by Betsy Combier, Editor, Parentadvocates.org. (original posted 2013)
In the United States, there is very little respect for
public school teachers and their abilities, and even less respect for tenure
rights. For many years, the media painted a picture of a person with tenure as
sitting in a classroom asleep, reading a book, knitting, etc, because they had a
"job for life".
UFT Contract: Shackling Principals
Politicians and media went on the offensive to end
tenure.
One of the biggest changes that were seen in New York City was
the criminalization of what the New York City administrators called
"incompetency", by setting up a panel of arbitrators and attorneys whose job was
to put on trial an educator who forgot a lesson plan, whose skills at engaging
students was less than 100% perfect, and/or the educator was not able to control
the little angels in his/her class. This group, created in 2007, is called the
Teacher Performance Unit ("TPU") and handles all cases
where an educator is charged and served 3020-a arbitration papers for
incompetent service.
What all the characteristics of "incompetency" have
in common is that these are subjective judgments and opinions, not facts. (See
Elentuck v Green, Supreme Court, Second Appellate
Division, 202 A.D.2d 425; 608 N.Y.S.2d 701; 1994 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1956
(1994))
When an educator receives the charges, or specifications, he/she has already been determined by the Department as guilty. The Department pursues the charges as if the 3020-a were a criminal trial, and the educator a convicted criminal. In order to win these proceedings, an educator must fight well, as pro se or with an attorney who knows how random and arbitrary the hearings are. NYSUT is not always willing to do the work to provide an adequate defense, unfortunately.
I have watched and worked in 3020-a hearings for 14 years, and I am fascinated by the Attorneys for the Department. They try, sometimes successfully, and sometimes not, to argue that any administrator can enter a classroom at any time, unannounced, stay for 15 minutes and draw up a report on the teacher which could get him/her fired, based on what was supposedly seen in the classroom. Principals lie, knowing they will never be held accountable for what they say except if they DONT follow the prepared script.
Under the
Danielson Rubric, a set of standards where educators
must be perfect in all classes, every day, and every minute, anyone can be found
guilty of anything if an arbitrator makes the subjective opinions gathered in 15
minutes into "facts". That is the problem.
The defense at 3020-a consists of arguing bad
faith, malice, and budgetary concerns as a way to unravel the lies in the
observations. This is hard to do, but doable nonetheless. Never resign under any circumstances. And, if you read
"resign in order to retire", ask the DOE what that means before you retire.
Teacher Tenure
rights - which in New York State remain public policy - no longer exist if we
let this type of "subjective evaluation in order to terminate" to
continue.
A useful guide on the evaluation process is below:
"Legal Aspects of
Evaluation" by James Rapp, 1985.
And see
Teacher Discipline by
Katharine B. Stevens, PhD.
Betsy Combier
betsy.combier@gmail.com
Editor, NYC Rubber Room Reporter
Editor, Parentadvocates.org
Editor, New York Court Corruption
Editor, National Public Voice
Editor, NYC Public Voice
Editor, Inside 3020-a Teacher Trials
Here is the
article I posted in 2013:
When a NYC DOE employee is served 3020-a papers, the moment is
traumatic. Often, the specifications are false claims of absences which were due
to many valid reasons, claims of extreme misconduct and/or incompetency, all
created by some attorney at the Gotcha Squad.
For years, Mayor Mike
Bloomberg and the NYC DOE he controls, with the full knowledge and consent of
the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and New York State United Teachers
(NYSUT), have pushed out all teachers with tenure who are disabled, too tall,
too black, too outspoken, too....
something, with "U" ratings which are
meaningless. The DOE will, in fact, change all these "U"s to "S" ratings if you
irrevocably resign from the DOE within a very short time.
What they dont
tell you, the tenured teacher, is that you are already on the
"Ineligible/Inquiry List" or No Hire List, so you will never be hired by anyone
anyway, whether or not you take the deal and exchange a fake U for an S on your
record.
The city has a secret weapon to rub out incompetent
teachers — an eraser.
NYPOST
LINK
If a teacher who is deemed a dud agrees to
quit or retire before a termination trial, the Department of Education will wipe
out all of her “unsatisfactory” or U ratings and — voilà — change them to S for
“satisfactory,” thus helping her land a job elsewhere.
