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In my last post, I wrote about the biggest challenge my school, and others like it, face: teacher turnover. I discussed how of the 76 pedagogues who have worked at my school since it opened seven years ago, 36 have left. Not too long ago, that number hit 37. A tremendous amount of our school’s human resources are needed to help support and develop the new staff we bring in, thereby taking away resources from students. This begs the question, why are so many people leaving?

Common perceptions of urban teaching is that most people who leave go to teach in the suburbs or private schools. This has not been the case at my school; none have left for the suburbs, and only one for a private school. Last week I posted the individual reasons people leave, but this week, I aim to speculate on broader trends that cause people to leave. In many cases, these trends overlap for individual people:

Trend 1: Teaching is hard; teaching in the Bronx is really hard
Of the 37 who have now left, many were teachers who really struggled in their classrooms. Some of these teachers might have been more successful with suburban students who will do almost anything they’re asked, but they struggled with the challenges our Bronx classrooms present. This trend exists in all urban schools, though, and is much discussed, so I will stop there.

Trend 2: Starting a new school is a lot of work
Teaching is hard work, but creating a new school from scratch is even harder. When a school has only a small handful of teachers in its first years, no one is just a teacher. By my second year at my school, I was our tech guy and a grade team leader. With all the extra work, people burn out quick. Additionally, with so many people with limited experience in their jobs, things rarely work smoothly at first and teachers are required to constantly roll with the punches. It makes for an extremely stressful work environment.

Trend 3: New schools get lots of ambitious, young, teachers
Given all the extra work that goes into a new school, it should not be surprising that many of the teachers willing to work in these schools are young, ambitious people without families. (more…)

News from New York City:

• IBM gave Cathie Black $3.3 million when she left its board of directors to become chancellor. (Post)
• State Senate Republicans proposed a layoffs plan mixing the city’s plan and Gov. Cuomo’s. (Daily News)
• Cuomo: The city has to resolve its evaluation fight before I’ll end “last in, first out” rules. (Post, Daily News)
• The city is burning dangerous dirty heating oil in hundreds of city schools. (NY1)
• The Environmental Protection Agency says the city’s PCB-removal plan is too slow. (Times)
• Some city lawmakers rallied in support of speeding the city’s cleanup timeline. (NY1)
• Most teachers in the rubber room last year are in classrooms now. (GS, Post, Times, Daily News)
• A teacher at Queens’ PS 16 was charged with animal cruelty for mistreating her pet dog. (Post)
• A PS 203 teacher who wrote “I hate their guts” about her students on Facebook could lose her job. (Post)
• Parents are once again worried that budget cuts are threatening city-funded child care programs. (NY1)
• New facilities for disabled children are opening in New York City are giving options to parents. (WSJ)

And beyond:

• Joel Klein says teachers are unfairly vilified — but they also have too many job perks. (Washington Post)
• Nick Kristof says American schools should take McKinsey’s advice and pay teachers much more. (Times)
• Detroit has turned to “the usual whipping boys” in reforming schools, but there’s little progress. (Times)
• So Detroit officials want to turn many of the city’s remaining public schools into charter schools. (WSJ)
• Questions about Chris Cerf’s ethics are dogging his bid to be New Jersey’s schools chief. (Star-Ledger)
• A Kansas judge ruled that suburban parents can’t add higher school taxes to the local ballot. (WSJ)
• Utah and Idaho last week passed new laws that eliminate “last in, first out” layoffs for teachers. (Post)
• Educating the children of California’s migrant workers continues to be a formidable challenge. (Times)
• To combat obesity, Mexico City is limiting the sugar and fat that can be served to schoolchildren. (Times)
• The Wall Street Journal praises a resurgence in attention to the issue of school vouchers.

• New York teachers live lavishly in one-bedroom apartments and modest houses. (The Daily Show)
• The Gates Foundation will spend $3.5 million to advocate for its favored policies. (Answer Sheet)
• Katie Couric will report on the $125,000 teacher charter school this Sunday. (60 Minutes)
• A glitzy benefit for the New York Harbor School drew backers to the New York Yacht Club. (Bloomberg)
• After stopping awarding letter grades on assignments, a teacher reports higher standards. (Mrs. Ripp)
• Teach For America’s alums are accomplished, but it’s unclear if that’s TFA’s fault. (Rick Hess)
• The New Teacher Project aggregates bright ideas for building good staffs. (School Leader’s Toolbox)
• Jim Lehrer’s tribute to an ed reporter we also admire: author John Merrow. (Learning Matters)
• A list of reasons to be skeptical of the push for all children to go to college. (Larry Cuban)
• The UFT will hold a training for charter school teachers about community Saturday. (Edwize)

Data released by the Department of Education today.

The city gave a glimpse today into the results of its new sped-up process for terminating teachers, the one that the Bloomberg administration said would put an end to the teacher holding pens known as rubber rooms.

The rubber rooms are technically gone; now, most teachers charged of incompetence or misconduct await verdicts in real schools and do administrative work. But the city failed to meet its goal of erasing the “backlog” of teachers who had been removed from their classrooms by the beginning of this calendar year. Roughly 11 percent of the teachers who made up the backlog — 83 out of 744 — are still waiting for their cases to wrap up.

Of those who have completed the process, nearly two-thirds of the teachers charged with misconduct or incompetence have returned to their classes, according to data released today by the Department of Education. Some were cleared of charges; others were fined or assigned additional training or counseling.

Roughly a quarter of those who began the termination proceedings are no longer in schools. Some were fired, and others either were forced to retire or resign.

