Comments on: For some teachers, job hunt calculus includes possible buyout

By: Csmith33

Csmith33 — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:41:00 +0000

What about principals who are using their ability to excess teachers (regardless of seniority) just because they want to get rid of them? Case in point, THE GREAT BOYS AND GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL!
This is another scandal that will quietly go away because the now ATR’s in that, building are too afraid to talk.

By: Invictus

Invictus — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:45:00 +0000

Following in the same train of though, this ‘cluelessness’ reminds me of the State Education Department no understand how phase out schools do not have ‘more rigorous’ subjects in their rosters….Without understanding that it is they who have decided to turn the blind eye to the destruction of local schools through school choice policies.

FF, 10-15 years, for profit institutions will teach the same higher level classes that were once taught in regular public schools, in order to help students, land on their feet in a 2-4 year college.

By: Invictus

Invictus — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:42:00 +0000

Please stop using the term “struggling” to describe schools that have consciously decided to circumvent the present, contractual hiring system in order to save some budget money…while hiring the newly minted candidates from the rolls of TFA or the Teaching Fellows. Unlike the term being used to describe students that are “struggling” or underperforming, which takes years in order to come to light, these schools “struggles” are most recent and most definitely voluntary and economical in motivation rather than a sociological phenomena.

By: Nycdoenuts

Nycdoenuts — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:05:00 +0000

I agree. The fault lies with the policy of giving principals 65,000 for each teacher. If a teacher makes more than that, then it’s in the principal’s economic interest not to hire that teacher. But if a teacher makes far less then that, then it’s in the principal’s economic interest to hire that less experienced teacher and use the extra money to bring great programs to his/her school.

Nothing in that equation should point blame to the young teachers who wind up being hired -fellows or TFA-ers. As upset as I am with the policy or with the building leaders who enjoy the benefits of that policy, blaming our own colleagues just isn’t something that should happen.

By: Fellow

Fellow — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:36:00 +0000

I’m a teacher fellow. I understand your frustrations. It must be tough understanding the retention rate of most fellows is 2-3 years and seeing how principals desire fellows for their small salaries.

BUT, your qualms should not be with the fellows. You should be angry with the system. We’re not all that bad. I’ve met many fellows who have been in the system for more than the expected 2-3 years and they’re a dedicated bunch who will teach for the rest of their working lives. I’m about to hit my fifth year and I couldn’t be more thankful to the fellows. But you’re right, it is a shame to see so many drop out, as if education is a stepping stone to a more lucrative career. However, you shouldn’t paint us all with the same brush.

By: zeno

zeno — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 13:16:00 +0000

I’m in that pitiful ATR and (see my blog for a redefination of ATR )- hell, I wasn’t even told of a job fair…how am I to get a position…oh, this is all way too much. Experienced teachers devalued. excessedteachernyc.blogspot.com have a laugh.

By: Former Teacher

Former Teacher — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 12:34:00 +0000

I was at a dinner once and the doctor at the dinner told me he was a TFA. He outright told me he did it to pad his medical school application. I went into teaching in 1989 and now am a substitute due to this hiring of cheap inexperienced new teachers verses an experienced teacher. Additionally, my experience was mostly in NYC schools which means the DOE actually negates its own experience. I should of done what this doctor did.

By: Deccansoft

Deccansoft — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 06:40:00 +0000

Rachel Cromidas,
What happens is that after two years of teaching, either they leave or are suddenly made assistant principals and within another year or two off to the Leadership Academy to become another boy or girl wonder Principal not having the slightest idea of how to carry out the prime role of a Principal i.e. to use their “experience” to help train young and beginning teachers and make concrete good suggestions, based on this experience, for their improvement. Nice article to the for some teachers, job hunt calculus includes possible buyout.

By: Marty

Marty — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 01:38:00 +0000

Rachel, if this commenter is correct, then this deserves a follow up story. Why isn’t this job posted?

