ALERT: The New York City Department of Education has created
a new agency within its' organization: The Teacher Effectiveness Program. This will be
Gotcha Squad 2, the
upgraded PIP+ termination process. There is a lot of money being poured into this new area of industry:
S374A120083 – New York City Department of Education (NY)
Initial Funding Amount (2 years): $13,901,980
Total (5-year) Project Cost: $52,943,639
Number of High-Need Schools Served: 70
Project Overview: The goal of the New York City Department of Education
Teacher Incentive Fund Grant Program is to implement a
performance-based compensation system (PBCS) via a teacher career lattice in high-need middle schools in order to improve educator effectiveness and increase student achievement. The career lattice will be developed in the context of a system-wide human capital management system with educator evaluation systems at the center, based, in significant part, on student outcomes. The lattice increases classroom leadership capacity through professional development of teachers while providing peer leadership opportunities to teachers who are interested in new professional challenges and have demonstrated effectiveness. The proposed roles (e.g., Demonstration Teacher and Peer Instructional Coach) will involve job-embedded coaching, application of the teaching competencies, and structuring of meaningful development opportunities for classroom teachers. The compensation system provides for increases in base salary for Teacher Leaders who take on additional responsibilities and who earn a rating of effective or highly effective.
On the DOE website:
Classroom Observation Cycle,
Citywide Instructional Expectations,
Professional Development/Common Core Support, NYSED Common Core Resources,
Teacher Effectiveness,
ARIS learn, Effective Feedback, and more.
I suggest that
if you want to keep your teaching position, you study everything on this website.
Now.
I also was shocked to see
MS331 Principal Seraphina Cruz and MS331 AP Stephen Monaco on
the website, talking as if they were the most knowledgeable about this subject.
I just completed a 3020-a arbitration for an African-American teacher who was a teacher at MS331 until she was charged with 3020-a (she had filed a Special Complaint with Lisa Mendel at the UFT). We heard testimony (and I have the transcripts) of these two people, who were, in fact, violating State and City mandates for CTT classes.
My client, the "Respondent" at the 3020-a hearing, was hired as a General Education teacher for 8th grade. She has a Special Education license, but had never taught 8th grade before. She was promised support when she was hired by Principal Cruz. realized that her 801 class was a CTT class, but that CTT services were not provided for Social Studies and Science in the school. Respondent was told that CTT is
part time because they only focus on ELA and Math Scores. Respondent was also told that "the school budget could not afford a second teacher" in the CTT class. That's what parents were told, and were furious, because the students given the CTT class who had IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) had TWO teachers mandated on their child's IEP. In fact, autistic, severely disabled and emotionally disturbed children were all in the same class.
Respondent found it quite difficult to effectively teach a CTT class alone. She received daily snapshot observations from AP Monaco, where he would come in daily and speak to the students for 20-30 minutes of class while Respondent was teaching, disrupting the class.
She stayed late after 8pm to prepare for lesson plans plus on the weekends. Monaco allowed Principal Intern Manni to write two letters to file, in violation of the CBA. The Principal was confronted by parents about fudging the test scores by pulling students to give math prep.
Respondent was never allowed to take students on any science field trips but she was allowed to take class out on recreational field trips. She constantly tried to do her best to do what was required by her supervisors. Evidently many teachers were not successful teaching 8th grade science. Teachers walked out in the middle of the school year. Respondent was written up for a 2 minute snapshot during the afterschool program, the 37.5 minute tutoring session.
Respondent always followed directives and her lesson plans always took into account the different styles of student learning. She was especially effective with those students who are IEP and ELL, who often work at a different pace than other students. Respondent cleverly used alternative assessments, and differentiated instruction, enabling the students in her classes to complete final projects or pass final exams successfully. Yet nothing seemed to be enough.
Mr. John Tom, Director of
Urban Advantage, had worked with Respondent for many years, my client got the school MS331 signed up for this program. She also received the vouchers for science programs under UA. But the MS331 administration did not pursue the program after they were given the resources. In fact, when Mr. Tom paid a visit to the school, he found resources for the Respondent's science class lying on the floor of AP Monaco's office. UA pulled MS331 out of the program, not only because the vouchers were never used, but because one of the mandates of the program is for the principal to go to the meetings at UA. Cruz never went. The name of the school was changed so that the word "Science" does not appear, and teachers are transferring out of there as quickly as they can, due to Cruz and Monaco.
That's the information about Ms. Seraphina Cruz and Mr. Stephen Monaco that I have and I also heard testimony under oath about all of the above.
And these are the spokespeople for the Teacher Effectiveness Program????? What's going on here, Carmen?
Betsy Combier
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| Stephen Monaco |
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Seraphina Cruz
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Classroom Observation Cycle: Structures and Supports at MS 331
http://vimeo.com/26737635
This video looks at the ongoing descriptive feedback process teachers at MS 331 receive in order to improve their classroom practice. It also addresses the organizational challenges and structural decisions the school has made to make this process meaningful and effective for teachers and administrators.
For a discussion guide to use alongside this video, click here:
Resources for Teacher Teams