In an e-mail
obtained by The Post, a DOE lawyer offers the deal to a teacher with U ratings
two years in a row, grounds for dismissal.
“The department will provide,
upon request, a neutral letter documenting her employment with the DOE and will
convert her U ratings to S ratings in the DOE computer system.”
It adds,
“Thus if she were to seek employment outside the DOE, her computer employment
records would show only ‘satisfactory.’ ”
The teacher is accused of
failing to carry out lessons, sloppy record keeping and poor classroom
management, among other charges.
Former Chancellor Rudy Crew once called
the shuffling of lousy principals from school to school “the dance of the
lemons.”
Some educators share a disgust for a likewise dirty deed — the U
whitewash.
“They’re making a mockery of the entire system,” a veteran
teacher said. “If someone is found incompetent, it should go on their permanent
record. The DOE should not be Monty Hall on ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’ ”
Betty
Rosa, a member of the state Board of Regents and a former Bronx superintendent,
called the document doctoring “unethical . . . a lie.”
But a hearing
officer, who recently oversaw many such deals for suspect teachers idling away
in departmental “rubber rooms,” hailed the method.
“It saves time, it
saves money, and it gets guaranteed results,” he told The Post. “It’s morally
right, because New York kids will not have to suffer with a teacher who’s
allegedly incompetent. She’s out. She’s gone.”
Future employers, he said,
can probe a teacher’s past.
The debate comes as the DOE and the United
Federation of Teachers wrangle over a new evaluation system to rate teachers
from “highly effective” to “ineffective.”
If they don’t agree by Jan. 17,
the city will forfeit $250 million in state funds, Gov. Cuomo has
warned.
In the 2010-11 school year, the DOE charged 78 teachers with
incompetence, it says. Hearing officers agreed to terminate 18 after long
administrative trials. Other teachers kept their jobs with lesser penalties,
such as paying a fine or taking a course
But 49 settled and resigned or
retired, bringing the total booted to 67.
Last year, the DOE charged 88
teachers with incompetence. It won just 11 dismissal cases but tossed 39
teachers who quit in settlements.
Betsy Combier, a paralegal who helps
defend teachers in discipline cases, blasted the backroom maneuvers.
“It
says to teachers, ‘We didn’t mean it when we brought you up on charges. Let
someone else worry about how bad or good you are. We just want you out,’”
Combier said.
But educators grab the deal to avoid the risk of being
found guilty, which becomes public record.
A teacher who recently quit in
exchange for erasing her two U ratings was accused of weak instruction, a lack
of lesson plans and a disorganized classroom.
“She’s looking for work
right now — anywhere. She’s going on interviews,” Combier said.
The DOE
did not answer repeated requests for
comment.
susan.edelman@nypost.com
COMMENTS
Betsy
Combier · Advocate/Paralegal at Advocatz · 405 subscribers
The Bloomberg
process was set up so that a Supervisor could "observe" a staff member, say
he/she is not competent, not "effective", not (blank), and give him or her an
unsatisfactory rating without any accountability for whether it is true or not.
Then the so-called 'incompetent' is brought to 3020-a, where the same
observations are accepted as facts, and boom the teacher is fired. The Gotcha
Squad doesn't want to spend time and money giving these people due process, so
they dreamed up the settlements in order to get them out faster, while still
keeping total control. The goal is to get people out, not evaluate.
Jeff
Kaufman · 89 years old
You have only a part of the story. What about supposed
"U" rated teachers who are hired back to the DOE under different licenses? Or
teachers who agree to transfer to becoming an ATR in exchange for the removal or
guarantee that a U rating will disappear. In a large system you would always
expect to find anecdotal evidence of wheeling and dealing but a large part of
the U rating system is institutionally corrupt. When you can be given a U rating
for reasons other than being unsatisfactory you can see how deep the corruption
is. I fear whatever new evaluation system is in place as the hidden schemes will
be more deeply embeded.
Joel Moss · Top Commenter
You constantly write
about a teacher evaluation system by Jan.17 or all that state funding will be
lost. So what, N.Y. won the ridiculous Race to The Top funding a couple of years
ago and no one really knows what happened to the money nor is there any evidence
it improved education in any way.You constantly blame the UFT for wanting a fair
evaluation system, but the mayor and his cronies want a system which relies on
state test scores when many teachers in the system are not involved in state
wide testing in language and math. How are they to be judged?
