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Abusive, Incompetent Administrators – Overlapping Problems in our Schools

Published October 6, 2014 Abusive Administrators , New York , New York CIty Department of Education , NYC Closed

(from an updated version of the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2014 Chapter Leaders’ Meeting).
For a printable version click: Fall 2014 Leaflet Front and back

The number of incompetent principals in the system, according to Carmen Fariña, is over 300. Many are the same principals who are abusive of our members, other staff, or students.

The UFT has a PINI Program – principals in need of improvement. Unfortunately, PINI is not utilized as much as it should be, and Unity Caucus will not use PINI in the hundreds of schools where members are too afraid to fight.

Campaigns against these abusers are especially needed. Can you imagine conditions so bad that your colleagues are too scared of reprisal to complain? These are schools where the union should be going in to organize, where the leadership should be addressing the problem principal directly with the Chancellor. But instead, our leadership may provide some individual support to the teachers involved, but does not challenge the abuser.

What do do: Contact your District Rep. Contact New Action. Read “A Primer on School Change” http://www.uft.org/news-stories/primer-school-change. (New York Teacher)

Some Urgent issues for today – Funding

Published October 2, 2014 New York , New York CIty Department of Education , NYC Closed
Tags: ,

(from an updated version of the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2014 Chapter Leaders’ Meeting).
For a printable version click: Fall 2014 Leaflet Front and back

Which costs more: hiring a brand new teacher, or placing a teacher whose salary is already being paid? Clearly, it is cheaper for the City to place the teacher whose salary is already being paid.

Fair Student Funding (FSF), though, perversely “charges” the principal pretend money, and leads most to avoid placing the teacher who is already on payroll!

Fair Student Funding leads to discrimination against experienced teachers, and costs the City more money!

Excessed teachers in the ATR pool will not be part of this calculation – but principals have become used to avoiding them and will continue to discriminate.

This can be easily fixed: School budgets should be charged the Citywide average teacher salary for each teacher, not school average.

Some Urgent issues for today – Teacher Evaluation

Published October 1, 2014 New Action , New York , New York CIty Department of Education , NYC , UFT , UFT Executive Board , United Federation of Teachers Closed
Tags: ,

(from an updated version of the New Action leaflet distributed at the September 2014 Chapter Leaders’ Meeting).
For a printable version click: Fall 2014 Leaflet Front and back

New Action has opposed the Teacher Evaluation System since its inception.

Rating teachers based on the Danielson model look like the “checklist” we used to decry. Tying evaluation to student test scores is inherently arbitrary and unfair.

Yet this is the system in place. What should we do?

The union worked with Fariña to creating additional observation options. The new contract reduced the number of items we are rated on. These are positive changes.

But we need more. State law linking ratings to student test scores should be amended. “Developing” ratings have consequences – including getting passed over for transfers. We need the right to appeal D’s. And we need a process for questioning the principal’s judgment BEFORE the final rating.

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