Guest Post: The UFT Needs To Do More To Assist ATRs

  August 11, 2012
1) The UFT is to be applauded for its efforts to defeat the DOE's efforts to vilify veteran teachers and send teachers in the 24 turnaround schools into the ATR pool.  The arbitrator said that the DOE was wrong in making teachers reapply for their positions.
However, we call upon the president to extend the same commitment of protection to teachers that have been excessed prior to this June.
This tactic of closing down schools is an old one under Bloomberg, Klein, Black and Walcott. The only thing that is different with the present instance is that the DOE was trying to close schools and circumvent the messy PEP process that resulted in organized community opposition and lawsuits.
There is now court precedent on our side.  In New York state on July 24, Judge Joan Lobis sustained the arbitrator’s position by saying that teachers’ contracts must be respected. (290 82nd 338)  In Louisiana on June 20, Judge Ethel Simms Julien used the same reasoning to say that 7,000 post-Katrina school employees were wrongly fired in New Orleans. (As this last example is in another state, this can be deemed “persuasive” in a legal argument application for our state.)

While the teachers in the 24 turnaround schools have been saved, it is important to not forget the teachers new to the ATR pool from schools that the DOE has successfully shut down and the prior generation of ATRs.  The UFT must insist on a hiring freeze until ATRs have been placed, as it did on September 12, 2007.* 

The excessed teachers are not the causes for "failing schools." The schools the DOE targets for closure disproportionately have low income students, high percentages of special education and ELL students.

1-a) Stop the Lockout
It's time that Mulgrew and the UFT defend all of the ATRs and fight for their placement, just as hard as they fought for the preservation of the positions of the teachers in the 24 schools slated for "closing."  

ATRs are being locked out of positions.
i) ATRs go unhired while novice teachers, many fresh out of college or education school, are placed in positions.  We call for the termination of the new replacement workers and for their replacement by ATRs.
ii) Adding insult to injury, workers with the title of teacher are the one class of UFT professional that is forced on a weekly sojourn.  The DOE is placing guidance counselors, social workers, librarians and paraprofessionals in full-school year assignments. 
iii) ATRs are asked during job interviews to demonstrate their competency in new teaching protocols: Common Core, workshop model, Danielson Method.  Novice teachers are given preferential treatment with summer training in these areas.  We call for the termination of novice training and for the offering of training to ATRs.

1-b) No to ending careers with buy-outs
The UFT leadership’s talk of a buy-out is a caving in to the DOE's harassment of ATRs.  Mulgrew did not defend the ATRs' teaching integrity when the DOE spoke of the ATRs as dead-weight during the May news reports of buy-out talks.

1-c) No to observations of ATRs
Observations of ATRs beginning in the 2011-2012 are another product of a side agreement to contracts.  It is inappropriate for teachers to be observed with students that they have just met, with students that know that the lesson is just a sample lesson.

2) No more side-agreements to contracts
The UFT must stop making agreements to the status of ATRs outside of the contract process.  In these side agreements the city is biting off, in piecemeal fashion, contract protections of senior teachers.  As an example, on April 15, 2010, and in the summer of 2011 the DOE and the UFT made an ATR agreements without any input from ATRs or other rank and file members of the UFT.  These side agreements are made without the sort of membership vote to which contracts are subjected.  Yet, the agreements carry the same powerful weight that contracts carry.

3) Dues equity for ATRs: Elected reps of ATRs’ choosing
Furthermore, the UFT must stop its opposition to the ATRs' practice of their electoral rights.  ATRs have no venue by which to vote for representatives that come from their ranks to express their interests.  Other distinctive groups, such as paraprofessionals and career and technical school teachers have their special divisions.  ATRs, with ranks at an estimated 830, equal the size of teaching staffs at about ten large schools put together.  For the reasons of parity, ATRs must have elected representatives at the boro level. 

The UFT held during the 2011 to 2012 year that ATRs could vote in whatever school that they were serving for a given week.  This is disingenuous. How can an ATR within a few days size up the main issues at a given school and properly weigh the strengths and weaknesses of two or three candidates at the school?  It is further unfair to the staff in the school in question.  ATRs, as outsiders, in close races could tip elections, affecting the outcome for the staff to be represented at that school. 
 
The UFT needs to recognize that we are not in a temporary status.  It knows, full well, that principals are not inclined to hire them, due to their senior salary level.  There is no valid rationale in opposing chapters and representatives with the argument that giving ATRs representation will institutionalize their status.  Given that many ATRs have been in this status for more than two years, they already have an institutionalized status by default.




New York Teacher, Sept. 20, 2007. 
 
*"Dispelling rumors that their jobs might be in jeopardy, Weingarten made clear that teachers who find themselves working as ATRs maintain their salary benefits and cannot be fired or laid off thanks to a job-security guarantee that the UFT secured in the 2005 contract.

