied upon intimidation and kept principals fearful.  

Despite the doubts raised by her resume, NYSUT remains ever cheerful.  NYSUT President Magee stated, "We are pleased that members of the Board of Regents appear to be listening to the students, parents and educators who want the emphasis to be on teaching and learning--not testing--as we work together on all the challenging issues that lie ahead."  Is she speaking about the same MaryEllen Elia?  Does she know something we do not know?

So, would the real MaryEllen Elia please stand up?  If one can believe the premonitions of Carol Burris and NYSAPE, Elia is an ill wind that blows public schools little to no good.  She is a clear sign that Albany cannot hear the voices of the people.   She is a clear sign that Cuomo's education agenda will be moving forward.  We shall see--probably faster than we would like!

What Mike Mulgrew Doesn't Know About APPR

I've been going to the DA and taking notes the last few months. One theme I hear from UFT President Michael Mulgrew is that people like me are hysterical, that we don't understand what a great improvement this system is. You see, since a smaller percentage of people get negative ratings under this system, it's better. That's it. There is no nuance, no accounting for people's feelings, and no awareness whatsoever what working teachers go through.

After all, Mulgrew is not a teacher. I don't know how long he was in the classroom, but he certainly isn't there now. Some of the UFT officers and DRs teach one class, but single-class teachers aren't subject to the APPR system that Mulgrew helped negotiate. They still get rated S or U, and I haven't heard of anyone rated U for teaching one class. If I were a supervisor, with 5 million observations to do, I probably wouldn't even bother with those people.

I teach in a good school, and I don't have bad ratings. I will almost certainly be rated effective this year, though I won't know until September. I've been observed four times and, as far as I know, none of them went badly. So let's say things go as I expect. Let's say I don't get a negative rating, I don't have a Teacher Improvement Plan, I don't have to meet with my supervisor each week to discuss why I suck and how I can suck less. Let's say they don't send a UFT Dementor Teacher to determine whether or not the burden of proof is on me or the DOE when they try to fire me.

Here's what I feel. I feel it's another two years before they can bring me to 3020a and move for my dismissal. Let's say I don't go senile over the next few years and I continue to get decent ratings at my school. Am I at peace? No, I am not. Because I honestly don't trust the MOSL, the junk science that will determine the rest of my rating.

Right now it's not too bad. I'm on the committee at my school and we've decided, wherever possible, to use the broadest measures possible so no teacher is tied to the scores of his or her classes. This makes sense to me because actually, classes vary. Beyond that, a crazy supervisor could stick a teacher with a class that would do poorly. Or an honors class could fail to go from 98% to 99%. That class could sink to 97%, which would clearly indicate the failure of their teacher via junk science metrics. We don't want teachers to suffer for things like that. Also, we don't want teachers in competition. We don't want teachers to feel they'll be hurting themselves by, for example, tutoring students of a colleague.

I teach ESL and for the last few years have been teaching beginners. I love doing this, but not everyone does. And it strikes me as risky. This is because the new NYSESLAT test is all about Common Core and nothing about acquisition of English. Oddly, I still cling to the fiction that helping kids acquire English is my job. But everyone knows fiction plays just about no part whatsoever in Common Core. Few seem to know that acquisition of academic English does not happen instantaneously, and must be preceded by basic conversational English.

I now wonder whether I'm on a suicide mission. The state can attach my rating to the ridiculous and invalid NYSESLAT exam and say I suck and must therefore be fired. I'm not clear on how and when they will do that, but it seems inevitable. The new Cuomo/ Heavy Hearts plan will also bring in total strangers who know nothing about me or my kids to observe, and they are doing this specifically to create more negative ratings. It's not like this is a great secret. Cuomo openly complains we aren't firing enough teachers. I've got thirty years in and if they fire me my family and I won't be living on cat food. Better me than one of my younger colleagues.

Mulgrew can ridicule me and all of us who oppose junk science. He can call us paranoid, cranks, whatever. But he has no idea what we, all of us, are going through.

Too bad because, given that, he cannot and does not represent us at all.

Reformier and Reformier--Will the Regents Jump to Our Aid?

