A close-up look at NYC education policy, politics,and the people who have been, are now, or will be affected by these actions and programs. ATR CONNECT assists individuals who suddenly find themselves in the ATR ("Absent Teacher Reserve") pool and are the "new" rubber roomers, people who have been re-assigned from their life and career. A "Rubber Room" is not a place, but a process.
Career & Technical Education Services for Student Parents Educational Programs for Students in Drug Treatment Correctional Education Co Op Tech LYFE ReStart Academy Phoenix Academy East River Academy Passages Academy
DOE Court Liaisons provide current and applicable information that supports court-involved students in achieving their educational goals Back on Track (collaboration with the District Attorney’s Office) and Outreach Academy are Re-Start programs that serve as alternatives for overage middle school students. GED classes in 3 different NY courtsClose to Home initiative expanded Passages Academy to support students in building social and emotional and academic skills. Close to Home impacts youth placed by the Family Court in ACS custody. Adolescent Behavioral Learning Experience (ABLE) is a partnership between DOE, DOC and the Osborne Association to supportERAstudents in reducing the likelihood of re-incarceration Re-Entry Support
Home School Re-entry Processallows students who transition out ofERAand Passages to return to the their home school’s register immediately
Referral Centers for High School Alternativesconnect students who have had an interruption in their studies to alternative education program
Transition Counselorsat ERA and Passages prepare student for their return to the community and connect students with no home school to Referral Centers
Specially trained Probation Officers for 16-17 year olds
Current Initiatives for Students who are Court-InvolvedIntervention
PEAK program is a school based diversion program in collaboration with the Department of Probation which will provide support and programming including robust after-school and summer offerings
Enhanceoptions for Overage Middle School students (Bx/ Man)
Re-Entry Support
Plan to Succeed NYCwill serve as an electronic portfolio and individual learning plan that will help Passages and ERA students stay on a pathway to graduation and plan for transition
Transition Coacheswill serve ascommunity-based support to assist in re-entry into home schools
Friends of Island Academy Initiative will enhance services for 16-year-olds at ERA
Cross-over youth pre-release planning initiative will be a collaboration between ACS and the DOE to support students on Rikers who are also ACS-involved
Teachers at the only two schools on Rikers Island learned today that their schools willclose next year. In their stead, a new school will open — one with a smaller and possibly new set of teachers.
“Despite some of our best efforts, we’re not making the gains for the students in some of the specialized programs,” said Timothy Lisante, District 79’s deputy superintendent for corrections and detentions.
In an interview today, Lisante and District 79 Superintendent Cami Anderson said that consolidating the two programs would allow for smoother day-to-day operations of the school. Restarting the program will also give the city the opportunity to redesign its placement process, directing some students towards coursework that will prepare them to return to their community high schools and giving others more vocational training.
“The prime vision here is to do everything we can to create a program that will accelerate [student's] progress so they can return to their home school or, if they’re older, go into a rigorous GED program,” Anderson said.
But teachers union officials are crying foul at the city’s timing, arguing that the last-minute announcement was disrespectful to the school’s teaching staff.
“We’re certainly for improving programs but no one’s going to convince me that they just woke up in June and thought this had to be done,” said United Federation of Teachers Secretary Michael Mendel.
The city currently runs two academic programs on Rikers Island. Students under the age of 18, who are legally required to attend school,enrollin the Island Academy, while Horizon Academy enrolls older students who opt into the program. (Last month,I visited the Island Academyfor a Top Chef-style competition among its culinary arts students.)
Together, the schools employ about 197 staff, including teachers, counselors, psychologists and other support staff. On an average day, approximately 900 studentsattend classesat the two schools, each of which are split into a number of different sites throughout the island’s detention facilities.
Lisante estimated that the new school that opens in the fall will serve the same students but with about a 20 percent smaller staff. City and union officials said today that they were negotiating whether and how the schools’ staff members canapply forpositions in the new program. Lisante said that the city would consider teachers who currently teach at the schools but would also look at outside candidates.
