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preemptive strike

October 18, 2012

Union: City is the reason, not the solution, for teacher shortages

by Geoff Decker, at 7:32 pm

The Department of Education hasn’t officially submitted a proposal to train and certify its own teachers, but already the plan has encountered stiff resistance.

Just two days after a top department official floated the idea during testimony at Governor Cuomo’s education reform commission, New York City teachers union president Michael Mulgrew said he “strongly opposes” any effort to give the city authority over teacher certification, a process currently reserved almost exclusively for education colleges.

State and city officials contend that handing off certification duties to the education department would help chip away at the long-standing problem of teacher shortage some subjects.

But citing teacher attrition data from the 2006-2007 school year, Mulgrew wrote in a letter to commission Chair Richard Parsons today that if anyone is to blame for the teacher shortages in the school system, it is the education department.

Of the 6940 teachers hired that year, 38.9 percent have left the system, according to data provided by the UFT. That rate increased to 50 percent for teachers of Science, English and English as a Second Language.

“The specific problems of staffing these shortage areas are not a function of poor teacher training in existing institutions, but rather the DOE’s abysmal record of supporting, developing and retaining the teachers it already has,” Mulgrew wrote.

Overall teacher attrition is actually down 50 percent since the time Bloomberg took office a decade ago, according to department spokeswoman Erin Hughes said.

“Mr. Mulgrew is entitled to his own rhetoric, but not his own facts,” Hughes said in a statement. Mulgrew and union officials said that fewer people left the school system in recent years because the economic recession and high unemployment has made it riskier for teachers to leave their jobs.

In Tuesday’s testimony, however, Chief Academic Officer Shael Polakow-Suranksy said  that traditional education programs haven’t produced enough highly-qualified candidates to fill the system’s needs.

“Already, we’re having to retrain many teachers when they come into the system because they don’t have the skills that they need,” Polakow-Suranksy said.

The commission, which includes American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, won’t have a final say on whether the proposal is approved. But its recommendations, expected later this year, are likely to influence many education policy decisions that get made at the state level.

Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents, said today that better preparation — not high attrition — was the solution.

“For 30 years we’ve been talking about shortages in math and science,” she said. Traditional education programs “aren’t churning out enough teachers who are qualified and certified to teach at the level we need them to.”

“No one should get in an uproar,” Tisch added. “This is the beginning of a conversation that I think is long overdue.”

Mulgrew’s letter is below:

18 October 2012

Richard Parsons
Chair
(c/o Katie Campos)
The Education Reform Commission
The State Capitol
Room 257
Albany, NY 12224

Dear Mr. Parsons,

I want to thank you and the members of the Education Reform Commission for the recent opportunity you afforded me to talk about the pressing issues that the children and the schools of New York City face.  These include the need for community learning centers and the lack of  enhanced curriculum and professional development to meet the challenges posed by the state’s adoption of the national Common Core standards in reading and mathematics.

But I would also like to address an issue raised by the city’s Department of Education – the DOE’s request that it be granted the power on its own to certify teachers for the classroom.  Deputy Chancellor Shael Polakow-Suransky specifically cited the need for special education and science teachers, and said “We don’t want to have to depend on a university in order to train our teachers.”

The United Federation of Teachers strongly opposes any effort to allow the city’s Department of Education to certify teachers for the classroom, in part because the DOE has proven itself seriously challenged by the management responsibilities it already holds to manage and improve the 1,700 public schools in New York City.

The specific problems of staffing these shortage areas are not a function of poor teacher training in existing institutions, but rather the DOE’s abysmal record of supporting, developing and retaining the teachers it already has.

The DOE cited science and special education as areas of particular need, but as the accompanying chart shows, more than one-third of the special ed teachers the DOE hired in the 2006-2007 school year have already left the system.  The DOE may cite outside economic forces as the source of the loss of half the science teachers hired during the same period, but it can hardly use that excuse to justify the loss of half the English and ESL teachers during the same time.  This constant churning of teachers destabilizes schools and ill-serves the one million students in our system.

Giving the DOE the power to certify teachers on its own would do little to confront the real problem of teacher attrition, and at best would be only a distraction from the heavy responsibilities the DOE already struggles to deal with.

Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
President
United Federation of Teachers

Cc:  James Malatras

Deputy Secretary for Policy

 

                     NYC Teachers Hired July 2006-July 2007, by License,

                        With Cumulative Attrition through December 2011

 

LICENSE

 

NUMBER HIRED

# ATTRITION

TO DATE

% ATTRITION

 TO DATE

Common Branch

1827

643

35.2%

English

633

316

49.9%

ESL

325

164

50.5%

Math

663

296

44.6%

Other

1179

368

31.2%

Sciences-all

436

223

51.1%

Social Studies

395

166

42.0%

SpEd

1482

522

35.2%

TOTAL

6940

2698

38.9%*

Source:  DOEpersonnel files

 

 

 

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  • Milo

    There is going to be a ton of folks who will refuse to enter the teaching  profession in the upcoming years. The economy will get better and more folks will take more jobs in the private sector. However, there will also be a massive shortage of teachers in the near future due to the damage done by the ed “reform” movement. Teacher working conditions are at an all time low and will continue to deteriorate. Examples: oversized classes, micromanaged schools, unexperienced administration, lack of teaching supplies, tenure weakened/eliminated, seniority rights eliminated, unions busted, constant test prep, flawed evaluation programs, pensions reduced. Is it any wonder why a would a person with a college degree would want to enter an already extremely stressful profession that has been reduced to a temporary job? 

  • Jelfrank

    Oh ya! Our recent-FORMER principal, was known for going after teachers but not supporting them. If she couldn’t U rate the lesson (presumably would then give a Satisfactory) the teachers didn’t get anything in writing. But, if she could U rate the lesson, you got it in your file. She even went so far as to give an Unsatisfactory lesson observation to a teacher the first week in March and never came back to observe again to see if there was any improvement. Three months later, that single March observation was used to U rate the teacher for the year. It is a safe bet this goes on in many other schools, as this principal was an “Executive” (Bonus) principal. 

    Now the UFT doesn’t want to represent the teacher’s complaint that it was a violation of her contractual rights to fair supervision. So, it’s puzzling to hear Mulgrew’s passion for supporting teachers and cries of indignation over the lack of support. He needs to inspire his Grievance Department. This teacher has to appeal the UFT’s refusal. 

  • Save our schools

    In Bryant High School the new principal is alienating highly qualified math teachers.

  • bookworm

    I think that some of the younger teachers are frustrated enough to take their chances in this terrible economy because the conditions are so awful. We had two teachers in my school give notice this week – one is taking a preschool position at half the pay and another had no job prospects at all but said that she “just can’t do this anymore. It’s wrecking me as a person.” Both are young, living at home, but are fully certified teachers who it has been my pleasure to work with and in front of whom I would put my kids any day. DOE’s loss, IMO.

  • Guest

    And the Union Rep there is completely useless. What a surprise.

  • Pogue

    I used to recommend teaching as a fruitful, altruistic, and worthwhile profession to my students for many years…

    I no longer do.

    It has become a micro-managed, data-run, minutiae-driven, time-consuming, demoralizing occupation.

    Again, thank you Obama, Duncan, Bloomberg, Cuomo, King, Gates, Walton, ALEC, Weingarten, Iannuzzi, and Mulgrew.

  • A.S.Neill

     anyone teaching for some time will recognize the truth of this assessment. this semester several teachers at my school have already just walked off the job even given the state of the economy. exceptionally competent or ambitious teachers angle to move up to administrators, transfer out of the troubled schools to “better” schools or another city or state, or just to better occupations entirely (“teaching as peace corps” stepping stone). the working conditions are truly atrocious as Milo points out. much of it is the quality of many students of course, but the tipping point is usually the administration which is exceptionally ham handed in providing support backed up by the ideology of teacher blame for all the ills of education. add in removal of tenure and union protections, and you will devastate the stability of the teaching civil service. each “crisis” in education sets the stage for the next “crisis” 5-10 years down the road, and so it will be this time also. funny how people can be so blind.

  • Jason

    We have a new principal this year.  The ‘Gotchas” are off the charts!  This person is alienating everyone, even the office secretaries.  It’s so sad to see a good school getting this kind of treatment.  People are already talking about jumping ship, and two have already, even though it’s only the second month of school.  We had almost zero turnonver prior to this new leadership academy ‘gotcha’ expert.

  • Nyr683

    its just another bloomydoe idea at work again with no thought and reckless abandon…..

  • Nyr683

    I am a teacher and currently I do not know of one OR ANY teacher or any other educator in our system who agrees with ANYTHING the bloomydoe does…..The question then is ( Can all of us be wrong??  Can 80,000 teaching educator professionals ALL BE WRONG??  

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    “I used to recommend teaching as a fruitful, altruistic, and worthwhile profession to my students for many years…

    I no longer do.”

    I remember my neighbor’s father saying the same thing thirty years ago.

  • BloombergMustGo

    “Can 80,000 teaching educator professionals ALL BE WRONG??”

    Acccording to Bloomberg, yes, because we are all incompetent.

    All kidding aside, thank you for voicing what every teacher in this city, and probably the country, is thinking.  Astounding how we all made it through Bachelor’s, Master’s, and more, have taught for many years, produced many well educated individuals before Bloomberg et.al. came along to tell us how stupid we are.

  • Michael Fiorillo

    Fox, meet henhouse.

