The ignoble deny Nobile

Philip Nobile recently reported in these pages about his Step 1 grievance hearing, in which he attempted to prevent the DOE from sending him from his home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn to the far reaches of Staten Island for one-week no-expenses-paid ATR assignments.  Like most Step 1 grievances, Nobile's was denied.  Here is his account of the proceedings. 

Bloomberg’s DOE is a take-no-prisoners operation with a wish list including testing around the clock, no tenure, swift terminations, an eight-page contract, public humiliation in the New York Post, closing and opening thirty-three restart and transformation schools pitting teacher against teacher in a struggle to keep their jobs, and the greatest wish of all, cleansing the city of half the teaching population. 

The Good Samaritan by Aimé Morot(1880) shows the
 Good Samaritan taking the injured man to the inn (wikipedia).

Nevertheless, the DOE had a chance to play Good Samaritan at my recent grievance regarding travel hardship, specifically sending me, an ATR, deep into Staten Island in conflict with Article 18B of the contract forbidding one-way commutes over 90 minutes by public transportation. Although ATRs are not mentioned in the contract and hardship travel was not grandfathered into the LIFO agreement that spawned our revolving weekly assignments, the DOE had no choice. 

On simple humanitarian grounds, the grievance would be granted. No teacher should be compelled to commute longer than the DOE and the UFT mutually considered too onerous. To condemn innocent ATRs to a subclass of teachers, forced some weeks to travel six or more hours, is surely beyond the hardest hearing officer’s heart. 

Then there is Lawrence Becker, CEO of the Division of Human Resources. A cold, fine-print rather than a big-picture guy, Mr. Becker reasoned in his February 10 decision that uninhibited travel was not a burden but a helping hand: 

Presumably if there was some qualifying language related to Article 18B for the weekly assignment of any ATRs, it would have been included in the ATR agreement. Alleging that the ATR agreement constitutes a hardship because the DOE is following it runs counter to the ATR agreement itself, whose intent is to try to place ATRs in positions and lower the numbers of ATRs in the system. In fact, this has been done to a degree never before reached with the number of ATRs dropping from as much as 2600 in July to below 1000 at the present time. 

This grievance is hereby denied. 

But not so fast. There is always Step 2, if the UFT goes along. The Brooklyn Grievance Committee would have to approve at its Monday meeting. Switching the gears of irony, I nudged them in an email that morning: 

To the Grievance Committee: 

The DOE's kneejerk denial of our Step 1 grievance on hardship travel for ATRs is no surprise. That's what happens in a dysfunctional school system where management and labor make war on each other. 

But it will be a surprise if your committee rejects a Step 2 appeal. The UFT has virtually abandoned us ATRs, not only brushing off our demand for full representation via chapters, but also refusing to have a second meeting in the boroughs to address our rising concerns (e.g., evaluations by field supervisors). 

I cannot even get Howie [Schoor, Brooklyn Borough Rep], who promised a follow-up meeting at the October gathering, to respond to my emails on the topic. He won't say yes, he won't say no, breaking another promise to respond quickly to ATR queries. 

This is your chance to show minimum solidarity for the least of the union brethren. Don't betray us again.

Thanks for your consideration. 

Philip 

Not long after sunset, my District Representative, Tom Bennett, emailed the Committee’s decision: “The grievance committee has agreed to take your travel hardship grievance to step two. We’ll let you know what we get a hearing date.” 

Without giving away the UFT’s Step 2 strategy, it looks very promising. Becker’s reliance on the language of the ATR agreement will boomerang in next Monday’s hearing. Stay tuned.

ATR teacher has never been used in his content area

An ATR teacher known as Every ATR has some interesting thoughts about the DOE's new plan for evaluating him and his colleagues in Brooklyn.



A substitute teacher dodges paper airplanes.
I am a HS ESL teacher. So far none of my ATR assignments have used me in my content area. I am troubled by the DOE's position that ATRs who are not covering classes in their content area will be judged on their classroom management. skills. When students in high school see a substitute (and that's what we are to the school's administration and to the students) the students see party time. Students won't sit still for a lesson. If absentee work is left students may or may not bother to do it. The UFT's advice to "teach what we know" just doesn't fly with high school students. These students, teenagers, will complain that what the sub tries to teach is not what the class is supposed to be. 


I understand from Amy Arundel, that the UFT has sent to the DOE a protocol for how principals should be utilizing ATRs.  It seems to me that until a protocol is in place for how ATRs are to be used, no one should be observing any ATR, particularly if they are being used out of their license area. By the way, aren't observations only supposed to be done when a teacher is actually teaching a class in his or her content area? 


By the way, as I've moved from high school to high school in Brooklyn, I've noticed that these new mini-schools have pretty much the same level of student as the school I was phased out of--low academics and high behavior problems. The only difference I can see is that these mini-schools have far fewer students and far, far more technological resources. I've also noticed that they are following administrative and pedagogical models that seem strange and useless. Exactly what is "ADVISORY" ??? 

Keep the faith.