"At a Sept. 12 [2007] labor-management meeting that Weingarten requested on the treatment of excessed teachers, UFT officials called for a moratorium on new hiring until vacancies are filled by current ATRs in the district or high school superintendency provided they have the appropriate license.

"'Filling vacancies with ATRs meets both federal and state requirements related to having a 'highly qualified teacher' in every classroom,' said Weingarten.'"
 
"DOE officials agreed at the Sept. 12 meeting to modify the new school financing system to encourage principals to hire ATRs. The school will get filled for the first year as if the teacher were a new hire and for the second year at 50 percent of the teacher's actual salary before assuming the cost of the actual salary before assuming the cost of the teacher's actual salary in the teacher's third year at the school.
 
"UFT officials also urged the DOE, in the next open market transfer period, to require that principals grant interviews, in seniority order, to ATRs with the appropriate license to fill vacancies before new recruits are interviewed or hired. Principals should also be required to put in writing why the ATR was nor hired for the position, the union said.
 
"The UFT also demanded that all ATRs be allowed access to all DOE job fairs.  The union made the demand after receiving word that the DOE barred ATRs from attending job fairs for prospective new teachers last spring."    New York Teacher, Sept. 20, 2007.        

With The Right Support Mid-Career Teachers Can Get Better

Bad Teachers Can Get Better After Some Types Of Evaluation, Harvard Study Finds

Huff Post education, Posted: 08/09/2012 11:24 am

LINK

The question of what to do with bad teachers has stymied America's education system of late, sparking chaotic protests in state capitals and vitriolic debate in a recent congressional hearing. It has also stoked the movement known as 'education reform,' which has zeroed in on teacher quality by urging school districts to sort the star teachers from the duds, and reward or punish them accordingly.

The idea is that America's schools would be able to increase their students' test scores if only they had better teachers. Since 2007, this wave of education reformers -- in particular Democrats for Education Reform, a group backed by President Barack Obama and hedge fund donors -- has clashed with teachers unions in their pursuit of making the field of education as discerning in its personnel choices as, say, that of finance. Good teachers should be promoted and retained, reformers contend, instead of being treated like identical pieces on an assembly line, who are rewarded with tenure for their staying power or seniority. But what to do with the underperformers?

Different states have answered this question differently, with some instituting evaluation systems that give teachers who rank low on test scores and in classroom observations a probationary period of a few years to improve before booting them from the profession. Reformers back this policy by serving up research that asserts -- like teacher-placement group TNTP did last week in a much-heralded report called "The Irreplaceables" -- that "struggling teachers rarely improve."

In response, union leaders like American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten respond that most teachers can be good enough for America's students if they're given guidance and support. But -- perhaps because of the way research gets funded -- there has been little evidence to date that shows that teachers can, indeed, grow after their first few years in the classroom.

The story is beginning to change. On Thursday, the Harvard University journal Education Next released a study by two economists, Brown University's John Tyler and Stanford University's Eric Taylor, that provides hope that, with the right support, mid-career teachers can get better.

"It shows that you can in fact teach an old dog new tricks," says Aaron Pallas, a Teachers College, Columbia University professor who recently published research on teacher retention. "It's very important evidence that it's possible for experienced teachers to improve their practices."

The economists looked at a group of 105 mid-career elementary and middle-school teachers in Cincinnati and found that actually evaluating the teachers in a very specific way made their students perform somewhat better a few years later. According to Education Next, it's the first study that tests and proves the hypothesis that providing teachers formalized feedback makes them better. A longer version of the study, with technical details, will be released in the American Economic Review.

Recent related research by Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching President Anthony Bryk found that a specific coaching program called Literacy Collaborative significantly increased students' learning gains in reading.

Taylor and Tyler chose Cincinnati because, unlike other cities that have only recently revamped and formalized their teacher evaluations, the city instituted a process known as theTeacher Evaluation System over a decade ago. Unlike many newer teacher evaluation systems, TES relies on structured classroom observation by a teacher's peers and administrators, and not on students' test scores. TES only evaluates teachers once every five years.

Tyler and Taylor already knew from previous research that these evaluations did predict teachers' students' performance on standardized tests. So they mapped out the test scores of students of mid-career teachers who had gone through the evaluation process over time, and found that an average teacher's student scored 4.5 points (out of 100) higher on state math tests in the years following a teacher's evaluation. The improvement in score represents three or four months of additional learning per student.

"Conventional wisdom has been that teachers make big improvements in their practice and skill early in their careers, but not in the middle or late parts," Taylor said to HuffPost. "This is an example where teachers in the middle of their careers are making important gains."

The researchers note that, to the best of their knowledge, their study is the first to test the hypothesis that practice-based teacher evaluation programs can help to improve teacher performance. However, the study did not find that the evaluations had any effects on students' reading scores. "There weren't similar effects in reading," Taylor said.

