MORE Releases A Fall 2020 NYC Department of Education Staff Survey

 

The NYC Department of Education typically denies anything that doesn't suit their "We are doing a Great Job" headline.

The city-wide lack of transparency of COVID data, and the virus infesting on-site teaching and learning, interferes with funding streams. The NYC DOE gets federal funds based upon the number of students present and seated in classrooms. This is called "seat time".

As I have written many times over the past 12 years of this blog, if the Department revealed what is actually going on in NYC schools, parents would withdraw all the kids, at least in the worst offenders of environmental and educational neglect and/or malfeasance.

What is a fact: the public does not know what the data really is inside the DOE for COVID deaths, student absences, teacher malfeasance, and/or teaching assessment

See here:

NYC Department of Education Crashes and Burns With the Case of a Student Given Fake Report Cards But Never Registered

NYC teacher, school secretary added to DOE COVID death toll.

Brooklyn, Bronx educators hardest-hit by coronavirus deaths

Special Education is clearly a mess:

Federal judge orders extra oversight of NYC’s special education complaint process

Patrick Donohue and Brain Injury lawsuit

Betsy Combier

betsy.combier@gmail.com

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MORE-UFT Releases Fall 2020 Survey Report of 1,143 NYC DOE Staff Members by morecaucusnyc

(Read the full report: http://tiny.cc/moresurvey )

NEW YORK: In the midst of yet another school reopening plan in December 2020, MORE-UFT rank-and-file members decided to ask NYC DOE schools staff about their experiences with school reopening: neither the UFT nor the DOE had done an official survey of school-based staff. (The DOE released its own Fall 2020 survey on Jan. 19th, 2021 which will collect responses through Feb. 5th.)

1,143 NYC school staff completed the survey. 58.4% of staff surveyed work in a school that offers Pre-K or elementary school, meaning those staff members work in schools that, as of the time of survey collection, offered in-person learning. 40.2% of staff work in middle and high schools and 1.4% of respondents work in transfer of alternative schools.

Key trends we noticed among respondents:

• School staff do not feel adequately supported this year, in terms of training, learning models, staffing, and resources.
• Special Education and English Learner violations are rampant in schools this year as a result of inadequate staffing for the Mayor’s reopening plan.
• A majority of educators are teaching 2 or more learning models.
• Staff do not feel that the DOE’s COVID testing and safety protocols have been sufficient to detect and prevent cases in their school buildings.
• Staffing and programming issues related to in-person and remote students, learning models, COVID19 school cases, and classroom/school closures have created significant hurdles for consistent, safe, and effective learning for our students.
• A majority of staff surveyed are considering leaving the DOE and the profession of teaching.
• Lack of WiFi and devices remains a significant obstacle to equitable remote learning.

Overall, these results point to significant areas of concern around staff retention and well-being. Additionally, results suggest systemwide failures to prioritize our students with the most significant needs during this pandemic -- including students with IEPs, multi-language learners, and students without secure internet connections or workspaces at home. 

When asked what was needed to support students safely and effectively, staff asked for devices and WiFi for students and staff; support from DOE and UFT Leadership; to address staff shortages; demanded fully remote learning for a number for safety, consistency, and instructional reasons; improvements in physical conditions of buildings; training to support remote instruction; and to support staff and student social-emotional needs.

A high school teacher wrote, “Everyone in the community is dealing with an extraordinary amount of stress right now. Both the teaching load and the emotional-social load of this job have increased exponentially.  It is time-consuming and difficult to reinvent curriculum to make it suitable for remote learning...The DOE needs to face facts, accept that most students are remote learning for this school year, and invest in improving it (tech and WiFi for all; training for teachers).”