In a system in
which your mayor, supposedly in charge of education, compares the UFT to the NRA
there is no real chance for fair agreement on anything.
Carol Wolf ·
Mason Gross School of the Arts
It takes two years of full-time study to earn
a teaching credential, at a cost of about $20K, and then there's that year of
teaching for no pay under a mentor. So, during that time no one notices that the
teacher isn't competent? And can you promise that this evaluation system won't
be used simply to cashier a teacher (say, the ones that have made it to the top
of the pay scale)? That's what the tenure system was created for: to keep
administrators (who make three times the salary, by the way) from firing
experienced teachers because they now cost more money to pay. Or simply because
they were annoyed by them. Schools full of cowed teachers, wow, who thinks that
is a good idea?
Got a teacher you don't like? Load her class with all the
worst kids (it's called a "loaded class") and then charge her with not keeping
order, and being incompetent because she doesn't teach them anything. This
system is ripe for abuse. Guess why tenure was such a good idea when it was put
in place?
So, okay, if this is such a good idea, where is the equivalent
evaluation system for doctors, lawyers and other professionals? Police, for
example? Or, hey, I know, how about school administrators, and Congressmen? I
know there's some kind of secret law these days that you can't even look at
evaluating bankers, not even when they commit egregious fraud. But hey, we sure
can beat up on the teachers!
So, under this kind of system, what kind of
people are going to enter this former "profession" now?
Vincent Powell ·
Top Commenter
It's the system set up by teachers unions. if in fact
incompetency was fired at will....like so many other jobs, then no rubber rooms,
no administrative trials. Money spent on this foolishness would go toward
educating our youth. And as the unions have always said..."its for the
children".
Doreen Meyer · Top Commenter · Servite HS Detroit, MI
I've
seen this happen not in schools, but in hospitals...where subpar nurses and
doctors get shuffled around and edged out with the promise of an 'adequate'
rating...and this was in an 'open shop'. It really has nothing to do with
unions, but with the incompetence of supervisors, administrators (and their
supporting boards of directors) who have neither a clue about how to examine
workers nor how to document problems so that they'll 'stick' at termination.
Without that, litigation begins...union or not. What we need is more training
and 'gumption' in the upper echelons, which would get them out without
'bargains'.
Michael Reed · Top Commenter · Owner/ President at
Self-Employed Consultant/Writer
Doreen - Doesn't make sense. Why would
"open-shop", at-will employers (incompetent or not) shuffle around subpar
med-pros? If there's no penalty for firing, what is their motivation - cash
bribes or something? It seems they would be doubly motivated to fire because of
potential legal liability to their business/employer and being held personally
responsible & liable too? Please explain.
Doreen Meyer · Top
Commenter · Servite HS Detroit, MI
Despite having an 'open-shop' hospitals
are risk-averse. Physicians, particularly, will litigate terminations or
'lockouts' as being damaging to their 'good name' or as a 'trade restriction.'
It takes a tremendous amount of documentation; most hospitals don't want this
information to potentially end up in an open court, as it may also open them up
to liability for continuing an MD whose practice has been known to be subpar.
Nurses will also litigate, and often know where institutional secrets are
'buried', giving them leverage. It does sound as if they should be able to
terminate at will, but they don't.
Good administrators--ones who know how to
handle the process with little to no 'fallout'--are few and far between. Such
actions are also usually highly 'political' and require a high level of skill
and commitment to pull off.
Peter Goodman · Indiana University
Between
80-90% of cases in the civil and criminal courts are resolved through a plea
bargain, why should teacher discipline cases differ... accusations do not mean a
finding of guilt...
Ron Archetti · Top Commenter
Peter Goodman - The
difference is that I'm not paying the defendants in civil and criminal courts to
educate my children nor do I trust them with my child's care. It is exactly that
kind of twisted mentality which you display with that ignorant comment that is
the problem.
Park Windsor · Top Commenter
Can't wait till Bloomberg is
over his ill gotten 3d term.