That may be because, Pallas suggested, "reading is a skill that's more responsive of out-of-school sources."

TES itself would not enable the district to identify which teachers to fire: Because of a bias toward leniency, 90 percent of them were rated in the top two of four categories. But the "microlevel" feedback -- the specific rubrics that grade individual teaching practices -- were much harsher, and the researchers believe this spurred reflection, collaboration and, eventually, growth. Taylor stressed that the conclusion isn't a blanket recommendation that all cities adopt Cincinnati's system, since the study was limited to a specific set of teachers.

"It's a glimmer of hope in what has been a fairly gray landscape for awhile, since professional development is extremely costly and extremely ineffective currently," said Tim Daly, TNTP's president. "The question is whether these teachers, when they improve, are good enough."

NYC DOE: ATRs Are "Risky"

NYC DOE Teacher Hiring Support Center

Services

 LINK

 

The Teacher Hiring Support Center (THSC) is managed by the Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality and is a dynamic resource center for NYC Department of Education teachers who have been excessed or are seeking to transfer schools during the Open Market hiring season.

The team at THSC is committed to providing current NYC teachers with a wealth of resources, information and support services unlike any other urban school district of our size. We administer workshops, host recruitment fairs, offer daily phone and email support, and continually work to deliver crucial resources to teachers.

Although it is ultimately a teacher's responsibility to secure a new position within the New York City school system, we are committed to equipping you with tools on how to best market yourself as an experienced teacher while you proactively seek to identify a school that is a mutual match for your personal and professional needs.

Teachers in Excess

The Teacher Hiring Support Center (THSC) is managed by the New York City Department of Education's (NYCDOE) Office of Teacher Recruitment and Quality (TRQ), and is a hiring resource center for existing NYCDOE teachers. For up-to-date hiring communication that may affect you, please routinely visit our announcements page.

Being a teacher in excess means there is no full-time teaching position in your current building for the upcoming school year.  Formal excess letters are generated and distributed between June and July, and this serves as confirmation of being in excess status. For a copy of an official excess letter looks like, please vist the 'Resource Documents' section of our Navigating your Job Search page. 

THSC understands that the uncertainty of being a teacher in excess can be  frustrating, but if you are still excited and passionate about teaching NYC students, you must remain positive and do your best to prepare for the process of identifying schools with vacancies and meeting with principals. With almost 1600 programs and schools, we are confident that there is a school that you can identify to meet your needs.  Visit our Navigating your Job Search page for resources to aid in your search.  Resources include:

• Online resource Portal
• Job search preparation workshops
• Recruitment fairs
• Ambassador phone-bank

Visit our FAQs page where you may find the answers to questions you may have.  To verify whether you are currently a teacher in excess, email us at thsc@schools.nyc.gov or contact 718-935-5280. [Top of Page]

Teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR)

Teachers are often confused about the difference between being a teacher in excess and being part of the ATR.  ATRs are excessed teachers who do not find a permanent position at a school by the time the next school year begins.  Teachers in excess do not have to become ATRs. In fact, becoming an ATR is risky.  For example:

- If you do not obtain a fully appointed teaching position by the beginning of the school year, you will be assigned to a school as a member of the ATR pool.  The placement will be made under the collective bargaining agreement, but the assignment will be done centrally and you will have no control over the placement school.  This significantly reduces the likelihood of a mutual fit between you and the school.  If you are already an ATR, there is no guarantee that you will be placed at the same school you were placed at in 2010-2011.

- If you are in fact teaching in a full-time teaching program at a school while you are still in fact a member of the ATR pool, the central NYCDOE policy can still assign you to another school at any time.  Because you are not on the school's budget, the principal cannot guarantee your security. [Top of Page]

Teachers in a Closing/Phasing-Out School

THSC also supports teachers who are in a school that is currently closing or in a phasing out period. While you may have time before you are fiinally excessed from your school, we encourage you to participate in the Open Market Transfer System now.  Starting early will help you take full advantage of being able to identify a school that is the right fit for you.  For up-to-date hiring communication that may affect you, please routinely visit our announcements page.

- In addition to the services offered to teachers in excess, the Teaching Hiring Support Center organizes Closing/Phasing-Out School Job Search Preparation Fairs. These are events where you will have the opportunity to participate in consultations with NYCDOE recruitment staff, attend live job-search workshops, and undergo a personalized resume review.  As with all of our events, you will receive an invitation via email.

Visit our FAQ page where you may find the answers to questions you may have. You can also email us at thsc@schools.nyc.gov or contact our phonebank at 718-935-5280. [Top of Page] 

Transfer Teachers

The Open Market Transfer System is open during the transfer period (April 15 to August 7) in which all existing NYCDOE teachers, including teachers in excess and teachers at closing or phasing-out schools, can search for a new teaching position and transfer schools.  The NYCDOE encourages teachers who are considering transferring to a new school to consider all options available to them.  With almost 1,600 programs and schools, we are confident there is a school that you can identify to meet your needs.  