Photo credit:

      https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLRItiEX3T_0zmNr6mdeYMUcbD5gA11SHpbyRdl-DNzISiPc4cpl_QyOXX65HUrEqH5s4FrLGFGqRYeFW77D3ADK_MK7QutG9Yzh_FGc-wRhJ3GLMasAfDFDUDUNUQXTCEEMZk44c-C20/s400/substitute+teacher.jpg

DOE will begin evaluating ATR teachers

The following email was sent to a select group of ATR teachers; the number of teachers who received the message is not known. NYCATR has taken the liberty of highlighting some key passages.  

Dear Teacher,

The Department of Education is piloting a new model for supervision of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR). This pilot will be implemented for most ATRs assigned to community school districts in Brooklyn as well as the Brooklyn High School superintendency, District 73; you are receiving this email because you will likely be included in the pilot. Under this initiative, you will be supervised by a licensed administrator, called a Field Supervisor, who will periodically observe your practice and provide you with feedback to support your professional development. The Field Supervisors are aware that as an ATR you do not have a regular program and that you rotate school assignments and they will take this context into account in their work with you. 

At some point in the next two months, you should expect your Field Supervisor to visit your assignment site to meet with you in person. At this initial meeting, the Field Supervisor will work with you to develop a plan to support your professional growth and job search process. The Field Supervisor will make an effort to contact you via your DOE email in advance of the initial meeting to give you a sense of when you can expect him or her; however, he or she may not always be able to provide advance notification.

Sincerely,

NYC Department of Education

Atrassignment@schools.nyc.gov

Need a REAL teacher? Call an ATR!

A fourth-grade class at PS 68 has been covered for weeks by per-diem substitutes.  When parent-teacher conferences came along last night, however, the principal realized that he needed a real teacher to speak to the parents.  He didn't call in the Marines.  He called an ATR teacher, named Rod,  who tells the story below.

Today I was asked to cover parent/teacher conferences at PS68. Their regular 4th grade teacher is out for five weeks on medical leave. The class has had day-to-day subs since then. Today, they needed a "real" teacher to deal with parents, report cards, explanations of test results and, of course, a work schedule that extends beyond the time required of a substitute. 

Well, the parents are upset. Their kids are falling behind, they claimed. Why aren't they putting a regular teacher like me in until the leave is over? They haven't had homework for three weeks. I think they confided in me because the kids who came with their parents were really excited about their day with me, reading and doing some fun school work for a change. They also saw a teacher with experience and a concern for their kids education.

I told them to speak to the AP. There are options…Oh, like me. I asked the Chapter Leader and he said the administration is too busy to deal with it and takes the easy way out. Too busy to run the school?

How sad for the kids, parents and me. I felt good, like a real teacher today, the first time since last year, teaching this class, getting them to shape up and talking with their parents. I would gladly stay, unlike some who suggest we don't want the responsibility . The DOE needs to look into poor management of schools like this. Stop blaming us. The UFT, too...Someone, please speak up!

Photo credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgki_NJ7vewDmDuq8Jqt0S4vLJolEM6FA6VABYKo9uDTN6zGtkuOHAwfNNtgMtFLqQeGdIoey_qU8t43UNbri2N2kQNMs_FYU_fCfr-WPdn924iQxr4CDgXzaGtmj0bYr0JJT-oot8uuR5N/s1600/teacher.jpg

Gypsy Teacher gets the cold shoulder

As I was walking to cover my classes-of-the-day at my school-of-the-week, I saw a familiar face smiling at me. I couldn't place him at first but I smiled back. He introduced himself to me and when I introduced myself I saw his smile slipping. He is the man that I begged to help me through emails and phone calls when they sent me to a school more than an hour from my house. After he failed to help me, I never heard from him again or had any contact with him until today. 

Anyway, I began to talk about the plight of the ATRs and how we are being sent to schools far and wide, most with no vacancies. He agreed that the plight of the teachers in District 76 was appalling. When I asked if a remedy was near, he heed and hawed and said that it would mean an informal agreement between the UFT and the DOE.

As I prodded him further he seemed to close down and look for an escape. "I have to teach my class," he said to me, as I continued to question him on what the UFT was doing to help the ATRs.  He just threw out something about Mulgrew playing politics which I didn't understand.

Then somehow we approached the topic of a class action age discrimination suit against the DOE and he stated we would never win and it would crumble in court. "Why?" I asked. He mentioned something about statistics; again I didn't understand. Maybe this ATR business is making me dumb but I just think he wasn't making much sense.

Anyway, he was inching away as I brought up the fact that principals are still using long-term or day-to-day subs to fill vacancies.  A case in point is my grievance, in which a day-to-day sub is working a full position that should be mine.  "Did you email Amy Arundell?" I told him the UFT was told by me AND others of subs in positions and still NOTHING is being done! 

Finally, he escaped into the men's room. I waited for him and asked him point blank why he was avoiding me and he just said he had to go teach his class, as he left me standing there frustrated and angry! Seems I feel this way a lot lately!










Picture credits: http://mychinaconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/give-someone-the-cold-shoulder1.jpg
                                                                                                http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/features_momsatwork/files/2010/01/mensroom.jpg

Once again, the New York Teacher fails to report on the ATR

Once again, NYCATR presents you with an empty box, this one found on a streetcorner in Brooklyn, reposing among lovely fallen leaves and less-lovely bags of garbage.  The empty box represents, again, the number of words that the latest edition of the UFT's New York Teacher devoted to the Absent Teacher Reserve.  

