To stem costs, New York State’s public university system will move more courses online. (Times Union)
Students in a crowded Bronx school who the city wanted to transfer midyear will stay there. (News)
A parent says his twins’ diverging paths are evidence of the difference in teacher quality. (Daily News)
Charter schools are ignoring the state’s demand to submit teacher evaluation ratings. (GothamSchools)
The city is letting parents know that work to remove PCBs in their children’s school will begin soon. (NY1)
Some high schools bar the away team’s student fans from attending games for security reasons. (Times)
The fiscal outlook is improving, but lawmakers are taking a closer look at school funding. (EdWeek)
http://nyceducator.com/ NYC Educator
I guess Gotham Schools simply forgot to mention the parent of twins was affiliated with Students first NY.
Guest
As a parent of twins (who have now grown up), I encountered this situation more than once. In one school, the stronger teacher and I collaborated and got the twin from the weaker teacher transferred into his class by saying that things weren’t going well because the twins were used to being together. The real reason was that the weak teacher–an administrator’s favorite–was simply poor at her craft and I didn’t have time to waste.
The issue of teacher quality becomes starkly obvious for parents of twins. If one has gotten weaker teachers a couple of years in a row, she/he becomes the weaker student, and is forever afterwards considered less able and suffers as teachers and administrators make comparisons. In my experience, staff make open comparisons about twins to the students themselves, leading to serious issues of self-esteem and self-worth.
At one highly-regarded progressive private school, one of my sons was asked by his brother’s teacher to see a piece of writing he did, since she said, “I’ve heard that you are a great writer.” He showed one to her. Her response? “This is good. But I still think your brother’s writing is much better.” Sounds like the teachers were competing with each other for which twin was a better writer, and the twins were collateral damage!
My suggestion to this parent is to not only push for quality evaluations, but place his kids in two different schools. If that can’t be managed, then ALWAYS fight your administration to put them both with the best teacher on the grade.
Anon
So the assumption here is that the twins would have been completely equal were it not for the teachers? Interesting.
Larry Littlefield
The article on school funding forgot to mention pensions. In California, where a huge 1999 pension increase has described as costing nothing, no additional money has been put into the state pension fund to pay for it. It is now 12 years later, and CALSTRs is selling off assets to pay benefits.
In California, the pension contributions for all the teachers in the state are funded by the state government. That contribution is authorized by the state legislature as part of the budget. CALSTRs can only request more funds, and it has been turned down. It should be noted that unlike teachers in NYC, those in California do not get Social Security, and pay state taxes on their pension income.
CALSTRs and the unions kept quiet while a referendum was passed to raise taxes “for education.” They are now asking for that money to be used for the pension fund.
Bottom line: in NYC, the public employee unions can get all the pension increases they want, and the city will be destroyed but they will be unaffected. They did it once in the 1970s, and they are doing it again. But elsewhere, the public employee pensions are at risk, so they have to start fessing up to the problem and squeeze what they can before it is too late.
guest
The father of twins in Rise and Shine is a great advocate for his children. Here’s a thought, please go advocate directly with your school’s administration. If administrators hear from parents about concrete issues, they are more likely to act. Maybe the less involved teacher needs a gentle push or more in the right direction? It is the administration’s job to make sure teachers are doing their job and getting the help they need, or if they aren’t improving, getting them out of the school or into a position that better uses their talents. Parents have the power if they take the time to communicate clearly with their administration (as well, start with communicating with the teacher as a first step. Parents can always make suggestions.)
Dad, talk with other parents in the less-involved teacher’s class and get them to write a letter or email to the administration detailing issues and offering ideas. Strength in numbers.
This I had to do last year when my second son had same preK teacher as my first, and there was something very wrong in the classroom. If I and some other parents hadn’t spoken to admin about problems in classroom (for me a marked difference), his teacher wouldn’t have gotten help she needed.
I am not advocating witch hunts, but parents can and should speak up to teachers themselves and administrators about classroom problems (as well as celebratory reasons) if we want anything to change for our own children as well as others’ children.
Of course, many schools (like many businesses) may have some cronyism at work, where teachers aligned with administration are given preferential treatment. It may not always immediately work out. However, if parents do go on record, it is more likely to have an impact at some time in future. If parents don’t speak up to administration, there will be no impact.
Parents, you have the power. Use it for good within your school.