*Please note, that after the close of the Open Market Transfer period, OMTS becomes the Excess Staffing Selection System (ESSS) and only excess teachers will be granted access to view and apply to posted vacancies.

- To search for vacancies, you should register and apply via the Open Market Hiring System.

Only apply to schools that you are sincerely interested in.  Submitting a resume with a blanket / generic cover letter to each school will kill your job search.  For more information on your job search and applying to vacancies, we encourage you to visit our Navigating your Job Search page. [Top of Page]  

Recruitment Events and Workshops

All recruitment events coordinated by the Office of TRQ recruitment events are by invitation only and require pre-registration. You will receive an invitation based on your subject area as well as hiring needs within the NYCDOE.  In order to potentially receive an email invitation to scheduled events for your borough and subject area if applicable, we must have a current email on file that you check regularly.  Please register with the Open Market Hiring System to provide updated email and phone contact information. 

For information regarding upcoming recruitment events and workshops, please visit our events page. [Top of Page]

Randi Weingarten: It's Time To Play Along To Get Along

Just like current UFT President Mike Mulgrew, former UFT President Randi Weingarten is now revealing her true feelings about what her members should be rallying for....and it's not what the rank and file say they want.

UFT "President" Mike Mulgrew

For years here in New York City, the UFT has been the willing partner with the New York City Department of Education in removing teachers from their assignments, keeping hands off while so-called "investigators" lie about members who are alleged to be either incompetent or guilty of various acts of misconduct, and not representing members in good faith in the grievance procedure.

Randi Weingarten on tenure, 2010

Now  Randi, who just won a third term as AFT President with 98% of the vote,  says its ok to compromise and go along with the Plan of education reformers, as she is quoted by Reuters:

Weingarten rebuffed her critics in the union for mistaking collaboration with surrender and said her overwhelming victory in the election showed rank-and-file members supported the move.

But critics say,

"Concessions don't lead to more prestige with the public. Concessions don't win more credibility at the bargaining table. They lead to more concessions."

Critics say Weingarten's willingness to see traditional job protections like tenure disappear and to accept charter schools, merit pay and other changes is a retreat from core principles and plays into the hands of those who want to eliminate public education, privatize government services and curb the ability of workers to unionize."

Source: U.S. teacher union boss bends to school reform winds

Let's remember 2009:

Randi Weingarten and Mayor Mike Bloomberg

 

OCTOBER 29, 2009, 10:28 AM

The Teachers’ Contract Up Close

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN

LINK

Think textbooks are long and dense? Try reading the 165-page contract that spells out the pay and perks for New York City's 79,000 public school teachers.

At the moment, it is a document of some interest for teachers, their union and city officials since it expires on Saturday, just as the mayor's race crawls to a finish.

Does the "education mayor" really need teachers screaming for his head as voters go to the polls?

Since he took office in 2002, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has had a pretty good relationship with the United Federation of Teachers and its bosses, like its former president, Randi Weingarten, in the above photo. Her successor, Michael Mulgrew, said he has a pretty good relationship with the mayor, too, though they have never kissed.

As a document, available here, the union contract is long on boilerplate and speckled with anachronism. (Schools must have pay phones per the contract.) But studded here and there are the kind of nuggets that illuminate the internal workings of the school system.

Appendix A lists teacher salaries, currently anywhere from $43,530 to $100,049. Not stagehand money at Carnegie Hall, but still 43 percent higher across the board than what teachers were making when Mr. Bloomberg came into office.

Page 148 reports that there is a 10 percent premium for teaching agriculture. Who knew?

Teachers in middle school on up cannot be asked to teach more than three classes in a row. Pages 17 and 22.

Junior high school teachers and below are assured five periods of preparation time each week. Teachers who are consistently pressed into teaching during their prep time earn an additional $5,660 per semester.

No elementary school teacher has to collect milk money. Page 29.

And teachers are exempt from copying schoolwide documents, scoring standardized tests or preparing college transcripts. Pages 19, 25, and 29.

Mr. Mulgrew said the work rules were for the good of the system. "Nobody enters this profession without wanting to change children's lives for the better,'' he said, and "we protect things we feel might hurt that process.''

Maybe, dear readers, there are other clauses that catch your fancy. Or maybe you feel the contract is not nearly the kind of benefit-bulging giveaway that some critics have suggested. Either way, if we have missed a point, or are missing the point, share.

Current betting is that the teachers' union will hold out for 4 percent raises, in line with what other local unions have won for their workers. Almost no one expects an announcement until the election is in the books.