GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools

A subway ad that appeared in 2009. (Photo courtesy of gguillaumee/Flickr)

Lamenting his ability to trim the city’s budget, Mayor Bloomberg this week assailed increases in teacher salaries. But he hasn’t always seen teachers’ salaries as a burden.

A ad campaign promoting the public schools that plastered subways in late 2008 touted increases in teacher salaries as a statistic to be proud of. ”Because every child deserves a great teacher, New York City public schools have increased starting teacher salaries 43% since 2002,” read one of the posters in the Keep It Going NYC campaign.

In the last two and a half years, of course, the city’s fiscal picture has changed, and Bloomberg is now hoping to persuade the teachers union to accept steep concessions to avert layoffs. Earlier this week, he cited the increase in teacher salaries as evidence that concessions are needed. ”I can tell you we have raised teacher spending in 10 years 105 percent on the Department of Education and we’ve raised it on all other city agencies an average of 28 percent, with an inflation rate of 33 percent [since 2002],” he said.

The city’s teachers union offered the first glimpse of its contract demands tonight, but remained silent on the possible pay raise many have predicted — and on whether the union plans to sweeten its chances at a good contract by endorsing Michael Bloomberg.

The glimpse came at a meeting of the delegate assembly, the union’s ruling body, where members were given a seven page list of demands that fell under categories such as compensation and health.

Union president Michael Mulgrew addressed the crowd, which spilled out of the room and into the hallway of 52 Broadway, the headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers. The event was closed to the press, and union members were told not to share the seven-page document with reporters.

According to several in attendance, Mulgrew lectured on the grim state of the city’s economy and the need to get the union’s new contract finalized quickly. One teacher, who asked to remain anonymous, said Mulgrew seemed to be pushing the union to reach a deal quickly, before the economy worsens. “They’re presenting it like there’s this brief window of time, because of the economy, in which to rush the contract through,” he said. (more…)

The highly anticipated contract negotiations between the teachers union and the city are officially off and running.

In anticipation of the UFT contract’s October 31 expiration date, officials from both sides met yesterday to begin the negotiation process. The negotiations are colored by the city’s dismal financial projections and the upcoming mayoral election — the UFT has yet to endorse a candidate for mayor. They are also UFT president Michael Mulgrew‘s first significant challenge, and are likely to be a factor when he comes up for election in the spring.

Though both sides have signed confidentiality agreements allowing them to keep mum when the press pushes for details, neither has been entirely silent about changes they’d like to see made to the contract.

Chancellor Joel Klein has made no secret of his desire to see the Absent Teacher Reserve drained. The pools currently holds 1,695 teachers who previously worked in schools that have been closed. Though they remain on the city’s payroll, they do not have full-time teaching positions. The point of tension between Klein and the UFT is how to drain it.

On Wednesday, the first day of school, Klein reiterated his support for Chicago’s model, which allows teachers who’ve been laid off to spend one year searching for a new spot in the school system while receiving their regular salaries. At the end of that year, those who haven’t landed new positions are forced to move on. (more…)

Governor David Paterson. (Via Flickr Creative Commons)

An important story slipped by our watch late last week: Governor Paterson waded into the debate on how to evaluate teachers. In an interview with WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, Paterson said that efforts to judge teachers based on their student test scores concern him:

“How would you assess a teacher who could go into a very difficult school and does a good job bringing a class up to, say, state average on standardized tests and then a teacher that’s a little lazy in an affluent community, where all the other teachers are doing well, [and] benefits from the location?”

Beth Fertig, WNYC’s education reporter, points out that Paterson’s remarks come in the context of a heated debate between teachers unions and those who advocate for test-based accountability, including the Bloomberg administration and, now, some in the federal government. While the local union partnered with the mayor on a merit-based pay initiative for teachers, it has quarreled with him on efforts to measure individual teachers.

Exactly where Paterson stands on education issues has been a subject of debate since he took office. Though his father is a close adviser to Randi Weingarten, the union president, Paterson himself has become a vocal supporter of school choice. With the governor taking few steps to get involved in education policy, the mystery has been a kind of moot point so far. There’s also the small problem of how long Paterson will hold onto his seat. But even if this term becomes his last, Paterson will be an important player in the mayoral control debate this year. The fate of the 2002 law lies in the hands of already-vocal legislators — but just as much in the hands of Paterson.

Posts about The Equity Project (TEP) Charter School — that’s the one where teachers will make $125,000 — brought out strong feelings from educators and advocates both at the New York Times Lesson Plans blog and here at GothamSchools.

In our comments, Leonie Haimson, a leading advocate for smaller classes in the city’s public schools, points out that TEP will save money partly by putting 30 students in a class (the TEP website does say this, although not in the section aimed at educators). She points to comments at the Times where teachers question the priorities of the TEP model. Alex, for example, suggests cutting the salary to $75,000 and drastically reducing class size with the extra funds.

GothamSchools commenter Maria Escalan worries that dividing up administrative responsibilities among teachers will end up overburdening them:

Our principal who kept experimenting with different reforms on our already successful school had the brillant idea of letting teachers assume lots more responsibility outside of the normal teaching activities. The consequence was that a lot of my colleagues expended a lot of time and energy on activities that were not instructional and the quality of their teaching suffered.

I think it’s worth noting that the TEP plan is to give each teacher a single clearly-defined “whole school service” role, ranging from dean of discipline to events coordinator to parent and community involvement coordinator. It’s not just asking people to step up as needed, which, in my experience, usually results in a few teachers taking on way too much. And, contrary to the belief of at least one Times commenter, custodial duties are not among the listed whole school service jobs.

In exchange for the higher salaries, TEP expects teachers to work a longer day, (more…)

New York City teacher-blogger Christine Gralow explains why she joined an advisory board for The Equity Project Charter School, which attracted a flurry of attention this spring for proposing to pay teachers $125,000. The school will save money by taking the various duties of administrators — coordinating special events, overseeing detention, and reaching out to parents, for example — and distributing them among teachers, providing time in the (extended) school day for these tasks. Gralow’s all for it:

I also noted while working at this school that there were a lot of seemingly excessive staff positions — various coordinators, academic coaches, and subject supervisors — that, while originally designed to help students succeed, were in fact making little difference, or in some cases actively getting in the way of teachers’ classroom focus. For schools serving primarily at-risk student populations, it makes sense to cut such positions; put more money into recruiting and retaining the country’s smartest, most competent teachers; and divvy up the school’s administrative responsibilities amongst those highly competent teachers. Good teachers already serve as parent coordinators, academic coaches, and subject supervisors anyway.

She adds that in a city as expensive as New York, paying teachers more is essential for retention.