Comments on: City lifts some restrictions on schools still in need of teachers

By: bob schwartz

bob schwartz — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:13:00 +0000

asside from the money(which we all know to be the paramount reason atrs cannot find jobs) and age(we know principals love to treat the 22 year old teachers like dogs) why do principals not want atrs?

By: Cantbelieveit

Cantbelieveit — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:45:00 +0000

Absolutely. Part of the DOE’s propaganda campaign is to convince the public that any new teacher is better than any experienced teacher. As if somehow, experience is a negative—that people start out as great teachers and only become worse as they gain experience. Now, those in the DOE (Bloomberg included) don’t actually believe this, I’m sure. However, they only care about saving money, so they would obviously much rather hire new teachers. And the public buys this. It’s scary. Remember, people voted for Hitler.

By: Z111m

Z111m — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 00:58:00 +0000

Yet we are allowed to hire and the City spends millions for unqualified, uncertified folks from Teach For America via The New Teacher Project. Oh wait, I mean TNTP, it now is just a meaningless bunch of initials. That makes more sense as it is a BS organization set up as part of the corporate drive to privatize education.

By: Urban Ed

Urban Ed — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:38:00 +0000

I keep hearing the same thing: That there are far more ATRs than the city is asserting.

By: Urban Ed

Urban Ed — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:33:00 +0000

Here’s an example of exactly how much some principals want to avoid hiring ATRs:

There are at least three high schools in Queens (one of them mentioned in this piece) that, instead of filling needed positions with teachers from the reserve last year, just kept assigning the new (weekly) ATRs to substitute 5 classes. This occurred from week one of each semester. Each week, the reserve teachers were given a book with indication of where the last ATR had left off. That ‘sub’ was expected to move through a chapter or two each week from a text book and indicated where he or she had left off before submitting the book back to the principal (or AP in larger schools) at the end of the week. This was similart practice across all three schools. The students of these classes never had a steady teacher. Just subs.

So, in these schools, these students -in no less than 15 classes (about 450 NYC kids) had principals who made the choice -the choice- to not assign a teacher (to English classes no less) for at least an entire semester rather than hire an ATR. They placed their own students in jeopardy rather than assign these teachers.

Call it poor leadership, call it destructive practice (I do on both counts) but it’s an example of how determined some of these principals are to not hire these (many senior salaried) teachers.

By: Turnaround Teacher

Turnaround Teacher — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 20:02:00 +0000

The DOE makes it nearly impossible for teachers to get jobs. Be it ATRs, open market transfers, or brand new college grads. There is little to no assistance, and the 1 or 2 hiring fairs are a farce. You either no someone or you are stuck.

By: bob schwartz

bob schwartz — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 18:30:00 +0000

I know teachers in a number of different schools and they all said between 5 to 7 teachers were excessed. There were about 850 in June(allegedly). I can’t see any way this year does not begin w/ under 2,000 ATRs. the city is full of you know what

By: Givemeabreak

Givemeabreak — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 17:29:00 +0000

I can’t even believe people want to start a teaching career anymore, especially in NYC. And it should be mandatory that positions be filled by ATR’s. Lifting the hiring restrictions sounds pro-teacher, but it’s not. It just allows schools to hire cheap, untenured labor, and then torture those people until they quit after a couple of years. I’m sure there are ATR’s available for all those subjects.