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OK, but do you understand what the UFT doesn’t want?

It is against relying on the judgement of principals, because that could be biased by race, gender, and other factors, and lead to sexual harrassment and petty tyrany.  Any evaluations by principals will be litigated and grieved to death.

But if you propose a complicated system based on changes in test scores, which does not rely on judgement, they object to the inaccuracy of tests and unfairness of high stakes testing.

If you have six people of difference races, religions and gender observe a teacher every day for a year, decide they aren’t doing a good job, pay for some kind of remedial teaching instruction, and have six different people observe them for another year, and then keep them in the classroom until any subsequent litigation is resolved, then the UFT will rightly claim that all the money is going to administration.

The UFT objects to firing or rewarding individual teachers for individual performance, because teaching is a team endevour. They insisted that any bonuses by at the school level.

But they also object to closing schools, because that isn’t fair to individual teachers.

In short they are against anything other than a simple acceptance that whatever education NYC children receives is far better than they deserve, all things considered.  And they have the power of the state legislature behind them.  And the directions of future education spending — out of the classroom — has been locked in by past pension enrichments, for the next 20 years.

But they also want to blame the Mayor, or the Chancellor, or the administration, or the principal, for any problems with the schools, even though there is nothing that can be done about them.  But they only have to accept that blame if they are foolish enough to try to create the illusion they are in charge. 

Perhaps the next Mayor will be smarter about that.  No teachers have to do their jobs.  Most do anyway — they are the equivalent of volunteers.  Those who don’t have an income for life, and that’s just tough — the matter, you don’t.  Just lay off some of those who actually do their jobs to balance the budget.  These battles just piss off the volunteers, make things worse, and allow the deflection of blame. 

The right move is to just inform people exactly how much money is being spent on schools, compared with the national average, and declare the game over.  Nothing can be done. Preferably after ditching Mayoral control.  And focus attention and energy on other public services, instead of starving them more than average.

You have a lot of nerve Larry. How dare you assume that you have the slightest inkling how the educational system in NYC works. 
Like the rest of the ignorant clamoring for attention as they go about their pitiful insignificant endeavors you presume to undrstand the complexities of evaluating a teacher. 
What you, Mayor Defective and Chancellor Lackey refuse to admit is that there is a serious dearth of qualified administrators in New York City.  Why?  Beacause they all left when Bloomberg was elected Mayor.  That is why principals from all over the rest of the state were so willing to sign petitions against these ridiculous evaluation proposals and are now reporting the many problems that are occuring in implementation.  The principals in New York City are so lacking of character that except for a relative few the majority were too scared of their own inadequacies to utter a peep.  The fact is they rely on Bullyberg to protect them from true scrutiny.
How is an administrator who cannot teach a class qualified to evaluate a teacher?  When did it stop being an administrator’s job to help a teacher develop their professional skills and become strictly a firing tool?  When the Bloomberg Dynasty ushered in a crop of unqualified administrators.
The cold hard facts are:
1) The DOE hires teachers NOT the UFT.
2) MOST NYC administrators are not qualified to teach a class much less evaluate the complex process of teaching.
3) MOST NYC administrators are clueless when it comes to the Common Core standards, which teachers must be fluent in.
4) There exists a clearly defined process for eliminating poor teachers BUT it requires that a QUALIFIED administrator produce an evidence record (something most administrators are incapable of as it would expose their inadequacies).
5) The DOE awards tenure NOT the UFT.
6) Neither you, Bloomberg or any other unqualified bystander has the right to impose an imperfect system that is biased against employees when those employees’ livelihoods are at stake.

And to all a Good Night.

I’m just repeating what’s been said.  There is no option that is acceptable. None.  You say it yourself — administrators are not qualified to evaluate teachers, only teachers.  But only administrators can fire teachers or award tenure, not the UFT and not teachers. 

An evidence record?  As noted, a qualified teacher would have to sit in a class for months and review how homework was corrected.  But didn’t the UFT win a provision in the contract that said adminstrators were not allowed to look at lesson plans and homework corrected during the Dinkins Administration?  That’s not what they want, either.

And frankly, given that the number of teachers keeps falling as money is shifted to pay for the pension deals, if someone is qualified to be a teacher they should probably be teaching. Can we really even afford principals anymore.

It goes round and round and gets nowhere.  From the outside, those who work in normal jobs under normal arrangements, it seems insane.  It’s like the fiscal cliff.  Better to go over than allow those who made the mess to present the illusion of progress.

