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the scarlet letter

August 27, 2012

In reversal, number of U-rated teachers inched down last year

by Geoff Decker, at 7:44 pm

For the first time in seven years, fewer teachers were rated “unsatisfactory” in 2012, according to numbers released today by the Department of Education.

During the 2011-2012 school year, principals handed out unsatisfactory ratings to 2,006 teachers, setting them along a path that could lead to termination. The total makes up 2.6 percent of all teachers and is 11 fewer than the 2010-2011 school year.

The decline represents just a 0.5 percent change, but it follows a six-year period of steady escalation. Last year’s total was 16 percent higher than in 2010, which had a 17 percent higher rate than in 2009.

The decrease is slight but in some ways significant. For years, the city has used U-ratings and delays of tenure decisions as tools to push its weaker teachers out of the classroom. But after the city announced last month that the tenure rate held steady, both upward trends have now stagnated.

This year’s total is still more than twice as many as in the 2005-2006 school year, when 981 teachers received unsatisfactory ratings.

The binary unsatisfactory/satisfactory rating system has long been considered an ineffective way for principals to evaluate the performance of teachers in their schools. To solve that problem, the city and the United Federation of Teachers are in talks to create a new evaluation system that would include a rubric with more variables to measure, including formal and informal observations, student growth and school survey data. The system would allow principals to measure teachers based on four different ratings: Ineffective, Developing, Effective, and Highly Effective.

The city and the union has until January of 2013 to reach a deal on the evaluation system or risk losing millions in state aid.

In a statement, Chancellor Dennis Walcott used the release as a chance to press the case for the new evaluations.

“These results are further proof that we need a better teacher evaluation system in order to differentiate between the best teachers and those who could benefit from further development,” Walcott said.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew did not immediately provide a comment.

U-rated teachers were more than four times more likely to leave the school system after receiving their ratings this year than teachers who were rated satisfactory. A total of 341 U-rated teachers — versus 80 S-rated teachers — have left the system this year.

More than three-quarters of teachers who received unsatisfactory ratings were tenured, according to the data. And 542 teachers received a second U-rating in a row, an increase of 6 percent.

A number that has stayed consistent through years is the leading cause that principals cited for giving out U-ratings. For at least a third straight year, more than 40 percent of U-ratings were attributed to poor instructional quality and student care. The second-leading cause was attendance problems, which made up 15 percent of U-rated teachers.

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  • Joseph Moses

    “These results are further proof that we need a better teacher evaluation system in order to differentiate between the best teachers and those who could benefit from further development,” Walcott said.  What proof? Because a measly 11 fewer teachers received a “U,” that means that there is something wrong with the system?  Does Mr. Walcott know what it means to prove something?

  • Dixondragq1

    Christine Quinn backs Chancellor Walcott and publicly states she would keep him at his position if she’s elected mayor because she’s pro gay, and knows Walcott is gay as well. Nobody reported this yet?

  • I noticed that…

    First of all, once a teacher (untenured) sees that their livelihood is in jeopardy, he/she resigns.  Therefore, if more teachers leave before the school ends wouldn’t that affect the so-called stats of the number of u-rated teachers? 

  • Anonymous

    In the past the union overturned about 10-20% of U-ratings, currently almost none. While we all want to hire and retain the best teachers we also want a fair system ,,, one in which teachers who are U-rated get a “fair shake.”  The current system is a charade … we must assure that U-ratings are not based on bias or prejudice … the union is correct to resist Bloomberg’s efforts to give the Department total authority with no impartial review … I seem to remember an English King was beheaded over this issue. 

  • Mook

    Most of the weaker teachers are weeded out by the kids, not the administration, unless you count teachers who leave due to dissatisfaction with weak administrators.  That’s probably a lot higher than the number of teachers who leave due to poor ratings.

  • Iowastateuniversities
  • guest

    Isn’t it possible that this shows that the vast vast majority of NYC teachers are more than competent and that the kid’s failure has little to do with the teachers  At least this is what Mulgrew should immediately put out a news release saying.  No but they let the lackey who is totally unqualified to be a School Chancellor because he never spent a day in a classroom (or maybe a few days as a substitute teacher and decided it wasn’t for him) throw out his garbage that this is an indication there is something wrong with the current evaluation system.