By: chaz

chaz — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:12:00 +0000

How clueless the teaching fellow who wants a Physics position is. Many schools no longer offer Physics and the ones who do limit it to one teacher. There is a glut of Physics teachers in excess and good luck getting a position.

By: Teacher

Teacher — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 23:34:00 +0000

Just what the DOE wants: Teacher vs. Teacher. We’re all in this together. It’s the DOE who is anti-student, anti-teacher, anti-education.

By: Nycdoenuts

Nycdoenuts — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:45:00 +0000

Well, because they can claim that there are “no other qualified candidates,” if they wait till the last minute and hope for the rule to be waived.

And if that fails, they can get lucky and bump into someone from the press and lie about how sad their plight is that they can’t ignore veteran teachers.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 22:00:00 +0000

What happens is that after two years of teaching, either they leave or are suddenly made assistant principals and within another year or two off to the Leadership Academy to become another boy or girl wonder Principal not having the slightest idea of how to carry out the prime role of a Principal i.e. to use their “experience” to help train young and beginning teachers and make concrete good suggestions, based on this experience, for their improvement. And then after another couple of years, they find a job at Tweed for them. The Deputy Chancellor, the butcher of Jamaica High Schol who took his staff out for drinks the day he finished the murder of that school, is a prime example of this Peter Principle at work. This takes polace at the expense of so many teacher who tried to climb the career ladder the right way are dumped into the ATR.

And it is the UFT that has allowed the DOE to pull this garbage on their members. It is quite sickening.

By: Miz H

Miz H — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:59:00 +0000

THANK YOU!

By: Miz H

Miz H — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:58:00 +0000

They actually posted on the New Teacher Finder which is really stupid on their part. Why post on the NTF when you can’t hire New Teachers anyway?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:09:00 +0000

Now the less experience you have the higher your students’ test scores will be….as if that is even a true indicator of teaching and learning not to mention that it is bull____. It is fun to experiment on other peoples’ children….especially poor ones of color.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:06:00 +0000

Most TFA’s do not stay, some do but that is rare. It is teach for a while or teach for a resume. Do your bit for the human race and maybe you will get a prime job at Goldman Sachs later or get into grad. school. They will never cost as much..no families for insurance, don’t stay long enough for a pension, easy to get them to become Stepford test prep drones, good to experiment on other peoples’s children.

Move on 2-3 years from now, hire a new crop, deprofessionalize teaching and save money. Repeat after me: it is the civil rights movement of our time and it is all for the children. Go reform…the Bloomberg business model style. Isn’t it great?

YOU FIRST!

By: Nycdoenuts

Nycdoenuts — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:04:00 +0000

If Food and Finance High wanted a social studies teacher, maybe they should have advertised it on the Open Market. I’m pretty smart, teach social studies, and was in the Open Market looking a few times each week. I never saw a Food and Finance high in the west 50s.

But instead, they’ll talk to the press about how bad it is that they can’t hire brand new teachers, at the last minute, after the Open Market has closed when they know only ATRs will be available to them.

I think it was a cool piece, and I’m sorry to digress, but knowing that there are people like the ones who recruit for that first school mentioned makes my blood boil. Not only can they not recruit with the Open Market period, and leave themselves able to hire only teachers from the reserve, they have the audacity to cry how unfair the system is -to them!- because they are not allowed to ignore the experienced teachers and hire only brand new teachers.

By: Gramps

Gramps — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 21:00:00 +0000

I was just popping open a bottle of Geritol and thinking about the good old days when experience as a teacher was considered a positive trait. Oh well, water under the bridge I guess.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:36:00 +0000

I have nothing against TFA or Teaching Fellows as people. I also would not use crude words to describe them. However, the majority of teachers that I see leave the system every year are TFA’ers and Teaching Fellows. (TFA leave way more than Fellows however) Many of these teachers proudly admit that they are only going to teach for a few years and then go off to law school. How do you expect life-long teachers to respect these people as professionals if they are just “slumming it” for a few years to gain street cred on a law school application?