During the decade or so in which Mayor Michael Bloomberg totally controlled the public schools of New York City, he relied on test scores as the measure of students, teachers, principals, and schools. His was a managerial mindset devoid of any philosophy of education or of any concern for the lives of individuals or communities. Collateral damage was unimportant, and many people fell under his wheels. His primary strategy was to close schools with low scores and open new schools. He believed in small schools, even though few of these schools had the facilities or staff for English language learners, students with disabilities, or advanced classes in math or science or anything else. After he had been in office for a number of years, he was closing some of the new schools. The central office could literally murder a school by directing large numbers of low-scoring students to it, which was a death sentence. As schools began to die (and he had a particular hatred for large schools), good students moved out and the death cycle was accelerated as the stats looked worse and worse.
What happened to the teachers in the schools marked for closure? Some got out as fast as they could, others stayed in their post, either because they were devoted to the school and hoped it would be saved if they tried harder or because they felt committed to the students. When the school at last was closed, many tenured teachers were set adrift. They could apply to other schools but because they were experienced, they were expensive and many principals preferred to have two new teachers than one veteran. So the teachers without a school were placed in what was called the Absent Teacher Reserve (ATR), where they stayed on salary but floated through the system as substitutes or short-timers. The press regularly ridiculed them as incompetents, although most had lost their job through no fault of their own, and some or many were expert teachers.
In this post, Lynne Winderbaum tells the story of the ATRs. She is a retired ESL teacher.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This comment has nothing to do with today’s post, but I have not found any way yet to send Diane info that she may have an interest in. Yesterday, I found a discussion of minorities math and reading scores exceeding what the media reports. I thought Diane might be interested. So Diane if you are monitoring your blog, check the blog link out: http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2014/05/avoiding-gaps-large-test-score-gains.html
That is interesting, but as the blog comments on your link show, some people hold educators in such contempt, the U.S. could be #1 in the Milky Way galaxy rankings and we’d still have teacher bashers. I can stomach the teacher bashers, but unfortunately their views set public policy as opposed to rational thought and reason. Show them one success story, and they focus on some other anecdotal story or mythical statistics.
There is a plethora of perfectly innocent teachers who dared to question internal school policies and questioned them with the utmost of civility and professionalism.
Perceived as a threat to others who were insecure with themselves to begin with, these teachers were gotten rid of through bad reviews or outright false charges despite their high acumen in teaching and excellent track records with children, parents, and all other personnel.
These pool of teachers, as exemplified by the classic textbook example of Francesco Portelos, have been thrown under the bus by the Bloomberg administration, the UFT, the AFT, and now Ms. Farina and Mr. DeBlasio, who could have looked at the history of each of these teachers on a case-by-case basis rather than implementing a broad, sweeping, general blanket rule of 2 interviews and you’re out or in.
I’m afraid individual and/or class action suits against the DOE and the UFT are the only recourse at this point. It’s already happening and is one of the most under-reported situations to date. Already, I know of two cases where the DOE had no case and had to reliniquish six figures against plaintiffs for punitive damages, all settled out of court because the threat of impending litigation was too much for the DOE.
The treatment of such ATRs and the current proposed contract fot NYC teachers are all a cost saving measure for the DOE, little more.
There are 52 billionaires who reside in Manhattan alone, and their combined personal wealth is $183 billion dollars, more than 3 times the annual operating budget of all of NY City.
Mr. DeBlasio has clearly given the message that there is not enough money in the city budget to give these and all teachers a contract with dignity. Obviously, he and Albany do not believe in taxing the rich as a start to address this problem.
That’s the love/hate relationship one has with the city, which is both still one of the cultural capitals of the world and yet a stinking rotting cesspooling sewer of in equity at the same time.
Good riddance . . . . .
A friend of mine is an excellent teacher of special education. She was teaching a class of 5th graders, none of who were performing anywhere near grade level in math or ELA.
The math program she was mandated to use was written for general education 5th graders. The introduction to the program stated that strong parental involvement was key to the program’s success. It was not at all appropriate for my friend’s class, considering their academic challenges and difficult family situations (poverty/gang violence/drugs).
