YOU CAN FIGHT GRADE INFLATION/FRAUD BY USING THE UFT CONTRACT

I have been attempting for a long time to get the UFT members who read this blog to step up to the plate to take action in defense of teacher rights.  I haven't been overly successful for sure except for inducing comments. Unfortunately, anonymous comments here or comments on Facebook aren't going to do anything more than allow people to vent about horrible working conditions in many schools. For anyone who has a spine or wants to grow one, please don't comment but rather take action. The Contract is generally on our side when it comes to student grades. Let us now examine how to use it.

Article 8D. Students’ Grades
The teacher’s judgment in grading students is to be respected; therefore if the principal changes a student’s grade in any subject for a grading period, the principal shall notify the teacher of the reason for the change in writing.

We as the professionals are contractually entitled to judge students as we see fit (within guidelines) and a principal must inform a teacher of a grade change and put the reason for the change in writing. Administration must go on the written record to challenge a grade a teacher gives. If teachers have a school or departmental grading policy that they are adhering to, those teachers are on very solid ground contractually. It is important to document why any particular student received a certain grade. If someone is worried about being cited for not doing interventions, documenting contacts to guidance or home should be sufficient to have grades respected and it does not have to be multiple home contacts, especially if there are 34 students on a register.

I can already read the anonymous comments. I will save you the trouble.

"Anonymous said: If I assert my rights and give the students the grades they deserve, the principal and the assistant principal and maybe the superintendent will be in my room the next morning and I will be given all 1's on a setup Danielson observation."

Or

"Anonymous said: Are you crazy James? The day I grade honestly is the day I will have corporal punishment or some other charge thrown at me. No, I am going to play the game to survive."

Or

"Anonymous said: The kids don't do any work and don't show up and still pass. They feel entitled to freebies from the liberal government. I can't stop it so I'm opting out of the union instead of fighting for my rights. At least I'll have some extra money that I can put it in my TDA that only gets 7% (not 8.25%) interest because of the UFT."

Or

"Anonymous said: My principal requires us to contact parents every other day if we want to fail a student. It's easier to just pass them all.

Or

"Anonymous said: My chapter leader goes out for drinks every Friday with the principal. He won't do anything if I ask him to. My colleagues won't listen to me so I'm not doing anything."

Please spare me the above nobody will support me comments, thank you. I won't print them!

I agree with you that doing this alone might not be the smartest action if you do not have tenure, your principal is crazy, your chapter leader loves your insane principal, or you are devoid of even the slightest hint of a backbone. On the other hand, if a teacher asserted his/her rights over grades being respected and then received a negative observation, I would advise that teacher to file an APPR Complaint immediately in which I would counsel them to scream retaliation from the highest mountain peak to the chapter leader, the district representative, or if that doesn't get a response to Sue Edelman at the NY Post, to Councilman Robert Holden, and finally to ICEUFT where if you provide us with evidence, we would publish the name of the school and the principal if you are so inclined. I bet Norm (EdNotes) and Chaz would support you too.

I understand this is not easy. If you are reluctant to stand up for yourself by going at it alone as it might just be next to impossible, would you consider collective action? Workers should fight collectively.

If teachers want to fight grade inflation-fraud as a chapter, the Article 19 mandated UFT Consultation Committee meetings with the principal are a great place to raise grade inflation/fraud at the chapter level. Then, there is the often ignored Article 24 process. Again, from the Contract:

ARTICLE TWENTY-FOUR

PROFESSIONAL CONCILIATION

The Board and the Union agree that professional involvement of teachers in
educational issues should be encouraged. However, it is recognized that there may be
differences in professional judgment.
A. School Level

1. Where differences related to school-based decisions in one of the following areas
cannot be resolved, a conciliation process will be available to facilitate the resolution of
these differences:
a. Curriculum mandates
b. Textbook selection
c. Program offerings and scheduling
d. Student testing procedures and appraisal methodology
e. Pedagogical and instructional strategy, technique and methodology.