Mendel charged that announcing the restructuring so late in the year put teachers at a disadvantage; teachers will now have to reapply for their jobs over the summer, when many have already made plans to travel.
Data on the two schools’ credit accumulation and Regents pass rates wasn’t immediately available today, but I’ve asked the DOE for the schools’ achievement statistics and will update the post when I receive them. Because students in the schools are so transient — many students stay on Rikers Island for only around 30 days — achievement data for the programs is tracked differently than for other city schools.
City officials said today that they took the September arrival of new Department of Corrections Commissioner Dora Schriro as an opportunity to re-evaluate the educational programs in the city’scorrectional facilitiesand that the new plan came as a result of recommendations from thecorrections departmentas well as from teachers in the two schools.
In an interview today, Schriro said she had spoken to the DOE “regularly but infrequently,” but that the two departments share the same goal. “We’re looking for opportunities to be more efficient but more effective as well,” she said.
I’ve listened to the tape many times and, as best as I can determine, Natasha Allen said this to Cami Anderson at Tuesday night’s Newark school board meeting: “I’m trying to figure out, like, do you not want for your brown babies what we want for ours?” That’s when the superintendent abandoned her responsibility and ran away.
Natasha AllenI spoke to Ms. Allen afterwards and asked her to repeat what she said and she offered a fairly close paraphrase. Ms. Allen was not speaking from a script, she was speaking extemporaneously and from anger, so the words might have been a little different when she repeated them to me.
I took it as a sincere question from one young mother to another that really meant this:
Why can’t you understand we want for our children what you want for yours?
I found nothing offensive about the remark. I found it poignant and honest and direct–and maybe the most important challenge thrown at Ms. Anderson the entire evening. And I am seriously puzzled by why the superintendent chose that moment to run away from her responsibility to explain her disruptive plans to the residents of Newark.
I’ve read some accounts that the state-appointed superintendent was “driven” from the meeting. That is utter nonsense. She left freely–and, indeed, the audience booed her for running away. The city’s residents wanted an answer to the question–why doesn’t a state official have the just plain human decency to understand the pain of others?
Ms. Anderson appears, on the tape, to be shaking her head and saying, “Not my family, not my family.” I get that public officials don’t want their private lives dragged into the public sphere–including public officials like Gov. Chris Christie who put his family into taxpayer-funded campaign ads posing as ads aimed at raising money for relief from Superstorm Sandy.
But let’s be real here. Natasha Allen is not a school employee afraid of losing her job. She is not a politician running for office. She is a mother–her daughter Sapphire Allen, a 16-year-old honor student t at Newark Vocational, also spoke that night–and she came to a recklessly overcrowded venue Tuesday night to express her fears and her anger about what the superintendent was doing to her child and all other “brown babies” in the city.
“I used the words ‘brown babies’ because it’s the black and Latino children who are the most hurt by her plans,” Ms. Allen told me.
Ms. Allen was direct. She set the tone early, insisting she would not call the superintendent “Ms. Anderson” because she felt the boss of the Newark schools had shown disrespect for the city’s residents and children. She expressed anger about reports–so far denied by her press spokesman, Matthew Frankel–that the schools superintendent moved to Montclair.
So there it was: One woman, one mother, against another. Face to face. One woman asking another an important personal question. One mother asking another mother why Ms. Anderson doesn’t understand that, despite poverty, despite racism, despite the state’s criminal neglect of its cities and their schools, the mothers of brown babies love their children as fully and as passionately as more affluent, more fortunate, mothers love their babies–brown or white or black.
The superintendent owes Ms. Allen an answer. She owes all parents an answer. Not as the former executive director of Teach for America. Not as Christie’s $300,000 agent in Newark. Not as one of Time magazine’s up-and-comers. Not as a school superintendent.
But as a mother. Cami Anderson–this is a woman who has disrupted thousands of families in Newark with a plan that will close their schools, require them to put their children in unfamiliar neighborhoods. She has insulted parents by suggesting their children would cause an increase in crime if they stayed home from school because of the teachers’ convention.
So how about an answer? To my paraphrase of Ms. Allen’s remark: Why can’t you understand we want for our children what you want for yours?
