Read this story if you want to understand why teachers need tenure and unions.
Ralph Ratto is in a state of shock.
His small district is successful by current measures. But a new superintendent decided to disrupt everything and everyone.
“Today the administration decided to shuffle the personnel in our very successful district. Our small K-6 district (New Hyde Park- Garden City Park) has 4 buildings and 145 teachers. I am the local President ( full disclosure).
“Take a look at our NYS report card. Even though I am totally against this type of data, the data shows that we are extremely successful. With this success, one would think that our new Superintendent and our 4 brand new building principals would look towards our successes, collaborate with staff and look to build on them.
“Unfortunately, they have chosen to do the exact opposite. They announced a major shake up of most of the teachers here. They changed our grades we will teach, changed rooms and have us even changing buildings They are taking teachers who have spent many years in lower grades and assigning them to upper grades and vice a versa. They have refused to share the rationale for this upheaval.
“I am well aware that every year there needs to be some changes, due to enrollment and other needs. Those changes are often rational decisions with some teacher input. Not this year! We have been told nothing except this is your new assignment.
As our Local President, I believe my new assignment in another building is due to my position as President. That will not stand. I have has a successful 19 year career and I will be damned if they will get away with this.”
Why? He doesn’t know. No one will say. Disruption is not an end in itself.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I have been through the shake up, wake up call of some new superintendents. In our case it was mostly senior staff being reassigned. The prevailing belief was these reassignments were intended to drive some teachers at the top of the pay scale into retirement. In fact, it did push some teachers to turn in their papers.
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These arbitrary moves with no objective, obvious or useful rationale are really designed as a baseball bat against teachers feeling safe or comfortable in their current positions. The message being sent to teachers with these mass forced evictions is: be afraid, be very afraid, we are coming after you with our hounds from hell. It’s just a matter of some new administrator trying to make a name for himself at the expense of the teachers and treating teachers as so much cattle.
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Why? Simple – to get rid of the veterans. New York has pretty good union protections as far as not getting fired for arbitrary reasons, so you have to find ways to get those pesky overpriced veterans out the door somehow. Swapping your eighth grade teacher with your kindergarten teacher is one of the quickest ways to do that. And among those who stay, anyone willing to put up with that kind of abuse will put up with just about any abuse, so win-win whether teachers leave or stay.
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New York teachers have due process rights, but there are no protections against reassignments as long as a teacher is assigned in his/her tenure area.
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Exactly. So reassignment is a way to work around due process. No need to fire someone if you can get them to walk out the door voluntarily.
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For teaching staff to be fully valued, they should be part of the dialogue when changes occur. I was moved, unfairly, to a job I held six years prior with no concern for the program I built during the time I was out of that position. My principal who was a very kind person didn’t even try to fight for me because he knew he ultimately had no say. It was just business, but it stressed me out in the middle of my career when I should have been working to further my craft. Disruptions are often necessary, but without teaching staff as partners, they become dictatorial. I’m tired of people who say “you’re a professional…just do the job they offer you and shut up. Some people aren’t lucky enough to even have a job.” Yes, I was doing my job until you moved me without any input from me. Nothing is more insulting to a veteran than to be accused of complaining instead of doing his or her job. My students and their parents were sick over it, but nobody cares ultimately. You’re filling a position for them.
Sorry to hear you are feeling the bite of stupidity in administration, Ralph. You are a tough cookie, though. I know you’ll figure out the correct course of action on this.
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“My principal who was a very kind person didn’t even try to fight for me….”
Maybe he was “nice”, but he wasn’t kind. Kindness means you back up your people even if you know it’s a losing battle. The silence of our friends, after all….
I’m really sick of “nice”. If I’m going to get stabbed in the back, I’d just prefer that the stabber be a jerk about it so there’s no mistaking who’s who.
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As Dienne noted “My principal who was a very kind person didn’t even try to fight for me because he knew he ultimately had no say.”
All I can say is that is a prime example of candy-assed chicken-shitted adminimal behavior.
That principal was only worried about his own arse, nothing more. Disgusting! Seen that crap way too many times.
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Absolutely right, Duane–and God knows I’ve seen nothing but the type of administrator you describe.
And thanks for saying it.
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De nada.
I just say it (write it) as I perceive it. Those perceptions may or may not be accurate impressions of reality on my being, but it’s all I got, eh!
