Conditions in the schools have not improved much as far as I can tell since Bill de Blasio was elected Mayor and Carmen Farina was appointed Chancellor.
The only real positive change was that only a couple of schools were turned around and had their teachers replaced as compared to many schools closing under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg with thousands of us thrown into the Absent Teacher Reserve pool. We do not know, however, what changes will come to the 90+ schools labeled failing and it is hard to be optimistic that those teachers and support staff will have any protection.
As far as day-to-day life as a teacher, nothing has really changed much that I can see in the last 14 months. In fact, it has gotten worse with the new evaluation system being fully implemented. Keeping this in mind, Farina's recent anti-teacher remarks that Ed Notes reported on are not that surprising.
Here is one of her many comments in Capital NY that I found quite troubling:
... Fariña said asking principals to weed out their weakest teachers has been her “first statement when I get into any school visit. ... I repeat it over and over again."
If that is the first point she makes to principals on school visits, then where have things gotten better for teachers?
Since Farina was a principal, she obviously has experience going after teachers. Former Chancellors Joel Klein and Dennis Walcott did not come from the schools. Their anti-teacher bias was kind of honest at least. Now we have an "educator" in charge but it isn't necessarily a step forward.
Under Bloomberg, UFT leadership did put up some resistance in public. Now, we hear from union leadership about how we have to make NYC public schools a model for the country. When the Chancellor's rhetoric is clearly anti-teacher and our morale is already at an all time low, it does not seem like we are a model for anything but the same dysfunction that we have endured for well over a decade now.
Does anyone see any improvements that I might be missing?
I totally entered "strongly disagree" with the way the chancellor has been handling the DOE on this years TEACHER SURVEY. I hope that many other teachers did the same. The problem is that most teachers do not know how destructive Farina has been as they do not follow the blogs. We must inform them of the truth. Farina is no friend of ours.
ReplyDeleteMeet the new Chancellor, the same as the other Chancellors.
ReplyDeleteshe needs to retire now like she was planning on doing on along
ReplyDeleteIn this New York City education system, with its extremely difficult work environment and complete lack of support from our employer as well as building administrators,the only way to survive is to down a Prozac shake every morning before work.
ReplyDeleteKleincottrina is the chancellor that are melded together with the purpose of being despot and not educators.
ReplyDeleteDoes Kleinwalrina have a better ring to it?
Delete'Kleincottrina' sounds like an educational disease.
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in this 50 minute memo converted to audio book of
ReplyDeleteThe Carmen Farina No One Knows - The Cobble Hill Cheating Scandal
Download: http://tinyurl.com/farinacheating
The new chancellor is no better than the old. Nothing has really changed with a new mayor. The attacks on teachers have not stopped.
ReplyDeleteFarina is a neophyte chancellor and she is operating side by side with the press and the so called "reformers"....Farina is afraid to make moves due to fear of criticism from the press so all the decisions look at how the press will treat the decisions. For example, Farina could have easily ended the ATR fiasco by getting all the educators back into the classrooms and counselor offices but her fear was that the press would label her as putting "bad" teachers into the classrooms because the press is still convinced ala our ole nemesis Klein, that atr teachers are inferior. I believe she is over 70 years of age and she no way wants to deal with NYC press scrutiny so her decisions have been delayed and flawed. NYC needs a chancellor who is rugged ala Mr. Donald Trump. Now, if we had a chancellor like Trump then we would be seeing the necessary changes needed for NYC schools in excel.
ReplyDeleteTrump is not the person who I would pick for this job.
DeleteTrump? Seriously, he seems to have a difficult time even managing his own business. I think you should consider a different leader for your proposal.
ReplyDeleteMulgrew is her lap dog. That's the real problem.
ReplyDeleteTrump's first order of business: send a notice to every ATR- "You're Fired!!" His second order of business: rename the DOE HQ at the Tweed Courthouse --to the 'Trump Plaza Courthouse'.
ReplyDeleteHow does a woman who had to retire in the middle of the night to dodge scandals with scandals get to be chancellor??
ReplyDeleteMayoral control is the answer. Mayor can pick anyone. No checks and balances. We are 0 for 3 in the mayoral control era.
ReplyDeleteAbusive and incompetent principals are protected like Dwarka, while the scores keep plummeting.
ReplyDelete