Or, as Ms. Allen put it that night: “I’m trying to figure out, like, do you not want for your brown babies what we want for ours?”
You can’t run away, Cami Anderson. Come back and answer the damned question.
19 comments
Kelly I agree completely Bob. I was there and was one of the “overflow” attendees who were finally allowed into the cafeteria so we wouldn’t freeze to death outside. Three of us carpooled and drove around the area for at least 30 minutes looking for parking (which was ludicrous considering the school had an empty underground lot and there were PLENTY of police to secure it). Luckily, a friend inside was keeping us abreast of what was happening via instant messaging. We then decided to “FaceTime” so we could see and try to hear part of the proceedings but the noise level and lack of satellite signal eventually ended that solution. At about 8:00, our friend on the inside alerted us that many people left and there were plenty of seats available. I told that to one if the many officers in the hallway and asked if we could be let in to occupy those seats. He replied, “It doesn’t work that way. They’re not allowing anyone else in.” Really? So my colleagues and I quickly texted and posted via Facebook to the Union leaders. By 8:20, we were ushered in to the vacated seats. Just in time for the hullabaloo. I believe Ms. Allen and all Newark parents deserve an answer to that question. I also commend the Board for continuing the meeting although that was not what Ms. Anderson wanted. They showed the community respect and it was returned with gratitude. The people of Newark are informed and have valid points. They will not be pushed around (and anyone who grew up in Newark knows that). If the powers that be think this was the climax of events, they are sorely mistaken. This is a taste of Newark citizens waking up and getting READY to fight. We are relentless and focused. In the words of a Newarker, “You don’t mess with mine”. Looks like gloves are coming off. Bob Braun: Thank you for your insightful note. Twice in one week the Anderson administration risked the welfare of the city’s residents–first by keeping schools open in a storm and then by scheduling what it new would be a heavily attended meeting at an inappropriate site. Mindless.
Ms Anderson risks the welfare of the children of Newark every single day by
allowing them to attend schools that are in dangerous disrepair – full of exposed
mold, asbestos, poor air quality, poor heat and ventilation. And she has not used her direct line to the Governor to expedite repairs. I believe endangering the life of a
Awo This was a typical and textbook reaction when people are called out for their colorblind/
covert racism. They storm away in a huff to make it about their hurt feelings and distract
from the issue at hand. It’s her way of trying to sabotage the discussion, dialogue, and even
the meeting. The other textbook reaction was to ensure she had people around her who would pat her on the back to comfort her *pain* and hurt feelings. Well, what about the pain and
hurt feelings of the children, parents, and community of Newark? They are hurting too. Don’t their hurt feelings and pain matter? But here is the deal: the people of Newark were not there for her hurt feelings; they were there for their democracy, their survival, and the education of their brown babies. Bob Braun: Nicely put.
The stark, black screen says it all. “Please stand by. Starting soon…The story of Newark.” Nothing is exactly what did happen–nothing ever did appear on the blank YouTube screen that was supposed to provide a live feed of a speech Thursday by Cami Anderson to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C.
Anderson, already an embarrassment to herself and the state of New Jersey, never did speak, at least not publicly. She canceled her PUBLIC speech. Why? Because a busload of 40 students, parents, and other community residents showed up to hear what she had to say and, perhaps, to ask her a few questions. They had to go to Washington because Cami Anderson won’t talk to them in Newark. Won’t attend public board meetings. Hasn’t since January. The Hermit Queen of Newark.
So those 40 people who yesterday followed her to Washington literally scared her speechless, poor dear. Little Miss Muffet fled indecorously from her tuffet when people like Sharon Smith and Michael Dixon and Kristin Towkaniuk tried to sit alongside her. She recorded her comments “for media only,” according to AEI officials.
That shows how far media has sunk into corporate sycophancy. They are supposed to represent the people, not join in secret cabals with organizations like AEI and privatized school entrepreneurs.
