Brief Comment on ATRs and New Teacher Project
ATRs. Attendance Teachers in Reserve. Teachers without jobs.
There’s been a bunch of stuff written about ATRs in the last week and a half. I’ve read E–d–w–i–z–e (6 posts, five ours, the last is a must-read, and the “i” is by the NTP) and Eduwonkette (that’s 3 by E-kette + 1 guest by the NTP) and a few other blogs.
Thoughts in short: ATRs include a handful of U’ed teachers. The sample is small enough that it is not statistically meaningful. But ATRs include lots and lots of senior teachers. And now the New Teacher Project wants to get them fired. They sound oh so reasonable when they make clear that the firing wouldn’t start. Yet.
Let there be no doubt that these people and the DoE that pays them have no interest in teachers, students, or the quality of education. They do have an interest in reducing workers’ rights, reducing services (in this case, education) for the poor, the Black, and the Hispanic.
Some say this is about reducing payroll. Bah. It’s about power.
JD2718 
Wow. I’m breathing a sigh of recognition. I am not only Not Alone, but my instincts on this were dead on. Unfortunately.
I am a certified 7-12 Health teacher,excessed just this past June.- well, my POSITION, technically, was excessed/ so, no Health Teacher will be in the building. (Legally, the subject can be taught by the phys.ed. or science teachers. And if the budget/student enrollment/ yada yada comes back up…, then by law I – not anyone else–am supposed to be offered the position FIRST.)
In the course of the job-search, I came upon the “New Teacher Project” . Examined it a bit— I do not rush to judgment and I am a careful look-for-patterns kind of gal–and it did not pass the smell test. JD,Randi/ whoever takes her place, and, I am confident, the rest of us, see through this thing like the transparency it is.
-w/ all its implications. The creeping, and BTW creepy– corporate model has been slipped into a system, not to use pieces that could be appropriately applied, but densely incorporating it wholesale- emphasis on SALE– with no regard for the human factor. No, I’m not just talking about teachers, talking about the students. Considering the original and basic pupose of education, these “newteacherproject”-esque trends are simple Code for paring down the system in ways that cannot possibly advance actual education.
I can almost forgive the rosy-cheeked automaton types(sorry, but that’s how it looks to those of us whose perspective demands something other than a product-bottom-line mentality.) buying into this- they tend to be clearly entrenched into increasingly dominant part of contemporary culture that rewards exactly what they’re doing. Think classic conditioning, folks. In that sense, they are Survivors; they are also very good students. They have learned certain lessons well: “Here’s a plan,let’s package and promote it, lots of doublespeak, manufacture statistics, or–always a favorite– bend real stats that make your case(to the non-analytical eye), and here’s the money”.
These folks are functioning as foot soldiers- highly educated ones- for an older, wealthier, highly agendized group who should know better but don’t. Or worse, don’t care.
Hey, TNTP, here’s a challenge as you dig into a conscience to amend and then publish “your”(=their) summarized wisdom on characterization of excessed teachers: This is all the time I have for now, but please
check in to read about my 2008 summer long AGGRESSIVE JOB SEARCH, to be posted later this week.
BTW, I also sent email to TNTP after reading their executive summary, in which I asked if their project/study sample is available .
What, I wonder, are the ages of the teachers excessed and in the ATR…?
Sherrie Pasarell-Health teacher, also Enrichment, Study Skills, Computer.BTW, ~50 y.o.,Always rated well, Never a “U” or anything like it, and only 5 years into the career.(I started relatively late at the Professional level.)