It's kind of amazing, after hearing Michael Mulgrew place his faith in the Regents month after month, that they would nominate this woman, MaryEllen Elia, as NY State Commissioner of Education. After all, we're still not feeling the love for Reformy John King, who preached Common Core for our kids but Montessori for his own. She comes from Florida, one of the worst places there is for working teachers. Here's what activist principal Carol Burris has to say about her:

“It is now apparent why the Board of Regents did not reach out to stakeholder groups and inform them that she was a candidate–if her support for merit pay, the Common Core, Gates Foundation grants,  the formulaic dismissal of teachers, and school choice were known, certainly there would have been an outcry from New York parents and teachers who have had more than their fill of test-based reforms.  The message of 200,000 Opt Outs has not been heard.”

Given that, it's very hard to imagine this board coming to our rescue over the Cuomo/ Heavy Hearts Teacher Unemployment Plan. Nonetheless, as she supports Common Core, she won't need to fear UFT Presidents punching her face out and pushing it in the dirt. Still, things like "formulaic dismissal of teachers" are not getting me dancing in the aisles anytime soon.

The old song says, of New York, New York, "If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere." This begs the question, if you can't make it in Hillsborough County, Florida, how the hell are you going to make in in NYC? I suppose that depends very much on what you mean by making it. If making it means pushing every reformy piece of crap that comes down the pike, then she's got a good shot.

On the other hand, if making it entails respecting research from, you know, researchers and scientists and the like, we're not looking all that great. When the American Statistical Association declares that teachers only move scores by a factor of 1-14%, it's not clear that what we need is more reliance on VAM, the growth model, and/ or whatever junk science is in vogue this week. In fact, here's a quote that may give you pause:

“The Board of Regents made a strong choice in selecting MaryEllen Elia as New York State’s next education commissioner,” Jenny Sedlis, executive director of the pro-charter group, StudentsFirstNY, said in a statement.  

In case you don't know, StudentsFirstNY is an offshoot of the group Michelle Rhee started before she moved on up into the fertilizer biz. It's not likely this blog supports anything StudentsFirstNY does, because this group represents Rhee, Gates, Bloomberg and a whole lot of people who don't give a golly gosh darn about the kids I work with. More disturbing is the assertion in the article that unions are enthusiastic about this choice.

Any union leader expressing enthusiasm for MaryEllen Elia doesn't represent my interests, those of my colleagues, those of public school parents, or those of the kids we face every day of our lives.

From NYSED With Love

I just noticed this, over at Pissed Off's blog. This appears to be one of the stupidest policies imaginable. You can see the page over at her site, but I'm going to type out the NY State reg, dated April 2015

If a student misses class time, he or she must be provided opportunities to make up the classwork, assignments, assessments, and other learning experiences.

Note it does not say, "if the student misses class time for a good reason. So let's say little Johny is out on the corner, smoking cigarettes or who knows what else, and strolls leisurely into your class with two minutes remaining. You have to arrange for him to make up the test you just gave everyone else. Personally, if they're gonna force me to write a makeup test for kids who cut, anyone who takes it will rue the day they missed the first one. It boggles the imagination that NYSED wants to actually teach children there are no consequences whatsoever for their bad decisions. That's not what I teach my kid.

Students are not required to make up the exact amount of instructional time due to absence.

You see, you idiots? You went to class every single day, and I only showed up twice. So I got this EZ Learn program and got my smart girlfriend to answer the questions. Now I have the same grade as you.

Students who master the course content and satisfactorily meet the expectations outlined in the syllabus must receive credit for the course; they should not be denied credit based on lack of seat time alone. 

Here's the thing, though. If you aren't in my class, you cannot possibly have done the work. I'm a language teacher. My grade is 50% test scores, 25% homework, and 25% participation. If you are never in class, you get a zero for participation. Homework is also an issue. I sometimes give handouts from workbooks. I know a lot of kids copy, and I can't spend all my time running around finding out who. However, kids who copy homework regualarly simply cannot pass tests. They also can't do classwork.

Maybe it makes them feel better to get easy credit for homework. But I change up the homework, giving open writing assignments, and the kids who copy learn quickly that I notice when entire paragraphs are the same.

There is something fundamentally lacking in NYSED. We are not just teaching math, English and science. We are role models. We wake up ridiculously early to come to work, and we put up with all sorts of nonsense to keep doing this job that we love. We know that people who don't do diddly squat are not precisely on the road to success. We are not a bunch of computers doing test prep.

And we have standards, real ones, even if NYSED has the audacity to inflict such nonsense on us. Make me write a syllabus and I'll make it quite clear that no one who cuts 200 times is going to pass my class under any circumstance.

