Starting 13: raising the quality of baseball
since I can’t seem to fix anything, might as well float a wonderful/impossible proposal.
In too many baseball games today, fans are not allowed to see Best vs Best. It’s ridiculous. And it’s tradition.
Am I about to plug spreading the DH to the National League? Nope. Why go for a half-measure?
Let’s get this right. Every baseball team should have a defensive squad: the eight best fielders they can put together. And a few starting pitchers, and a few relievers. And every baseball team should have the best offensive squad they can assemble. I’m thinking four batters is perfect, but five could work. Eight, nine or ten would be ridiculous.
And the result? Day after day fans would get to watch the best hitters face the best pitchers, backed up by the best fielding. The quality of the play would soar. No longer would the steady hands, no-hit infielder be a compromise – he would proudly take the field without creating weakness in the order. And no longer would the powerful slugger create a question mark at first base.
There would be whining about losing strategy. But football does fine with separate offensive and defensive squads. Why not baseball?
And old players would insist they could play both ways… and they would, for a while.
Top pitchers would thrive. But the middle of the pack might not do so well. Imagine facing Albert Pujols every inning, sometimes twice an inning? Perhaps more days off would make sense.
We would see the top hitters every inning. And only the top hitters.
Managers would have new strategic questions – 3 guys who can hit the gap, and a slugger? 4 guys who swing for the fences? 4 speedy, high average hitters?
And think of the emphasis on quality defense.
They’ll never do it. Makes too much sense. And we will continue to pretend that it is exciting to watch the light-hitting defensive replacement at 3rd swing at the third middle reliever’s breaking balls. Instead of watching the best face the best in every at bat.
I Lost Three Years of My Life – The Story of a Teacher Who May Never Teach Her Students Again
by Rodney Grubiak, retired teacher
On this day, Wednesday, December, 21, 2011, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Dominic Massaro found Raqnel James not guilty and totally exonerated her of the criminal charges that were brought against her almost three (3) years ago by the Principal of Fordham HS of the Arts, Iris Blige. Fordham HS of the Arts is located in New York City in the borough of the Bronx and is a part of the Department of Education of the City of New York.
Raqnel James who was born and educated on the beautiful Island of Jamaica arrived in this country carrying the same hopes and dreams that all of us share. What she did not realize, at the time, was the fact that someday she might very well be forced to return to her country leaving behind nothing but shattered memories of what might have been.
In February 2009, after many successful years touching and changing the lives of each and every one of her students, her life would be changed forever when she was falsely accused of placing a letter in the mailbox of the principal of the school threatening to harm her life and the life of her son. She was immediately removed from her duties and arrested shortly thereafter on a criminal charge of aggravated harassment.
As a tenured employee of the Department of Education of the City of New York with due process rights she would remain temporarily reassigned from her duties as a teacher pending the outcome of the criminal charges and final review and determination from the Department of Education.
Her problems were just beginning. In June 2009, The Department of Education sent her a letter that would terminate her employment citing a provision of the immigration status agreements under which she was employed. Because she was not yet a citizen of the United States she would not be entitled to, in the eyes of the Department of Education, the same due process rights that we all take for granted, “innocent until proven guilty”. She, would be treated differently.
Raqnel James lost her job that June based on nothing more than an allegation and from that day forward she had no salary, no benefits and a future that held little or no hope. Her immigration status was now in jeopardy with the real threat of imminent return to Jamaica.
Why would the Department of Education decide to terminate the services of this well-respected, satisfactory teacher from Jamaica on the sole basis of an accusation made by one individual, Principal Iris Blige? This is a question, that, to this day, still does not have an acceptable answer.
Her life was soon to change again, but this time for the better. A true relationship with a wonderful person was flourishing and she would soon marry and begin to build a new life together with a man who would love and support her each and every day.
In the months and years that would follow, Raqnel would need this love and support because she would have to overcome a complex legal system that was filled with never ending motions and delays that included thirty-three (33) court appearances over the next three (3) years.
As the trial proceeded it became clear that there was no motive and opportunity that existed. What was clear, was the fact that the principal of the school, Iris Blige, was vindictive, hated by most and was not only under investigation herself by the Department of Education but was found guilty and fined for violating departmental policy. The question of “reasonable doubt” began to emerge. It was obvious during the cross-examination of the NYPD Detective in charge of the case that he conducted an investigation that was, at best, sloppy and incomplete. Interviews of certain individuals were never conducted, obvious questions were never asked, important facts either ignored or just not even considered. More and more “reasonable doubt” was growing with the testimony of each witness and the presentation of documentary evidence.
The court heard the expert testimony of a board certified handwriting analyst clearly indicating that the handwriting samples presented for comparison analysis were insufficient and inconclusive and that, on that basis, he could not reach the conclusion that Raqnel James was the author of the document in question. The final question of “reasonable doubt” would be sealed.
At 12 noon, after considering all of the testimony and evidence presented in this matter, and after almost three (3) years, Supreme Court Justice Dominic Massaro returned a verdict of not guilty to a silent courtroom. Raqnel James was fully vindicated and as she left the building she would allow her emotions to show as tears filled her eyes and began to roll down her face.
The trial is over. We have all heard the verdict but we are still very far from closing the cover on this book. Now we must ask ourselves just one more question. What will happen now to Raqnel James? The Department of Education has totally severed their relationship with her. She has been terminated without consideration and she has been denied the same due process rights that we as teachers are entitled. Should she not be returned to her position as a teacher and given the opportunity to continue her journey? Should she not be allowed to fulfill her hopes and dreams. Now that she has been found not guilty we owe her at least that. How will this story finally end?
Raqnel James – Not Guilty!
Raqnel James won a just verdict, but when will real justice come?
Three years ago Fordham HS for the Arts principal Iris Blige had Raqnel arrested, paraded of out school in handcuffs, for threatening the principal. But the threatening letter, no one ever saw anyone aside from Blige with the letter in their possession. And today a judge, in finding Raqnel not guilty, agreed with her supporters and did not believe that Raqnel wrote it.
At the time, Lynne Winderbaum, United Federation of Teachers District Rep for Bronx High Schools (and one hell of an ESL teacher) organized a protest in front of the school. Four hundred teachers from dozens of schools showed up in support. Raqnel was not Iris Blige’s first victim – she fits the profile of an abusive administrator. How many teachers did she rubber room? U rate? And those U ratings? A year ago OSI found that she had inappropriately ordered APs to U teachers, sight unseen (and as a result was fined the equivalent of a car payment, for a year and a half). But having a teacher led out in handcuffs, threatened with deportation, enough was enough and chapter leaders and activists rallied loudly.
