Thursday, September 28, 2017

MULGREW CITES STATS TO TELL CHAPTER LEADERS NEW EVALUATION SYSTEM IS A HUGE UFT WIN

NYC Educator has a comprehensive report on Wednesday's citywide chapter leader meeting.

We expected President Michael Mulgrew to take a victory lap on the latest version of the teacher evaluation system because with Measures of Student Learning counting for half of teacher ratings, it is easy for teachers and principals (they are also rated by this system) to manipulate the student growth portion of the ratings. I knew my own highly effective rating was a joke. I also kind of figured that if I was highly effective, many other people be rated that way and that was confirmed when everyone in my school received highly effective.

The Department of Education has responded, not by accepting the overall higher ratings, but by ignoring them. Some examples:

  • In their new Absent Teacher Reserve policy, the DOE will only count the Measures of Teaching Practice (observations) part of the rating when deciding if a teacher s assigned to a vacancy stays or goes from a school.
  • The DOE is discontinuing non-tenured teachers who have effective ratings.
  • The DOE is charging tenured teachers in incompetence hearings who do not have any ineffective ratings but only have developing ratings.
  • The DOE is terminating and forcing tenured teachers to resign in state disciplinary hearings after only one ineffective rating. Read about it at the Chaz blog.
We need our High School Executive Board members to ask if fewer non-tenured teachers are being discontinued and if there is a reduction in tenured teachers facing charges through the state teacher disciplinary process.

We admit that only a few teachers will have the burden of proof shifted to them in dismissal hearings which was our biggest fear with the new evaluation system. There are still a few tenured teachers who have to prove they are not incompetent because of two ineffective ratings and they most probably work in schools where students have the greatest needs. There should be no teachers who carry that difficult burden of proof.

If tenured teachers are still being dismissed and charged at the same rate as they were before, then is it worth it that we all have more observations and anxiety compared to the old satisfactory/unsatisfactory system where it was one and done for the year for observations for most tenured teachers at or above Salary Step 8B?

We must have more hard numbers to answer that question.

For non tenured teachers, do you really care if you are rated effective if you no longer have a job?

Mulgrew's Report on evaluations from NYC Educator:

Teacher evaluation—our favorite topic for last 8 years—within one year of RttT, districts were using new evaluations. States needed the money. Politically, test scores were the fad. Problem I had was passing percentage. Made me nuts, because we always had standardized testing and were looked upon as horrible. Rest of state doesn’t teach same children we do. How long would some of our colleagues around state last in our classrooms?

Remember when we recruited teachers? Many couldn’t understand how children were allowed to act certain ways and left quickly.

There were no good old days of teacher evaluation. Ratings were based on how principal thought of teacher. Did nothing to help us develop.

Decided if we were going to move forward it had to be about growth—where does a child come in and where does he leave? That is what validates our work, not whether he can pass a test. Not same work teaching AP and at-risk. If it’s about test score, I’m putting myself at risk by teaching at risk.

Bloomberg presented a formula to us that said 85% was about passing a test. They didn’t know about variables for special ed. They used one variable and did not consider different disabilities. They were all business majors. We continued that fight. Test scores should not be only thing we measure. We pushed authentic student learning when Cuomo’s rating plummeted.

We do not want to go back to when principal decides if he likes me or not and gives a U or an S. We wanted something that gave a true understanding of what we do, and needed a check and balance against the principal.

If there is evidence about student learning, and principal says I’m bad, then principal’s word is not valid. City would never agree. Mentions matrix, to applause. Blogs said matrix would kill us. I read all the blogs. We have a lot of smart people. We got this into the law because we won the argument in Albany.

I know it looks a little weird, and I heard all the jokes, and said just wait until it kicks in. I know we were onto something because now they don’t want to negotiate overall rating. They want just MOTS. We say no, they must use overall rating. We are not gloating.

When this started 8 years ago, my own experience was there was no support. The only reason I’m still a teacher is because of a teacher I shared a room with. He said I needed help. We don’t have a system that helps people understand how difficult our profession is. We force administrators to do observation in a way that they have to talk about our craft. We take children at all different levels in September and we move them. It’s not about a test. I wanted to validate what we do in NYC.

DOE is way behind on how to do observations correctly. Some schools have collaborative processes.

25.88% highly effective this year. Up from 22.
71.1% effective down from 81.
2.68% developing down from 6%
.34% ineffective down from 1%

Editor's Note: The numbers add up to 110% on last year's system.)

Post will lose its mind, say we hoodwinked them. Some people want to go back to “good old days.” We took journey and figured out basis was student growth. For first time, NYC outperforms rest of state of NY. We’re better at it because we have more experience with children with disabilities and ELLs. Those are areas of growth. Are those kids being educated in schools that say they’re better than us?

