Arthur Goldstein reviews StudentsFirst’s charge that Mayor Bloomberg and his Department of Education were assigning poorly-rated teachers to high-minority schools.
It is mildly amusing to imagine that StudentsFirst and Mayor Bloomberg are adversaries, as Goldstein points out. They have a shared interest in demonizing teachers, demanding that they be held accountable for test scores, no matter what other factors are at work.
As Goldstein writes:
“I didn’t realize these schools were dispensing more U-ratings, but it’s fairly easy to guess why. For one thing, there is a direct correlation between low-SES and school closings. Schools with high percentages of high needs kids tend not to get high test scores and are therefore considered failing. It’s the school’s fault the kids have learning disabilities, and it’s the school’s fault the kids can’t speak English. No excuses. Just because the kid arrived from the Dominican Republic four days ago, that’s no reason he can’t write that essay about American history.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Just because the kid arrived from the Dominican Republic four days ago, that’s no reason he can’t write that essay about American history.”
Yes, all teachers have magic fairy dust but for some galling reason they refuse to use it.
Didn’t you know? Teachers refuse because they are greedy, lazy parasites and sex offenders who hate kids. Ask Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch, they’ll tell you.
Only billionaires like Bloomberg, Gates and Broad, and their hunting dogs like Michele Rhee care for kids.
Rhee cares for kids so much, she stayed in the class room for all of three years. Taping their mouths shut was proof of her concern, since a lesser teacher would have obtained quiet passage through the hallways with something archaic like respect and professionalism.
Wendy Kopp cares for kids. True, she’s never taught a day in her life, and runs a $300 million dollar teacher union-busting shop that churns out missionary temps and scabs, but that’s because she loves the kids so.
All these people love public school children to death.
Maybe teachers should sprinkle the magic fairy dust on themselves first to purge their evil intentions. You know, we all became teachers for the perks. What would we do without the “reformers” to point this out to us?
Michael Fiorillo: I don’t know why I have been chosen for this role, but once again an aggrieved group has asked me to respond to a posting on this blog.
The Hunting Dog Community is currently in hiding, ashamed to show their, er, faces in public since you lumped Michelle Rhee in with them. I was asked to point out that—apart from a very very few rabid outcasts—people have spoken well of the larger Dog Community since ancient times:
“Dogs and philosophers do the greatest good and get the fewest rewards.” [Diogenes]
So please: Work Hard. Be Nice.
“I hope my tongue in prune juice smothers, If I belittle dogs and mothers.” [Ogden Nash]
Although it might interest you to know that in current Dog Lingo, whenever a member violates the Doggocratic Oath of “do no harm to humans” they are called “rheejects” and “rheeprobates.”
No one is sure from whence these terms originated, but rumor has it that they come from rogue members who have been spending too much time hanging around certain Compliance Centres of EduExcellence.
I wouldn’t make this up. Rheeally…
🙂
KrazyTA,
My humble apologies to all hunting dogs for the cruel and unfair comparison.
And I can’t wait to pull out all of my amazing lesson plans that I’ve been hiding until we have accountability.
How much say do NYC teachers have as to where they teach? Is it possible that the challenging working conditions in these schools, e.g. higher crime, rates of violence, discipline issues and students with additional needs brought about due to poverty, disincline more capable and experienced teachers from agreeing to work in these schools when they could get jobs in safer areas with less stressful working conditions?
Thats a good question. First off, not many teachers (and people in general) are going to flock to work in the hardest schools with the most challenging populations, when they get paid just as much to work in better schools with a population that they may be more comfortable with.
Second, if you have been teaching and doing well at your school, what is going to posess you to move to a different, harder working situation where you basically have to start over?
And third, for the past few years, there have been hiring restrictions in place for new teachers, which basically funnels most of them to the poorest neighborhoods and especially the newly created schools. Also TFA and NYCTF specifically target those schools.
This leads to schools composed of mostly newer teachers, with the most difficult populations. Additionally many of the teachers will burnout within 5 years, or leave after their program commitments are up. And voila, you have the perfect recipe for having the least experienced working with the most needy!