I am in an unusual position concerning the internal UFT rift over Black Lives Matters' week of action resolution. The opposition MORE raised the resolution but the Unity dominated DA voted it down. I support the Unity leadership in steering clear of this as BLM can be a splitter issue but Unity's attacks on MORE for talking to the press on this topic are way over the top.
Except for a very limited number of issues, I have no problem with union debate being public. It is impossible to have real union democracy without transparency, particularly when we are discussing matters that affect the entire membership. I'm normally suspicious when groups demand secrecy which by the way is next to impossible in the age of the internet.
The ongoing debate over whether the UFT should've supported a Black Lives Matter week of action is alarming yet predictable. People who want our internal union disagreements to be kept inside the UFT are kind of unrealistic. What are they afraid of? The UFT membership has multiple perspectives on many subjects including Black Lives Matter.
For those not following, the Unity Caucus dominated UFT Delegate Assembly voted against support for a BLM week of action resolution in January as the issue is divisive or maybe since the opposition MORE had the idea, Unity automatically dismissed it. The press then talked to people from MORE who brought up the resolution and they gave MORE's views which were shown on NY1. Unity then must have gotten some blowback, so they responded by writing a long missive attacking MORE at the February Delegate Assembly as the "not so loyal opposition" to up the stakes.
For the record, I (not speaking for ICE) agree with Staff Director Leroy Barr that BLM is a splitter issue and the UFT should avoid splitters to the maximum extent possible. We need to be as united as possible in the age of Janus where the existence of the union as we know it might very well soon be placed in jeopardy by the Supreme Court. I think Leroy's analogy to the Vietnam War was inartful but made the point. I also feel the UFT learned after supporting Al Sharpton's Eric Garner march that the race issue can be very divisive. I discovered that the hard way when as Chapter Leader of Jamaica, certain people, in my opinion a little cynically, played the race card. Uniting us after that was difficult and a significant Chapter achievement.
The proof that Leroy is right about this being a splitter is here on the blogs. Read DOENUTS, Norm, NYC Educator, MORE and of course, not on the blogs but at the DA, the Unity piece attacking MORE for talking to the press. Splitter issue for sure. It is sound policy for the UFT to want to keep emphasizing what unites us in the age of Janus when the Supreme Court will probably soon rule that we can leave the union.
It would be nice if the Union would go to Albany to work on what unites us all. I think they should be pushing to repeal the teacher evaluation system that almost all teachers I know can't stand. We would all unite with the leadership to overhaul the evaluation law. We are united on evaluations but that is a matter for different postings.
I very much doubt that after the Supreme Court gives their Janus decision to allow public sector union members to stop paying union dues if people are going to base their decision on whether or not to stay in the UFT on UFT's lack of support for BLM's week of action. However, Unity attacking MORE for talking to the press about this or really almost anything, does not help our cause either.
40 comments:
Teachers Lives Matter! The UFT needs to focus 100% on issues that are of concern to teachers in the trenches. The UFT is a teachers union, not a social justice front.
Under an Obama-era directive and the threat of federal civil rights investigation, thousands of American schools changed their discipline policies in an attempt to reduce out-of-school suspensions. Last year, education-policy researchers Matthew Steinberg and Joanna Lacoe reviewed the arguments for and against discipline reform in Education Next, concluding that little was known about the effects of the recent changes. But this year, the picture is becoming clearer: discipline reform has caused a school-climate catastrophe.
Philadelphia is the latest city to fall into crisis, according to a new study conducted by Lacoe and Steinberg. The Philly school district serves 134,000 students, about 70 percent of whom are black or Latino. In the 2012–13 school year, Philadelphia banned suspensions for non-violent classroom misbehavior. Steinberg and Lacoe estimate that, compared with other districts, discipline reform reduced academic achievement by 3 percent in math and nearly 7 percent in reading by 2016. The authors do report that, among students with previous suspensions, achievement increased by 0.2 percent. But this only demonstrates that well-behaved students bore the brunt of the academic damage.
