One of the more onerous features of the disastrous 2015 Education Tranformation Act is that New York State Teachers certified since September of 2004 now must complete 100 hours of professional development every five years. The PD we do every week no longer counts under the new law as it used to. Under previous law, 175 hours of PD were required but in school PD such as faculty conferences used for PD counted toward fulfilling the requirement.
Under the current law, the UFT, DOE and other providers of PD can charge us for it. What a scam!
One member I know took to Facebook to plead the case of the teachers.
The teacher asks the UFT why the Department of Education does not count the Professional Development we do after school each week for the 100 hours required by the state education law?
Here is a copy of the UFT answer and the response from the teacher that is printed with the teacher's permission:
UFT: The state education department doesn't want to give CTLE credit for in-school PD on Mondays because it can't guarantee that all schools are providing relevant PD. We know it is frustrating but it is not in the union's power to change that policy.
The followup from the teacher:
I apreciate you getting back to me. My question is then why are we being asked to do the PD if it doesn't count? Why are we being forced to pay for something? The raise you fought for for us teachers is being given right back to the city and/or state? Most of these classes cost $200 + and we need to use our time outside of school for PD. How is that fair?
UFT Answer: I know it is frustrating. If it is any solace, the Teacher Center and the union is committed to low-cost PD for members so you shouldn't have to pay large sums for it.
The teacher replies:
Like I said I appreciate you getting back to me.
This blog has stated before in many ways that the UFT and NYSUT are unions in name only.
It is long past time for teachers to do something about this unfortunate state of affairs other than pulling union dues if, or rather when, the Supreme Court says we can.
David A. Clarke, Jr.Verified account @SheriffClarke 10m10 minutes ago
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Stop trying to fix the police. The problem is the cultural dysfunction & cultural rot of the ghetto. Fix the ghetto!
Let's go back to being with kids instead of PD.
ReplyDeleteHere we go again, "Its time we do something." Wake up james, too late. If we could do anything, this already wouldnt be happening, the raises wouldnt be 10% over 7+ years, the retro wouldnt be held back interest free for 11 years, the discipline code wouldnt be out the window, there wouldnt be a joke of an evaluation system, there would be free credits and a fake 80% grad rate while the college ready rate is 30%...
ReplyDeleteDitto. My school has a 3% college ready rate, need I say more? Just keep flushing billions down the toilet every year, while im told to suck students dicks.
ReplyDeleteI still don't believe Janus is visiting. What's really troubling is that most teachers will be very upset if it doesn't. Janus is now a hope for many teachers and the UFT doesn't seem to care that its own members want its demise.
ReplyDeleteAtlas
@6:23PM - Your comment is uncalled for and quite frankly has a tone of sexual harassment. Please do not make such comments. You are NOT told such a thing.
ReplyDeleteNot literally but certainly in a figurative sense we are told this. Would you prefer if someone said to kiss and wipe the students butts?
ReplyDeleteI agree, we are sexually harrassed when told to suck dick, we need to call the cops every time it happens
ReplyDeleteThe members need to clearly let our union know that these lump sum payments are a bunch a crap and fight to get us whole from 2009.
ReplyDeleteClarification: Who states this type of comment? Some students or the administrators? It's not clear! If students say such statements, then do a written report. If administrators, report to the union, EEOC and everybody else that will listen.
ReplyDeleteHa, a written report, the students will be scared to death.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the above comments represent the sad state of teacher quality in NYC. They dont even have enough sense to stay on topic. They probably didnt even read the blog.
ReplyDeleteJames,I umderstand you are all for free speech, but this shouldnt be a platform for the emotionally unstable. They are an embarrassment to the profession.
The people who comment are justifiably angry. I would think a different choice of words would be more appropriate and serve our cause better but in many schools students say such things to teachers without any fear of consequences so teachers comment in kind. I get your points on both sides. Please watch your language in the comments.
ReplyDeleteYes, we do get told thay every day...i dont know how that shows emotional instability.
ReplyDeleteYou all want to know something? The only good thing about me being an old fart teacher in NYC is that I got hired way before 2004 and therefore I don't have to deal with these stupid professional development hours. In fact, I am literally the ONLY teacher in my school who does not have to do that crap. The strange thing is that 2004 was only 13 years ago and that means that all the teachers at my school have less that 13 years in the DOE. Where the veteran teachers at???
ReplyDeleteThey're ALL in the ATR pool within a statically +\- 2% margin, you of course being in that margin.
DeleteAtlas
According to NYSED regulations, 15 percent of these PD hours have to be in ELL related material for everyone (more so for ELL licensed teachers). If the Monday PD's don't count, how are we supposed to get this many hours? Most teachers don't have any hours from last year that count, and I can't see my principal letting me go to a DOE sponsored PD for this when it's not my core teaching area. Is there going to be a rush of thousands of teachers paying hundreds of dollars to do an online UFT course? Is there another way I'm not aware of to get these hours without giving up my free time and my hard earned money? If we're going to stay for PD every week, why not set up a system (through an online vendor if necessary), where teachers can actually get credit for this stuff. It's such a mess but sadly I'm not surprised.
ReplyDeleteI'm taking courses for my salary differential and the courses also count towards my CTLE hours. I also saw online courses also known as P credit that count towards CTLE hours. This is not that big of a deal. We need to stay current in our profession just all the rest.
ReplyDeleteNot a big deal? Why should we have to pay for these pd hours and use our personal time? It is a huge deal!
ReplyDelete@12:33 it's not a big deal for you since you're already taking the courses for the salary differential. For the thousands of teachers who already have the differential, why should they have to pay to take these courses, when we already pay over $1000 a year for the UFT and they negotiated to have PD during school hours? Once you've been in the system a decade the material becomes redundant, except when they rebrand the same nonsense or provide us with "new" useless information. Just imagine 5 years from now if Danielson is gone, all the hours wasted on learning that system.
ReplyDeleteIs there a link to this post? Thanks
ReplyDeletenotice they stopped responding on facebook when finally some of us started pushing back.
ReplyDeleteyet another epic uft fail--i mean victory.
Link?
ReplyDeleteLink to what?
ReplyDeletego to uft homepage.
ReplyDeleteat bottom right it facebook link.
read and contribute.
I'm going to their Facebook page, but all I see is the posts they made.
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