You’re right also that they are speculative in nature. We’ll have to wait and see, which given all the developments within the past 5 days will make for the most tumultuous summer we will see for a while.

*Most average citizens don’t know that the DOE cannot assign a teacher to a school!  It’s true!  The only way a regular teacher can be given work at a school is when the principal decides to include them in that school’s payroll.  Since principals control their own budgets, they are under tremendous pressure to not only get rid of higher-paid veteran teachers (under any guise needed, even fabricating lies of incompetance, etc. against them), but when vacancies occur, they are under tremendous pressure to pick the cheapest (lowest seniority) teachers in the ATR pool, or better yet, to hire an untenured newbie.

**There used to be a benign pool of teachers called “excessed”.  These excessed teachers were treated with respect, and most eventually were hired by other schools as vacancies came up. But no more.  The “excessed teachers pool” has been replaced by the much-maligned “ATR pool”.  The automatic assumption about ATRs is that they’re inferior merchandise, when in so, so many cases, this is not the case. For example, if the DOE discontinues or cuts back a program (like it did with “New Beginnings” several years back), the teachers who are affected are generally perfectly fine teachers who are just without a school now.  But Mayor B. has gone on and on about how these are inferior merchandise.  Why?  Because there are many “ATRs” who have had many years of valuable experience and they cost the city more to keep in the system than if the city hires on untenured newbies. 

The above proves that this mayor isn’t really committed to retaining top veteran talent in the schools; he merely pays lip service to such a supposed commitment, but really stabs far too many superior vets in the back, as I detailed below.

1) Way too many of the principals who have been hired over the last decade have little or no teaching experience. (And this trend came directly from the Bloomberg administration. And the number of principals hired over the last decade is a HUGE percentage of the overall principals now in the system, due to the breakup of so many of the “big box” schools [another Bloomberg administration "innovation"] into mini-schools-within-a-school, EACH with its own principal and v.p.s)

2) Teachers truly don’t mind being evaluated, but not by someone who may be
a good paper-pusher but who hasn’t a clue about hands-on teaching.

3) Because veteran teachers (those tenured, with 10 or more years in the system) are on significantly more expensive tiers of the state retirement system (and benefits packages), Mayor Bloomberg has a HUGE incentive to harass, humiliate, or otherwise torture many, many excellent, experienced teachers out of the system; to replace them with untenured, lower-tiered (aka: significantly less expensive) newbies afraid to say “boo”.  “Constructive dismissal” — look it up — is rampant in the DOE system.

4) “Merit pay” is already built into the DOE system THEORETICALLY, in the form of promotions to “Lead Teacher” or appointing teachers to join the Leadership Academy.  Trouble is, principals who don’t know how to teach resort to a crony system, rather than a more professional colleague system, to establish their own support systems within the profession.  The result?  All too often, cronies/dronies or “flashes in the pan” get the promotions to Lead Teacher and get invited to join the Leadership Academy.  The appointment of truly outstanding veteran teachers to these two opportunities is the EXCEPTION rather than the rule.

5) The union is what I call a necessary evil.  If we could replace it, I would. I’k GLADLY work for a lower salary if I had better job protection and the opportunity to work under truly professional principals and vice principals. It appalls me that my dues go to political activities (partisan or otherwise) with which I personally disagree.  I had to submit form after form after form just to finally get rid of the “PAC” deduction from my paycheck, and this is only a drop in the bucket of political money that I hate seeing spent by the union.

6) Kids who come from homes where education is not valued and is even ridiculed will not usually do well in school.  This phenomenon is not the teacher’s fault, but the teacher is ALWAYS blamed for this.

7) Kids who do not consistently attend school and/or do their homework will not perform well on standardized tests.  But the teacher is ALWAYS blamed for this.

Most of the items I’ve mentioned above (and there are more) are generally ignored or treated as insignificant by the conservative media.  But teachers know that the truth is not always politically correct.

The media regularly interview the surrogates — Mayor, chancellor, state Regents board members, UFT president — but not the teachers or the students or the parents.  This is ingenuous at best and corrupt at worst.

So I’m with you, BK: THE MEDIA (Conservative or otherwise) DOES NOT GET WHAT IS REALLY REALLY GOING ON IN SCHOOLS!!!!!

You can take a kid who is probably never going to college or get a Regents Diploma, and make him, or her, into a good citizen, with solid work skills, and an understanding of how society works (and their role in it), yet you will get NO credit if they don’t pass the state tests and graduate. You can achieve similar things if they are on a club or team, and get no credit for what students take away from these participation oriented, but immeasurable, endeavors. 

Using a business model in our schools makes no sense as far as achieving your academic goals, especially if you believe that teachers (especially HS teachers) can have only limited success in getting their students to do things which they may simply be unable to do.  (People in the classrooms understand this, others are living in some kind of theoretical dream world.) 

It does makes sense in another way, though.  If you’re cynical, such as I am, you might believe that Bloomberg actually understands the limits on  what can be achieved in our schools, and also understand that he can save a lot of money by pushing out older teachers and their salaries, and making our job into a profession with a high turnover rate, where most teachers don’t remain in the system long enough to get the kind of salaries and pensions he is so upset about us having.

I have many issues with the UFT, by the way, but my conclusions, based on my own firsthand information and from what I’ve read, show me how power can be abused by administrators, and how easy it is for a teacher’s life and career to be affected by the whims of a principal, AP, or mayor.