The charge was preposterous, and rightly rejected. But the charge was viciously and maliciously calculated – Raqnel is from Jamaica, an international teacher, and “due process” is not equally due all of us. She has been out of school for three years. She fought deportation; she fought criminal charges; she fought two dozen postponements.
The reward is sweet. Not guilty. It sounds that good. And another reward is putting her accuser on the stand, for none to believe.
But those bills. Those lost years. The mental anguish.
We have a just verdict. Now we need justice.
Former KIPP teachers – share your stories
This was posted at the Schools Matter website:
Former KIPP Teachers: Share Your Story
Please help me out by linking this to your Twitter or Facebook page. Thanks much.
= for equals, ≡ for identity?
Do any of you out there use ≡ for “identity”? In your own work? With little kids?
I am considering introducing it to 9th grade algebra students.
They think symbols are cool.
I know they get confused when solving 4(1-2b) = 2(3-b) – 2 , maybe the special symbol would help?
What do you think?
Misdirection in Algebra
I’m back to Algebra I, first time since 2008-09, and loving it. I have three classes of ninth graders who already know how to use elephants for variables, know how to use transposition (as opposed to pendant subtraction) in solving equations, know that we pronounce neither T in Trenton with the sound they thought a T made, know a little something about the evils of testing, know that they are supposed to talk in class, know that perfect squares are never two more than a multiple of three, and are starting to get the swing of moving their desks between the three arrangements we use.
Soon they will learn about the holidays half way between the solstices and the equinoxes, other facts about the mean times we live in, that FOIL is no longer allowed (and some will hate me for that ), and that high school final exams are stressful, even in a “nice” school.
But last week they learned a little about exponents. My way.
Clearly demonstrate thatis true.
Those were the instructions they saw on the board, and I got busy directing kids to put up homework or to review problems others had put up, but pushed every kid, slowly, to switch to the problem in front of them, and I could sense some discomfort.
Should we prove it?
Show it… You could try a proof, but that would be hard. And you could demonstrate with a few examples, but even a whole bunch of examples doesn’t show that it is always true.
Strange quiet as they worked. Or as a few worked. Most sort of just stared.
It doesn’t work!
What?
No, I tried 3 and 2, it doesn’t work.
Well, wait, three plus two squared is twenty-five, and since we distribute the exponents, we get twenty-five on the other side. Work on fixing your mistake. Does someone else have something to add?
Four and six don’t work either!
Can someone help him with the arithmetic? Of course it works.
[I demonstrate how to distribute 2(a + b) and baldly assert the same thing happens with exponents]
Can we get a good explanation of why this is so?
Zero and one work.
Very nice, but is one example enough to show that this is true?
Nooooh.
What can we do with one example?
We can have a counterexample.
Very good.
Murmurs about distributing exponents. A girl starts to tell her neighbors that I am fooling around. The revolt is about to start.
What about ten and one? Don’t they work? Ten plus one is eleven, eleven squared is one hundred twenty-one, and ten squared plus one squared are also one hundred twenty one, right?
Lots of muttered yeses, and heads nodding yes, but finally a bunch of heads nodding no.
No, that’s one hundred one, it’s not one hundred twenty-one. It’s not true. These are counterexamples. These are all counterexamples!
I’m fighting to hold back the laughter, but they see. General chaos for a minute.
I share with them what other teachers say about exponents and kittens, and we vow never to distribute exponents ourselves. In one class (this story is a composite of the three classes, and quite a bit shortened), we went on to discover when
Some will still distribute an exponent here and there. But most won’t.
Parent-Teacher Fun and Conferences
I think I had 62 conferences. Most in… maybe ever?
Let me back up before I start the stories. I left my regular Bronx high school at the end of 2002. I’d always had five classes – but we never had tremendous parent turnout for conferences. Maybe once I had 35 between Thursday and Friday? And then I came to my new school, with much higher turnout. But our first year we only had 62 students. And our second my course load was reduced to three, as I was the programmer. And aside from an occasional extra class, and Spring 2008 when I had five – and Spring is always lighter than Fall – I have had three classes. And now, no more comp time, I have five regular classes, including most of our freshmen, who show up around 90%.
Good – 36 on Thursday evening (two and a half hours). That’s about four minutes per conference. Wrapped up with less than 10 minutes left. One parent had signed my sheet, but left (but has two of my kids). The longest conference was less than ten minutes.
Brief – (after a minute establishing saying hello, making some observation about the child’s work or attitude or demeanor or enthusiasm) “I don’t mean to be rude, and I’m glad to have met you.” (at this point I hand them something the kid had written about their math experiences in lower grades, call it a parting gift) “If any concerns arise, please call the school and I’ll get right back to you, but your child is off to a wonderful start, we really don’t have anything else to discuss right now.” (rise to usher them out) (maybe 10 – 15 of these)
Tongue was in cheek! Tongue was in cheek! – Child was at the conference. Overwhelmingly positive, but the child worries too much, feels slightly unsure and is needlessly nervous (even if everything in doubt was wrong, test grades would still be in the 90s. And not everything in doubt is wrong). I express this small concern to the student and the parents, (they nodded with understanding), the student really is doing fantastically well, and add, tongue in cheek, that I could ask the student to record an estimated score at the top of the next test, and I could deduct if the estimate was off by more than 10 points. The poor student looked horrified, and one parent requested that I really do this.
Visiting is fun! – Over a quarter of my senior parents showed up – in almost all cases their kids were fine; in the “bad” cases the kids were ok, but homework was a bit spotty. We talked about college, about calculus, about four years of progress, and in several cases, about Gross. I shared his message with the kids, many of whom were fairly excited, and some of whom in turn showed their parents.
Sloppy! – I barely glanced at my gradesheets, as I have a good idea of what I wanted to say, and I know one kid from the next. But at the end of Friday, I goofed. One child has a great attitude, but I was concerned (I blundered) about test and quiz scores not being the highest. And then I did glance at the grade sheets, and I was clearly overreacting to two mediocre quizzes; the tests had been quite strong. The concern was right, but not to the degree I expressed. I still think the parent heard most clearly the positives (I was quite specific), so no harm done. But sloppy. Tsk.
Fast again – Friday was two hours, I saw 26, but ran a few minutes over. This was almost five minutes per conference. A parent, waiting near my door for someone else, remarked on how quickly I was popping out for the next one.