Anderson, the highly-paid toadies she brought with her on the junket to the nation’s capital, and staff members from the AEI, a conservative think-tank, made asses out of themselves by panicking and declaring a small group of perfectly well-behaved and properly registered people “a security breach” and first tried to evict them, turned the lights off in their own auditorium, and then called the police.
A security breach? Some crazy guy with a knife hopping the White House fence and entering the executive mansion–now that is a security breach. Kids and adult chaperones showing up for a buffet lunch in Washington DC is a field trip.
What a spectacle. Like elephants stampeding in the presence of a mouse.
“They just showed a lot of disrespect,” said Roberto Cabanes, a spokesman for NJ Communities United, which helped arrange the trip to Washington, along with organizations including the Newark Student Union, PULSE, and the People’s Organization for Progress.
Cabanes said the Newark residents properly registered and paid their fees for the event and behaved well when they got to the room in the building on 17th Street NW where Cami was scheduled to speak. But one of Anderson’s $175,000-a-year assistants, Peter Turnamian, noticed some familiar faces among the people who came to hear Anderson talk about her “successes” and “triumphs” in Newark. Not the sort of faces normally seen at the events of an organization run by some of the biggest capitalists in the nation–including that patron saint of free enterprise and maniacal public policy, former Vice President Dick Cheney.
(Turnamian, before he became one of Anderson’s roadies, is probably best known for founding a charter school that billed itself as “The Best School in Newark,” a charter school subsequently ordered closed by the state because it was such a failure. Naturally, he would be working for Cami Anderson.) We call them our neighbors–they call them a “security breach.”Turnamian warned the nervous biddies who run the AEI of the dangerous “security breach” and tried to have some of them evicted. Meanwhile, the 11:30 a.m. program was delayed. The AEI folks then said Anderson’s talk would be given elsewhere, perhaps in a lavatory or slop closet somewhere in the building–then finally gave up and canceled Anderson’s antic road show. The Washington Post, however, reported Anderson may have given the speech “without an audience.” Turns out, that’s exactly what she did.
Making us wonder: If Cami gave a speech and no one was there to hear it, would it still be a pack of lies?
The answer is: Yes.
When the students and parents tried to explain the reason for their presence to what was left of the AEI audience after the cancellation was announced, the organization’s staffers decided to combat the security breach by turning off the lights. How better to ensure the safety of people inside a building than to plunge them into darkness? That should have made everyone feel more secure. It understandably got the Newark residents angry.
Want to laugh? Here’s how the AEI describes itself: “The American Enterprise Institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise. AEI pursues these unchanging ideals through independent thinking, open debate, reasoned argument, facts and the highest standards of research and exposition.”
Independent thinking? Open debate? Reasoned argument? Does all that include refusing to answer questions from constituents–and turning off the lights? And hiding behind closed doors?
When Jordana Shenkman moved into her 430-square-foot rental this March, she wasted no time getting settled. "I actually put this entire thing together from nothing in one month's time," she says. Spurred by a small-space contest on design blog Apartment Therapy (apartmenttherapy.com), the government attorney had roughly 30 days to furnish her pad before the competition's deadline. "I did nothing but run all over the place," Shenkman recalls. "Every day after work I'd be going to another discount store." But the glory of winning (she didn't) wasn't her only motivation to quickly decorate: "I'm 33, but I've never had my own apartment," explains Shenkman, who had lived with a roommate since moving to the city seven years ago. "I'm sure a lot of people in New York have that same experience. It's kind of delayed youth here."
Prosecute administrative hearings against school administrators and teachers charged with employee misconduct with a high rate of successful outcomes.
Selected to handle high-profile, press cases for the unit.
Responsible for drafting charges, investigation, settlement negotiation, discovery, witness preparation and litigating cases.
Present oral arguments including appeal before panel of judges at the New York City Civil Service Commission.
Work in conjunction with the New York City Law Department, New York City District Attorney's Offices, New York Police Department and other independent investigative agencies.
Conduct legal research and offer legal advice on Education and Labor Law issues.
Prosecuted bench and jury trials to verdict, including high-profile felony crimes.