  • Juggleandhope

    Given the obsessive focus from the DOE to make veteran teachers more replaceable (attempts to eliminate tenure, teacher evaluations reliant on test scores, opposition to Last-In-First-Out, firing 50% of teachers at “turn-around” schools) it does seem worrisome to give that same DOE the power to credential however many replacements it chooses.  

  • Pogue

     Did your neighbor’s father have a pension, and did you resent him for it, too?

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    He’s a great guy. Was my baseball coach, too. But he advised against becoming a teacher for the same reasons you do now.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    This (written in 1983) is pretty much what his view was:

    Just as serious as the problem of teacher competence is the state of the teaching profession. Some teachers insist bitterly that teaching is no longer a profession, but has been reduced to a civil service job. Other professionals are subject to entry tests and to supervision by senior professionals, and they usually retain a large measure of control over where they work and how they perform their duties; in teaching, governmental agencies and policymakers have bureaucratized hiring practices. curriculum development, student evaluation, and other areas that once engaged the experience and participation of teachers. The effort to make schools “teacher-proof” ends by making the teachers technical functionaries, implementing remotely designed policies. With so many laws and regulations and interest groups on the scene, wise teachers look for protection to the rulebook, their union, their lawyer, or to some job with more dignity. For the person who simply wants to teach history or literature, the school has not been a receptive workplace.

    In response to declining enrollments and worsening working conditions. the number of people who want to be teachers has dropped sharply over the last decade. The number of undergraduate degrees awarded in education reached a peak of 200,000 in 1973. when they were 21 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in the nation. but dropped to only 108,000 in 1981, fewer than 12 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded. The tight job market has meant not only a decline in the number preparing to teach, but a decline in the ability of those who want to teach. Apparently the brighter students were smart enough to pick another field, and the flight of academically talented women to other fields has particularly depressed the quality of the pool of would-be teachers

  • Guest

    I walked off my teaching position, because my Principal made my job literally impossible.
    Thank God I was retirement age, and contributed 25% of my pay to my TDA for years.
    I annuitized that sum, and now have enough to live on for the rest of my life.
    All we have going for us now is our 7% TDA (which Doomberg lowered from 8.25% when he got illegally re-elected), so make sure you’re fully invested (26% of your salary), because in four years, we’re even going to lose that.
    Doomberg and his gestapo of principals have made a nightmare out of what was once an honorable profession.

  • Pogue

    Thank you, Flerp. As a teacher, I just love looking at data on a computer outside of school.  It gives me a break from looking at data on a computer inside of school.

  • Guest

    funny, i got the exact same advice from my father (guidance counseler) around that same time when i was entering college.  makes you wonder when the golden age of public education really was, if it ever actually existed at the primary and secondary school levels.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    Mike, is that you? :)

  • Vote NO!

     The  1980s  were  NOTHING  like  it  is  today.  They  are  trying  to  run  all  of  the  teachers  out  of  the  profession.  Young  teachers  are  terribly  discouraged,  and  veteran  teachers  are under  “attack”.  Teachers  are  quitting,  and  retiring  during  the  school  year.  That  hasn’t  happened  in  such  numbers  since  the  chronic  shortage  days  of  the  1990s. This  is detrimental  to  the  students,  as  it disrupts  their  education  during  the  year.  Replacement  teachers  aren’t  usually  available  the  “next  day”  and  the  students  often  lose  days,  even  weeks of  instruction  as  the  administration  tries  to  get  someone  to  replace  the  teacher  that  left.   In  an  effort  to  “get  the  teachers,” and  establish  a  cheap  labor  force,  many  kids  in  NYC  are  being  denied  decent  instruction,  from  good  teachers.

    I  must  agree  with  Mulgrew.  Things  would  be  a  lot  worse  if  the  labor  market  wasn’t  so  bad.  If  the  labor  market  improves,  NYC  will   be   facing  a  teacher  exodus.

  • Mr. Flerporillo

    Just noting what seems like a pretty similar state-of-the-profession. Maybe it’s worse today, but the trend seems consistent. And the labor market in the early 80s was terrible.

  • http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/ Norm

    Did anyone fact check this: Overall teacher attrition is actually down 50 percent since the time
    Bloomberg took office a decade ago, according to department spokeswoman
    Erin Hughes said.
    Using the figures cited in the article: Of the 6940 teachers hired that year (2006-7), 38.9 percent have left the system,
    according to data provided by the UFT. That rate increased to 50
    percent for teachers of Science, English and English as a Second
    Language.
    So Erin Hughes is saying in essence that before Bloomberg the number leaving the system in this time frame was 50% higher. I was still teaching in those years and no one was leaving like today. Using “facts” tossed out by DOE officials without showing some connection to reality — like why not include numbers from the pre-Bloomberg years? – offers flacks an opportunity to make up anything they want. I guess not being able to unhinge Mulgrew’s numbers that had to go to Plan B.

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