Have no fear, however.  The UFT has passed a resolution in which they promise "that the New York Teacher will run an article on teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, including how teachers became part of the ATR."  The resolution also promises the following:

*the United Federation of Teachers will direct its chapters and Chapter Leaders to reach out to members of the Absent Teacher Reserve who are assigned to their schools, to welcome them, and to support them;  

*the UFT [will] demand that the DOE create a protocol for Principals so that UFT members going into a school for the first time will be treated professionally and given the information for that particular school necessary to perform their duties;  

*the United Federation of Teachers will continue to educate Chapter Leaders about the rights of teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve, and direct its chapters and Chapter Leaders to continue to proactively protect those rights, and to intervene if those rights are being infringed upon by administration, as the ATR may be justifiably reluctant or fearful of speaking up; 

*the United Federation of Teachers has always and will always stand for the dignity of all UFT members.

GEM/ATR flyer targets UFT delegates

The GEM/ATR Committee is gearing up for the UFT Delegate Assembly that will be held tomorrow, November 9. The Committee has prepared a flyer, shown below, that it will distribute to delegates as they enter or exit the meeting. Volunteers are requested to make copies of the flier and to distribute them, at UFT central headquarters, 52 Broadway, at the peak times of 3:30-4:30 and 5:30-6:00.

Dear Delegates: PLEASE SHARE WITH ATRS IN YOUR SCHOOL! EVERY TEACHER IS A POTENTIAL ATR!

ATRs will gather Nov. 16 at 5PM at the Skylight Diner (34th St and 9th Avenue)

On Oct. 22, almost 40 ATRs gathered at the first meeting called by the GEMATR committee, exhilarated at the opportunity to share their stories and strategies with others, something they felt they had not been able to do at the UFT borough ATR meetings. There was discussion of forming committees - publicity, legal, UFT liaison, etc. and a call for a follow-up meeting. Since then, ATRs have shuffled to different schools each week and have been issuing great reports on the blogs. While 10% have been offered provisional jobs, there are still an estimated 1200 left and with 49 schools on the DOE (don't fix schools, close them) chopping block, we can expect a massive influx of new ATRs next year.

It was clear to everyone in the room that only by organizing ATRs into an effective force could their interests be defended. And that could only happen by reaching out to other ATRs and the rest of the teaching corps to educate them – the forty must grow into 400. Since then, the GEMATR committee has received daily requests asking to join the GEMATR Google group. If your only sources of information are the D.O.E dispatches from Tweed, the UFT newspaper or the compliant mass media, you are not getting the whole picture.

Some amazing blogs by ATR are out there: nycatr.blogspot.com, chaz11.blogspot.com, travatr.blogspot.com (each week the ATR brilliantly issues his own rating of the school he was at), iceuftblog.blogspot.com, and ednotesonline.com. The amount of information about the schools ATRs visit offers a snapshot of the school system that is proving embarrassing for Bloomberg.

Help fight off the destructive actions of the DOE done in the name of "school reform", as well as the poor decisions of the UFT leadership resulting in the loss of job protections and the unwarranted closure of over 100 of high schools (& middle schools) over the objections of parents, students, alumni, teachers, community, etc.

• Ask ATRs to sign up for the GEMATR google group at gematr@googlegroups.com.
• Support the resolution on ATRs co-sponsored by TJC and GEM during the new motion period.
• Pass the word to ATRs: Attend the Nov. 16 meeting, 5PM, at the Skylight Diner (34th St and 9th Ave.)

The Grassroots Education Movement ATR Committee: gemnyc@gmail.com

ATR teacher researches animal intelligence

Look! Nimbler than a chimp! Stronger than an elephant! Stealthier than a rat!  It's NYCATR's Philip Nobile, reporting from Boys and Girls High School in Brooklyn.

The magical ATR algorithm carried me to Boys and Girls High School in Bedford Stuyvesant last week. With 2000-plus students, a 44% graduation rate, 73% attendance, 83% of 9th graders reading below level in 2010, and an F on its 2010-11 report card (down from a C) B & G is on the verge of a breakdown, perhaps too big not to fail in the narrow eyes of the DOE. 

It is unfair to rate the school from just five days in an abandoned Special Ed Bio Skills class, but here I go: F for fiasco. 

The students told me that their original teacher moved to a different section of the school at the beginning of the marking period. Since then it’s been sub after sub (maybe ATR after ATR) with no quizzes, tests, homework, or grades. 

Ms. Bozeman, an “academic community” supervisor, met me on my arrival Monday morning and escorted me to a large, unadorned, windowless room on the fourth floor with a blackboard instead of a whiteboard or smartboard, the sort of place that says when money is short black special ed kids take the worst hit. I asked her for lesson materials. She said that she would bring me some, but she never came back. 

On Tuesday, I tried to get my hands on lessons before school started. No luck again. The office that Ms. Bozeman shared with an A.P. named Ms. Williams was locked. 

