Comments on: Bloomberg: City will aggressively push teacher evals to parents

By: Joseph Moses

Joseph Moses — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 22:51:00 +0000

How much time, energy, and money will be spent on this latest Bloomberg Folly, and diverted from real education of the children?

By: Unfairly blaming the teachers

Unfairly blaming the teachers — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 14:20:00 +0000

P.S. — This is also a great boon to the crony system! Principals who are “working on” (aka torturing) teachers they don’t like or want — that is, teachers who are not cronies to the principal, or teachers with more seniority who make more money than untenured newbies, or teachers who teach subjects that the principal would like to eliminate from the school (especially “too hard” subjects, like physics and chemistry, which lower the school’s test score average) — will now be able to add the clout and imprimatur of parents’ demands to oust the teachers subjectively rated unsatisfactory or “improving” (or whatever euphemism they now call it).

I say “SUBJECTIVELY rated unsatisfactory,” because Mayor B. admitted himself on the radio, a few months ago, that the teacher evaluation system is subjective!

By: sarah

sarah — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:27:00 +0000

With this new plan to call every single parent can anyone not say that Bloomberg’s rush to release teacher evaluations is all about politics and Bloomberg’s desire to vilify teachers to bust their union (and consequent tax burden) and NOT about providing a good education for our children? Why doesn’t Tweed call all parents and ask them to come to school and read to their child’s class, participate or organize a pta fundraiser to help secure funds for basic needs, buy school supplies, help their children with their homework, arrange a time to talk with their teacher, make sure their children are actually in school, attend an slt meeting…parental involvement is an important indicator of a child’s academic success. Why isn’t he proposing policies to help parents do these things? This is an abuse of time, money and resources–for what? Faulty and unreliable teacher ratings–to further demonize teachers.

By: Cny Teaching

Cny Teaching — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:42:00 +0000

What is wrong with this man? Can he not think of better ways to help students achieve? How do his school experiences or those of his own children give him the experience/qualifications to make this the path to take? How would giving parents pathways to more constructive involvement in the classroom compare in the end to giving them pathways to getting teachers fired?

By: Unfairly blaming the teachers

Unfairly blaming the teachers — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 06:25:00 +0000

Now we’re giving a gigantic wad of added opportunity to those parents who are irresponsible and corrupt, to “work the system” and scapegoat the teacher for any alleged shortcomings of their children.

Now, those parents who fail to make sure their children are well rested and nutritiously fed to pay attention in school, who fail to insist that their kids do their homework, and who fail to make sure their children show up for school consistently and on time can just come in to the school, demand to see their kids’ teacher evaluations, and declare that their kids’ failures are the teachers’ fault.

Maybe some will even get together and sue the school system, for allowing their kids’ teacher to teach in the school, even though their kids’ failures are not because of the teacher.

And no teacher will be willing to teach in an underperforming school or in an underprivileged community, because their evaluations will be poor — based on the poor test scores of these schools’ students. The added indignity of having parents demand that their child not be in their class, even if the teacher is truly a good or “improving” teacher but has mediocre or poor test scores among their students, will cause many many fine and decent hardworking teachers to leave the profession, or to seek to only work in top or private or charter schools.

Teaching will become a revolving-door profession in the inner city: Idealistic young college grads will try, and will either leave on their own accord or be denied tenure (due to low test score results which may indeed not be their fault), even if they are potentially or actually good teachers. It will be like a Peace Corps job.

Mark my words.

By: Quitting

Quitting — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 20:37:00 +0000

I wish this sort of aggressive communication existed to remind parents to buy school supplies for their kids, to come to conferences and pick up report cards, to support their kids and get them to do homework, to get them to school on time. Trying to do this on my own and at the school level is overwhelming. And yet I see parents in my school jumping on this because it will give them ammunition to argue with teachers. There was a time when most parents really wanted to work with us and only a few fought us and needed to be right. It seems to be reveresed now where teachers are always wrong and kids don’t have to adhere to rules. After 15 years I decided to throw in the towel on this system, and it’s not a moment too soon.

By: Outraged citizen

Outraged citizen — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 16:30:00 +0000

http://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-letter-to-bloomberg-re-parents-right.html

By: Former Teacher

Former Teacher — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 12:25:00 +0000

A wonderful example of the stability the Department of Education has provided for our city. The game of musical chairs keeps on going.

By: El Diablo

El Diablo — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 11:58:00 +0000

Mary, the majority of parents look at it the same way that you do. My parents told me that it was inconceivable that I could be rated in the 8th percentile one year, while being in the 83rd percentile the year before. They love the way I challenge their kids to think about the real problems that impact their lives. Poverty, racism, culture, and most importantly love are just the tip of the educational iceberg in my room. However, only a minority is needed to spread these vile scores through media outlets. I wouldn’t be surprised if organizations like StudentFirst (run by Michelle Rhee, whose fiancee is Kevin Johnson of Sacramento…look up his endeavors lately) pay parents to disseminate information. I wish every parent looked at this the way you do. I know that is a pipe dream, but I can still wish. Thank you for supporting QUALITY teachers. And the best of luck to your children on their educational journeys.

