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September 3, 2010

Fact-checking claims about the Absent Teacher Reserve pool

by Anna Phillips, at 7:18 pm

New York Magazine’s news blog Daily Intel ran a post this morning summing up the Wall Street Journal’s take on the number of unemployed teachers who are “ignoring openings,” as the Journal put it. Both publications got facts wrong, but in their own ways.

Daily Intel’s post adheres faithfully to the WSJ and Department of Education’s line until the very last paragraph when its author took a left turn. She writes:

The Journal thinks Klein is holding on to the pool for philosophical purity. “For Mr. Klein, forcing teachers into vacancies would go against his philosophy of giving principals market-based autonomy and accountability.” So in order to promote free-market principals and accountability, Klein wants to offer job security for life to laid-off employees during a recession with no stipulations for getting them back into the city’s workforce? We must have missed that social-studies class.

Klein does not want to offer job security for life to laid-off employees during a recession with no stipulations for getting them back into the city’s workforce. In fact, he wants the opposite.

The pool of excessed teachers exists because Klein believes it is more important to give principals choice in who they hire than it is to limit spending by keeping every teacher, good or bad, in a classroom. The teachers union won’t allow him to remove excessed teachers from the payroll — some argue it would defeat the entire idea of having a labor union at your back — so he made his choice and he’s stuck with it until he or the union budges.

There’s also a slight problem with the Wall Street Journal’s lede, which reads:

A majority of New York City teachers who lost their positions at schools earlier this year have neither applied for another job in the system nor attended any recruitment fairs in recent months, according to data released by the Department of Education Thursday.

We don’t know if a majority of New York City teachers who were excessed in the last year failed to pursue a real job hunt. We know that most (60 percent) of the 1700 teachers who haven’t found work did not go to recruitment fairs or apply to jobs online. But those 1700 people are 60 percent of the 3,000 teachers who were in the excess pool at its peak this summer. So really, 60 percent of 60 percent of the excessed teachers — which does not a majority make — did not use the established routes to find a job.

The city has not made any job search details public for the 1,3000 teachers who did get new positions.

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  • Jeff S

    This is the start of Klein’s next effort to try to turn public attention away from his lies regarding bridging the achievement gap and the vast improvement in student test scores under his reign. Better call it what it is, a reign of terror. We can expect editorials this weekend from the Post and the News supporting this (there was an article in this morning’s Daily News).

    It is incumbent on the part of Mulgrew to get up for once and for all and tell Klein and the public in no uncertain terms that he is not going to be a part of breaking civil service law or New York State Educatin law or the current contract. It is up to Mulgrew to state in no uncertain terms that this proposal by Klein is stillborn. It is up to Mulgrew to issue a statement that both state education law together with the contract stateds that the layoff of a tenured teacher can only be done either by a 3020A hearing or if for budgetary reasons in inverse order of seniority. This is a must from Mulgrew to protect his many decent members caught up in this Klein reign of terror.

  • Winston

    Anna, please remember that a contract is negoatiated by TWO parties who BOTH agree to live up to its terms. To expect that the teachers union would allow Klein to breach the contract and fire employees, most of whom were rated satisfactory, is rather delusional. To say that the teachers union wont “let” Klein fire the teachers is unrealistic. Do we let go of firefighters if we close a firehouse? DO policeman get fired if the amount of staff assigned to a precinct is reduced?

  • ASTRAKA

    The question remains. Will Mulgrew do the right thing?
    My fear is he will cave in. He and Randi are probably thinking of a way to let the ATRs go.
    Then he will sell this action as “the best we could do”. That is how the UFT operates in the last
    few years. ATRs must be ready to sue both the union and the city.

  • http://jd2718.wordpress.com Jonathan

    “The pool of excessed teachers exists because Klein believes it is more important to give principals choice in who they hire than it is to limit spending by keeping every teacher, good or bad, in a classroom.”

    This is such unadulterated DoE propaganda. The ATR pool exists because the DoE closes schools. Absent school closings, there would be no (or almost no) ATRs.

    In a piece about fact-checking, of all things.

  • Joe Schmo

    I like to look at the facts that we have seen in the recent past regarding UFT leadership: 1) The approval/support of a new value added teacher evaluation, 2) Rubber room closings. Both of these deals were done “behind closed doors”. My concern is that the UFT may continue to make deals with the DOE behind “closed doors”. Any changes to working conditions should be presented via a membership vote to all UFT members. We must not allow the UFT to negotiate without our input. I would not be surprised at all if the UFT leadership attempts to sell out ATR’s in favor of a lousy 3% raise in a closed door deal. (However, something of that magnitude would most likely result in a mass exodus of teachers from even staying as a UFT member) If the DOE/UFT sells out ATR’s then there is no reason to stay a member of the union. I will tear up my UFT membership card the second it sells out ATR’s.