Sweet! I heard “my child loves your class” more than I have in the past. I mean, well, that’s not really the point, is it? But if they love it, they are more likely to do the work, more likely to do the work with interest, more likely to be eager to try to please, etc, etc. Plus, you know as well as I do, looking at smiling faces or looking at scowling faces….
Don’t bother me, even if you’re the Chancellor – actually, that was his call. He visited our school Thursday evening, spoke with administration, and the people in the hall, who were mostly parents. More to do here than in most Bronx high schools, where parent participation remains lower than it could be, by a lot. Of all the Bronx schools to visit – ahem. But he stayed out of the rooms, as the conferences were private (he’s right).
Difficulties? There were a few tougher conversations. But in most cases it was clear that the parents and I were on the same side. In several cases (three?) I had samples of work that needed improvement, but chose to make the point without taking out the embarrassing papers. I think that was the right call. In any case, even where we did not end up agreeing, the conversations were respectful and professional.
No buses – I did not throw a single kid under the bus. The most negative, the parents had already spoken to me previously. Two seniors with some homework issues, raised, but I mentioned in the context of the overall quality of the work they are performing (good) and the amount of material they are mastering (considerable). The only near-regret I have here was a freshman, who I praised for several types of work, but then mentioned – too chatty. The parent keyed in on the negative, and the child may come on Monday complaining…
Looking ahead – for the spring, fewer freshman parents – they already know me, and their kids are largely doing fine. But I’ll try to max out the seniors, to say goodbyes and all.
Progress Report Follies
Just a few more foolish details.
Schools receive extra credit for moving special ed kids to a less restrictive environment, eg from a self-contained classroom to a collaborative team class (regular class, two teachers). That credit does not depend on whether the move is appropriate. Oh. And schools save money by making the move. Oh. Does the DoE ignore bad behavior? Encourage it? or reward it? Oh.
Most specialized high schools got As, but those with lower cut scores got Bs. How do they calculate grades?
They hate that the Bronx still has a few big high schools and CTE schools. F F F F…. Undermine the schools, and grade them while they scramble to deal with rapidly changing circumstances.
College Ready? The new stats (“metrics” is a mistake, since nothing is actually being measured) include a 75 on some regents exams. OOPS! On regents, 65 (passing) is calculated, based on analysis. 85 (mastery) is calculated, based on analysis. But that 75? It lands where the cubic regression falls… fairly meaningless.
And the numbers? Gary Rubinstein does the best job I know of destroying the use of s.d. in creating grades. Read it. And watch this: My school had perfect scores on one of the regents. I think every kid over 85. Maybe all but one over 90. But the mathematically indefensible practice of setting scale based on standard deviations, and the strange weighting of grades, ensures that the scores we get best, count against our score. (not complaining, we got off easy. But the system makes no sense.)
The Progress Reports are a waste of money. The scare people, without reason. They get schools to focus on improving progress report scores, instead of on teaching kids. And that is shameful.
Not inverting math class (but using video anyhow)
The idea is – watch the lecture at home. Do problems, ask questions, in class.
I’ve been reading about the inverted classroom for several years. First a calc professor/blogger wrote about it a few times, and then used it repeatedly and continued discussing it, then I saw some chemistry people doing it. Then Khan Academy. And then it seemed to be everywhere.
I won’t do it. I don’t lecture at a camera. I develop the next piece of mathematics, with students participating in the development. My lessons vary – as I respond, without fear, to the questions and concerns that arise. From the students.
I am not teaching to a static camera. I am teaching TO and WITH a group of wriggly, curious teenagers. I answer your question now (unless it is if you can go to the bathroom, and try to pick a better moment to put up your hand), as long as you already asked the person next to you, and neither of you know. We interact. I do not invert.
But in calculus this year… Well, new course for me. And I decided that I don’t like video, but maybe I was being stodgy. Or silly. Or retro. Old-fashioned. So I decided to try.
For their summer assignment I included bonus points for watching and summarizing Khan Academy videos. I figured I’d throw them a few points, and get instant teen-aged feedback. Verdict: a few watched them, thought them dry, but ok for an example or two. I reviewed their notes, and wasn’t impressed – nor was I disappointed. I wouldn’t want to depend on Khan, but as an occasional support or tutorial, yeah, it’s ok. For the record, my kids mostly looked at trig or log stuff.
I told them to prepare for the Level 2 Math SAT II. Seems most of what I want them to know for calc would be there.
And then I had them watch (no choice) 4 longer videos. I asked them to wait until 1 – 2 weeks before school to watch them. And to watch only one per sitting. And to take good notes.
I chose from “Free Online Courseware” at MIT, a series of lectures by Herb Gross, entitled “Calculus Revisited.” I assigned the introduction, Analytic Geometry, Functions, and Inverse Functions. (And I made the completion of this simple assignment be worth tons of points, too many for any of them to contemplate not doing them.) At the worst, they would come in griping about 4 lost hours of their summer. And at the best, the pre-limits review could go faster. And my teenaged scholars would walk in the first day, with math already on their minds.
The quality of their notes was relatively high, but fell off when they hit inverses. They reported liking Gross, and his nerdy, quirkiness. Being engaged. I responded by making the pre-limits review fast. Probably too fast. But it helped that they had watched. The videos worked – not to the level of my most optimistic hopes, but there was definite positive impact.
I decided to incorporate video-watching, to some extent, in my course. (to be continued)
Watching math videos for credit
A question. For my freshmen algebra classes.
I love the Vi Hart videos. I like that Vi looks like the VI at the bottom of some clocks, or like the VI in VI Lenin. But mostly I like how fast she talks and how much she makes fun of math class while talking about nothing but math (and interesting tangent) and how cleverly she drops in cultural references and bad puns and so forth.
I also like the fruity platonic solids, and how to eat candy dots, and the music boxes made of paper, and, well, she’s just kind of cool, you know?
Is there a reason to make kids watch the mathy videos, other than me really liking them, and the elephants? How would I structure their use? Or unstructure them? Could I assign a four minute video for homework, and for “bonus” credit ask them to write up one detail that looked interesting or strange or compelling? Or ask them to write down a question or two about things she mentioned but they want to know more about? Or offer to teach in class about one of the topics that fascinated them, instead of “regular” math…
Ideas, people! Help me with some ideas.
Oh, and if you don’t know who Vi Hart is (for shame!) go look: Here’s a video on Youtube and here’s her real page, with lots and lots of stuff to look at. Here’s the math video subpage, and the math doodling one.