By: Mary Conway-Spiegel

Mary Conway-Spiegel — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 10:27:00 +0000

As an adult who went through the NYC public school system myself, who is currently raising two young children attending NYC public schools and who is the proud parent of a college graduate who attended NYC public schools before all this micro-managing-outing-of -not-even-accurate-data existed…I know what a good teacher is and honestly…so do my children.

By: Pogue

Pogue — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 09:23:00 +0000

I love these comments.
Bloomberg is an educational crook.
No money for education, but Willets Point real estate can be given away for free to his rich friends.

Anyone who backs him backs corruption and tyranny.

As the mayoral election gets nearer, pay close attention to who Bloomberg endorses, who the plutocratic-friendly news editorials endorse, who is getting the most money from charter and hedge fund supporters…Then go the other way.

Quinn’s starting to get a lot play in the media. Never forget she played a major role in Bloomberg acquiring his third term. She’s becoming a “media darling”. And, her campaign war chest is the highest of the candidates, so far. (That is not from John Q. Public contributions).

Beware.

By: my child is NOT a test score

my child is NOT a test score — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 03:38:00 +0000

Our Mayor continues to live in his ivory tower, completely detached from the schools he wants to single-handedly control, and now his insistence on controlling what parents want. As a parent, I was appalled that the TDRs were publicized, and now I’m incredibly offended at the audacity of a man who is speaking on my behalf. Principals and parent coordinators have more to do than is humanly possible as it is, given the latest hoops they must jump through to manage their increase in paperwork, budget challenges, changes in Special Ed reform, testing requirements, SQRs, parent and student needs and the list goes on. I had to laugh at the idea of utilizing ARIS for this purpose. Ha! A system most parents don’t even use in the first place? Another brilliant waste of education funds. If only Bloomberg would create a commission of real parents and real educators to set our public school policies, maybe we would actually have some respect for anything he says or does. It is unfortunate to know the fate of our public schools, our teachers and our children’s education lies in the hands of this man for another 558 days…..

By: Copernicus

Copernicus — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:48:00 +0000

I will outlast him as I have outlasted three mayors, eight chancellors, seven principals, and twelve assistant principals. I will also have educated over 3,500 students many of whose families have thanked me for my efforts. All this depite the best efforts of Bloomberg to eradicate me and those like me from the profession.
Teachers will be around helping children long after Bloomberg’s rotten carcass will have been buried and forgotten.

By: Seriously

Seriously — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 01:52:00 +0000

MB why don’t you add a question on your incredibly useless parent survey asking us if we want to be contacted about our teacher’s evaluation scores? I can’t speak for all 800,000 plus of us (clearly you can) but all of the parents I know are against any sharing of teacher evaluations with us. You are creating chaos for schools, teachers and students. Would you want your daughters’ teachers to be treated this way? How long would they have stayed at Spence or wherever you sent them? It’s disgusting that you have so little respect for teachers and their already incredibly challenging jobs. And that you feel so at ease representing parents who increasingly disagree with your every move on education.

By: nycdoenuts

nycdoenuts — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:45:00 +0000

I love how he makes these sweeping statements on Fridays …. JUST before he whisks himself away to his mansion in a foreign country for the weekend!

Hey wait, how come no one has the right to know where this guy goes every weekend?

Oh, that’s right…P R I VA C Y. Got it.

(Hey Mayor, you’re out of work in 558 days (yay!!!!). I really (really) hope I outlast you).

By: The Truth

The Truth — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:07:00 +0000

Since our mayor seems to feel it is appropriate to express one’s negative opinions in public, allow me: Bloomberg is a crook. A crook who was fired from his job and used his criminal connections to build an empire based on disseminating false information in an attempt to manipulate financial markets. He is of indiscriminate sexual orientation, short, and has been involved in numerous scandals both in private business and in public office. During his tenure as mayor, his decisions to award contracts without a legal bidding process have resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars. He has repeated hidden his financial and personal records in direct contrast to his “full disclosure” requirements of city employees. He bought the last election by bribing public officials to endorse his candidacy and by using his illegally acquired funds to finance his illegal third term.

By: Akrauss2

Akrauss2 — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:03:00 +0000

So the mayor thinks that he is going to be able to call every parent to tell them about the data. While he is at it maybe he can tell the parents that their child has been absent from school 50 % of the time, cutting classes, not doing his homework and making the class impossible to teach. That of course is assuming that he has working numbers to get hold of the parents and that they are home and that they can find someone to communicate with them in their native language. And them maybe he can make these calls on a regular basis and forward these correct working numbers to teachers.
He should worry about fixing the major education problems not passing off garbage information to parents as gospel.

By: Akrauss2

Akrauss2 — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 00:03:00 +0000

By: Follow the Money

Follow the Money — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:54:00 +0000

Disgusting. Will these phone calls mention the 50%+ margins of error? Utterly degrading to these hard-working professionals. The Union needs to fight harder. Send them a message that they should: tinyurl.com/stopshaming

By: El Diablo

El Diablo — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 23:44:00 +0000

Doomberg has done nothing to help the students of NYC. He has the audacity to say that the union, and therefore the teachers it represents, are not there for the kids. F*** you Mr. Mayor. I do everything for my kids. And my parents will attest to that. I sincerely hope that when you visit the depths of hell someone is there to shove a pineapple (how appropriate) up your conceited arse. You have done damage that will take years, if not decades, to undo. You should be ashamed of yourself.