On Wednesday, both women were in early. Ms. Bozeman introduced me to Ms. Williams who seemed unaware that I was covering the class. I requested a lesson for the second time. Nothing was ready, but Ms. Bozeman soon dropped off a clutch of stapled worksheets. When I passed them out, the kids complained they had done them before. Sure enough, on top of a file cabinet I found a bunch of the same set filled in by the same students from the previous week. Apparently, Ms. Bozeman neither bothered to collect this classwork, nor did she make a single inquiry about what I was teaching or how the students were doing. 

In this festering anti-learning environment, the discipline code was strangled by an endless loop of obscenities, harassment, fighting, bullying, insubordination and music from smuggled-in, aluminum wrapped iPods. The F-word, N-word, and the S-my-D imperative, even from girls, dominated the nonstop chatter. Several girls in one class wore revealing tops and some occasionally fondled themselves. A fiercely oppositional boy who called me “whitey” and “asshole” resisted removal by two aides, Ms. Bozeman, and Ms. Williams, relenting only when a security agent appeared. 

As a sub, I had almost no control over the mayhem and hesitated to intervene physically. The last time I broke up a fight at Cobble Hill High School I was framed by an emotionally disturbed special ed boy, his lying para, a hostile principal and a sleazy OSI investigator. Consequently, I spent three years in the rubber room before gaining a pro se acquittal on corporal punishment. (NYSUT refused to defend me because I insisted on accusing the investigator of corruption.) 

On Thursday, despairing of help from my ostensible supervisors, I improvised a lesson plan drawn from PBS Nature and NOVA programs: 

AIM: Are animals intelligent?
Do Now: List the three smartest animals you can think of.
Activity: Explain why these animals are smart. 

Next, I presented and the class discussed the 10 most intelligent animals followed by a mnemonic device to test their memory of the list.

The results were very mixed, but my engagement reduced the tension and related nonsense. Two boys who paid attention succeeded in repeating the 10 animals in precise order: chimp, dolphin, orangutan, elephant, crow, pig, squirrel, pigeon, octopus, rat. 

Since Friday was the final day of the marking period, the kids requested a movie. Why not, I thought. On Thursday night I found a suitable sequel to the day’s lesson--a documentary about exotic pets in the U.S. titled "The Elephant in the Living Room." On Friday morning I sought Ms. Bozeman’s approval, but once more, neither she nor Ms. Williams was around. To my delight, the first period class became engrossed and watched the film without a peep. 

But before showing the film on my laptop, I decided to send a message to B & G’s administration via student evaluations of the course, which received four Fs and two generous C-pluses in the 1st period. Herewith the verbatim replies: 

►What I learned in this marking period in this class was nothing. The reason I say nothing is because we always have a different teacher every week as we never have time to learn anything. This class to me is an F. If we have a teacher that would stay for the whole six week of the marking period maybe I could learn something. 

►F: What I learned this marking period was nothing because every week my class and I have a different teacher. So its actually possible we have no time in learning. 

►F: The last six weeks in this class I learning same thing from diffent teachers but I have to say I still learnd nothing because they teach us nothing that have nothing to do with scince. 

► I only learned about the 10 smartest animals and my grade is an F bcuz I only came here this week. 

► C+: What I’ve learned semester in this particular science course is the different kind of cells and functions. I’m able to identify the differ type of organs and put them from least to greatest. 

► C+: What I learned in this science class is the organs and functions. I also learned the different between them to organ. Now when somebody ask me what the different I will have the answer for them. 

A family emergency forced me to leave the school after 1st period. In my rush I did not have time to hand in the short-circuited evaluations. But I will email this post to Principal Bernard Gassaway, whose title includes “Chief Child Advocate.” 

Since ATRs have almost nothing to lose, we should consider rating our weekly assignments as a service to the DOE.

Photo credit: http://saintluke.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/giant-rat.jpg

ATR teacher can't go home again

The following report was submitted by a teacher who would like to be known as Absolutely Teaching Ready.

Occupy Wall Street protesters read pro-ATR fliers.
Notice that the protesters all appear to be dressed in
clean clothes and none of them are scratching due to lice.

I just came back from "Occupy Wall Street" and raised the issue of ATRS there while passing out fliers to the people at the School Discussion circle. There was a lot of support for us.

I've spent the week at a multi-school location, the former Wingate High School. The trail I am taking through the borough lets me relive some of my family history. Wingate was the high school many of my cousins went to. Now it is four schools and the one I was assigned to was the School of Public Service - Heroes. Or not. I will leave you to decide when I discuss my week and the behavior of the Principal, Ben Shuldiner.

A few years ago, Shuldiner made news as the youngest principal in the system. I think he should be making news for how he misbehaved towards teachers this week.  When I checked in on Tuesday, the Principal told me that since there were four schools in the building, he would send me to wherever I was needed. I said nothing, hoping the matter would not come up. The Principal told me how he had received UFT awards for cooperating with the Union.  Later that morning I was told to go upstairs and cover an 8th grade class ( I've been a high school teacher) at the School for Human Rights. When I arrived a very nice fellow who turned out to be the Principal (I didn't know it at the time) listened as I explained that my presence there was a violation of the Union-DOE agreement since I was not assigned to a campus, but to a school. I covered the class (no lesson plan was available) and spent a half hour showing pictures of Occupy Wall Street and encouraging the children to discuss the economic issues or political issues their parents may be concerned about. When I went downstairs to the Heroes school, the Principal asked me if I had a complaint about anything. I explained again that it was a contract violation to be sent upstairs. I also contacted the UFT Representative for my former school. I asked him to let me know if anything gets resolved.