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Making kindergarten teachers teach high school physics and vice versa would make the schools very ineffective. This is not just an act of disruption; it is an act of destruction. It will make the public schools unappealing, no matter how hard the teachers try to overcome the new hurdles placed before them.
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What you describe would not happen, but a kindergarten teacher could be sent to teach 6th grade in another district building because it is in the same tenure area. At least these are the rules in New York. I do not know what happens in other states.
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Everything that is happening in the disruption of the public sector and subversion of the US Constitution was planned long ago by David and Charles Koch and their ALEC allies.
These disrupters had a long-term vision of what they wanted the United States to become and set out back in the 1970s, or even earlier, to achieve those goals.
With Trump in the White House, Besty DeVos in the Department of Education and so many more ALEC members in positions of power in the Trump administration, and a GOP controlled by them, the disrupters of civilization as we know it, the haters, the segregationists, the fascists and autocrats, those that worship at the Milton Friedman altar of avarice, is moving forward at full speed to subvert the US Constitution and destroy humanity and turn the world into a dystopian nightmare for everyone but them and their most trust henchmen.
What is happening today has happened before throughout history. For instance, it happened to every major imperial dynasty in China, to the Roman Republic and many more.
It seems that the psychos and/or malignant narcissist, (it is estimated that they represent 1% of the total population and their primary goal throughout history has been to become powerful) that crave attention and power have existed for thousands of years and are the agents of destruction for human civilization … repeatedly time and time again.
Even if we stop them this time and all the current ones die off, more will rise up to replace them. The fight for sanity and a livable world for most if not all of us is a never-ending struggle because of people like the Koch twins and Donald Trump.
I think I have read way too much history.
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Nah, not too much reading. It’s that you put it all together to show that human nature is such that people will follow their “leaders” to a certain downfall. It may take a while but it nonetheless is the way it all seems to work. Too few demand too much and too many are willing to do the bidding of those too few.
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I poked around the school website.
This is a k-6 grade district and the shifts may well be in place to accelerate the dismissal of “expensive teachers,” and save money for new investments in tech, including Chrome Books, Schoology software and resources for an envisioned STEAM program– the A is for Arts. There is a lot of curriculum churn in reading and social studies as well.
gcp.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=18&dataid=48&FileName=three%20year%20plan.pdf
Budget issues are here. https://www.nhp-gcp.org/domain/61
(Not to be out-acronymed, the new iteration is STREAM – science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math. I will let others figure out an acronym for everything under the sun that might be designated as a subject for study under the auspices of schools).
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Pretty heavy for a K-6 school. Engineering?
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Not to mention, once again, WHERE ARE THE SOCIAL SCIENCES????? One of the main reasons for public education–making informed citizens–always seems to be left out of these acronyms. Frankly, it explains a lot with the low voter turnout, and the selection of some, um, interesting candidates. History, geography, civics, etc. aren’t prized anymore.
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not prized, and strategically eliminated in poorest schools
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Threatened
There was an interesting article written last October in the Atlantic that talks about the elimination of social studies from schools
“Americans Have Given Up on Public Schools. That’s a Mistake.
The current debate over public education underestimates its value—and forgets its purpose.”
ERIKA CHRISTAKIS OCTOBER 2017 ISSUE
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/10/the-war-on-public-schools/537903/
From the article:
“Our public-education system is about much more than personal achievement; it is about preparing people to work together to advance not just themselves but society. Unfortunately, the current debate’s focus on individual rights and choices has distracted many politicians and policy makers from a key stakeholder: our nation as a whole. As a result, a cynicism has taken root that suggests there is no hope for public education. This is demonstrably false. It’s also dangerous.”
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The Atlantic has the nerve to tell us we shouldn’t give up on public education? They’ve been among the biggest cheerleaders of privatization, especially charters, from the get-go. I had a free subscription for a year and I called to cancel even that when they went off half-cocked promoting the New Orleans “miracle”. That rag is run by neoliberal-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg who’s never met a public good that couldn’t be privatized.
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Holy cow … INSANE. Feel sorry for those kids. They are being “MIND MINED.” Scary.
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Disruption appears to be in the air. It has been affecting my breathing and heart rate since November 2016. Can’t imagine what’s causing it.
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The superintendent is Jennifer Morrison, Ed.D.
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Of course she has an Ed.D. They’re the most ignorant of all.