    But as usual, nothing from the UFT defending the teachers.  And little being done to investigatye whether those U ratings that are issued are or aren’t bogus because after all if the union does its job to defend its members, it will be looked on as being anti reform and we can’t have that, now can we Randi and Michael M.?

    Of course, you pile this on the recently released teacher data by SED which showed that according to these value added garbage, only 6% of teachers are ineffective and a picture is emerging that perhaps after all it isn’t the teachers.  But again nothing by the UFT to point this out.  After all, that would mean status quo and that doesn’t jive with the program of getting rid of all the “bad” teachers being pushed by the Supreme Leader.

  • Old Guy

    “The binary Unsatisfactory/Satisfactory rating system has long been considered an ineffective way for principals to evaluate teachers in their school”. Well, Gotham Schools once again toes the ed-deform line with a subjective statement. The u/s system has worked fine for many years and good principals had no problem using it to keep “effective” teachers in their schools. As a matter of fact, I have heard that quite a few current principals are not happy at all with having to use the tedious Danielson framework as it is very difficult and time consuming to implement. And I can attest to the fact that I do not know any veteran NYC teachers who wants to change the current u/s system to something else. (E$E slugs are the exception)

  • Teacher

    “The city has used U-ratings…to push its weaker teachers out of the classroom.”

    What makes them “weaker” teachers? Is it because they received a U-rating? Isn’t that circular reasoning? We all know that administrators can U-rate anyone they want and then, presto, that person becomes a “weaker” teacher.

  • Anonymous

    But then that English king became Obi-Wan Kenobi.

  • Between the Lines

    Me thinks this is all really about money. The city knows that it costs big bucks to terminate a tenured teacher who gets two “U” ratings as the City still have to provide a big pile of evidence in a lengthy hearing with expensive lawyers. If and when the new NY State evaluation comes into play, all it will take is two years worth of poor student test score growth and a teacher can be fired with no need for a real hearing. The evidence of teacher incompetence with a new evaluation system will be the student test scores. The student test scores used to fire teachers will not cost the city a single cent. The rag newspapers are merely a propaganda front to convince the public that a new evaluation system is needed so the massive firings of teachers can be done on the cheap. After all, who needs real evidence, fair hearings, and due process anyway? It’s all about “The kids” after all.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    97.4% of NYC teachers rated satisfactory.  To everyone who’s argued that administrators can’t be trusted to evaluate teachers because they’re capricious, corrupt, and following Bloomberg’s orders to trump up bad ratings to undermine tenure:   I’ll remember to include you the next time I curse all the forces responsible for subjecting my daughter to months of test preparation. 

  • Nycdoenuts

    I’ve never heard you curse any of the forces responsible for your daughter’s test prep… only your disagreement with teachers and anyone sympathetic to them.

    Although, in that sense, the snarky comment you made is actually rather consistent.

  • Chem1

    Not really sure what you’re getting at. Are you saying that anyone who distrusts administrators’ motives is complicit with the whole testing movement? If so, I’m not sure I see the connection.

  • Chem1

    I’m not sure I see the connection. Are you saying anyone who distrusts administrators’ motives is complicit with the testing movement?

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I think you probably don’t read my comments very closely.  No great sin, my posts are hardly required reading, and most people have a tendency to hear what they want to hear.  In any event, two of my biggest problems with NYC public schools are overtesting and huge class sizes.  I’ve written that repeatedly, for what it’s worth. 

  • Anonymous

    Not entirely logical, but I’m totally with you on class size undone over-testing.

    Two explanations: Most poor teachers have already been pushed out, along with many good ones, one way or another. It’s an extremely hostile environment in most places still inhabited by those who give less than 120% or aren’t on their tippy toes. Also, harassing principals who wind up under investigation sometimes give S’s across the board, for whatever reason.

  • BK

     The problem is that most of these teachers that are rated Unsatisfactory, come from troubled schools. Some are, yes in fact, bad teachers. But at least half are given U ratings to place blame of the schools failing on the teachers. So since blame is deflected from the real reasons, the schools do not get better.

