Many of them have not applied for new jobs or attended recruitment fairs. (Post, Wall Street Journal)
The federal government gave states $330 million to develop new tests. (Times, Washington Post, CSM)
An education professor argues that politics, not proven results, drive Obama education policy. (SF Gate)
Staten Island residents rallied against a city plan to reduce bus service for middle schools. (SI Advance)
Opposition is growing to a city plan to help build a new Harlem Childrens Zone building. (Daily News)
Merrick Academy is re-hiring three of the 11 teachers it laid off via FedEx. (Daily News, WNYC)
A Staten Island teacher who sued the city over her suspension for using vulgar slang has settled. (Post)
The L.A. Board of Ed formally asked for test scores to be used in teacher evaluations. (L.A. Times)
Teacher
Obviously the ATR stories in the NY Tabloids are being fed to them directly from the DOE. How sad is that? On the other hand, now that we know that the system that was developed to supposedly “help” excessed teachers find a position is actually just another way of collecting data to prove how lazy and incompetent teachers are, these ATRs MUST at least apply for positions through the Open Market System and/or attend the bogus Job Fairs. It doesn’t matter if they have some arrangements with their principals to continue working as ATRs at the schools they were excessed from or if they think that applying directly to schools is a better way to apply for openings, they MUST play the game that the DOE has created. To not do so just gives more fodder to the DOE, the newspapers they “own” and the bash the teachers crowd.
Invictus
I guess Klein and company is at it again, in order to perhaps hide their big oops, after the adjustment of the State tests…leaving the DoE and the City to hide behind nothing.
If he and other education distorters believe that these ATR teachers are not doing nearly enough to be hired, then perhaps they themselves need to be held more accountable at their absolute inability of making sure that their underlings hire teachers from the excess pool.
How does the DoE prove that these teachers have not been to interviews and workfairs? The only thing that they can gather, for sure, is whether the teachers have been hired or not, I truly doubt that they have gotten a clear picture of whether the remainder of the teachers have tried honestly and constantly to get a job, something that even lawyers and judges have a difficult time proving under a court of law.
http://www.classsizematters.org Leonie Haimson
incorrect headline; the story about the 2000 kids who haven’t heard yet about their placement are preK not K. There may be more K students as well…
QueensParent
Ha! In what universe is it where people sit around of there duffs not looking for a job, not even using the tools that are affforded them to do internal job searches and then complain that they employer didn’t “find” one for them! Furthermore, they complain principals should be “forced” to hire them. Oh God, only in NYC is this the case.
Maura Walz
So it is — fixed now. Thanks, Leonie.
Jeff S
Contrary to what some are saying here, it is not the UFT that caused the problem of the ATR’s. The rules for laying off civil servants are clearly spelled out both in NY civil service law and the UFT contract that Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Klein agreed to. In exchange for giving up seniority transfers, the ATR pool was established. The only alternative, under the law and the contract, is for the DOE to assign excessed teachers into vacancies and if there are not enough vacancies, then and only then, teachers can be laid off in inverse order of their seniority. You don’t like the law, as obviously Klein doesn’t, then that is what the bargaining table is for. Nor was it the UFT that cam up with bird brained decision to change the budgeting process from one in which each school for personnel is charged the average pay of a teacher to one where the actual salary is charged. They have tried to slide over this fact and have made some adjustments but that can be withdrawn at any time. In addition, it was the DOE that passed over hundreds of teachers following a career ladder of advancement to put in these instant Principals, many of whom don’t have the proper experience to be a Principal. Rather Klein has relied on the discredited Leadership Academy which has turned out these instant Principals, most of whom are not properly experienced in education or not capable of performing the most important role of Principal namely being the Principal teacher in the school. Klein doesn’t comprehend the role of a Principal is that of Chief Instructional Officer, not Chief Executive Officer. But then again how can Klein understand this as he has not edudcational experience qualifyiing him for a job he holds only under the guise of an ill conceived waiver granted by another genius Richard Mills.
The result is the ATR. Perhaps the most telling thing about the stories coming out about the ATR today is the admission that the average salary of the teachers in the ATR is $82,000….clear evidence that what is going on is that these instant Principals, depriving kids of truly experienced Principals, are not hiring the senior teachers either because of the affect the high salaried experienced teachers might have on their budgets in the future or out of fear that their own lack of qualifications for the role of Chief Instructional Officer in a school will be quickly seen through by experienced teachers who know far more about teaching in their pinkies than many of these instant Principals have in their entire bodies.
In any case, the ATR’s can be used to fill vacancies; it was a system that worked for many years until Klein came along with his bird brained ideas.
bookworm
I am looking at my second year as ATR. I am certified in Reading, which is, according to the Hiring Support Center, is “an area that has been struggling”. Struggling because the building budgets have been slashed to the point where schools have excessed their reading teachers to save money and pushed the responsibility for reading remediation onto the classroom teachers, who are told to “differentiate instruction”. (I was excessed when the whole reading budget for my school was cut, leaving 3 of us as ATRs).
I have applied for EVERY Literacy position on Open Market that I could reasonably get to. All 19 of them. Not a single call. Nine years as a literacy teacher, no letters in file, no U ratings, only late TWICE in 9yrs, both times due to car trouble. I went to whatever job fairs I could get to, which was only two due to child care issues and a husband who works nights (fairs are from 4 – 8p.m.) At each job fair, there was exactly ONE Literacy vacancy, and both of those would have entailed a 2.5hr commute one way.
And the thing that incenses me is that there are newbie teachers, sitting in APPOINTED positions with far less experience and seniority and the Chancellor wants to fire US? How can anyone say that I have no position because “principals have decided that [I] would be ineffective when NO ONE has even spoken to me?
As previous posters have said, this is a mess of the DOE’s making. If the Chancellor exercised his contractual right to simply PLACE ATRs into positions, the problem would most likely be solved. Although I even wonder how true that is since I would not put is past principals to hide vacancies in order to avoid being “force-fed” a teacher.
yes
i think a bigger problem is that the atr’s salary is paid by the doe (at least partially) ,this has caused individual schools to keep atr’s and not hire as a cost saving measure. so,you may have a teacher in a position all year but is still technically an atr, less money the school has to pay in salary.
Furburger
Gee, Faith Kramer got $45K just imagine what Pakter is going to get.
Queens Parent-
Seems you sit around doing nothing leeching off others.
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