— — —
Is the NYC DoE planning to test preschoolers, or just kindergartners?
I cannot pretend to be outraged. The people who set policy at the New York City Department of Education are beneath contempt. I have known this for a long time.
But standardized testing for five-year-olds? People, speak up. This is wrong, and there’s not another point of view worth considering. Not for an instant.
On her listserve, Leonie Heimson copied a job listing: Periodic Assessment Associate, reporting to the K-2 Program Manager. Responsibilities include management of implementation activities for ECAM (Early Childhood Assessment in Mathematics)
The UFT officially stands opposed to testing before 3rd grade (a New Action resolution, passed February 2010. A version for consideration by the NYSUT RA was passed a year later, I don’t know the disposition, text below). Last year when Aminda Gentile introduced a resolution supporting standards for K-2, I expressed grave concern, as I suspected (correctly, it turns out) that standards in this day and age pave a path to testing. But we’ll dust off the anti-testing stuff.
February 2010:
The following Resolution to Oppose K-2 High-Stakes Standardized Testing was submitted by Karen Alford, Leroy Barr, Richard Farkas, David Kaufman, Maria Ramos and Michael Shulman:
Motion: To recommend to the Delegate Assembly the following Resolution To Oppose K-2 High Stakes Standardized Testing:
WHEREAS it has been the policy of the UFT to oppose high-stakes testing where the score is used as the sole evaluator for students and teacher evaluation; and
WHEREAS “Time Out from Testing” opposes K-2 testing for these same reasons; and
WHEREAS “Time Out from Testing” has collected over 4,000 parent letters and over 50 principals have signed letters opposing this kind of testing; therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the UFT oppose the DOE’s plan to implement K-2 high stakes standardized testing; and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT support “Time Out for Testing” in its effort to have 20,000 more letters from parents and 200 more from principals before holding a press conference with national experts on this matter; and be it further
RESOLVED that the Action Committee be directed to design a plan to publicize the dangers of K-2 testing and to achieve the above stated goal.
Motion: To insert the following clause after the third “whereas”:
WHEREAS the DOE has spent $400,000 on a pilot program to expand standardized testing into kindergarten – grade 2, despite the near universal agreement of early childhood experts and educators that the testing of young children is unreliable and developmentally inappropriate.
Carried.
Motion: As amended:
WHEREAS it has been the policy of the UFT to oppose high stakes testing where the score is used as the sole evaluator for students and teacher evaluation; and
WHEREAS “Time Out from Testing” opposes K-2 testing for these same reasons; and
WHEREAS “Time Out from Testing” has collected over 4,000 parent letters and over 50 principals have signed letters opposing this kind of testing; and
WHEREAS the DOE has spent $400,000 on a pilot program to expand standardized testing into kindergarten – grade 2, despite the near-universal agreement of early childhood experts and educators that the testing of young children is unreliable and developmentally inappropriate; therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the UFT oppose the DOE’s plan to implement K-2 high stakes standardized testing; and be it further
RESOLVED that the UFT support “Time Out for Testing” in their effort to have 20,000 more letters from parents and 200 more from principals before holding a press conference with national experts on this matter; and be it further
RESOLVED that the Action Committee be directed to design a plan to publicize the dangers of K-2 testing and to achieve the above stated goal.
Carried
…we are asking the DOE to CEASE efforts to implement changes in our evaluation system…
Distributed at tonight’s UFT Delegate Assembly. The document speaks for itself.
(I have serious doubts about the development of a new evaluation system, far beyond the UFT leadership’s concerns. But given the DoE’s non-collaboration – their contempt for any sense of negotiation, how could the leadership not respond as they do here? – jd)
UFT email to DOE Regarding Evaluations (10/18/11)
As you know on September 20, 2011, Chancellor Walcott and Michael Mulgrew, joined by CSA President Ernest Logan, sent a joint letter to teachers and principals that talked about preliminary work in building a foundation for a possible new evaluation system. The letter clearly stated that there would be no changes to the current evaluation system.
Unfortunately, many schools are ignoring this directive. We continue to receive reports from the field about schools outside the PLA agreement that are training people to use the Charlotte Danielson’s framework as a legal compliance evidence gathering mechanism for the 3020a process.
Consequently, we are asking the DOE to immediately CEASE efforts to implement changes in our evaluation system and send ALL principals a directive instructing them that – with exception of Transformation/Restart schools — they are NOT to implement any changes in the current evaluation system.
It is critical that we go from an evaluation system that does not support teachers to one that becomes a professional growth and development model. That is why we went to Albany to develop and implement legislation that gives us the framework to make these changes. It is an approach that will move our school system forward.
All that hard work is being put in jeopardy by the DOE’s actions. The intent and spirit of all of Danielson’s work is based upon trust, support and engagement, and it is imperative that approach is the focus of our work.
Whoever made the decision that schools outside of the PLA schools should be changing our present evaluation system by “practicing something new” clearly abused the DOE’s authority. The idea was to test this and learn from the pilot schools, not the whole system.
What’s more, the lack of training of both administrators and teaching staff has created many problems. Three days of training for Principals and two days for teachers is not anywhere near enough to do this properly.
As a result of the DOE’s poor instructions and these other factors, any potential for a fair evaluation system based on a growth and development model has been corrupted and the concept is perceived very poorly in the schools.
While we have been involved with the administration in joint training for teachers in the PLA schools regarding Danielson, and discussions regarding the pilot schools, we cannot continue this work if you cannot bring this situation under control.
I need your response to this situation immediately.
May Regents?
I don’t know, maybe?
The Board of Regents yesterday approved new rules that will stop teachers from grading their own kids’ state tests. High stakes, you know? High stakes for the students – promotion, graduation. And for the teacher: rating, job. (The original is here, fifth link under P-12)
But how will this affect what kids learn? The Board of Regents doesn’t seem to have thought about that question. Maybe it doesn’t matter to them? Doesn’t seem like it.
In high schools, Regents exams sent out of the building? And graded? And returned… For English and Math in middle school, they send the exams out and wait… and wait… but there’s plenty of time, since the exams are in (March and April?????) And then they deal with unruly kids the rest of the year. They shouldn’t – having just taught kids for two-thirds of a year, they are now required to teach the first few (post-March) topics for the following year. Yeah, right.
But in high school, we have one year courses. What do you do with a month left in Geometry? Or better, how can you squeeze your material so we are done in time for the inspectors.