There were at least two other ATRS at this location, two Haitian-American gentlemen who fit the age profile for ATRS, both in their late 50s like me. Both by the way hold math licenses, one hasn't had an appointment for three years. One was assigned to a school upstairs. When we were not assigned a class we all sat in the staff lounge of the Public Service Heroes school.

The next morning the Principal came and told our brother from upstairs he "was not allowed in the school because"--pointing at me--I had brought up the matter of assigning teachers anywhere in the building. When questioned, he told me he wanted to discuss "expectations"; I suggested we discuss my expectations, but he had other ideas. 

The following day I was assigned a teacher's schedule. The school has an SBO (School Based Option). Classes are one hour long. Some days teachers have four classes and a Professional period, other days they have five periods. Since the teacher I was assigned had only four classes that day, I assumed I would have four. An hour later, I was given another class to cover; this meant that I would teach 5 hours! When I suggested that I would like to speak to the Principal I was told that I could discuss the matter with the Chapter leader during our respective lunch periods. I did that and told the Chapter leader that as I was following a teacher's schedule, I expected to get paid for an emergency coverage. 

Again I contacted the UFT Rep. I hadn't heard back from him but the School Chapter leader had. So the arrangement for shifting us to other schools was ended (for now). Later, I also wrote to Amy Arundel who, to her credit, did write me in the wee hours of the night that I should be paid for a coverage. 

But something else that happened that day was that during our lunch hour our friend who had been chased out of the Heroes school came down to break bread with us. There were several teachers in the staff lounge. Suddenly the Principal, Ben Shuldiner, appeared and in a gruff voice demanded to know what the brother was doing there in his school. (The obvious answer, of course, was that he was eating a sandwich.)

"Get out!", he shouted at him. "Get out now!" I told the principal he was behaving inappropriately. I asked him why he was doing this. He asked me, "Is that a question? I am not going to answer it!" When the UFT brother began to get his things together slowly (i.e., not fast enough for the principal) Shuldiner told him he was going to get security. Our fellow ATR left and a few minutes later the Principal returned with a Security Guard. 

Later that day our third ATR was watching a class and as the students attended to their assignments, he opened up a  book. The Principal came into the room and started shouting at him, in front of the students, "Close the book now!" 

The three of us have talked about this and I've asked them to contact the UFT Borough Reps to complain about the way they were treated. The behavior of the Principal towards them was markedly different in tone from me. It was, in my opinion, abusive and racist. What's more, when another Principal in the building tried to speak to Shuldiner about his behavior with the ATR, he refused to meet. 

The entire week demonstrated to me why ATRS need their own chapter leaders.  I've requested that the UFT Reps develop a list of items that both UFT members who are ATRS and the Principals they are assigned to should know to maintain contract compliance. These should include the matter of multi-school locations and how ATRS can be fairly treated when assigned to schools with SBOs. 

I would like to point out that the system is ripe for abuse and without guidelines and clarity the ATRS are likely to suffer. I will keep all informed whether I get paid for the "emergency coverage" and whether or not the Principal hears from the District Rep about his abusive, even racist behavior.

Next stop? Why the High Schools for Sports Management in the former Lafayette High School Campus, Bensonhurst. I left Bensonhurst 54 years ago when I was five years old, as my family was movin' on up to Canarsie. But now I am back in the old 'hood.  I hope I have a quiet week.

Gypsy Teacher reports from first encampment

The following report was submitted by a contributor who would like to be known as Gypsy Teacher.  

The first week of this ATR nightmare has come to an end. I spent over an hour to get to my placement so I could spend the day putting home contact cards in alphabet order, doing lunch duty and, for one day, actually covering classes! 

The school was a very small specialized school and the students and staff were wonderful. Did I mention the staff were all YOUNG? Out of the 30 teachers on staff, I don't think any of them was over 30! The assistant principal was a kid and the principal not much older. I still don't understand why I was sent to a school that DOES NOT even offer any courses in my license area. The principal and I had a nice chat about it and he seemed to be confused also.

Anyway, there were also two "resident principals" (I suppose from the Leadership Academy) on board learning the ropes. Like I said,  everyone seemed nice but then again I was only there for a week. I was introduced to everyone and I kinda felt "ashamed." Why was I in this predicament? I know deep down it is not my fault but how do others view us? As losers or as capable professionals?

One other note: a gym teacher was hired. A young gym teacher. I doubt he had been an ATR so how was he allowed to be hired? The union and DOE are doing nothing to protect us! I know that day-to-day subs are still filling vacancy positions! I called the union and asked about the newly hired teacher and the subs still in vacancy positions..and guess what???? Oh we have to look into this, I was told! Bull! The principals are getting away with murder, the DOE is treating us like crap and no one is doing a damn thing to protect our rights! We have to have a voice. We have to be heard! And soon! 

