For those who worked as regular teachers and were rated in Advance during the 2015-16 school year, our final Advance rating is finally available in our DOE email.
If anyone cares, I am still effective but now I'm highly effective in two out of three categories. I guess I am improving with age.
Well maybe not.
I am not disputing the judgment of the administrators at Middle College High School - where I have worked the last two years - or taking anything away from the fine results on the only Regents exam MCHS kids take. The observations and test results were all thrown into a sausage grinder to make up my rating which went up again this year. However, I don't see myself as any better as a teacher than I was two years ago at Jamaica High School when almost all of the teachers were rated either developing or ineffective in a closing school.
I've altered my style in a progressive school that does not emphasize testing but I'm still basically the same teacher.
Advance to me is a sad joke on all of us and what replaces it will be a bigger one.
As New York Supreme Court Judge Roger McDonough said in his decision in the Sheri Lederman case, this system of rating teachers is "Arbitrary and Capricious"... and sadly yes.... a big joke on all of us.
ReplyDeleteI wear several hats in my school, important roles that bring lots of value to the school. Most of them rob me of the time I could use during school to prepare lessons and materials. My classes are regularly canceled so I can fulfill my many roles. I am my schools computer teacher. The school regularly purchases several online programs that all compete for the limited time (once a week) my students see me. For much of the school year my students simply walk in, log on and use the programs. I often take advantage of this to work on further fulfilling my many roles as I'm more like a monitor than teacher. That being said, I have to put on a song and dance for my observations and prepare lessons and demonstrate my Danielson skills. I find it all very frustrating and unfair, as none of the other stuff I am doing seems to count. I get threes in categories I think I deserve higher in, but my performance isn't as polished as the classroom teachers (thanks to them and all the extra non-computer stuff I do and programs I'm told to use) so they don't give me fours. I miss the good old days before Mulgrew sold us out and I could choose to be rated by my performance on all the other stuff and value I bring to my school. My Administration praises me for what I do, but then rates me lower based solely on an unfair comparison on my teaching performance. Yes, I know they are supposed to judge solely on the basis of meeting the criteria on the Danielson rubrics and not directly compare me to others, but lets be real that is what they do. I think I deserve higher ratings, but I've learned it only disgruntles them to argue for higher ratings, so I trudge on killing myself doing all the other stuff for the school and students and accept I am an underrated effective. How our union can't see to fight for changes in the evaluation system to account in some way for all the extra value many teachers bring to their schools is beyond me. Well, not really. Mulgrew and our union are completely out of touch with reality and seemingly have no interest in doing much about anything. Sad really sad.
ReplyDeleteBe glad you are effective. Who gives a shit about highly? You stay employed.
ReplyDelete"Be glad you are effective. Who gives a shit about highly? You stay employed."
ReplyDeleteExactly - two years job security. And to think some people still believe TENURE really is what it used to be. Tenure is all about how the numbers look on a day in early September on a computer screen that you have to wait to open while in the seconds waiting for it to open you feel a bit of anxiety because you have literally no clue how half of that portion of the number you're going to see in the next few seconds on that screen was calculated. Who believes this stuff as true save the teachers who live it.
I was very worried looking at mine. I can't understand it but saw it was effective and I breathed a sigh of relief. I couldn't care less about highly effective.
ReplyDeleteIm a second year teacher and i trying to figure out what my next step is. An older teacher said something about working for the union. How do you get a job in the union anyway?
ReplyDeleteJoin Unity Caucus and kiss some butts. A job will soon thereafter be offered.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't ever say anything nice about anything written on this blog if you want to move up in the union.
ReplyDelete5:00, as a second year teacher you are obviously qualified to be a principal already. In the meantime you should focus on getting tenure.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 6:11 thank you for the laugh.
ReplyDeleteAs for these ratings, I got my effective so I don't really care- but I'll be damned if I can figure out how my growth was measured- because they almost literally compared apples and oranges.
Ratings of pedagogical staff in the NYC School System are virtually meaningless. The Gill Commission concluded such many years ago. Things have only gotten worse with the passage of time, what with all the changes to Education Law and various regulations, plus the adoption of unrealistic rubrics.
ReplyDelete