She expressed her concerns to her principal and was told to use the “differentiation techniques”, supplied in the teachers edition. This was like putting a band aid on a bullet hole, so she began developing her own lessons, assignments, and tests, tailored to the individual needs of her class of twelve. Old school and effective.
The principal caught wind of this and ordered her to go back to the 5th grade program she’d been given. When my friend refused, citing the best interests of the kids, she was brought up on disciplinary charges and, eventually, lost her job. She was placed in “The Rubber Room”. (Google the term if you don’t know. Add “NYCDOE” to the search).
She spent almost two years there before finally being cleared of all charges and getting a position in another school, where she’s been teaching ever since.
My friend was lucky: she didn’t have a lot of seniority, so, as an ATR, she was able to land another job fairly quickly. But there were many teachers with seniority there. When the Rubber Rooms were disbanded, these teachers joined the pool of ATRs that Diane’s speaking of here. Their schools weren’t disbanded. They just wouldn’t drink the Kool Aid and this was the price they paid.
Are there slackers in the ATR pool? Of course. Where aren’t there slackers? My 20+ years of teaching have shown me that they’re in the minority, however.
The contract proposal, if ratified, will put the fate a lot of good teachers with seniority into the hands of the principals. Some of these admins will be fair. Some will not. I know that I would not want to be an ATR in this situation.
NYC public school teachers have also been victimized by their union misleadership’s collaboration – that’s Randi Weingarten’s boastful term, not mine – with the so-called reformers.
Wherever you look – mayoral control, high stakes exams, charter schools, RttP, APPR, VAM and Common Core – our union leadership has sold us out by accepting the premises and money of the school privateers, while they continue to use the union as a dues-collection agency and co-manager/ombudsman of Human Relations Department of the DOE and SED. Meanwhile, public education is destabilized city by city, state by state, devolving into a two-tier system to be dominated by charters, with a scapegoated public school system to be primarily used as a dumping ground for the students the charters refuse to enroll or keep.
The public schools are political orphans, as are their teachers, abandoned by the Democratic politicians whose campaigns they man and fund, and by the unions that are supposed to represent and help protect them.
http://www.jrn.com/ktnv/news/CCSD-to-fire-almost-100-employees-mostly-teachers-258578611.html?lc=Tablet
In Nevada the democrats Debbie Smith and John Oceguera removed teacher tenure in 2011 with AB225. Now our more seasoned teachers can be removed if they have two unsatisfactories in a row. It busted our contract and really affected due process.
The Governor campaigned on a promise to fire one in five teachers – it got him elected.
I’m not sure when everyone started hating teachers so much. They wanted to find the “witches” – well they are finding them . . . 100 at a time.
I have wondered about the source of the strong anti-teacher feeling reflected in legislation and political posturing around the country. The source cannot be actual concern with the competence of our nation’s teachers because if you correct the scores from international comparative tests by SES level, our kids rank at the very top. So, clearly, on the whole, our teachers are doing a great job.
Any ideas among Diane’s readers about what might be the source of this anti-teacher sentiment? Why does it sometimes, in some places, play well with the electorate?
Part of it, I think, might be lingering resentment. Everyone has been through the school system. Everyone has experienced, for years, being a student and subject to others’ authority. People often resent those who have authority over them, even if that authority is relatively benign. Is that part of the answer? Are people getting back for having to do that homework assignment they hated in Grade 9?
I must say that it’s been a mystery to me why politicians have been able to get so much mileage out of teacher bashing.
I was taught to respect my teachers. Most of my teachers earned my respect and my enduring gratitude.
The primary reason for the attacks on teachers and their unions is that the so-called reformers know that, in order for the hostile takeover of the public schools to succeed, teachers had to be discredited, since they and their unions are the strongest a institutional barrier to privatizing the schools.
Well, the managed to buy the unions. So they took care of that part right up front.
Yes, they’ve gotten our misleaders to neutralize the only institution that had the financial and political power to stop the hostile takeover of the schools. It’s not for nothing that, according to Eli Broad, Randi Weingarten is one of his foundation’s “investments.”