Responsible for trial strategy, criminal investigation, civilian, police and expert witness preparation and plea negotiations with caseload of approximately eighty.
Presented hundreds of felony cases to the Grand Jury for indictment; competitively selected as only junior assistant to present homicide case.
Drafted motions and argued constitutional and evidentiary issues of law.
If you harbored any doubts whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo disrespects public education, you can set them adrift, light them on fire and push 'em out to sea. He's flying his true colors now.
Cuomo's executive budget proposal is an assault on public education and the teaching profession. It proposes a strings-attached increase of $1.1 billion for school aid, half of the amount recommended by the Regents.
It also would hold school aid hostage to his "reforms," including a harsh, simplistic and punitive new teacher evaluation system, a back-door voucher tax credit and a permanent tax cap. If legislators don't go along with his plans, he'll cut that increase by two-thirds. Perhaps the ugliest slap in the face to communities, educators, school boards, parents andstudents- whose worlds revolve around public education - is his petty extortion scheme to withhold proposed district-by-district aid data from local school districts until he gets his way in the Legislature. Districts are on strict timelines to prepare draft budgets, present them to voters and get them approved on May 19. They cannot even begin without those school-aid runs.
Gov. Cuomo knows this. He doesn't care.
Misinformed and misguided
"The governor is misinformed," said NYSUT President Karen E. Magee. "New York has one of the strongest public education systems in the nation and a professional, highly dedicated teaching force. He should be celebrating that excellence. Instead, we get intellectually hollow rhetoric that misrepresents the state of teaching and learning. "Students, parents and teachers, who know better, aren't buying this agenda, which everyone knows is driven by the governor's billionaire hedge-fund friends," she said. NYSUT Executive Vice President Andy Pallotta, who leads the union's legislative and political department, said the governor is misguided and invited him to attend a series of community forums planned for the coming weeks.
"We want him tolistento the aspirations of students who want to excel but don't have art, music, foreign languages or guidance counselors," he said. "We want him to hear from parents who want a greater state and local investment in their public schools, so their sons and daughters can have a full range of services and aren't crammed in classes of 30 or 35 with outdated textbooks.
"And, we want him to listen to the experts - educators and administrators who love theirjobsand are dedicated to their students, who know a greater focus on standardized testing is wrong and who know that 'opportunity' is just a word unless it's backed by enough funding that goes to the right places."
Recession era
Nearly 1 million New York schoolchildren - including more than a third of African-American and Latino students - live in poverty. The state's systemic failure to provide enough resources for all of its students and to do so equitably - while giving all teachers the tools and support they need - is "the real crisis and the one our governor is trying to sweep under the rug," Magee said.
Schoolsare repeatedly being asked to do more with less. Due to aid cuts since the recession hit, more than half - 51 percent - of the state's schools are receiving less state aid in the current year than they did in 2008-09. These gaps in state funding - and the tax cap and tax freeze - are the reason.
During this legislative session, NYSUT activists are advocating strongly and loudly for what students need:
equitable school aid so financially starved, high-needs districts receive the resources they need;
expansion of Career and Technical Education;
investments in the arts and other programs;
increased funding for BOCES and Special Act schools; and
increased funding for public higher education to relieve the burdens on students and their families.
NYSUT advocates also seek increases in health care spending so SUNY teaching hospitals can continue to provide quality medical services to their communities.
What students and educators don't need is an executive budget proposal that includes numerous onerous plans that must be stopped:
Empowering the state to take over "failing" schools, eliminating local control, tenure, seniority and collective bargaining agreements.
Creating a back-door voucher tax credit to benefit wealthy donors to private and charter schools, to the tune of $100 million per year.
Tying public higher ed funding to campus "performance" rather than enrollment.
Destroying teacher prep programs at SUNY and CUNY.
Allowing private equity firms to own and operate hospitals, which will set the stage for privatization of SUNY hospitals.
Eliminating the $14 million funding for teacher centers.
Making the tax cap permanent.
NYSUT and its coalition partners agree that New York state, with its improved fiscal condition, is in a position to help schools turn the corner financially. Statewide education organizations issued a report in January outlining the need for a $2 billion state education aid increase so schools can continue current services and make progress on critical new initiatives.