20 comments:

  1. 2 Observations and Parking Permit Guy is gonna chime in! I am 100% disgusted with what Mulgrew said in regard to our current evaluation system. He says there "was no such thing as the good old days of teacher evaluations". What a load of crap. Every single teacher I know misses those "old days" when we would only get observed once a year as tenured teachers. Mulgrew has been out of the wood shop for so long that he never had to be observed under the 4+ observations with Danielson. I am so livid that he is trying to say that everything is great with our observation system. To me, and countless other teachers it is the bane of our teaching day. We wonder each and every day if today is going to be the day for a drive by observation. I read that NYSUT is trying to get evaluations to change so they can be bargained at the local level. Does ANYBODY have an info on this?

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  2. I've been having panic attacks since I've had my IPC and know I'm fair game for an informal. My AP is a miserable bastard- he likes you, you're highly effective, he doesn't and you're borderline developing/effective. I can't do this too much longer, because the job is making me sick.

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  3. I could easily have copied the numbers wrong, so please don't take that as definitive.

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  4. Numbers don't mean squat. We are all living in fear of these observations and the evaluation system. The fact that the UFT just laid on their back and agreed to 4+ observations when the rest of NYS has 2 makes me sick to my stomach. I literally have insomnia and diagnosed anxiety fearing for my job due to this. In the "old" days, I loved coming into my school because I knew that I was never going to be put on the spot and looked at from a Danielson microscope. I knew I was a good teacher any my observations proved that. Now, I feel like a washed up porn star. I am only as good as my last observation. I have to prove my self to admins who don't give a shit about all that I have done over that past 20 years.

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  5. This professions is going to the pits and being handed over to psychopathic administrators and noneducators - politicians, business people, etc.

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  6. We all love to complain about Mulgrew but the fact is he won the last election by like 77% . What does that say about the membership?!

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  7. Administrators now spend a large chunk of time doing observations. The last school I was in admins were still doing observations in June! The school I am in now just hired an F status admin to help with observations.

    Administration does not want all these obs!

    With all this paper we have to wait until the next school year to get our ratings? Something is really wrong here!

    Can we say micro management in the worst way. Everyone is stressed! Admins and teachers!!

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  8. The other union groups have to become more visible to members. Whatever other union group is the most popular, the other union groups have to back it up to get Unity out. You want Mulgrew out, that's the way to do it. Mulgrew is kissing a lot of you know what due to his own scandal years ago. Organize.

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  9. It is a well known fact that admins hate doing all these observations. Why do you think NYS reduced the minimum to 2 observations for ALL teachers? (Tenured and untenured) The simple fact that NYC has at least 4 observations is blatant politics at it's worst. NYC is the most "expensive" district in the state. Therefore, NYC has to set up a system that is rigged against teaches so as to get expensive teachers off the payroll. If anybody can prove me wrong on this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on why NYC has the highest amount of observations in all of NYS.

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  10. Forgive me folks but why all the whining? If you know what your doing in the classroom then you need to just relax. Seriously, some people commenting here sound so childish.

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    1. @ 8:22.. it's "you're NOT your. Your admin should rate you as ineffective.

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  11. I don't understand why two is better than four, especially for those with tenure. If someone is looking to get rid of you they want fewer observations, not more. If there is a fear of observations then one would be better than two. Then you could be visited once and given an Ineffective without being observed the second time. I have to agree with the UFT on this - unless someone can explain the reasoning behind wanting fewer observations, other than the fear factor.
    There is one thing I think notes consideration. When I first started teaching I was observed almost daily for a year and then monthly until I received tenure. Tenure in the past was not the rubber stamp some make it out to be. It doesn't really mean much anymore other than for discontinuing teachers to make sure it a temporary job. These four observations maybe directed at them in order to have them discontinued more easily- as there are different rules for them. The critics of this plan should look at that aspect.

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  12. my gf just got tenure in westchester; will have 1 observation every 2 years.

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  13. Some great comments on our latest greatest victory on fb. Some teachers get it.

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  14. What a bunch of whining little babies. PTSD from observations when we have .3% ineffective in the whole system? And you want sympathy? None from me.

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  15. The DOE couldn't care less about the ratings.They fire us anyway.

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  16. It should be one or two observations and then if those are rated poorly you will have more. This would at least make admin think twice about making more work for themselves unless you are terrible or they are blatantly trying to get rid of you.

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  17. Well, the graphic is up about our lump sum payment. Everybody excited?

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  18. I can make sense of more than two observations. As a veteran teacher who was harassed with unfairly rated walk throughs, I was able to beat the odds and was rated effective overall. The horrible AP I had would rate me ineffective and developing in several areas and I improved the ratings by doing the small bullshit things to pacify her. It's a stupid game. The admins take no responsibility. They tell me that I work for the DOE and hey are the boss.

    Do all required paperwork on time, work hard to stay under the radar, don't get personal or argue with the kids. That leads to accusations and investigations. Admins love to go after your job. They are trained to do that. They are like sharks. Always waiting to attack. 29 years. Several attempts at my livelihood. I'm still here and I'm retiring shortly.

    Hang in there. One day they might show compassion. Probably not though. God help people with 20 years to go. Even 5-10 years left would seem like a life sentence.

    Being mindful is going to save us if we want to remain in the system.

    Ask for clarity too. Email it to admins. Then they have to react.

    Peace and a good year. 9 more months till summer!

    Yay

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