BloombergMustGo
Bottomer line: In NYC, Bloomberg can waste all the money he wants and destroy schools at will and he will be unaffected. He did it during his first term, then again during his second term, and even during the third term he bought for himself.
Elsewhere, mayors and DOE’s are held accountable because they can’t pay off the people with oversight. Evidently this is acceptable practice here, but compensating employees is not.
BloombergMustGo
Evidently superparent K. Wright is a highly qualified education evaluator who has precisely determined the expected levels of performance of his twins and can immediately determine that it is the teacher’s fault that they do not perform identically. Also, he is clairvoyant, and was totally aware of the circumstances of the teacher who didn’t “reach out” during the storm, since he seemed to know for a fact that this teacher was able to reach out and was not without electricity or internet services.
Additionally, superparent K. Wright predetermined that consulting with the teacher would be a complete waste of time and that firing by evaluation was the only viable option. After all, eveyrone knows that the teacher who puts on the best show MUST be the better teacher, regardless of what goes on in the classroom, and every child is an excellent academic performer unless the teacher is holding them back.
Finally, the solution to every complaint any parent has is to institute punitive evaluations which have been proven by numerous studies to be much more effective in improving academic performance of students than small class sizes, proper training and staff development, and well developed curriculum and materials.
Tim
I’m not a scientist or anything, but I believe that much of what we’ve learned about the heritability of IQ is gleaned from twin studies, and some quick Googling suggests there’s a 90% chance the twins have close to the same IQ if they are identical, and a 2/3 chance if they’re fraternal.
And does this editorial really contain any information that’s controversial or previously unknown? Are we going to deny that there are considerable differences in teacher quality within a school (and that includes even the most high-performing ones) or a grade? Come on.
Larry Littlefield
In his first term he increased teacher wages 20.0%, raising property taxes 18.0% along the way, and cut back on non-instructional spending (which was already low). I thought that was pretty good.
In his second term he cut the teacher retirement age by seven years and service time by five and said it would cost nothing. I said it would be a disaster, and it is.
In his third term he has flailed, trying to make up for decision #2 while being forced to cut non-retirement spending. Won’t work, can’t work. Game over.
BloombergMustGo
@f26fa0986635f95700cca4ccd642d857:disqus – No one is denying that there are teachers who should not be teachers.
However, why, and by whom, were these teachers given these jobs? Why were they given a job they didn’t deserve only to have it taken away?
If we are going to discuss accountability and performance, exactly how is the DOE held accountable for hiring incompetent teachers? How are principals and assistant principals held accountable for hiring incompetent teachers or not properly training teachers? Why is it the assumption that every child can be made academically successful by any teacher, regardless of the child’s abilities, yet teachers cannot be made competent by assistant principals and principals?
Why is it assumed to be fair that the judgment of parents and administrators who have no subject specific knowledge qualifies them to evaluate teachers, yet no one is suggesting that teachers be evaluated by the people best qualified to evaluate them, their peers?
The issue is not whether there should be evaluations or not, but rather, how are the evaluations executed and by whom.
Jgeils
notice the police and fireman do not hear from bloomdoe because the bully mayor will not pick on the bigger kids (police and fire) becasue he will get it back from them but our stinky union does nothing
Larry Littlefield
“No one is denying that there are teachers who should not be teachers. However, why, and by whom, were these teachers given these jobs? Why were they given a job they didn’t deserve only to have it taken away?”
Perhaps because they develop a bad attitude and stop doing their job. It isn’t just competence, it’s motivation.
Let’s say teachers were rated on a matrix. On one side would be ability. Novice, incompetent, qualified, advanced, star. On the other side would be motivation. “On a mission,” “dedicated professional,” “just a job,” “not my job,” “beat the system.” The latter would be just as important as the former.
I’m not saying it’s all their fault. Speaking as one who used to work in the public sector, the union/management setup is enough to knock someone down one level of motivation every five years. And anyone who thinks schools (or anything else) can be staffed entirely by “stars” who are “on a mission” (who are rare) is nuts. I didn’t go to see “waiting for superman” because the premise in the title is ridiculous.
In any event, the way they’ve got it rigged with all the $ going to those not working and no way to get rid of the”beat the system” folks and pressure the “not by job” folks, despite very high school spending and state and local taxes, we’ll be lucky to get those who are barely qualified for whom it’s just a job.
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