  • Anonymous

    Also, these years are transitional: Common Core, PARCC, Danielson, and the gaping chasms seen in the deform agenda by all in Ed, not to mention anticipation of a new NYC admin.

  • Frsdeilaacruz2

    Who rates administrators by the way?? Did anyone else’s hear Quinn’s comments about how she backs Walcott and respects him more that he’s a homosexual?

  • Hearmyvoice

    Yes, by God, we’ll get those bad teachers yet. Have no fear. We have our best men working on it. We will find all those bad teachers hiding out in the school system sucking up all of hard earned tax dollars. We will root them out, by the grace of God, yes we will.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    How do we know the schools associated with the teachers who received U ratings?   Is this published?

  • Abc

    Flerpi
     No one reads your comments closely.
    When are you going to give up some of your time to work in a school and understand what is obvious to all teachers that all you do is constantly comment in a negative way to all that is important on this site? You aren’t a teacher so it is obvious to all that you have a hidden agenda. You are on the wrong side of these discussions. I wonder why????
    Teachers need your support and not your constant negative comments. I for one look at your comments and wonder where you are coming from?
    I have said it before it seems to me that you love to hear yourself talk. You are certainly not doing your children any favor with your approach to education.

  • anonanon

    here we go again.  parents with children in nyc public schools have a “hidden agenda.”  if you’re not a teacher, you have a “hidden agenda.”  yes, of course.  blah blah blah. i’m sure he has an agenda to destroy the schools his daughter attends.  and it has to be a hidden agenda or else people will catch on and the plan won’t work.

    ps i love the bit about “negative comments” and to “constantly comment in a negative way to all that is important on this site.” when all the teachers who post here do is constantly bash everything including the web site that they read for free yet feel they own. 

  • BK

     Mr. Flerporillo- you seem like a smart guy. Do you think the DOE would publish this? Anyone that teaches in these schools will tell you this fact.

  • Abc

    Flerpi you can change the name but you can’t hide from the fact that you won’t give one minute of your time to work in a school. Once a snark always a snark.
    At least as a teacher you can talk about what you know so if you bash the profession at least you can talk from experience. If you bash and you have no idea about what you are bashing what do you call that? Snarky lawyer!!!
    For your information he certainly doesn’t want to destroy his daughters school just everyone else’s

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I would be surprised to hear it did, which is why I was wondering how you knew what percentage of teachers getting U ratings are at troubled schools.

  • Humpty Dumped On

    Help!!. I got an email from CLS with my class roster for the last year on it. I had signed off on a list in April removing several students who seemed to have magically appeared on my roster. They appeared again on this current list though I had previously removed them. One was put into my class the day after the test. CLS tells me that if a student appeared on your roster any time between Sept and the Test then they are counted for/against you. Fortunately I have moved schools but I feel like I was dumped on. I am special education teacher and students were moved out of gen ed classes right before the test. Any help would be appreciated.

  • Nycdoenuts

    Well, when Leonie Haimson reached out to you in a comment on this very site, you publicly responded only with interest in whether she supported 25/55 (retirement for teachers)…a subject that seems very dear to your heart, but isn’t very much related either to what she does in advocacy or to what I’ve read you comment about here.

    Although, I look forward to reading about your passion behind testing and class size in the future. I’m sure you’ll have a lot to add on those topics

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I can’t recall the specifics of the exchange, although I think you may be
    getting it wrong. I do recall asking her if there were any points on which she differed with those of the union, and I believe she responded that she had opposed 25/55. I believe she also stated that she had made a considered decision to generally support the union because she felt its interests were, for all intents and purposes, aligned with those of parents. I probably disagreed with that, because I think that the interests of parents and students sometimes diverge in important ways.  You probably noticed that I disagreed with Ms. Haimson and concluded that I was therefore wrong or bad. 