And while the “Common Core” lifts topics out of mathematics for each year, K – 8, it crams in more for 9 -12. What topics will we not teach?
So, let’s end with a question: how does this help any kids?
Actually, if the testing were not ubiquitous, if the stakes were not so high, would any of this be necessary?
Every teacher should have one of these in their career
This year I teach calculus. For the first time. Never wanted it – less challenging since the kids can already do math. Ugly pressure from yet another standardized test (Advanced Placement). And I kind of liked the electives, and liked the challenge of the younger kids.
But here I am, knee-deep in dy and dx and all that fancy sort of stuff. Since I’m teaching AP, I must be smart? Not particularly. But it is the last math course in my school, the only one I haven’t taught.
About three weeks ago a moment had arrived. We had played with finding the slope of a tangent line to a curve at a point. And with limits. And with all the other little pieces. We were ready to find the derivative of a function, using the definition. More than ready. I had delayed them two or three days.
So there we were, with ten minutes left in a class, finding for the first time the slope of the tangent line not at a particular point, but at any point. I made them give me each step. “Oh, no!” I panicked, each time we hit an obstacle, “We’re stuck!” and each time someone in the class would point out that we had already resolved that situation in a previous lesson, and told me what to do.
“Oh no, there’s only five minutes left!” “Oh no, we’re not close enough to x!” “Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!”
As I pushed faster and further, I got more panicky. “Oh no!” I shouted, again and again. “Oh no! Zero over zero, we’re stuck!” “You can factor” a chorus responded. And as I panicked they found the value of the limit, and an expression popped out. And I rapidly exclaimed: Now we know the slope of the tangent, not at one specific point, but at any point on the graph!
It was a speed drill, with the kids playing along 100%. A clear derivation sat on the board. “Ladies and gentlemen” I gasped “the period is not quite done, but I am” I leaned on the table in front of me, and caught my breath.
And then I heard a sound, something hitting something else. And it repeated, and multiplied.
Better teachers than me have gone through whole careers without getting applause for a lesson. It took me two days to wipe the grin off my face.
Regaining My Feet
It’s been a while.
In the previous nine school years, I have taught a full schedule exactly one term. I was the scheduler, the programmer, for my small school. My 0.4 allowance was not generous, but comp time is comp, and I was not in the classroom. I told people that teaching was much harder than programming. But now I’m feeling it; I’m back to full time.
I’m a little nervous that my successor won’t do a good job (probably needlessly). I’m a little nervous that she will do a good job (what did they need ME for?) which is somewhere between silly and ridiculous. It is true that it took over two years to replace me.
But I’m mostly loving being back teaching five, and even loving the exhaustion at the end of a full day when I’ve really made a class go well. But no question, it is exhausting. Through September I did not fall behind. But I slept odd hours. I got sick. I paid insufficient attention to other responsibilities. And I stopped blogging.
But I’m back. We’ll see if it lasts.
Common Core, Danielson, “Short Frequent Observations” – where did the principals get this stuff?
We’ve had two days of meetings (and classroom set up, if you are lucky) in New York City, and as we compare notes, there’s a lot of new things principals are pushing that sounds similar from one school to the next.
- get teachers to align curriculum (lucky, I guess, if they have one) with the common core
- push (some, I think) teachers into inquiry teams, and look at how to get student work to match the common core
- get (some, I think) teachers to align one major English task with the common core (read or analyze informational text and write opinions and arguments in response)
- get (some, I think) teachers to align one major Math task with the common core (model with math and/or construct the reasoning behind arguments to create a viable solution, whatever that means)
- quote Danielson as they tell teachers what they expect in their lessons
- Observe a lot, briefly. (Engage in short, frequent cycles of classroom observation). In many schools this has been translated into “8 per year” or “10 per year” or “rating in January and again in June”
Any of this sound familiar? It should. It all comes from the NYC Department of Education’s “Citywide Instructional Expectations for 2011 – 2012.” But don’t believe me – download the DoE’s pdf, and read it yourself. It’s been there since June. And it’s what your principals were quoting (or misquoting) at you.
(can you imagine your rating if you lectured your students the way your administration has just lectured you…)
Welcome back, NYC Teachers, for the 2011-12 edition
Welcome back to all of us, New York City teachers.
Hope for the best! And how could you not? The new year is always pregnant with optimism. New kids, clean desks, clean boards, and clean slates. A fresh start. Everything can be better than when we left it. Everything should be better.
But brace for the worst. Each year for the last decade has been tougher than the previous. And the change has become more, not less dramatic, since 2005, and even more so the last two or three years.
This should be considered a noble job, a happy job. We teach kids – isn’t that a great thing to do? But it has become a physically exhausting job, with more and more of our time being absorbed by urgent work (so say the guys on top) that has nothing to do with the children in front of us. And a psychologically exhausting job, as the threats to our security and livelihood grow from politicians, anti-public education advocates, and politicians. And emotionally exhausting, as we are pilloried in the mass media and the paid-for media.
But as things get rough, remember a few of the things we have. The public fundamentally appreciates teachers, no matter how much the anti-public education alliance comes after us. There are many of us – in New York City we are joined with scores of thousands through the UFT. And we are not alone – teachers across this country are facing the same assault. And with our numbers, huge numbers of adults who chose a noble calling, we have the potential to act and advocate collectively. And with the high regard in which teaching is often held, we have potentially a vast number of allies.
But today we go back. I know I can get more kids this year to like algebra. And for at least these first few moments, the sky doesn’t seem so grey.
Protest Verizon Contract
Support striking workers.
Protest the contract.
This Wednesday, Panel for Educational Policy, Murray Bergtraum HS. Here’s the associated Facebook Event. And this came from Justin Wedes:
Verizon, stop swindling NYC schools.
Dear friend,
This week, education advocate Leonie Haimson (@leoniehaimson) clued us in to a very disturbing fact: Verizon, already embroiled in a union dispute and allegations of defrauding NYC schools of millions, is on the verge of landing another lucrative contract with the NYC Department of Education. (For details see here, and here)
We are coming together to send a unified message that we live in a democracy, where public services paid for with our tax dollars can’t be negotiated behind closed doors, especially with tax-dodgers and union-busters like Verizon.
Summarizing Learning Environment Surveys from Manhattan High Schools
Learning Environment survey results came out over a month ago. Most people ignore them. Quite a few look at their own school, or schools of a few friends, or a school or two that’s been in the news. Scan 16 pages of tabulated results, and move on. But I decided to look. Maybe the data was readily available. I don’t know. But I searched for schools in the Bronx with grade 9, and downloaded the pdfs. I published an intro, and later a discussion here, and then full results to questions about competence, trustworthiness, support, and collaboration at the New Action website.