  • http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson

    Anna: how do “We know that most (60 percent) of the 1700 teachers who haven’t found work did not go to recruitment fairs or apply to jobs online.” Did you get that data from the DOE? Was it confirmed by any independent source? Given their slipperiness w/ data, why trust the reliability of this claim And what about the comments from ATR teachers about the computer system’s screw ups, and their inability to access the online jobs site?

    Moreover, Klein’s insistence that these teachers should not be put in permanent positions because that would violate the autonomy of principals doesn’t hold water. Why not make these teachers available to principals free of charge, without having to pay for them out of their individual school budgets, and see if the principals wanted them or not?

    Klein has created the disincentive for principals to hire these teachers by his supposed “fair student funding” system, which discourages principals from hiring experienced teachers ….a system that would never be considered acceptable for staffing either police precincts or fire houses or any other municipal agency. Then he unfairly slanders these teachers and uses their continued unemployment to try to justify layoffs, at the same time as class sizes are growing at an unprecedented rate. Who really cares about the kids here?

  • Karen Sherwood

    Thank you, Leonie, once again, for a concise and accurate explanation of the wrong that is being perpetrated against the teachers, students, and concerned parents of NYC. I’ve been teaching English since 1973, so my memory is a long one. Ten years ago, there was a major focus on: 1)having secondary school teachers who were “highly qualified” in their subject areas, and, 2) trying to bring highly qualified and highly experienced teachers into some of the toughest and most challenging urban schools. With my 25 plus years of experience, two Master’s degrees (in English and Journalism)and a grab-bag full of successful strategies and innovative lessons and projects, I walked around with my head held high. I had the enthusiasm, the energy, and the know-how to give my students, (usually 150 a term) not only the specific skills required for college, careers, and life, but also a classroom atmosphere which encouraged them to explore their own creativity through writing, drama, poetry, and spoken word. It was wonderful, for them and for me. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. There were many students who were truant, rebellious, unmotivated, or who were mired in so many personal and family problems (pregnancy, illness, divorce, homelessness) that schoolwork wasn’t even on their radar. In such circumstances, teachers do the best they can, lending a sympathetic ear, giving make-up work, calling home, referring the students to counselors, but many problems could not be solved. However, this never kept me from working hard with the students who were there in class. I was not “burnt out”—not even close. I happily spent hours every week preparing lessons, looking through newspapers and magazines for engaging materials. I wrote mini-grants which enabled me to take my students to Broadway and to buy them personal copies of poetry books. I was proud of my students and- yes- proud of my efforts on their behalf. I felt that I was contributing to NYC by passing on the excellent education that I had received in the New York City school system. So much has changed. Although I still love my subject, and I work hard on behalf of my students, I no longer feel like a valued member of the DOE. How could I? My school, Columbus H.S. was one of the “failing” schools targeted for closure by Bloomberg/Klein, thus making me and my colleagues “failing” teachers by default. My two Master’s degrees and my 30 plus years of experience are no longer an asset in this job market. I’m at the top of the pay scale and therefore far more expensive than a brand new college graduate. However, the worst part of all of this is the way the Mayor’s skilled public relations/propaganda team has managed to convince so much of the public that teachers are the enemy. Hateful comments on message boards call teachers “selfish…greedy… lazy…entitled…”, and the news media and business community support these views as they all bow down to worship at the altar of statistics, business models, and anti-intellectualism. It is painful and demoralizing…a nightmare version of what I envisioned when I went into teaching so many decades ago. Truly, I cannot see how these lies and deceptions will result in a better future for the children of our city or our country.

  • http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ Norm Scott

    Wouldst the UFT offer the same eloquent defense of ATRs as Leonie does.

    It’s not about what Klein wants. it is about what he did. What kind of contract he was willing to sign to get what he wanted.

    “So in order to promote free-market principals and accountability, Klein wants to offer job security for life to laid-off employees during a recession with no stipulations for getting them back into the city’s workforce? We must have missed that social-studies class.”

    So when Anna says: “Klein does not want to offer job security for life to laid-off employees during a recession with no stipulations for getting them back into the city’s workforce. In fact, he wants the opposite.”

    Of course he doesn’t want to offer job security – to anyone in the system. But he did do exactly that to win his ideological point. And now he wants his cake and to eat it too by calling on the reneging of that deal he made – yes, he signed a contract.

    (Does he think he is more valuable than Darrelle Reves of the Jets?)

    For those who think the UFT will find a way to give up the ATRs- maybe not fire them but do agree to some kind of wage freeze or buyout – (by the way, don’t u-rated people get frozen even when not proven guilty?)- look for money in a contract in exchange for something that can be sold to the members but hidden in a way to make it sellable. The UFT has been selling off pieces of the contract in exchange for money for some time.