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A little more info for you all.. We understand that some changes always need to be made for a various reasons. In addition, some teachers seem to be happy with some of these changes as well.
The big problem here is that as union leaders we have requested information regarding her plans for months. I have always told her that we need to go ” up the ladder together”
Her response has always been, we don’t have to tell you why. We don’t have to tell you anything until we are ready to announce the changes.
So now we have a situation where the Board President calls me an obstacle and I get shoved out of the only building I have always taught in, ( I even went to school here). Clearly they targeted me.
BTW do little more research. The district she just came from is looking at laying off 71 people.
I want to thank everyone for the support and outreach I am receiving. The validation is priceless.
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Transfers can also be a form of retaliation, but it is impossible to prove. The administration can always come up with another reason to justify the transfer.
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Thank you for this update. I really appreciate you not trying to leave out any mitigating facts to give readers a fuller understanding.
From a parent’s perspective — I have seen this from both sides. I see administrators unwilling to do the things they need to do to make sure a teacher with decades of experience who is just phoning it in will leave. And I see excellent teachers not afraid to rock the boat who are not liked by administrators and they get switched to different grades which will obviously make their job harder.
FWIW, the excellent teacher picked herself up and did her usual excellent job in the different grade to which she was assigned. And she did an excellent job when they assigned her to a different grade again. I’m sure it was a lot more work on her part to start in a new grade and still keep up her high standards of teaching but I think the administration eventually realized they were being stupid to treat her this way because that teacher was among the best in the school.
It sounds as if you are a very good teacher and I hope you will stick it and do your usual excellent job even if it is in a new school or new grade.
(I think regardless of the union or not, there are always favored teachers who get assigned to better jobs even if there are more qualified teachers and those favored teachers are just as likely to be high up in the union as at the bottom — it really depends on the administrator. )
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rratto: you have something all the rheephormsters in the world will never have…
You can get up in the morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and not be ashamed to look at the face staring back.
And unlike them you can do this without inflicting the severest forms of Rheeality Distortion Fields on yourself aka engaging in shameless self-serving self-delusion.
It may not take much of the initial sting out of the casual contempt with which they treat you, but remember what a true American hero, Frederick Douglass, said about such folks:
“A gentleman will not insult me, and no man not a gentleman can insult me.”
Stand tall.
😎
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“The Deformirror”
One way mirror
Little help
For finding error
In one-self
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I grew up New Hyde Park. I went to school in the zoned districts there. I received a superb education and loved the facilities and teachers. School was my safe haven.
I am shocked, and at the same time, given the reform movement, tax caps, shrinking funding, etc. I am not at all surprised that the Superintendent wants to restructure, reform, revamp, and clean house, even if it means removing many, many great teachers through “incentivization”. I’d like to know if this Superintendent came from the NYC public schools.
The key questions in my mind are:
How do parents feel about this?
How does the Board feel about this?
Absolute transparency from both stakeholders needs to be obtained.
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But…”it’s all about the kids.” Right; it makes perfect sense to take an experienced, highly professional, extremely successful 6th Grade S.S. teacher & put her in a 3rd Grade classroom. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to hear about an excellent teacher “picking herself up” & doing the same excellent job in another grade or another building or another subject. No! So, she may “pick herself up” & continue to do an excellent job, but what about the 1st Grade Teacher they swutched her with, the one who is now getting the 6th Grade kids? They did this in my school district 8 years ago, & it was an out-&-out disaster. Yes, most of the teachers at our middle school moved & “readjusted” or retired. But the teachers transferred in from the lower grades could not handle the middle school kids. And, as hard as it was on these teachers, can you imagine how bad the learning environment was for the kids?! Honestly, does any other profession do this? Do law firms tell their lawyers, “Okay, we know you’ve been practicing criminal law, but now we want to transfer you to do real estate law. Imagine the medical profession: “The hospital system needs another geriatric doctor, so you’ll no longer be a pediatrician: you’ll now be working w/our geriatric patients.”
I always wanted to work with younger children (& was in Early Childhood Sp.Ed. for 13 yrs., ending w/a maternity leave) and my training & my additional certifications reflect as much, but they transferred me to middle school (which actually worked out, but because I was a resource teacher & was not put in charge of a self-contained class, which would have been a disaster). Just as lawyers & doctors train for specific areas of medicine & law so, too, do teachers.
But I forget. We are not looked upon as professionals.