Glenda Barker · Top Commenter
As if this
is the first lie told by these people... just get rid of them. They do more
harm, then good.
Denise Fryburg · Top Commenter · Hunter
College
Teachers are being given U ratings for just that reason, to make them
resign. It has little to do, in most cases, with performance, but how much they
make. No one should buy into this.
Robert Dunn · Top Commenter · Fordham
University
This is just like the Catholic Church recycling pedophiles. If a
teacher is not proficient, passing them off to another district is a disservice
to the families of the next school.
Michael Reed · Top Commenter · Owner/
President at Self-Employed Consultant/Writer
Catholic Church and Peds? How
about the NEA/AFT Peds with Teaching Certificates who get passed on by Schools
to others? I've seen it twice that I'm certain of, and probably more often when
it was better covered-up. News is full of both male and female teachers who've
abused their students in mulltiple districts for years.
Ron Archetti ·
Top Commenter
As an employer, I would now be suspect of ANY applicant that
listed the DOE under previous employment on their résumé. Hiring any one of them
would be like buying a pig-in-a-poke.
William Lee · Top Commenter
What
a system. These "unsatisfactory" teachers can now go somewhere else to "teach".
This is what's wrong with unions - always protect the bad members.
Paul
Girgenti · Top Commenter
we need to start firing them for failing our
children.
Baz Clark · Works at University of Pikeville
Too bad common
sense isn't!
Pua Tokumoto
As a retired school principal I can honestly
say that an excellent teacher is the biggest indicator of a child's success in
school. We are with a child at least 6 hours a day, five days a week, in a
structured environment. This is powerful and a great teacher can influence a
child sometimes much more than a parent.
Unfortunately, poor teachers hurt
not only children but good teachers as well. I've had experience with the union
trying so hard to get rid of really poor and incompetent teachers to no avail.
Teachers who were passed around from school to school. Teachers who took up a
good chunk of my resources when trying to change behavior by sending them to
workshops, had mentor teachers work with them, etc. The school districts know
this to be so true yet strong unions are there to back them up. We need teachers
unions to work for the child as well as for the teacher. The unions must realize
that the public is sick and tired of incompetent teachers who are still allowed
to "teach" and yet students are not learning. We are headed for disaster as a
country unless the unions work with the school district in upgrading the caliber
of teachers. Most teachers want to teach and play a strong role in the lives of
children.
Work with the school district to keep great teachers and kick out
the poor teachers. Our kids deserve no less.
Michael Reed · Top Commenter
· Owner/ President at Self-Employed Consultant/Writer
Gotta' love this! NYC
is chicagoing! They bribe Education Professionals (NEA/AFT members) into leaving
with a promise of passing them on to some other unsuspecting sucker school
district with falsified documentation. How nice, how professional and who is
being held accountable for this fraud?
Peter Hirsch · Port Washington,
New York
I'm sure this was a concession to the Teacher's Union, the most Evil
Union On The Planet. Creates the most waste and disfunction of any organization
known to Man.
Scott Manlin · Subscribe · Managing Member at Bonvivino
Capital, LLC
Gotta love government
Abul Rahman · Rutgers University -
College Avenue Campus
Sick
Cindy Right · Subscribe · Top
Commenter
They'll just get a job at another school.....just passing the buck
again. Libtards will never let anyone fix a problem.....evil butt
holes.
Jan Snipes · Las Vegas, Nevada
Doesn't this just perpetuate the
problem? This is why good administrators who work to change poor teachers are
made out to be the bad guys.
Valerie Hofheins · University of
Phoenix
...and then those teachers apply to CCSD..
Katherine Walden ·
Works at I'm retired
I'm one of those teachers, Val. I had a terrible eval my
very first year in Prospect, and I was terrible. When I got hired I told them
that it was my first year and that I would need help. I got nothing but a bad
evaluation. They changed it to a satisfactory one after I agreed to not return.
So when CCSD hired me, I was that teacher. But, I got better. I had
help--Vandolah, Christine Jannette, Jan Snipes, even you, Val. Teachers need
help being better.
Charlie Riley · Top Commenter · Electronics Supervisor
at Uncle Sam
They will qualified to teach honors classes in Chicago or
Detroit.