Hell, the business model doesn’t seems to work too well in the business world, either.  The quest for profits leads to the gaming and exploitation of the economic system and workers.  The Great Recession, Tech Bubble, Savings and Loan (Junk Bonds), and the Great Depression were all created by bottom line greed and profits pressure put on people.  

You can see examples comparable to this in the education system when administrators, teachers, and students all cheat in order to push up test scores and passing numbers because they are fearful of failure in a system that is increasingly numbers oriented education system led, in NYC anyway, but people who have little or know understanding of teaching and the learning process.

I do fear for the teaching profession and the education system in general, and am sad that things have developed as they have.

1-Attempt to appeal arbitration- most likely will come to nothing favorable for the city. 
 
2-By September, there will be another round of walk throughs and the City will do ANYTHING to claim that these buildings are failing, in order to validate their narrative. 
 
3-By November, the list will come out of the schools that are in the phaseout, closure list.
  
4-By then, there will be a schedule of community meetings that are needed in order to justify the clause of the state law, justifying closure.  

2013-

5-Rubber stamping process by the ‘objective’ PEP will be in full swing.  Brooklyn Tech auditorium to be used once again for the kangaroo court.
  

A little break from the School closure drama comes in the shape of the New Evaluation Deal for teachers:

5A-Either new evaluation deal between the DoE and the UFT is rejected or accepted with its own set of consequences.  

Rejection=4% cut in school budgets and more vitriol in the Deformer owned media in order to erode the support for the UFT in the public’s point of view

OR

Passage of reform= the begin of a litany of Ineffectives in the soon to be phasing out schools and more schools throughout the system.  

and on to the show…..

PS:  possible protest fiasco where the UFT misinformed and confused different groups opposing closure might happen again as it did in Feb 2012.  

6-All ‘failing schools’ will be on death row again as well as dozens more.

7-Another lawsuit or there might be none against this move.  

8-from 1/4-1/3 of staffs in these so called “failing schools” will unceremoniously be excessed to the ATR pools.  

9-November election for the new Mayor.  

2014-

10-New Mayor takes power. 
 
11-Possibility of a City wide moratorium on school closures worked with the New Mayor as well as the City Council.  

12-New UFT contract where ATRs are once again given $ incentives to be placed in vacant positions around the City.  
Time limit on ATR pooles where if they are given an offer to fill a vacant position, they will not be able to refuse with the penalty being kicked out of the ATR roles.  

OR no $$$$$ incentives to hire ATRs, with a strict time limit of less than 1 years in lieu of messly 2-3% raises for the duration of the contract with green membership voting for such deal.  

Remember that all the above are speculative in nature and that past real references to certain events are not indicative to their appearance in one form or other in the future!

Which is why it became one of the biggest jokes in the school. For example, it was said by a certain Mr. T. in my school that our motto would become “We tower above the rest” to “We float above the rest”.

Another joke was that our colors would change from red and black to brown and yellow, among many other jokes too numerous to tell.

All of this contributed to making this what will be the craziest year in living memory for any student in student right now (and double for the teachers).

And what’s more shocking is that it may not be over just yet.

For  the  past  10  years,  the  UFT  has  been  on  the  defensive.  When  was  the  last time  the  union  proactively  promoted  a  teacher,  or  components  of  the  contract?  This  “win”  wasn’t   really  a  win.  It  was  a  “successful  defense,”  for  the  time  being.  It  is  similar  to  a  defendant  being  acquitted  at  trial.  The  person  still  had  to  endure  the  ordeal  of  being  arrested…  charged…  tried…  the  financial  expenses… the  damage  to  their  reputation. 

Do  you  really  think  50%  of  the  teachers  in  these  schools  didn’t  deserve  to  keep  their  positions?  Some  of  the  24  “turnaround”  schools  have  4  year  graduation  rates which  are  higher  than  the  city  average.  How  are  they  even  considered  “failing”  schools?

I also hope the students on the way out of the school know that they have the option to return too.

Another thought just came to mind: the mayor may be a louse, but he’s a pretty powerful louse. Given that, he may get his appeal, and who knows what will happen from there.

One thing is for sure: this is going to be one crazy summer.

I agree it was a win – for now. But as I point out constantly and you seem to forget, history shows the union assisted in putting us in this position. Where were you in the battle for the 2005 contract which ended seniority and allowed the DOE to do all this? Probably standing in front of school mailboxes to stop me from putting in literature explaining the union sell-out. Shame on you for having amnesia when it comes to the UFT. And there is more to come – from support for rating teachers based on faulty data to support for the common core. Keep watching what the UFT/AFT does not what it says.

Furthermore, I agree with you on Bloomberg: he will try everything at this point to disrupt the public school system. If he could stoop so low to cause so much misery and trauma to teachers, parents and students (no matter what he says about helping students) – and have the gall to defend it every time – anything could happen given that he has only a little over a year left and has proven to be desperate. Do not be mistaken: beware of a person who is desperate and feels he has nothing to lose.

I’d rather have John Ficalora as my principal.

How can one be consistently effective if one hasn’t been teaching for more than a few years.

TFA’ers do not stay very long, therefore it is difficult to become “consistently” effective.

If the teacher is twenty five and has been teaching for two years then their age is a factor in terms of their ability to be consistently effective.

I suspect a consistently effective surgeon is well over 50.

And are you measuring effectiveness by standardized test scores only?