The blogger Chaz is reporting on what we are perceiving as a spike in unsatisfactory ratings for Absent Teacher Reserves who rotate from school to school on a weekly or monthly basis.
We can confirm based on people getting in touch with us that ATR unsatisfactory ratings are being doled out based on one or two trivial matters in schools. In the past these minor incidents may have not even risen to the level of someone receiving a disciplinary letter for file.
We will need some kind of coordinated response now to protect ourselves as it appears we are under attack and our union seems to be looking the other way.
The Department of Education refuses place ATRs in permanent positions and principals are reluctant to hire ATRs die to budgetary restrictions since most of us are senior teachers. Principals also reject us since we are usually veteran teachers who would go to the top of the school's seniority list which would leave junior teachers at risk of being placed in excess. We are thought of, usually wrongfully, as bad teachers because many of us are coming from closing schools.
Chancellor Carmen Farina has not exactly been teacher friendly or particularly ATR friendly since taking over in 2014. It looks like going after ATRs for basically nothing is her policy to try to get rid of as many of us as she can.
Its time for a law suit...any attorneys out there who would like to make some money?
ReplyDeleteThis is the most blatant low class move any municipality can ever imagine taking the livlihoods of people who dedicated their lives to kids. Such a shame and the best part of it all is that the DOE is the dysfunctional one here.....an organization that is so backwards it truly is a crime and students as well as hard working educators are the ones who cannot perform due to a system that is backwards to say the least.
ReplyDeleteHow squalid our ATR predicament--squeezed by an ethically compromised Chancellor and abandoned by an embarrassingly lowbrow UFT President, both corrupt in their own fashion. Farina's cover-up in the paradigm Cobble Hill Regents cheating case
ReplyDeleteis well known to city and state authorities and investigators. But none has the courage or conscience to act on the morally certain evidence I have documented and placed in their laps.
With nothing to lose, I begged Farina to fire me for calling out her lies to OSI and SCI. With everything to lose, she does not dare as explained for all to see on Youtube. Enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iVqkGmMSCY
The creation of the ATR could not have happened without the consent of the UFT. That along with the senior teacher being seen as a "financial burden". I think there should be a movement to lobby legislators to allow NYC teachers to quit the union if they so choose. Why the hell should we pay union dues for this crap.
ReplyDeleteEven though I have retired (2011) I do not support the Unity Caucus. I will not vote for them in any matter, shape, or form. I fully support the ATR's and will do all I can to help out;if it involves signing petitions or making phone calls I will volunteer. I am very angry over the way ATR'S have been treated.
ReplyDeleteWhat arrears were they rated U??? And how fair to rate any teacher who just met their class and will be leaving it shortly?
ReplyDeleteWas the ATR reading a newspaper while the class jumped over their seats?
Please provide more info so ATRs can look out for the "gotchas".
And yes, it's time to file a class action lawsuit....and include the UFT as defendant. Someone has to start the ball rolling.
How many atrs got u rated?
ReplyDeleteI thought that 'U' 'N' and 'S' ratings were a thing of the past and replaced by the Danielson H E D I ratings-and that wouldn't be made official till September.
ReplyDeleteYou need to have classes to be rated on Danielson and the student test scores.
ReplyDelete