    And by the way, an ATR informed me today to remind us that the ATR agreement between the DOE and UFT that was announced on the eve of the ATR rally that was subverted by the UFT runs out in November.
    Some ATRs are talking about another rally. Look for an ATR blog coming soon.

    You can view my video of the ATR rally and the UFT wine and cheese party at the same time at: http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2009/01/video-uft-doesnt-want-you-to-see-atr.html

  • hm

    How are bloomie and k-man helping out ELL students who have been boasting a 31 % graduation rate over the past few years http://www.ncspe.org/publications_files/OP188.pdf ???? There should be outrage at this!! Why are the boys hurting our kids????

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  • I noticed that…

    To address the ATR mess created by Klein and supported by principals, who refuse to hire experienced, veteran ATRs, I have provided the UFT’s study into this matter. Please look into the study and then state your conclusion with respect to the abuse and deceit by the BloomKlein administration. Let’s put the blame where it belongs and fix this mess so our colleagues can go back to teaching our children.

    http://www.uft.org/news/issues/reports/2008-06-atrs-and-new-teacher-project.pdf

    Case Study in Partisanship
    A Critique of The New Teacher Project Report
    “Mutual Benefits: New York City’s Shift to Mutual Consent in Teacher Hiring”
    June 3, 2008

    2005 Contractual Changes in Staffing Rules
    “The contract terms were very specific: the DOE was to place into a new position in the same district any excessed teachers who were not reabsorbed into their schools or hired into the replacement school, providing both the teacher and the receiving principal agreed. This latter proviso maintained the choice aspect of the new transfer system. In the meantime, teachers would be assigned to the Absent Teacher Reserve pool in their schools, or in their districts if their home school closed, at their current salary, while they looked for new positions. This would give those schools a reliable source of experienced teachers to serve as substitutes or in other institutional capacities who were already familiar with the school and its students.

    As became evident, the DOE did not uphold its end of this agreement, and TNTP used the DOE’s mismanagement as an opportunity to try to get what the city sought from the start.”

    Closing Schools and “Excessing”
    “The UFT negotiating team warned the DOE before the 2005 contract was signed that the new Open Market Transfer System would result in a growing pool of unassigned teachers, but the DOE said it was prepared to pay that price for the changes it wanted. The UFT raised concerns about the waste of money and talent, but the DOE did not seem worried at the time. However, growing pressure on the DOE to cut spending has made the presence of these teachers increasingly controversial.”

  • edwina

    I hate to burst the bubble re: excess teachers, but the Klein number of teachers in excess is off by at least 1400. In June, when principals tried to excess teachers they were told by their new bosses at their CFNs that they could not as long as the overall school budget showed positive. This means high schools in particular had to keep teachers they do not need and were hindered from hiring licensed they do need. These vary, but each school has 2 to 3 such teachers not formally excessed, thus never showing in the ATR pool nor in the open market. They will report to their schools Tuesday and have no program.
    This is one more way of hiding the true number of excessed teachers and of further disempowering the “empowered” principals. Ask any one of them and they will tell you–of course anonymously…

  • Really?

    Please, please, please start disallowing some of these extreme union perspectives. What was once a smart daily roundup of the different happenings in education (accompanied by thoughtful comments) has become a safe haven for ideal driven rants on the evils of Klein. Enough, we know where you stand. There is more to reform then your notion of Joel Klein. Everyone I know in education (pro union and anti union) is frustrated with these comments because there isn’t even a dialogue any longer. We want smaller class size…make the case. We want an end to excessing…make the case as to how this serves kids, not just teachers. And the name calling only weekens our argumens.

  • Green Hornet

    Really, Really, by your very post you show your stripes. You are anti-union. The people that knock Klienbloom know darn well that their version of Ed Reform has nothing to do with the kids. They might call it Ed Reform but it has another darker name it is called union busting, plain and simple. Meanwhile, you can not show us a single student who is better off. By every measure things are worse than ever…except perhaps the pocketbooks of the Ed Reformers.

  • Mix Master P

    Hey…

    I’m an ATR w/ 13 yrs teaching (earth science) experience, and 10 yrs experience as a prof. geologist. I go to the same recruitment fares that education graduate students do, the ones with no experience in teaching…or anything. The recruitment people put one color sticker on my resume, and another color sticker on the the new recruits……then I’m ignored (yes, the recruiters I’m talking about are not hired by the UFT, but that shrew Klein and his buddy Mike). When I asked one recruiter why the different colors, she said “oh, it’s nothing”.

    Kind of sounds like Germany 1938.

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