The Board of Regents proposed a $2.2 billion state aid increase. Even Chancellor Merryl Tisch, whose "reform" agenda is seriously problematic, insists this money is essential. Cuomo asked for half that.
It's simply not enough.
"Far too many school districts are still digging out from budget holes created during the recession," Pallotta said. "A greater commitment of school aid - more resources for vital initiatives such as community schools and for English language learners - is the way to ensure that every child is ready to learn at high levels, graduate and succeed in college or the workplace."
LINK Can the Danielsonclassroom managementrubric be applied by supervisors to teachers?
I ask this question because I found myself in the position of putting my ATR supervisor into a Danielson bind. According to the Danielson rubric for classroom management, the highly effectiveteacherneed only glance at a misbehaving student for that student to straighten up and fly right. I quote the Danielson Puppet for “highly effective” classroom management:
In addition to the characteristics of “Effective”: · Student behavioris entirely appropriate; no evidence of student misbehavior. · The teacher monitors student behavior without speaking – just moving about. · Students respectfully intervene as appropriate withclassmatesto ensure compliance with standards of conduct.
As noted in chapter 31, of course, this ridiculous rubric doesn’t necessarily translate perfectly to intimate interactions between husband in wife. (SeeThe Charlotte Danielson Rubric for the Highly Effective Husband.) Or maybe it does. Hopefully the Danielson group will be doing some studies on the husband - wife interaction in the near future - double blind studies, of course. I mean, there’s a reason why we close our eyes ….
But why wouldn’t the Danielson rubric translate within educational circles? Why wouldn’t my ATR supervisor be held to the same standard that I am held to? Why wouldn’t an educational supervisor be expected to perform in the same way that the people he/she is supervising are expected to perform? Just because a student’s behavior is often beyond the control of the teacher, does it follow that a teacher’s behavior should be beyond the control of the supervisor? Aren’t we all civilized, educated adults here?
Having been U rated in an ATR advisorycoverage, it was going to take more than “just moving about” or monitoring ATR behavior “without speaking” to get me to behave like a highly effective student, or like the highly effective student of the highly effective teacher. The Danielson bind for my ATR supervisor was that I simply refused to comply with her “plan of assistance” no matter what she didn’t say or what sort of highly effective look she gave me. What does the highly effective teacher do when a student simply refuses to do the work? The highly effective teacher magically makes it happen even though by this same rubric such behavior doesn’t exist - “no evidence of student misbehavior.”
More than mere talk was required in order to correct my inappropriate behavior - I didn’t agree with the evaluation or the circumstances of the evaluation and refused to do my homework, i.e., submitlesson plansa week in advance - lengthy lesson plans that primarily assure that I would do as little teaching as possible so that the students could interact with one another as the focus of learning. As one supervisor put it succinctly in one P.D., “Kids today are going to talk so we have to give them something to talk about.” Listening is out of the question. By the Danielson rubric, my ATR supervisor was already struggling to achieve “developing:” “Teacher attempts to maintain order in the classroom but with uneven success; standards of conduct, if they exist, are not evident.”
I listened but didn’t like what I was hearing. On Tues., Dec. 2, 2014 I received a notice that there would be a “disciplinary meeting” on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 at Women’s Academy of Excellence (WAE), which was my current ATR assignment. The UFT chapter leader at WAE was notified that this meeting would take place. He met with me the next morning to find out what this was all about. In Danielson terms this might be considered the equivalent of the parent - teacher - counselor intervention, something the highly effective teacher, of course, never has to resort to.
This meeting took place as scheduled in the office of principal Dr. Crocker, who was present as a silent witness, a very good student. UFT chapter leader Rick Steckmeister, who proved to be a highly effective (by any rubric) chapter leader, sat by my side as ATR field supervisor Annelisse Falzone recounted the numerous incidents in which I had refused to respond to her more highly evolved monitoring technique by telling her that her original observation was a crock and that in no way could it be considered a reasonable evaluation tool, certainly nothing on which to base an “unsatisfactory” observation.