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I first heard about this punitive grade switching of teachers when I went to San Diego to study the first district subjected to a harsh reform regime. The superintendent was lawyer Alan Bersin, and he was rolling out all the top down orders, imposing a new curriculum, subjecting teachers to re-education. The experts descended from across the nation, hailing the transformation of the district. I wrote a charter about SD in “The Death and Life of the Great American School System.” San Diego was the template for NYC.
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By and large, lawyers are not fact driven. They are driven to “facts” rather than by them.
The standard procedure is to adopt a position first (guilt or innocence) and then go hunting for “facts” to support that position, dismissing or just ignoring any actual facts that do not fit their case.
This is precisely the opposite of what good scientists do.
We need scientists as superintendents rather than lawyers.
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retiredbutmissthekids,
I agree with much of what you say but I do think that individual situations can be different.
Switching from an elementary grade to a different elementary grade is different than throwing a Kindergarten teacher into an 8th Grade Algebra class. or vice versa.
“what about the 1st Grade Teacher they switched her with, the one who is now getting the 6th Grade kids?”
I think it depends on the situation. I would not assume that just because someone accepted a job opening for a first grade teacher it means that person is not qualified to teach 6th grade social studies.
I don’t think it is a fair analogy to compare switching from one elementary school grade to another with a pediatrician being sent to the geriatric ward.
It is probably more correct to compare a pediatrician who has spent the last 5 years treating only infants and toddlers to a practice of all elementary school age kids, which they should be perfectly qualified to do. Or even sent to a practice of mostly middle school children instead of newborns. Maybe that pediatrician would be terrific with those older children.
If you don’t accept that the pediatrician should be trained to treat all children, you end up in a system where whatever job a pediatrician ends up in first is the only job they are “qualified” for. If a pediatrician first has a job working with the very youngest children, they’d have to be sure to leave within 2 or 3 years or people would assume that they no longer are “qualified” to work with older patients.
I agree with you that this can be used punitively (which is why I support the union very strongly) but I also think that simply asking a teacher who feels very comfortable in the job they have done for 20 years to take on a different job that they should be qualified for is not necessarily a bad thing.
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“Grade switching”
Why not switch the student?
Instead of switching teacher?
High school is quite prudent
For former first-grade creature
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“Grade switching” (take2)
Why not switch the student?
Instead of switching teacher?
High school’s very prudent
For former first-grade creature
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“Clearly they targeted me.”
More unethical adminimal behavior-“Gotta show that upstart rratto who the real boss is!”
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“Reform School”
Their product is disruption
Their pitch is “failing schools”
With lots of rank corruption
And loads of testing tools
Their goal is liquidation
And everything must go
The essence of the Nation
The public schools we know
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THEIR PRODUCT is the disruption: teachers look around wondering where the value is in so much chaos and disruption, and repeatedly stand up to say that it is causing great harm to the children. The poorest children have less and less chance at education, fewer and fewer arts/music/sports scholarships — and thus less chance at growing up to become functioning, socially powerful voting adults. Their product IS the disruption.
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Amen.
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They do it because they can, because it breaks up collaborative groups that might work against them, and keeps everybody on edge so they don’t realize what is being done to them. Pretty much what Trump is doing. “We have demonstrated our efficiency by rounding up twice the usual number of suspects.”
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Late entry.
The Supreme Court just ruled in favor of corporate power to force workers into contracts with arbitration clauses. The decision was 5 to 4 with RBG writing a long minority opinion. This ruling will empower corporations, diminish the voice of whistleblowers, eliminate most class action and union collective actions against employers. These clauses will surely become a feature of contracts in all commercial exchanges as well as human services, including policing, firefighting, health care, and education. I am no legal expert, but forced arbitration agreements when you sign up for a service really cripple all consumer/user rights. Think of the implications of the tech-centric education being pushed and the delight of software providers, less work about collective action if there are privacy violations. The Koch brothers and Mercer families are surely smiling along with professionals in arbitration.
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Folks, I hit a raw nerve when I mentioned my current supes failure in her former district. Especially when I bring up quotes like this:
Her former superintendent tells Newsday the “district has been living beyond its budget for a number of years.”
71 people may lose their jobs http://longisland.news12.com/story/37844827/eastport-south-manor-sd-to-propose-71-staff-cuts
Shouldn’t I be concerned about our future?
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