Oh, and next week I am placed in another small school that doesn't have any classes in my license area. At least the commute will be better!

Photo credit: http://www.ellisislandtours.com/images/Ellis-ShermanColl-Gypsy-woman-detail-1a.jpg

RED ALERT FOR ATR TEACHERS: Check your DOE email daily!

A public service announcement from a teacher named G.:

I am writing this to alert ATR teachers to the potential for a poorly communicated assignment from the Human Resources department.

Today is Thursday, October 13, 2011. Last Thursday, I received my assignment from my DOE email for this past week. I thought my week's assignment was set. This past Tuesday and Wednesday, I went to the school I was told to report to in the email. 

I don't check my DOE email everyday. This past Wednesday night, October 12th, I happened to check my DOE email. To my surprise and my chagrin, I saw a new email from HR that had been sent on Friday, October 14, 2011 after 3:30PM! It stated that I should IGNORE the first email and report to a different school on Tuesday, October 11th.

This morning, Thursday, Oct. 13th, I called the first school to let them know I wouldn't be there and why. Then I reported to the second school and explained why I hadn't reported for the last two days. I called HR during my lunch and spoke with a rep. I think everything is corrected now. The payroll secretary at the present school entered my days on my time card.

I will now check my DOE email and the DHR link (https://www.nycenet.edu/offices/dhr/transferplane/) every day. "Fool me once..."

DOE declares that ATR teachers are just numbers

Algorithm for the exact model reduction.
Whatever the heck that is.

Here is your Quotation of the Day: one little sentence, with one little tell-tale word, highlighted and enlarged for your convenience:

City unveils algorithm that will assign ATR’s to new weekly spots (Gotham Schools).

Yes, my dear friends of the ATR, in the eyes of the DOE you are not teachers, but numbers, to be manipulated by an algorithm.  They add to your total with school closings; they divide you from your colleagues with weekly re-assignments; they subtract from your professional potential by not giving you students, books, restroom keys, or even coathooks; and they multiply your frustration by then having the gall to call you slackers and malcontents. 

Do the math, brothers and sisters: You're bein' screwed.    

Image credit: http://www.mpi-magdeburg.mpg.de/research/projects/1002/ACKM/COMBCOMPL/algorithm.png

The Tenure Trap, by Marc Epstein

Marc Epstein, the Ronin Teacher, had this article published by Huffington Post over a year ago.  Little has changed since then, except that the Chancellor is now Dennis Walcott rather than Cathie Black--which is also not much of a change.

Chancellors Cathie Black and Dennis Walcott stand behind Mayor
Bloomberg.  Always.  Unquestioningly. 

When there is evidence of bad public policy, you can safely assume that it took two parties working collaboratively to create the swamp.

New York's Department of Education and the teachers' union have found themselves mired down in a dispute over the fates of more than a thousand teachers, many of whom have no assigned teaching position, but continue to collect full-time salaries.

This group of teachers is collectively referred to as ATR's, or the Absent Teacher Reserve. Large numbers of ATR's are not instructing students in their licensed areas. Instead they often find themselves working as substitute teachers. 

At various times these teachers have been labeled incompetent or too lazy to seek positions by Joel Klein. He wants to fire them.

To judge from his statements and newspaper editorials, we are simply facing a case of old time union featherbedding.

If the problem isn't resolved over the next few weeks, Cathie Black will inherit this mess, and all her public statements to date indicate that she has bought Joel Klein's narrative, hook, line, and sinker. 

The primary reason that so many teachers are out of a job stems from Klein's policy of closing comprehensive high schools, declaring them "failed" enterprises, and replacing them with small high schools.

Since the closing is a "hostile" takeover the teachers too are "failed" and sent packing, rather than placed in the new small schools.

If you are in the wrong place at the wrong time, you can lose your position with either a short time served in the system or with 20 plus years on the job.

When you impose this method of staffing on the largest school system in the country, something has got to give. In fact, it's only logical that a number of teachers would find themselves inhabiting the limbo world of the "ATR."

This limbo world can find a music teacher covering classes for absent social studies teachers, while his music program is assigned to a social studies teacher. I know because this precisely what occurred in my school.

The sooner the myths about public school staffing are dispensed with, the better the public interest will be served, because this is Joel Klein's self-created crisis.

Tenure: tenure for public school teachers is not a lifetime sinecure. In most respects it is no different from civil service protections for police, fire, and sanitation workers. You have to have due process in order to fire an employee.

We should recall that the civil service laws first instituted on the Federal level were the direct result of a presidential assassination in 1881, when a disgruntled officer seeker shot President Garfield.

Back in 1883 the cities of New York and Brooklyn served as the model for civil service reform nationwide on the local level.

The New York City schools once had a rigorous accreditation process for teachers. It included a meaningful written examination of the subject area and an oral exam. The Board of Examiners wrote and administered the tests.

As standards ebbed, the once vaunted Board of Examiners was whittled down until it was quietly put out of business in 1990.

The once demanding exam was replaced by a ludicrously easy interview and a more questionable statewide written exam.

It's no accident that the dumbing down of the hiring requirements coincided with the dumbing down of state testing for our children too. 