I might digress here on the topic of “insubordination.” Teachers use this weapon against students. If a teacher instructs a student to do something three times and the student refuses to comply, that student is officially guilty of the offense of insubordination. Disciplinary action can be taken. When a student refuses to change his seat when instructed by the teacher, for example, and refuses a second and a third time, that student becomes insubordinate. The teacher can then officially waste 20 minutes of class time to deal with the situation, which is likely to recur the next day. That less than highly effective teacher has then lost 20 minutes of instruction that might have benefited the majority of students who never are insubordinate and are only there to learn. Such defiant students are present, however, in every teacher's classroom from the ineffective to the highly effective. The Danielson rubric is oblivious to this reality.
In 2012 when I was judged to be “unsatisfactory” in another observation by a supervisor who quoted nonexistent people in the room in her “evaluation” of my teaching, I begged the principal to accuse me of insubordination. I refused at that time, too, to comply with various directives that resulted from that observation. I begged my supervisor to charge me with insubordination. I assumed that there would be some sort of hearing outside of the school in front of an “independent” arbitrator. My exact words were:
If this is insubordination, Ms. Clarke, then I suggest that you charge me now with 5 counts, Monday through Friday, so that I can get a hearing on this subject beyond you and your principal, Mr. Hoxha. Your incompetence at JLHS must be exposed…. ( SeeChapter 36: Division by Zero in the middle.)
I was never charged with insubordination even though I had put it in writing. Idealistically I hope that this meant that the principal realized that he would be embarrassed by his A.P. Realistically I know that no one really gave a damn.
I again admitted to what I thought was insubordination at this ATR disciplinary meeting on Dec. 5, 2014. I assumed that by refusing to comply with their “plan of assistance” many more than three times, I was being insubordinate to my ATR supervisor. As I told my UFT representative, I hoped that I would be accused of insubordination because I don’t believe that anyone in their right mind would agree that an observation of an ELA ATR in a coverage of an advisory class when most of the students were on a class trip is meaningful. On the other hand I knew I was dealing with the NYC DOE. But this put Steckmeister in a sticky position given that it is the UFT chapter leader’s role to keep teacher’s out of trouble while I was trying to get into more trouble.
My ATR supervisor recounted everything that I had refused to do as well as the somewhat acrimonious interactions between us that had already occurred and I didn’t disagree. She recounted our relationship since that fateful day at restorative justice haven Mott Hall Bronx accurately. Thus I was hopeful that a charge of insubordination was forthcoming.
Unfortunately, all I got out of it was the charge that I was “out of compliance” with my “plan of assistance.” That doesn’t have the same ring to it. “Insubordination” carries some weight. “Out of compliance” sounds more like the dog ate my homework.
Perhaps my ATR supervisor was giving me the benefit of the doubt, given that she had seen a good lesson in that advisory coverage and given that by this date, Dec. 5, 2012, she had observed a good lesson at my new assignment school on Dec. 1. At least I thought it was a good lesson, if not “highly” effective, at least effective. But that was merely an informal observation. It was an observation of my teaching in a real ELA class with students that I had by that time taught for two days and it was a lesson that ought to have been rated very highly. But I got nothing about this lesson. Instead, all I got was feedback based on the advisory coverage observation - more student interaction and better closure.
In any case I was disappointed in my ATR supervisor at this meeting. She didn’t charge me with insubordination but when questioned by Mr. Steckmeister, she admitted that a letter would be introduced to my file. My file by now may require its own file cabinet drawer. Mr. Steckmesiter pursued this line of inquiry. Ms. Falzone didn’t say what the letter would state but said again that I was “out of compliance” with my plan of assistance. At this Mr. Steckmeister wisely asked what that actually meant? Could I still receive at the end of the year an “S” rating if further observations were satisfactory?