    For what it’s worth, I don’t doubt Ms. Haimson’s convictions.  I do think her work obscures rather than illuminates the causes of increasing class sizes, which are financial and which correspond directly to massive increases in spending on employee benefits and retiree benefits and pensions, and shortfalls in federal and state aid. I also think her work has been ineffective by the only measure that matters: class sizes, which continue to increase without regard to how many times we note that they’re increasing.  I think a serious discussion of how to meaningfully reduce class sizes has to involve a hard look at the real costs of such a plan.  Those costs are very large.  They would require huge sacrifices somewhere, and probably everywhere. 

    I moved to this city 20 years ago without any expectation of staying.  I’m probably a lifer now.  It’s not an easy place to live, but it’s grown on me.  Anyway, I’ve made the decisions to stay in the city and to send my children to public school here, and I have little concern about getting zinged by somebody who hasn’t made either of those decisions, and who doesn’t take me seriously in the first place.

  • BK

     Very simply- i teach at one of them. Facts are facts.

  • Mr. Harris

    What? He’s not admitted that he’s gay and I’ve seen no evidence to suggest that he is. Sources please?

  • Winralphie1

     Who determines “what is weak”?  If you don’t agree with the methodology of your administration which is being dumped on you at lightning speed, and you are considered one of the best by all of your classes, then I guess they can give you a “U” because you are “weak”?  If what they tell you to do doesn’t work…it’s your fault!

  • Guest

    becuase of budget cuts the city is not taking as many cases to fire u rated teachers.  the process is ludicrous and so expensive in a time of tight budgets principals are having to put even they very worst in front of children. so principals are not going to u rate.  how much does it cost on average to fire a teacher… want to guess… do a little searching on that gem.  thanks  union. nice. 

  • Teachforlife

    Just a question: What makes a principal a fair judge of a teacher? Most principals (not all of them, of course) were probably very bad teachers, if they taught at all.

  • bob schwartz

     I’ve worked in schools in Bed-Stuy and East NY and over the past two years, those teachers have received U ratings.  How can you give a teacher in some of these lower income neighborhoods U ratings?  They are subjected to being cursed at, assaulted, threatened and vandalism.  And that’s from the parents!  I know, I know, how can I say this?  But it’s the truth.

  • East Sider

    In NYC the process to discharge a teacher is 4 months long, frequently shorter, it has nothing to do with budget cuts or costs at all, it has to do with evidence … did the principal observe and offer assistence throughout the school year … if the answer is no the department lawyers will not pursue a case … John King, the State Commissioner called the NYC “a model for the state.”

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    I’m not sure how you conclude that because it takes 4 months to discharge a teacher, costs are not a factor.  

  • East Sider

    The 2010 agreement expedited 3020 cases with strict time limits for arbitrators … cases under the new rules are averaging less than the 4 months period in the agreement … the cases are argued by board staff attorneys … some pre 2010 cases are still lingering … some because State Ed takes 18-24 months to pay arbitrators and some arbitrators will not release decisions until they are paid.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    Still not clear how any of that indicates that costs aren’t a factor in the city’s decisions about how many 3020 cases to bring. 

    Separately, do you have a citation for the statement below?  

    “cases under the new rules are averaging less than the 4 months period in the agreement”

  • East Sider

    Mr. Flerporillo
    Lengthy but I believe answers all your questions: http://www.nysut.org/legislation_16622.htm

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    That appears to be referencing around six months’ worth of data from late 2010 through early 2011, but I do see that it refers to average of 93 days. Nothing about what the cost of those proceedings is, though. I’m skeptical that any legal proceeding that takes 3 to 4 months has a negligible cost. How many law department attorneys are assigned to bringing 3020-a proceedings? It’s not free just because the city isn’t hiring outside counsel to bring the cases. And there could be a resource bottleneck — there is a maximum caseload the city’s attorneys can handle, and it may well be that one reason more cases aren’t brought is because there aren’t enough attorneys to bring them.

  • Anonymous
  • Guest

    Supposedly, 99.5% of “unsatisfactory” rating appeals were upheld by the NYC Department of Education in recent years.  A few were reversed by the NYS Supreme Court.  The work of the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Appeals and Reviews must be examined with a fine toothcomb.

  • Save us

    In Bryant High School we got 6 percent teachers rated unsatisfactory, all veteran teachers. They become unsatisfactory overnight, it is discrimination.

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