I am one of the founding members of the School Leadership Team
Empowerment Alliance (an incorporated non-profit organization)along with Jacob
Morris (a parent advocate from Manhattan) and Val Mello (formerly an education
researcher at the National Center for Schools and Communities at Fordham
University). I have been an educator in New York City schools for 23 years.I
was elected as a teacher representative to our SLT in 1998 and served until
2006.During that time, I was Co-Chairman(2 years) and Chairman(2 years)of our
School Leadership Team. I became an advocate for SLT empowerment in early 2004
as I saw that the NYCDOE was not supporting the collaborative role of SLTs as
mandated by State law and Chancellor's Regulations. As a result, SLTs were shut
out of the budget process and Principals began to dominate teams.Due to lack of
training and lack of DOE committment, most teams are not functioning today. My
purpose is to support parents and teachers on SLTs through this web site
Below is his letter in response to Carmen Farina's letter to the NYPOST:
From: calantjis <calantjis@aol.com>
To: cgfarina <cgfarina@schools.nyc.gov>
Cc: sedelman <sedelman@nypost.com>; letters <letters@nypost.com>
Sent: Mon, Jan 16, 2017 11:51 am
Subject: Letter to NY Post by Chancelor Farina -1/16/2017
Chancellor
Farina in her letter to the NY Post entitled, "Progress in the City Schools" (1/16/2017)
claims, " NYC's schools are the most successful they have ever been."
She then cites certain "facts" to support her claims.
However, when we
delve more deeply into these assertions, we find them mostly hollow. She cites
a graduation rate of 70.5% (2015-2016) but leaves out that only about 34.6% of
these students are "college ready." "Many High Schools had 70%
average graduation rates but college readiness rates lower than
20%."(Daily News, June 29,2016). She cites a college enrollment rate of
55%, as if that low number were anything to brag about,even though many of
these students will never graduate due to inadequate academic preparation.A
reason for this is that the High School graduation rate is inflated due to
social promotion practices such as "credit recovery" and pressuring
teachers to pass students regardless of merit.
Chancellor
Farina says the dropout rate "is the lowest on record",
but at 9%, is still way too high for a school system of over 1.1 million
students.
While
she cites that crime "is down 35% over 5 years", the problem of lack
of discipline and disregarding of school rules is an issue that also needs to
be addressed. Students are setting the tone in many of our middle and high
schools while teachers feel helpless as administrators play the
"blame game" and the DOE waters down discipline codes because of
outside political pressure. Absenteeism and
cutting of classes is rampant.
The
Chancellor mentions "record numbers of parents involved in their
children's education", yet, School Leadership Teams, which are made
up of 50% parents are a scam. Principals have usurped the lawful
responsibilities of School Leadership Teams to develop Comprehensive
Educational Plans and participate in the development of school budgets. The DOE
consistently undermines SLTs as legal school governance bodies. They have tried
to keep SLT meetings closed so that there is no transparency until the
recent court decision on the Open Meetings Law.
She
states "working with dedicated teachers and principals",yet continues
to maintain an ATR pool of teachers, guidance counselors, social
workers,etc., who are dedicated educators. With nearly 1000 of these
educators doing substitute duties in school rotation, the DOE wastes about 100
million taxpayer dollars a year. The ATR pool should be disbanned and these
educators permanently placed.
The
Chancellor ends with the statement that everyone is entitled "to their own
opinion, but not their own facts", criticizing a Post Editorial
citing " the city's failures to educate kids in its public schools".
However, the facts the Chancellor states do not support the conclusion that the
NYC schools are " the most successful they have ever been" and
"moving in the right direction."
The
Chancellor is an experienced educator with many years in the NYC public school
system. She knows what the real
problems are and that they will only be fixed when we hold
students to high academic standards and discipline expectations, respect our
teachers, and truly invite parents to participate.
James
Calantjis
NYC
Educator
Middle
Village, NY