In order to utilize the conciliation process, the 
UFT chapter may request, through the
Union, the service of (a) person(s) identified as expert in conciliation. Selections of such
person(s) will be made by the Board and the Union from a list of conciliators mutually
agreed upon by the Board and the Union.

2. Within five school days, the Board Coordinator will contact the appropriate
superintendent who will promptly advise the Board Coordinator as to whether he/she will
directly address the issue.
a. If the issue is addressed by the superintendent, he/she should resolve it within ten
school days. If not resolved, the Board Coordinator will assign a conciliator at the end of
that period.
b. If the superintendent does not respond to the Board Coordinator or advises that
he/she is not addressing the issue, the Board Coordinator will assign a Conciliator within
five school days.

Notice that one of the issues that has to be addressed if a chapter asks for it is "Student testing procedures and appraisal methodology." Teachers are contractually entitled to a voice on testing and appraisal. If the standards at a school are nonexistent, as people here are constantly writing anonymously, then use the Article 24 process. Get it to the superintendent as fast as possible. Publicize it. I think chapters could very well be successful. Please no comments about the chapter leader sleeping with the principal. Get a group together and light a figurative spark under the chapter leader.

The Contract is there for members to utilize. The UFT should get ahead of the grade inflation/fraud issue instead of making nice-nice with management, particularly if the grade inflation/fraud is as widespread as readers here are leading us to believe.

For those who would rather hide in the corner and just play the game, this issue is not going away. Please read today's NY Post editorial.

The conclusion:
Bottom line: Most city kids aren’t getting the “sound, basic education” that courts have ruled the state Constitution requires. But it’s not, as past lawsuits have suggested, about the money: It’s about the DOE’s top-to-bottom complicity in hiding its failure.

Rather than face the truth, Mayor Bill de Blasio recently suggested, “There’s something wrong” with the National Assessment of Education Progress tests (the gold standard of US exams!) because they show no progress in city schools. In other words, he’d rather the fraud continue, so he can claim success.

Federal prosecutors spent years getting the goods on the city Housing Authority’s systematic coverup of its failures. Holden’s entirely right to ask for a similar exposé of the school system.

The forces that hate public schools like the NY Post Editorial Board are going to use grade inflation-fraud as another excuse to privatize the schools. We can and should get ahead of them by blaming the city and central Department of Education for the lack of integrity in certain schools as this is a top-down dictatorial type school system. We should be demanding that grade inflation is stopped and that integrity is restored to the schools. Empowering teachers is the way to accomplish this as it was done before former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Chancellor Joel Klein basically destroyed teacher voice at the school level. UFT chapters were a very good check on the system before Bloomberg-Klein. 

There is one major caveat here. I am asking for reasonable standards and responsible grading. I was often considered a rather easy grader but now my standards would be considered rigorous. I am definitely not condoning teachers who demand graduate school level work in a high school course and find every student lacking. We can start to restore some sanity by pushing for an easily enforceable seat time requirement for a student to receive credit. Joel Klein took the 90% attendance requirement to be promoted out of the Chancellor's Regulations. Let's insist that it be placed back in.

For those who think this can't be done legally, I submit a part of State Education Regulation 104.1:

Purpose:

(3) ensure sufficient pupil attendance at all scheduled periods of actual instruction or supervised study activities to permit such pupils to succeed at meeting the State learning standards.

And further down:

(v) a description of the school district, BOCES, charter school, county vocational education and extension board or nonpublic school policy regarding pupil attendance and a pupil's ability to receive course credit. Any board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board or county vocational education and extension board that adopts a policy establishing a minimum standard of attendance in order for a pupil to be eligible for course credit shall have the authority to determine that a properly excused pupil absence, for which the pupil has performed any assigned make up work, shall not be counted as an absence for the purpose of determining the pupil's eligibility for course credit under such policy. In the event a board of education, board of cooperative educational services, charter school board or county vocational education and extension board adopts a minimum attendance standard as a component of its policy, such policy shall include a description of the notice to a pupil's parent(s) or person(s) in parental relation as well as the specific intervention strategies to be employed prior to the denial of course credit to the pupil for insufficient attendance.

Positive change can occur but more people have to step up and demand it.