Give them a few years, and they will go in for the kill, using fifth columnist groups like Educators for Excellence (funded by Randi’s other BFF, Bill Gates) to attempt to decertify the union.
And they may well succeed, even in a one-time union stronghold like NYC. For example, the new contract that we are voting on gives the UFT’s blessing to the creation of up to 100 schools with one of the so-called reformers wet dreams: a “thin” (read “meaningless”) contract that calls for a longer school day and year. In other words, the UFT is promoting “charter-lite” schools where teachers will get little or no representation or protection from the union, but will still be on the hook for union dues. It’s not too much of a stretch to see how younger teachers, all raised in the post-Reagan neoliberal era, might be receptive to saving that $1,200 a year, rather than having it deducted for an organization that does less and less for them.
It’s not too far-fetched to imagine teachers in schools threatened with closing or reorganization – and yes, we will see a resurgence of that in the coming years, despite the warm and fuzzy things people tell each other about DeBlasio and Farina – being offered financial assistance from the same people funding charter schools, so long as they go charter-lite. “PROSE (the acronym for the contract-free schools) or close” will be coming soon to schools here in NYC very soon.
Bashing teachers is nothing new. Look what happened to Socrates! Talk about your digruntled parents and taxpayers! I had to look up the exact source of the old saw, “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”. I thought it was Twain’s remark, but was Shaw’s.
There are many teachers in my family, and my husband and I are both academics. We ponder teacher-bashing a lot, and it forces us to confront our own grudges and resentments, some very old (Yes, Mr. Arrogant Sixth Grade Teacher, I’m looking at you!) and some more recent (and at you, Mr. Plays Favorites Golf Coach!) because of having kids in school. So, yeah, I agree that personal grievances play a part.
But, I also think there are other factors at work here, a big one being resentment over teachers’ *fabulous* salaries and benefits. All those guaranteed raises! All those traditional pensions! All that free time and school breaks! Teachers’ jobs and benefits, by no means fabulous, still look pretty good in a recession or to anyone who struggles in low-wage, no-benefit jobs. Anti-union forces seem to have co-opted this particular grudge very well, sadly.
Then, of course, there are the social and/or religious conservatives who hate, hate, hate that God and Jesus and Creationism can’t be taught as, er, Gospel Truth in “government schools”.
Let us also not forget the elements of American pragmatism and dislike of paying taxes. Learning should have practical value, and taxes should not support People or Things They Don’t Agree With.
I could probably find more reasons, but now I’ve gotten really curious to find out if Mrs. Mean Eight-Grade English Teacher Who Gave Me Detention has kicked the bucket yet.
wonderful
BTW:
Mr. Schimezzi, 5th-grade teacher, if you are still alive and out there somewhere, thank you!!! I turned out pretty darned well. You wouldn’t believe the things I know!!! (Actually, you would. You always believed in us.) You would be proud. All those trailheads you pointed out? I’ve been down every one of them. I’ve mapped them out. Heck, on some of them I’ve camped out for YEARS to get to know the flora and fauna and even learn a bit of some of their languages! I’ve swum in those lakes. I’ve climbed those mountains. I’ve lolled in that grass–down those paths, whose trailheads you pointed out, long, long ago. Thank you, dear man, holder of that most noble of all titles: teacher.
There is teacher bashing because we are working in an environment of fear and intimidation and “battering” from the top down bullying. We have no support and validation, only harsh criticism and impossible inappropriate curriculum and unrealistic performance demands for ourselves and our students. How can we be expected to be productive? Our professional expertise and talents are being wasted as we follow the mundane Common Core script and watch helplessly as the children suffer from this CCSS insanity. We are getting burned out. I have several colleagues who are being treated for depression and PTSD. I am updating my resume in an attempt to begin a new career.
A talented and creative teacher can only tolerate so much abuse until they either leave or join the growing number of teachers now known to have “battered teacher syndrome”. (same as Stockholm Syndrome or “battered person syndrome”.)
We can’t pretend that we are doing a good job because we aren’t. We’re only human. We need someone to make the bullies “back off” rather than just complain about it! The CCSS doesn’t need teachers, just computer robots.