And now a friend has done the same for Manhattan high schools.
Four questions were summarized:
The Principal is an effective manager who makes the school run smoothly (Is s/he competent?)
I trust the principal at his or her word (Is s/he trustworthy?)
To what extent do you feel supported by your principal? (Is s/he supportive?)
School leaders invite teachers to play a meaningful role in setting goals and making important decisions for the school (Is s/he collaborative?)
Each question had four responses possible: Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree for all but the third question, there the responses were: “To a great extent,” “to some extent,” “to a small extent” or “to no extent.” We considered both the percent in the two positive categories, and the DoE’s ‘score’ (they used a 3-2-1-0 weighting, rating each question from 0 to 10).
Is there a clear pattern? As in the Bronx, transfer schools tended to be well-regarded by their staffs, though with exceptions. The average percentage and score in each and every category was slightly higher than in the Bronx. In particular, the absolute number of principals who Manhattan HS teachers don’t trust is about half that of their colleagues in the Bronx.
Full data sets will start going up today. It will be a few days before all four are posted.
For now, the superlatives, those principals rated the best (and the worst) on the teachers’ section of the Learning Environment Survey:
| principal | school | type | percent | DoE score | |
| most competent | Herb Mack | Urban Academy Lab HS | Transfer | 100 | 9.8 |
| most competent | Brett Kimmel | Washington Heights Expeditionary Learning School | 6-12 | 100 | 9.6 |
| least competent | Alexandra Rathmann-Noonan | *Urban Assembly School for Green Careers | 9-10, eventually 9-12 | 20 | 2.6 |
| least competent | David Glasner | Urban Assembly Academy of Government and Law | Campus (Seward Park) | 13 | 2.9 |
| most trustworthy | Ingrid Roberts Haynes | Forsyth Satellite Academy | Transfer | 100 | 10.0 |
| least trustworthy | Ron Smolkin | Independence HS | Transfer | 32 | 3.0 |
| least trustworthy | Evelyn Collins | Manhattan Theatre Lab HS | Campus (MLK) | 33 | 3.1 |
| least trustworthy | Henry Rubio | A Phillip Randolph HS | 9-12 | 28 | 3.6 |
| least trustworthy | Anne Geiger | HS of Arts and Technology | Campus (MLK) | 31 | 3.4 |
| most supportive | Ingrid Roberts Haynes | Forsyth Satellite Academy | Transfer | 100 | 10.0 |
| most supportive | Sam Fragomeni | Harlem Village Academy Leadership Charter School | 6-12, Charter | 100 | 9.9 |
| least supportive | Alexandra Rathmann-Noonan | *Urban Assembly School for Green Careers | 9-10, eventually 9-12 | 33 | 3.3 |
| least supportive | Stephanie Vu | Community Health Academy of the Heights | 6-12 | 37 | 3.7 |
| most collaborative | Herb Mack | Urban Academy Laboratory HS | Transfer | 100 | 10.0 |
| most collaborative | Louis Delgado | Vanguard HS | Campus (Julia Richman) | 100 | 9.9 |
| most collaborative | Gary Biester | Columbia Secondary School | 6-12 | 100 | 9.8 |
| least collaborative | Darlene Miller | The NYC Museum School | D2 | 18 | 2.4 |
* The Urban Assembly School for Green Careers had a very low response rate: only 6 of 20 teachers appear to have completed surveys.
Bronx HS Learning Environment Surveys – do they tell us anything?
Very little. But a few things.
There are now on the New Action website Bronx high school teacher responses to questions about how trustworthy, competent, supportive, and collaborative our principals are. Just looking at them, three things stand out:
1. Raw scores. Some principals consistently hit very high, some high, some are very low, and some low. It could be argued that these are just the measure of how likable a principal is, but I would argue otherwise. OTOH, I would not use these numbers to distinguish between an 8.1 and a 7.7 principal – obviously the scale is somewhat personal and somewhat school-based.
Consistently at the top: Gary Eisinger, Bronx Academy HS (being closed!); Rex Bobbish, the Cinema School; Nancy Mann, Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom HS; Anthony Harris, Crotona Academy HS; Maria Herrera, Renaissance HS for Musical Theater and Tech; Estelle Hans (retiring), Collegiate Institute for Math and Science; Sarah Scroggin, East Bronx Academy of the Future; Brady Smith, Validus Preparatory Academy; Colin Thomas, Bronx Regional HS; and D White, Bronx Expeditionary Learning HS.
Consistently at the bottom: Lisa Luft, JFK HS; Sharon Smalls, Jane Addams HS for Academic Careers; John Tornifolio, School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL); Charles Ogundimu, Monroe Academy for Business and Law (MABL); Willie Rodriguez, Celia Cruz Bronx HS of Music; Joyce Mills Kittrell, Samuel Gompers CTE HS; Eulynis Matthais, Performance Conservatory HS; Cliff Siegel, Gateway School for Environmental Research and Technology; and Bridgit Claire Bye, Pan American International HS.
There were a few who came low, but not as low as I would have expected, and some high, but not quite as high as expected.
After other boroughs are scrutinized, we will have some sense of how normal the Bronx is not. Those numbers in the middle may turn out to be typical of the middle for the whole city, or they may be much lower.
2. Comparisons between types of schools. Transfer schools, as a group, had better results. Staff commitment, principal commitment, I’d be willing to wager. 6-12 schools, while not at the bottom, bunched towards the lower middle. Especially in this era of over-testing, it is unlikely to find an administration that is current with both the 6-8 and the secondary standards and the tests that enforce them. Conversely, which campuses did best or worst? None. Many campuses had representatives at the top and at the bottom of the list. There does not seem to be a geographic bias, though it’s worth taking another look.
3. Uneven scores. What do you make of a principal that has one score much higher or lower than the rest? All 7s, but a 5 for trustworthiness? Or 5s and 6s, but 7 for competence? Or 8s and 9s, but a 6 for competence? These are the most interesting stories of all.
4. Other questions. Is there a big enough variety of courses to keep kids engaged? Students and teachers had interesting answers to this question in mini-schools, and especially in charter schools. How many years experience do you have? 44/115 had at least a quarter of their teachers self-report 0-3 years experience. These are schools where a good number of the kids have been around longer than a good number of the adults. Twenty of the schools had 40% or more with 0-3 experience. But I did not see relationships here, other than charter schools having the least experienced staffs.