I'm pretty sure my career would be less than stellar if I were absent 200 times a year. But by NYSED standards, if I showed up and taught the entire course in one day, everything would be fine.

Troglodytes.

It's Just Another Year of Regents Review--Or Is It?

In the throes of Regents review, it's Danielson be damned.  Tests, to some extent, might measure my ability to prep my students and their ability to be prepped or to prep themselves.  Tests certainly do not measure my ability to teach.  Regents review is not good teaching.  It is an attempt to superficially cover a great breadth of material--with the hope that the students work as hard as their teacher.

A group of students in the back are a little too social.  Instead of exclusively helping each other with a set of questions, they stray into forbidden topics of conversation.  I have flashbacks.

In days of old, I told such students, the review is designed solely to benefit you.  I've passed all my tests in life (and with flying colors).  If you wish to disregard the work, you, alone, will suffer the consequences.

But today, who am I kidding?  These students can take me down--despite my best efforts to help them--through sheer laziness, simple teenage sociability or the distractions of modern-day technology.  Then, again, it might be any one of a thousand of other things...that could take down our entire school.

My students' performance on tests has little correlation to my skill as a teacher.  As a student, I did well whether my teacher was great or mediocre.  Other students would do poorly whether their teacher was great or mediocre.  Test performance doesn't even correlate well to the intelligence of students.  Test performance tells me more about who buys into the system.  Quite often, it seems to tell the story of a socio-economic status.  Sometimes, it only tells whether a person had a good day or not--which can be hit or miss.

Some of those kids socializing in the back are sharp as can be.  They just choose to apply their intelligence to spheres other than studying.  And, although I wish they would study a little harder, I'm fond of those students.  I'm fond of all my classes.  Too bad, they're being misused by ed. reformers to drag me down and boot me out!  Too bad they're being misused to close public schools!  Too bad they're being used to destroy unionized labor and middle-class respectability!

The Perks of Privilege

It seems every time I pick up the NY Post, some principal is committing an atrocity. The latest is from PS 120 in Flushing, which ran a carnival during school hours last week. That sounds nice, doesn't it? Except the price for this carnival was ten bucks, and if you didn't pay, you didn't get in. So 90% of the kids were outside having big fun while the rest sat in the auditorium watching a movie.

If I were to offer extra credit to Mary but not John, and John's Dad called the principal, I could be looking a disciplinary action. Maybe Mary has a 64 average and John has a 94 average. It doesn't matter. I don't get to pick and choose, especially if some parent complains. Of course I'm not a principal.

If I were principal, I could drive around in my BMW and wear a fur coat while the school crumbles around me. Or I could have sex with an AP on my desk. I could give teachers ratings for lessons I'd never seen, even on days when said teachers weren't even in the building. Maybe I'd get my hand slapped. Maybe they'd ship me off to some office where I could count paper clips. Who knows?

There's no Campbell Brown going after principals. Students First and Families for Excellent Schools and all the other groups that are one and the same don't run commercials about them. But you have to ask yourself--if indeed there is a zombie-like plague of bad teachers, who hired them? Who granted them all tenure? Who failed to observe them and write them up for their myriad sins? Well, it wasn't me.

So I guess I'm a little jealous. Except for these occasional tidbits in the Post, I feel like I'm Public Enemy Number  One. Apparently what I do each and every day is destroy the lives of children, and the only remedy is to place them in Moskowitz Academies where they will pee their pants, fill in endless bubbles, and wear t-shirts that say, "Don't Steal Possible." Me, I've got bags full of Possible, all stolen from hapless children.

 I had no idea that was what I was doing until I started watching the commercials. Apparently the best way to help children now is to give tremendous tax credits to private schools and break the Public Monopoly that Governor Cuomo finds so egregious. I'm a little curious how they're a monopoly since there are private schools all over the country. Otherwise, how could Governor Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates, John King, Michelle Rhee and Barack Obama send their children to them?

The bill gives huge tax credits to billionaires, but a stinking 500 bucks to families making less than 60K if they want to send their kids to private schools. That way, they won't be hobnobbing with the children of the Important People mentioned above. It's Montessori for them and Common Core for you.

I can't believe principals get away with such nonsense. But it's even harder for me to believe any sentient being thinks Andrew Cuomo is a Democrat.

Bonus perk: principal spends 145K of public funds and keeps job.