Mayoral control gave Michael Bloomberg the power to re-establish a Board of Examiners with the stroke of a pen, but nothing has been done to return rigorous standards to the hiring process.

Perhaps Bloomberg, who didn't grow up in New York, is unaware that a Board of Examiners ever existed? After all, it's far easier to run a PR campaign than it is to institute real reform.

The union, never one to miss an opportunity, has yet to call for a return to the hiring standards under the Board of Examiners that helped make New York's schools the finest in the country.Why should an experienced teacher have a tough time landing a new position you might ask? Well, along with the downsizing of schools came Klein's decision to budget schools according to the actual salaries of their teachers.

Before mayoral control, a high school teacher counted as a "unit," which meant whether you had a school with lots of experienced teachers or mostly rookies, the cost for staffing the school was the same. The teacher "unit" would represent the average price of compensating one of the 80,000 teachers in the system.

If a school closed, or its population declined, teachers who were no longer needed there were placed in available slots without having them go into the so-called "open" hiring market.

By forcing the principals to figure the real salary of each teacher into their budgets, they have every incentive to hire younger lower salaried teachers and to avoid the more experienced ones, who were too expensive. In Klein's universe inexperience and lower salaries becomes a virtue, while experience be damned!

Would critics of tenure suggest that if a firehouse is closed because of a reorganization move by the department, the firemen are responsible for finding a new job within the system? Would these critics claim that young inexperienced firefighters are preferable to experienced ones?

With the press providing the wind for his sails, and Bill Gates funding the school voyage, Klein's assault on teachers and comprehensive high schools proved irresistible for someone with no real administrative skills. Ask yourself which role is easier, playing Tom Silva on This Old House, or just taking a wrecking ball to the whole place?

Around now, you might be asking yourself why the teachers union acquiesced to the ATR? To say that the union has taken a pounding in the press and from the chancellor over the past seven years is an understatement.

In typical New York fashion, the union stood by when a good policy, the School Based Option Staffing and Transfer Plan was being strangled, and agreed to the ATR pool.

The SBO had a cooperative team of teachers and administrators select new faculty members collegially. If someone with loads of seniority applied for a job and had nothing else going for them except time in the system, they could be rejected.

The SBO was already in place and had been spreading throughout the system when Bloomberg took over the schools. So Klein's claim that he was being strangled by union seniority rules was simply a myth.

If the union was as omnipotent as the editorialists claim, why didn't it block, or wage a PR campaign against this new fatally flawed hiring process and fight for the SBO?

Yet the public discourse is diminished by the union's failure to make its case for the rank and file teacher to the public. 

There's no way to divine the answer to that question. In all likelihood the UFT knows that no matter how much ink is spent reviling them, no arbitrator would overturn the civil service laws and allow unassigned teachers who otherwise have satisfactory performance records to be fired.

In the end, the DOE and the union have been clever by half. Hundreds of millions have been wasted. The hiring process hasn't been improved, and teachers who remain the vital component in the education process are further diminished.

If this self-inflicted "crisis" were given to a business management class as a case study, it's likely that they would conclude that the negotiators on both sides of the table were idiots.

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The ATR Follies

Teacher Sue, who recently reported on the UFT's meeting for ATR teachers in Staten Island, sent in the following comments. As you'll see, her name is Sue and she means to sue.

An ATR teacher rushes off to a new weekly assignment.

The ATR Follies are getting worse. I live on Staten Island and am assigned to a school in Brooklyn. My colleague who lives in Brooklyn is assigned to a school on Staten Island!! A random computer placement? I think not! I think the DOE is deliberately doing every possible thing they can do to get the ATRs fed up and on the verge of quitting!

They say the weekly rotations are for the good of the ATRs. They say it will make it easier because principals will hire us. What they say is A LIE. They are rotating us weekly to cause more humiliation and upset for the ATRS. They are making things tough so we will quit! 

I can not understand how the UFT is allowing veteran teachers to be disrespected! It is bad enough having to serve as a sub after so many years in this profession. But to have to do it in a new school every week, especially if it is so far from home, is just madness!  

I think that the DOE and UFT should be brought up on charges of harassment. The UFT should also be sued for misrepresentation! 2000 voices must be heard!

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UFT to ATRs: Information, Yes; Organization, No Way in Hell

Report from the Brooklyn ATR Meeting (Tuesday, October 4, 2011)

By Philip Nobile 

A crowd of over one hundred, mostly over 40 years of age, listened to a 45-minute presentation by Special Rep Amy Arundell and Co-Staff Director LeRoy Barr and then asked lots and lots of questions about our absurd predicament for almost two hours. The presenters were incisive and sympathetic in the information department. Apparently, they had cooled off from their hot meeting in The Bronx on Monday. 

“We know the DOE will screw things up and we’ll stay on top of this,” promised Barr who repeated the party line that ATRs should be happy rather than angry with their new deal. “It was not an ATR agreement, it was a no-layoff agreement,” he emphasized. “The DOE said you didn’t work. They wanted to lay you off. We will not allow them to lay you off.” 

Nevertheless, Barr’s solidarity soon evaporated when he squelched the unanimous clamor for establishing borough chapters to represent our interests. “We’re not here to talk about that,” he said, adding with typical top-down arrogance, “that’s not what you want.” 