Gotham shorts
I’ve been more or less off-line for a month, and haven’t looked closely at Gotham Schools in even longer. A hot day is a good time for A/C and a return.
1. A 4th year Teaching Fellow is being used by TfA and promoted by Gotham Schools to advocate against tenure and against seniority. Ruben Brosbe. His situation deserves more discussion. But for now, why do you think, of all the teacher-bloggers in New York City, GS runs him? It’s not for his mastery of teaching – he claims not to be there. Why do the editorial boards of the News and Post quote him and not some other not-so-special teacher? And why do the TfAers running E4E not get a regular Ivy League TfAer to be that prominent voice?
You probably know the answer to some of these questions. Gotham Schools largely created this guy, and marketed him. If you have a problem with what he writes (and you should) you should respond by refusing to comment, by starving GS of the RB attention it craves. If you really have to say something, go directly to his blog instead.
2. In this Monday’s “remainders” they linked to Jose Vilson. Good teacher, good guy. He was explaining why he’s marching in DC. But Gotham Schools wrote: “A Bronx teacher explains his path to protest and why he’ll be marching in D.C. this month.” And we all know that Jose teaches uptown, in Manhattan. I’ve seen him sitting with GS reporters, talking about his school. So Jose wrote a correction the next day. But no correction from GS. I guess if you see the world in Bronx and White, it’s not such a big deal.
3. Digging back to the beginning of vacation, GS reported on the possible ouster of Lehman HS Principal Janet Saraceno. Good news? Could have been. Look at the Learning Environment survey summaries to see how little her staff thinks of her. But, far as I can tell, story’s not true. Well, they say “possible.” Where’d they pick up the iffy rumor? From the paper of record, The New York Times (City Room), and their new education reporter, who recently arrived from Gotham Schools.
A hot afternoon walk
I went to work today yesterday… I agreed to come in to check up on/ assist my replacement (the new scheduler for our school). Around five I left; there were two hours until I needed to be home. And I was on foot. So I went for a hot July walk.
I started south, and then turned along the cabdrivers’ shortcut. Down the big hill, there was a hydrant wide open, huge one with a powerful spray, the flow running into the huge intersection. There was a crowd – not five, not fifty, but over one hundred watching and cheering as cars pulled into the strong spray – at least one intentionally for a high-pressure carwash.
The sun baked the asphalt, so I crossed to to the other side, with a little protection from the sun. I usually don’t go down the snake hill on the far side. I looked for the mango guy – but I wasn’t stopping for fruit. And I realized the school next to me was Ruben Brosbe’s. I looked, but he wasn’t there. I hadn’t realized that our schools are less than fifteen minutes walk apart.
An aside on Ruben, and it deserves a full post, but he is a teacher. Remember that. He’s being used by the editors of the Post and the News, by the Ivy Leaguers at Gotham Schools and in TfA. He’s humiliating himself, playing for approval from people who hold him in contempt. Feel sorry for him, but stop yelling at him. And now, back to the walk
The stores and sidewalks were throbbing with heat and bodies, vendors, commuters, shoppers. But I shuffled past, and crossed the bridge on the shady side.
Where to? My mind tried to place an ice cream store… and as this is the fringe of an upscale place, maybe, but, no… And then I saw the steps, and walked up the long flights of W215 St, carried up by the light breeze, the play of sun and shadow, and the earthy smell of the plantings on the side of the stairs.
I wandered empty streets for a few moments – so different from the regular places loaded with people out in the heat. I stopped at a stump and retied my shoes. The sweat was burning my eyes.
I made my way to the sunnier side of the bridge. “Stand clear of draw when gong sounds.” How many people walk by that sign, and never read it? The crossing bar was “Z” shaped, and when deployed the main part would block traffic, and the tail end of the Z would block pedestrians. I entered the walk way, and half way down stepped to the middle of the path, and waved frantically at the bicyclist approaching me. I recognized the orange, the posture. My friend McRib was riding home from the Bronx to New Jersey. He was even more surprised. We chatted for five minutes.
A few blocks later, in need of water, instead an icy salesman appeared. He finished selling to a mom and kid, and I began to order, and he closed up! “Walk this way” and I followed as he relocated a hundred yards down, in front of a project where a summer play program was about to let out. By the time he was done serving me, there was a line, and kids yelling. Choices were coco, cherry, rainbow, and tamarindo. I like the slightly less sweet, slightly stronger flavor, and the slightly off-putting color.
Stopped in the fancy fruit store for some food for the evening, and for ten minutes of A/C and a little rest. Even after the icy the sweat was flowing.
And then back up the hill. I chose the detour with steps, it’s not really a big flight, and then I stopped by the first tower with the lawn, where the muskrat has been hanging out. But she wasn’t there.
At the Concourse I discovered a countdown Walk/Don’t Walk sign, which wasn’t there two days ago. Neat. I sprinted to make it across both main roadways, but got beeped on the service road. I kept walking. They beeped again. What? They needed directions to DeWitt Clinton. OK, three minutes ago there were middle schoolers and kids pouring in – a fair for the high school selection process. At least these guys managed to make it. How many parents don’t? Can’t? Why should the Bronx be plagued with 115 high schools, most mediocre/lousy? The poor kids aren’t even guaranteed a seat a reasonable distance from their home. They couldn’t do this in Manhattan or Queens, not like this, not badly.
The Parkway was cooler, with people on all the benches. The trees provided some protection from the sun, which was moving behind me. I got home, climbed the six flights, rinsed off, and was the first one down for the annoying meeting.
Work update
This is personal.
I was a “founding teacher” at my current school in 2002. And from the first day of September that year, I was the programmer (that’s what we call the scheduler in New York City).
In return for the work I was compensated in two ways: Most years I taught fewer classes, generally three instead of five. I get the sense that the “comp time” for schedulers is generally greater than that, but I hated to give up classes – I enjoy teaching. For two of the last nine years I took an extra one-day-a-week graphing/tutorial assignment. In two earlier years I took a twice-a-week research/writing assignment. And for one difficult term I worked as programmer while teaching a full load.
The second form of compensation was cash. As I taught a lot, during scheduling crunch times I would stay late, or work weekends, for per session payments. And every year I would be in for at least half the summer (usually the first two and last two weeks).
And while I wrote schedules that worked, and in our school that is particularly tricky, there were probably better things I could have done with weekends, evenings, and summers.