GIVE IT UP ALREADY!!!  THERE WILL BE NO DEAL – THEN AGAIN, CUOMO WILL EXTEND THE DEADLINE ANYWAY.  AHHA HAHA HA HA HAHAAAA.  WHAT A JOKE!!!! THE D.O.E. IS A MESS AND IT’S GOING TO GET MESSIER!!!!  WAIT UNTIL ALL THE STORIES COME OUT (SOON) OF HOW THESE “CONSULTANTS” AND “SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AUTHORITY” HAVE BEEN TAKING MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS!!!  YOU THINK $250 MILLION IS A LOT?  WAIT UNTIL YOU READ THE STORIES OF HOW AN S.C.A. GROUP PUT UP AN ENTIRE NETTING AROUND A SCHOOL TO FIX SOME WINDOWS.  CHARGED THE D.O.E. 7.5 MILLION AND LAUGHED ALL THE WAY (BUT BLABBED TO SOME CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS).  WAIT, JUST WAIT TILL IT ALL COMES OUT.  THE D.O.E. HAS A TON OF $$$ TO WASTE, $250 MILLION IS NOTHING TO RECEIVE, THEY’RE NOT WORRIED, BELIEVE ME!!!!

Hey Larry How about telling us all how much experience you have as an educator. Tell us how much time you have spent working in a public school. Tell us how sensitive you were on the day when 26 people were killed in the worst day in public education.
I spent 40 years working with troubled children each and everyday working hard so that you and your children could enjoy the fact that they would not take the time to hurt you. How can you measure that on a standardized test? How can some administrator  measure that?
See the truth is as anyone who has worked one moment in education knows already its impossible to measure. 
Larry I resent you and what you stand for because you don’t value educators for the unseen job they do everyday.You want to measure something that cant be measured. I know that in your world of numbers it is impossible for you to show human characteristics. That crazy kid had those same qualities and he killed 26 defenseless people. It was teachers who protected those children. Would you have done the same thing? We all know the answer

For God’s sake, can someone at GS just go ahead and block the IP address of “Tiredofyou” from now on?  Her last post just set an all-time low, which is no small feat.

It seems that the disease that has been in Washington, DC, has spread to New York City, too. No one hears anyone else’s opinion or needs. No one wishes to compromise or bend a little bit to make an agreement. Now, I could understand a politician on the right or left not wanting to bend, but Mr. Bloomberg is a businessman who ought to understand the art of compromise is what gets deals done. Yes, someone ought to toss all these clowns in one room for as long as it takes to come up with both a contract for the UFT members, who are literally working for 10% less in salary than four years ago, and an agreeable evaluation system. Come on fellas stop acting like children and, rather, mature adults.

What exactly about the post below “set an all-time low”?
The fact that parts of a teacher’s job are not quantifiable by numbers? 
The fact that teachers make sacrifices every day? 
The fact that teachers work with children that many others won’t work with? 
The fact that teachers do work with children that few others can? 
The fact that the Bloomberg administration is devoid of humanity and understanding? 
The fact that teachers often have to think about their students’ welfare at the expense of their own?
The cold hard fact that teachers died protecting their students?
The fact that, the fact that you pay taxes does not give you the right to trivialize the teaching profession?
The fact that society’s pitiful financial contribution to education will never really compensate the millions of teachers who educate children so they can be productive human beings to that very society?

I was thinking of the statement that Larry is a psycopath of the type that commits mass murder, but you’re right, I’m probably way off base.

Tweed has no clue what they are doing, having these leadership principals working to destroy schools and the careers of veteran teachers and pushing out people that  have worked very hard for the system. Ask anybody in Bryant High School in a survey and you will find out. The hostility and the abuse have to be stopped.

  On Channel Thirteen this week, ex-Mayor Koch was asked, “What will your legacy as the Mayor of NYC for twelve years be?”
He answered, “I’m proudest of the fact that when I was first elected, NYC was a radical, left-wing city. I completely eradicated that, and went after the unions, and stopped them from bankrupting the city.”
He expressed his admiration for the continuation of his legacy by Mayor Bloomberg, and when asked whom he supported for the next Mayor, replied, “Christine Quinn”.
   This nightmare is never going to end. I’m almost glad I was forced out of my job by the animal who was running the school where I was teaching. I’d rather starve.

Investigate Abraham Lincoln high School in Brooklyn ASAP!!!!

NYCDOE is practicing systemwide age discrimination and the UFT is looking the other way. The DOE is USING inept “leaders” from the chancellor all the way down to a.p.’s to accomplish this goal.
No worries, this will all come back to bite them in their $$%^*.