The Information 

Arundell, a former middle-school Social Science teacher from the Bronx, is the UFT’s personnel person and now its designated ATR authority and apologist. She began with the mechanics of next week’s rotation and later addressed specific inquiries. Some highlights: 

►Brooklyn high school teachers will be assigned to District 73 or District 76 (including, horrors, Staten Island). K-8 teachers will remain in the districts from which they were excessed. This is a contractual right. 

►Principals cannot keep you in your current school unless they hire you to fill a vacancy, budget you on Galaxy, and inform the DOE.  No exceptions. 

►Your file stays in the school from which you were excessed and it’s unclear where files go if your school is closed. 

►You can be observed anytime, even if you’re teaching out of license.  

►Ratings are up in the air. No agreement yet with the DOE, but the UFT is opposed to evaluating teachers who spend only one week, or even one month, in a school. 

►If you’re absent, see the payroll secretary. For long term absence, contact Special Representative Debbie Poulos. For personal days, call your District Representative. 

►If you don’t get a new assignment in your DOE email by Friday, October 7, continue to report to your current school next Tuesday, October 11.

No Way In Hell Organization 

Several attendees, including this correspondent, protested the UFT’s pretense of representation via strange and ever-changing Chapter Leaders and soon-to-be overwhelmed District reps as back-ups. Without chapters of our own, we are out of the normal union loop, unable to attend chapter meetings and forbidden access to Delegate Assemblies. Even our allegedly lesser brethren in rubber rooms of yore had elected liaisons and monthly meetings at 52 Broadway. Denying such basic union rights to ATRs is unconscionable. 

Arundell pre-emptively defended the UFT’s third class representation of ATRs: “I will respectfully disagree that Chapter Leaders are not capable of representing you,” she said, raising her voice. “YOU ARE REPRESENTED. YOU ARE NOT A DISTINCT CLASS.” 

Nobody in the audience bought this poppycock. Cheers and clapping greeted the following dissents. 

►Herb Michael, former Chapter Leader, said: “I’m not convinced I’m really represented. We’re in a special situation. That’s why there’s a special agreement including a committee to review compliance. I’d feel more comfortable if some ATRs looked at it. We need to meet on a regular basis. Why can’t we have a motion on the floor to elect a chapter leader?” 

This is when Barr claimed that he knew better and that we didn’t want chapters to represent us. Adopting Randi Weingarten's line against rubber room chapters, he said, “You don’t want to be in a permanent class.” Such strained reasoning--as if chapter status would mean anything more than standard representation for us outcasts. At the least, Randi appeased reassigned teachers with monthly meetings in Manhattan. But ATRs in good standing are deprived of that small kindness. 

►John Lawhead said: “I’m amazed at the innocence of your assumptions. I’m in a school with no Chapter Leader. And now you’re telling us that District Leaders are going to make up the difference? What kind of union do you want to be, merely a service organization? You’ve got to use us in some way. We could be reps in schools.” 

By this time, Barr was gone and Brooklyn Borough Rep Howie Schoor stood in at the podium. He was whispering in Arundell’s ear while Lawhead spoke and may have missed his larger point about the UFT’s soul. But puffing up, he said that he would make certain that District Reps did their jobs. 

►Your correspondent, former Chapter Leader and three-year graduate of Brooklyn’s Chapel St. rubber room, spoke up: “I wanted to thank LeRoy for telling us what we want. But I know what we want; (turning to the audience): How many of you want a chapter for ATRs? (the room erupted unanimously in favor and I turned back to Schoor). Will you explain why we can’t have a chapter and will you give us your sign-up list so that we can better organize? 

Schoor and I have a complicated history. He is a nice fellow and has been generous with his time and assistance over the years. But just as often he has failed in nerve apropos my quarrels with the UFT and DOE. For example, I sent him three emails prior to the meeting asking for permission to briefly organize ATRs on site before the start of his informational session. No response. So I renewed my request on arrival. The answer was no. “It’s our meeting,” he said. I reminded him that his Special Rep Liz Perez, speaking for Barr, originally rejected my suggestion for an ATR gathering and that today’s meeting was just as much ours as the UFT’s. That got me nowhere, of course. Thereupon I entered the packed conference room and while people finished up their noshes, I defied Schoor by introducing myself and urging my colleagues to press our agenda as outlined in a Grassroots Education Movement broadsheet handed out by Norm Scott of ednotesonline. Schoor tried to shut me down almost immediately, but let me finish without interruption. 

As for our demand for a chapter, ever Schoor, the tone-deaf bureaucrat, declared that Union policy was made by the Executive Committee and Delegate Assemblies blah, blah, blah. And no, he would not share the sign-up list. In retort, I jabbed, “Such is the democracy we work in!” 

As the meeting wound down, two older female ATRs summed up our frustration with cris de coeur eliciting loud cheers. Said one: “Mulgrew doesn’t seem to care. Notice he’s not here and I bet he won’t be at the other meetings either.” 

And the other: “It's all about age and money. School aides are teaching classes in my school. Principals will not hire us. Where is the union in this? I want my dues back.”

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