Two years ago I decided that I would take a sabbatical – and that would be my jumping off point. Someone else would need to be programmer for at least one year BEFORE I disappeared for a year. So in April 2009 I announced to a chapter meeting that I was giving up programming, and then notified my principal. I gave him time to replace me.
Two years and two months later that time arrived. As of the end of school, I am no longer programmer. I did an extra week, and left my successor a hand-written master schedule that will work, after some substantial tweaking. I’ll drop in one day to see if she needs help. And then maybe one day the last week of August.
But I am done. And ready to apply for that sabbatical. Except we traded them away for 2012-2013 as part of the no layoff agreement. Hell, I planned this three and a half years in advance. I’ll wait one more year.
In the meantime, I’m back to teaching math full-time. Next year I have three freshman algebra sections (I have seven years teaching this) and two calculus sections (never taught that before). It’s what I like to do.
Summarizing Learning Environment Surveys from Bronx High Schools
Learning Environment survey results came out earlier this month. Most people ignore them. Quite a few look at their own school, or schools of a few friends, or a school or two that’s been in the news. Scan 16 pages of tabulated results, and move on.
But I decided to look. Maybe the data was readily available. I don’t know. But I searched for schools in the Bronx with grade 9, and downloaded the pdfs, one at a time. I considered campus schools, non-campus schools, CTE schools, and specialized schools. I considered 6-12 schools. I also threw in charter schools. I did not use data from D75 schools. There are several schools that do not yet have data. There are several where too few teachers filled in the surveys to be considered meaningful (Bronx Leadership Academy II, Global Enterprise HS, ELLIS, and Bronx Studio School for Writers). Two small schools that are not completely staffed had 100% or almost 100% of the staff – I included them even thought the raw number of teachers was small: Crotona Academy and the Cinema School. I looked at 115 schools.
I chose four questions to summarize:
The Principal is an effective manager who makes the school run smoothly
I trust the principal at his or her word
To what extent do you feel supported by your principal?
School leaders invite teachers to play a meaningful role in setting goals and making important decisions for the school
In other words: Competent? Trustworthy? Supportive? Collaborative?
Each question had four responses possible: Strongly agree, Agree, Disagree, or Strongly Disagree for all but the third question, there the responses were: “To a great extent,” “to some extent,” “to a small extent” or “to no extent.” I considered both the percent in the two positive categories, and the DoE’s ‘score’ (they used a 3-2-1-0 weighting, rating each question from 0 to 10).
Mostly principals who I have heard good things about rose towards the tops of the categories, and principal who I know no-so-good things about show up near the bottom of most lists. Some results were surprising. Some principals I thought ogres showed up in the middle of the list. But those were exceptions.
The type of school does not seem to correlate strongly with the position on the list. Transfer schools are a bit over-represented at the top of the list (like-minded people come together to work with older students who have had difficulty in previous schools). And 6-12 schools are under-represented at the top, and cluster further down; I suspect the demands inherent in running two complicated systems – a middle school and a high school – are too much for an ordinary administrator to handle, and we don’t know who among them are ordinary. But campus schools spread from top to bottom, and the two specialized schools are at the extremes. Three of the four CTE schools run low, reflecting how poorly they have been treated recently.
The three charter schools sit unremarkably in the middle. They show up in two other interesting ways: percentage of new teachers, and students and teachers responding that there are not enough courses to engage them.
I’ll be summarizing the results in the next few days. I’ll put more detailed articles here, and quick lists at the New Action website.
For now, the superlatives, those principals rated the best (and the worst) on the teachers’ section of the Learning Environment Survey:
| principal | school | type | percent | DoE score | |
| most competent | Gary Eisinger | Bronx Academy | Transfer | 100 | 10.0 |
| least competent | Sharron Smalls | Jane Addams | CTE | 20 | 2.6 |
| least competent | Richard Bost, removed | Fordham Leadership Academy | Campus (Roosevelt) | 33 | 2.5 |
| most trustworthy | Gary Eisinger | Bronx Academy | Transfer | 100 | 9.8 |
| most trustworthy | Nancy Mann | Fannie Lou Hamer | D12 school | 100 | 9.6 |
| least trustworthy | John Tornifolio | School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL) | Campus (Stevenson) | 24 | 3.5 |
| least trustworthy | Lisa Luft | John F Kennedy | Phase out | 27 | 2.6 |
| most supportive | Rex Bobbish | The Cinema School | Campus (Monroe, 2 years old) | 100 | 10.0 |
| most supportive | Estelle Hans, retiring | Collegiate Institute of Math and Science | Campus (Columbus) | 100 | 9.9 |
| least supportive | John Tornifolio | School for Community Research and Learning (SCRL) | Campus (Stevenson) | 18 | 2.7 |
| most collaborative | Rex Bobbish | The Cinema School | Campus (Monroe, 2 years old) | 100 | 9.7 |
| most collaborative | Gary Eisinger | Bronx Academy | Transfer | 100 | 9.6 |
| most collaborative | Sue-Ann Rosch | Community School for Social Justice | D7 school in a shared building | 96 | 9.7 |
| least collaborative | Charles Ogundimu | Monroe Academy for Business/Law (MABL) | Campus (Monroe) | 23 | 2.6 |
| least collaborative | Lisa Luft | John F Kennedy | Phase out | 24 | 2.4 |
Funny thing about the agreement to prevent layoffs
For readers arriving from Gotham Schools – no, it was not canceled; I was planning to apply this coming fall. And yes, I supported the agreement.
I may be the only teacher in NYC who is hurt by the no-layoff agreement
After months of Bloomberg threatening layoffs of teachers, there will be none. He’s been moving towards them for two years. And we said all along, layoffs were not necessary. And we were right.
What did yesterday’s deal do? We’ll have to look in the fine print to see if there’s any fine print. But what everyone knows now:
- No layoffs.
- Redeployment of ATRs (this one especially, we want to read about the details. )
- Extra resources from the City Council and the DoE (ok, I’d like more details here, too)
- One year suspension of study sabbaticals for 2012-13
So, #1 is fantastic news, #3 is probably great (extra resources from the DoE? I don’t know that I understand what that means). #2, as it involves ATRs, I understandably want to read the details; these are, along with probationers, our most vulnerable members.
And study sabbaticals? Almost no one takes those any more. And just for one year, 2012-13. Who was planning to take a sabbatical that year anyway?
Me.
Hey, them’s the breaks. I just think it’s ironic that of all the concessions to make, and of all the years to make it…
JD2718 