My ATR supervisor said that that was a possibility. My UFT rep then asked for further clarification on what exactly “out of compliance” meant. My ATR supervisor then said that she had seen cases in which teachers had submitted letters that stated that they refused the assistance offered by the “plan of assistance.” This was new to both me and my union rep. Was this true or just a ruse to get me to put my insubordination into writing? Since I had begged to be charged with insubordination in the past and was now looking to be charged with it again, this admission looked like gold.
Steckmeister brilliantly pursued this line of inquiry but, of course, as my union protector, his job was to keep me out of trouble. He asked if I could still be rated “S” at the end of the year even if I gave her a letter stating that I was refusing her assistance. "Yes" was the answer. That could still happen. At least, that was the theoretical possibility. I could still be rated a satisfactory teacher even if I put in writing that I was guilty either of insubordination or being “out of compliance” with directives.
With this the meeting was adjourned. I left with the suggestion from my ATR supervisor that I had the option of refusing the “plan of assistance” in writing. Steckmeister too, was of the opinion that my supervisor had made a suggestion that was to my benefit - if it wasn’t purely some sort of confession. Since I didn’t mind confessing to being insubordinate, I was leaning toward the idea of refusing “assistance” in writing since I’d been refusing it without putting it in writing all along. Why not just put it on the record?
That was my disciplinary ATR meeting. I was disappointed in not being charged outright with insubordination but happy to hear that I could put my insubordination on record in writing. That was clearly the best course of action.
When I started teaching in the Bronx, I had doubts that there really was such a thing as ODD - oppositional defiance disorder. That sounded to me like just another fake mental disorder created by psychiatric interests looking for more business. A year or two of teaching in the Bronx, of course, taught me that this disorder is for real. For real! Maybe you’ve got to see it to believe it but when you watch enough teenagers refuse to do the simplest things and refusing to do them with streams of obscenities that come as naturally to them as spit to a spittoon and a complete disregard to whom they streaming, you become convinced that ODD does, indeed, exist and that it would be nice if there were some real treatment for it - that is, until one of your best ODD kids curses out an administrator for sticking their nose into something that is none of their business. Then it becomes nothing short of justice pure and and as simple as an "Equalizer" movie.
Never did I imagine in those days, however, that I might become the educator equivalent of the ODD student. But I was not yet familiar with the workings of the DOE. Nor had modern educational reform kicked in. In the era of modern educational reform, does a real educator have any choice but to become clinically ODD?
Neither did I imagine that the burden of responsibility for a student’s performance would be shifted from the student to the teacher. Once upon a time the teacher was responsible for teaching and the student responsible for learning. This is no longer the case. The teacher is now responsible for both the teaching and the learning while the student is responsible for nothing at all.
I predict that the number of ODD teachers is on the rise.
As for the Danielson rubric applied to administrators … fat chance.
Luckily, a friend inside was keeping us abreast of what was happening via instant messaging. We then decided to “FaceTime” so we could see and try to hear part of the proceedings but the noise level and lack of satellite signal eventually ended that solution. At about 8:00, our friend on the inside alerted us that many people left and there were plenty of seats available.
I told that to one if the many officers in the hallway and asked if we could be let in to occupy those seats. He replied, “It doesn’t work that way. They’re not allowing anyone else in.” Really?
So my colleagues and I quickly texted and posted via Facebook to the Union leaders. By 8:20, we were ushered in to the vacated seats. Just in time for the hullabaloo.
I believe Ms. Allen and all Newark parents deserve an answer to that question. I also commend the Board for continuing the meeting although that was not what Ms. Anderson wanted. They showed the community respect and it was returned with gratitude. The people of Newark are informed and have valid points. They will not be pushed around (and anyone who grew up in Newark knows that). If the powers that be think this was the climax of events, they are sorely mistaken. This is a taste of Newark citizens waking up and getting READY to fight. We are relentless and focused. In the words of a Newarker, “You don’t mess with mine”. Looks like gloves are coming off.
Bob Braun: Thank you for your insightful note. Twice in one week the Anderson administration risked the welfare of the city’s residents–first by keeping schools open in a storm and then by scheduling what it new would be a heavily attended meeting at an inappropriate site. Mindless.
Bob Braun: Nicely put.