Comments on: As details become clear, responses roll in to evaluations deal

By: leonie haimson

leonie haimson — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:56:00 +0000

Did we need four quotes from the astroturf groups funded by the charter lobby, hedge funders and Bill Gates? all supporting a teacher evaluation system that charter schools will not be subject to?

By: Observation

Observation — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:39:00 +0000

Wow, the poor special ed. teachers are screwed! And this does absolutely nothing to solve the achievement gap between the haves and the have nots!

By: Flerplunk

Flerplunk — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:28:00 +0000

Elentuck v. Green

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:24:00 +0000

There was some lawsuit years ago where a court decided that there were no facts or statistics in observation reports and that they consisted of advice and recommendations. Does anyone know the name of the case?

By: Vote NO!

Vote NO! — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:19:00 +0000

This is a horrible day for NY state teachers. The unions rolled over like dogs. They allowed the 65 point threshold for an “ineffective” rating, even though a judge had said this was illegal. A tremendous percentage of teachers will be rated “ineffective.” Principals will lose control over personnel decisions since school based measures can only count for at most 60 points. The unions can only appeal 13% of “ineffective” ratings to an independent panel, otherwise the chancellor’s decision will be the final say on the firing. What a complete disaster!

By: NYC Educator

NYC Educator — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:58:00 +0000

Thanks for sharing E4E’s response. It’s vital to all of us to know when Gates-funded groups support Gates initiatives, regardless of how baseless and idiotic they may be.

By: Pogue

Pogue — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:52:00 +0000

The reformers, test companies, and privatizers = ‘We love it!” “It’s historical!” (Oligarch-driven)

Mulgrew and Ianuzzi = “It’s the best we could do.” (typical union appeasement)

What a sad state of affairs by way of a bogus “there are too many bad teachers” issue.

These days are dark for teachers, students, and their parents.

By: Blah

Blah — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0000

Wow…the UFT and NYSUT really sold its members out. Shame on Mulgrew and Iannuzzi. What are they thinking?
The UFT did not protect its members and basically has destroyed tenure. Disgusting!

By: SickofBloomberg

SickofBloomberg — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:59:00 +0000

It doesn’t matter what the legalese says. The DOE and its puppets will manage to wrangle this or any other agreement to circumvent tenure and fire teachers with higher slaries regardless of their performance.
I have total confidence that teachers’ professional lives will only get worse not better. Tis will only serve to discourage those teachers who continue to strive to better thier students’ academic achievement.

By: Ms. Kelly

Ms. Kelly — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:37:00 +0000

I read that there can be two formal observations used. (One formal observation will be unannounced.) Does that aspect have to be locally negotiated?

By: jandh

jandh — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:30:00 +0000

i think “cynical” was misused more than usual – now the word seems to have shifted from denoting;
a. greek philosophers who followed Diogenes in seeking to live lives of simplicity and naturalness and critiqued false human values (“the Emperor has no clothes”) to
b. a suspicious approach to apparently idealistic or simplistic claims, recognizing the general rule that those in power lie and misdirect to confuse the rest of us (“this parade is just another trick to boost approval ratings – those clothes actually make the Emperor look fat”) to
c. hints of skepticism about officially trumpeted victories (“i like it, but i’d like to be sure that the Emperor’s advisors approved the use of our tax money for those clothes.”)

mulgrew’s quote argues that the NYSUT/NYSED deal has not solved the UFT/NYCDOE impasse and therefore notes limited utility of the deal, which means that in modern not-very-philosophically-educated US English it can be described as “cynical” by shifted definition “c”.

but isn’t the main point that we should appreciate somebody pulling together some relevant quotes to show how different sides are trying to spin the dirty deal?

By: nuff said

nuff said — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:15:00 +0000

the union should have walked away-you are right this trumps tenure

By: Questions

Questions — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:07:00 +0000

I don’t understand two aspects of this “deal”. 1) If a teacher is rated ineffective for one year they will be paired with an independent evaluator who will decide if the teachers next year’s rating of ineffective is valid and usable for firings. If test scores are used I don’t see what good an evaluator is if the teachers test scores do not go up. 2) What will be the purpose of tenure in all of this? Seems to me that tenured teachers will no longer have any protections that were offered to them in the past. Any thoughts?

By: Dock

Dock — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Ianuzzi sold teachers out twice now. Trust me forty percent will not be enough. When scores don’t bounce up the answer will be 60 maybe 80%. Then we will have a solution.When that doesn’t work maybe 100% (just like proficiency). Maybe it will reading 360 or more computers or sharper pencils.

By: Zipline

Zipline — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Please tell me why these “educators ( use the term loosely as a half a minute in the classroom doesn’t qualify) for themselves ” still get play as some legit group? They shouldn’t comment on anything but a Kardashian wedding.

By: nuff said

nuff said — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:40:00 +0000

Just 1 question–the agreement said is is added to the state budget as an amendment for 30 days—what happens after the 30 days is up?

By: Guest

Guest — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:27:00 +0000

How were Mulgrew’s comments above cynical? At all?