I’m giving up my profession to preserve my sanity and my dignity.
I’m heading in the other direction, back into teaching. EVERYONE I KNOW SAYS THAT I AM INSANE TO DO THIS in the current climate.
I say, yeah, I know. You’re right. Stark raving mad. And you can tell me, “I told you so” a few years from now, but I’m a teacher. A teacher’s gotta teach.
To all teachers who are victims of injustice, discrimination, a poor work environment and uncaring politicians and union leaders: lawyer up. Things will change when juries hear individual cases and the those responsible for defamation will also be responsible for the damages they have caused. Remember, the super-rich have have reminded us of one thing: in America, money talk$$$$$$$$.
Most lawyers in my area won’t touch education law or teachers’ rights. The few who might are far too expensive on a teacher’s salary.
When the New York City Department of Education ( as Bloomberg liked to call it having stripped it of any independence) decided to change the way schools were budgeted, that was the beginning of the attack on experienced educators.
Previously, the average cost of the Teacher was the cost a school would see against its budget-the average across the District or the City.
For twelve years now, Principals have to decide whether they want two newbies or one experienced teacher. This pressure led to many brand school leaders (many brand new and untenured) hiring inexperienced staff who were themselves brand new and untenured.
If one looks at the success of any new staff, despite a lot of eagerness and energy, the first and second year is shaky.It’s Probably true for most complicated jobs. It’s Certainly true for teaching.
That practice has not changed under the new Mayor, and with budgets especially tight due to the continuing tough economy, unless someone at City Hall wakes up, the constant rotation of new staff in, and experienced staff out will continue to be very bad for kids. It will also continue to be bad for the highly touted ‘scores’ schools make.
Remember–a child gets one shot at (for example) fourth grade. Would you want your kid, or anyone’s kid, to be victimized by a constant stream of newly minted teaching staff putting in a three year stint?
Why the City has not been sued for rampant age discrimination is an interesting question.
In this, the 11th hour of our democracy, as the lights go out, what right does a person who voted Republican, have to decry the similarity of the two parties?
After Republican-appointed justices gutted (and, gut) worker protections, where could Democratic politicians turn for funding, except business?
Recently, I attended a campaign fund raiser for an Ohio Democrat. After his two hour plea, at the home of a middle class voter, he cleared maybe a $1000. A viable campaign for state office requires $600,000. Business owners, through the gratis of Republican-appointed judges, can donate the profits from the products you and I buy, without limit. Democratic campaign donations in Ohio, reportedly provoked Karl Rove to joke about
piddling amounts, not worth cashing.
Preceding the wake for public education, should have been sorrow for a two-party system, in which one party lacked the means to survive.
The teacher bashing sickens me. I grew up admiring and adoring my teachers!
I did. My part to stand up for teachers this week in the district I live in where they are having difficult contract negotiations: http://www.icrctv.com/video/mason-board-education-52714
My “speech” (less than5 min) is at the 20 min mark under the”public hearings” section of the agenda. Diane, all you frequent commenters and BATS gave me the courage (THANKS ALL!). The teachers were so obviously touched (some later told me they were moved to tears) that it struck me how badly in need of appreciation teachers are. Sad.
Next up: I’m planning to address the board in 2 weeks with my anti CC$$, anti high stakes testing rant. We’ll see!
The new contract proposal has a streamlined system for firing ATRs. It presupposes some very positive character attributes, on the part of the admins.
I spoke with an ATR at my site a couple of weeks ago. 23 years experience. Very concerned for his future.
I cannot begin to tell you of the tragedy and the trauma that attended the end of the careers of teacher in NYC. It happened to b in 1998 when I was the NYS Educator of Excellence and they threw charges of Corporal punishment and incompetence to mention only two of the slanderous allegations they used to harass me into retirement at the pinnacle of my career.
For 16 years I have followed the tariff tears and trauma that the absence of due process caused. I meet an ATR at the gym regularly. I want to cry each time she tells me what the reality is in NYC. This wonderful piece only scratches the surface.