The new numbers come at a time of heightened tension between the city and its teachers union over how to identify bad teachers and remove them from classrooms. (more…)

Major changes could be coming to the Department of Education’s information technology department.

DOE Chief Information Officer Ted Brodheim, who has held that position for the last four years, is leaving the department, according to an email from Chief Operating Officer Sharon Greenberger that was obtained by GothamSchools. Brodheim’s deputy, Steve Vigilante, is replacing him on an interim basis.

Greenberger’s email also indicates that, in the wake of Brodheim’s departure, she is beginning an internal review of the information technology department. Her email describes the review as “a focused analysis of the budgets, grants, consultant-usage, contracts, HR, organizational structure, space, and procurement for the division.”

The DOE did not respond today when asked why the review was being done — I’ll update when they do.

A former DOE employee who worked closely with both Brodheim and Vigilante said the change was interesting because of the mens’ backgrounds.  (more…)

Email Principal Levy to ask a question of your own. Answers will appear regularly in the Community section.

Hello, GothamSchools community! I recently realized that I’ve been working in urban education for nearly half my life, which I still can’t believe. Although I would never claim to be an expert (an overused term in education), I might have gained some insights over my career that I would be happy to pass along. So I have decided to take on an “Advice Column” to run on GothamSchools.

When I was starting out, I often had questions about classroom management, that hard-to-reach student, that impossible colleague. Sometimes the answers could be found in my own school and network — but sometimes not. Also, I didn’t always want to go to my own principal or school mentor because either it was tough to admit I was struggling or I wanted a different perspective.

I remember reading “Dear Abby” (yes, I’ll admit it) a while back and thinking, “Free help? And you can stay anonymous! Awesome!” The same anonymity rules will apply here. You can make up a silly nickname like “Teachless in Tribecca” or “Literacy Queen in Queens” or simply use your initials — or just  your position, like “Gym Teacher.”

If you have a question about a tough professional situation and would like some advice, feel free to ask away! Sometimes newer teachers or administrators can’t find someone (or don’t feel comfortable) confiding in someone in their own workplace. I look forward to fielding your questions. I promise to be honest, fair, supportive, and occasionally humorous.

Please submit your questions via email. Answers will appear regularly in the Community section.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of the NYC DOE or any other entity.

• The rate of charter school applicants qualifying for specialized high schools is down by half. (Post)
• The city isn’t saying how its preferred layoff rules would affect schools. (GothamSchools)
• Comptroller John Liu rejected a teacher recruitment contract. (GothamSchools, Post, Times, Daily News)
• A Fort Hamilton HS student attacked a classmate with acid in class. (City Room, Daily News, Post, WSJ)
• Boys and Girls HS held a special program about Underground Railroad activist Harriet Tubman. (NY1)
• A space-sharing plan for Brooklyn’s IS 303 is dividing families in the same housing project. (Daily News)
• President Obama held a summit in D.C. about bullying prevention. (Times, Washington Post, NY1)
• An Oakland, Calif., teacher is writing a children’s book and letting his students critique it. (Times)
• Federal Head Start early childhood programs are facing cuts across the country. (Times)
• Michelle Rhee reiterates her arguments against “last in, first out” layoff rules. (WSJ)

• Joel Klein and Caroline Kennedy appeared at a benefit for Public Prep charter schools. (PolitickerNY)
• Klein said he once called a snow day as a favor to Kennedy and her son. (Gatecrasher)
• Klein’s reaction by e-mail: “of course” he would’ve called it otherwise. “It was a blizzard. C’mon.”
• The values of labor and management can overlap, as a subway ride teaches. (GS Community)
• The key to raising test scores is raising students’ heart rates just before the exam. (Insideschools)
• A charter advocate said that charter conversions may be a doomed turnaround strategy. (Chalkboard)
• Schools can be open to visits from prospective parents without sacrificing learning. (Andy Rotherham)
• Some of N.J. Gov. Chris Christie’s education claims (among others) don’t hold up to scrutiny. (Times)
• The Parthenon Report on school closures prompted the UFT to petition the attorney general. (Edwize)
• Wisconsin teachers’ loss of bargaining rights probably won’t affect student achievement. (Slate)
• An extended decency argument against anonymous commenting, inspired by TechCrunch. (Slate)
• This post about text complexity involves Bronx teachers and a dominatrix. (Curriculum Matters)
• The NEA and the libertarian Cato Institute agree on one thing: Karl Rove’s new group erred. (TPM)

The night before a vote on Mayor Bloomberg’s favored bill to change how teachers are laid off, reporters were sent a detailed list of how many teachers each school stood to lose if the union got its way. The list gave lawmakers ammunition to back the mayor’s plan and it terrified teachers who could be affected.

But when it comes to the mayor’s own layoff strategy, the city has so far left it unexamined.

The bill the mayor supports would lay off teachers not by seniority — as the current law does. Instead, it creates nine categories of teachers who would be laid off before their peers. Among them are teachers who have been given “unsatisfactory” ratings by their principals, had too many unexcused absences, or been without a full-time teaching position for over six months.

The Department of Education has not released a similar school-by-school breakdown showing what effect the mayor’s plan would have.

In response to a request for this analysis made a week ago, a DOE spokeswoman said: “We don’t have it immediately available.”

The city’s big caveat here is that the mayor’s plan would lay off the worst teachers, regardless of where they work and who they teach. But officials have yet to explain how this would change the make-up of the city’s teachers, whether it would actually affect those with more seniority (as the union alleges), and what it would do to schools’ stability. (more…)