Lacoe and Steinberg report another small improvement among previously suspended students: their attendance rose by 1.43 days a year. But again, this development was more than offset by the negative trend in the broader student body. Truancy in Philadelphia schools had been declining steadily before the reform, but then rose at an astonishing rate afterward, from about 25 percent to over 40 percent.
Perhaps students were staying at home because they were scared to be at school. Suspensions for non-violent classroom misbehavior dropped after the ban, but suspensions for “serious incidents” rose substantially. The effort to reduce the racial suspension gap actually increased it; African-American kids spent an extra .15 days out of school.
What in the world was going on inside these schools? Fortunately, Steinberg and Lacoe’s quantitative studies are complemented by qualitative research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Consortium for Policy Research in Education. The researchers’ conclusions are bleak: the district has taken away a disciplinary tool that teachers believe in, and made meager efforts at training teachers in an approach that they don’t find credible. Despite five years of hearing from their overseers that suspensions don’t work, more than 80 percent of teachers believe that suspensions are essential to send a message to parents about the seriousness of their child’s misbehavior, ensure a safe school environment, and encourage other students to follow the rules. About two-thirds of teachers believe that suspensions deter further student misbehavior.
Early in 2014, Arne Duncan, President Obama’s education secretary, accused teachers who suspended unruly kids of “racial discrimination” and threatened their superintendents with federal investigation if their districts didn’t reduce suspensions. Duncan declared that schools needed to shift to “evidence-based” discipline, such as the Department of Education–backed “Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports” (PBIS.) PBIS is a multi-tier, whole-school approach to instilling socially appropriate behavioral norms. Regarding discipline, “the emphasis is on the use of the most effective and most positive approach to addressing even the most severe problem behaviors. Most students will succeed when a positive school culture is promoted, informative corrective feedback is provided, academic success is maximized, and use of prosocial skills is acknowledged.” PBIS deemphasizes punishment, instead encouraging schools to “remove antecedents and consequences that trigger and maintain problem behavior.”
Some evidence suggests that PBIS can work, if schools have extra funding, training, and deep teacher buy-in. But those conditions don’t hold in major urban school districts. In Philadelphia, three years after banning suspensions for bad behavior, only 30 schools had received extra funding from the district to implement PBIS. According to the consortium’s study, many teachers harbor doubts about policies that they see as too soft; teachers at one school set up a “shadow” disciplinary system to circumvent the principal and do what they think works. Teachers reported feeling unsupported by administrators and were no more likely than teachers at non-PBIS schools to report that their principals handled discipline effectively. Even administrators dedicated to PBIS have their doubts. “I feel it’s kind of like banging your head against the wall,” one said. “So, all the things that I want to do are just not working.”
Remarkably, teachers at schools using suspension-averse policies proved no less likely to suspend kids than teachers at schools practicing traditional discipline—the ostensible point of the whole reform in the first place. Teachers in the reformist schools were, however, less likely to hold student-teacher conferences. That’s a disheartening finding, because the professed intention of the new policies is to encourage teachers to engage students before reporting misbehavior directly to the principal. Teachers report that principals have turned a blind eye to misbehavior and left it up to teachers to handle discipline. But principals are mirroring central office administrators, who have ordered schools to stop suspending students, while offering little in the way of workable alternatives.
Philadelphia’s story is the story of discipline reform nationwide. Philadelphia did this to itself, before Arne Duncan used the threat of a federal civil-rights investigation to make other districts follow suit. Last year, we knew next to nothing about the consequences of discipline reform. But the more we learn, the more reason we have to fear that Duncan’s deeply misguided federal guidance has put at-risk children at far greater risk. Current education secretary Betsy DeVos should rescind Duncan’s guidance on discipline, and parents should press their teachers and principals about what’s happening in their children’s schools.
Until black "leaders" accept the fact that it is black students for the most part who are causing these problems in schools nothing will change. They continue deny reality.
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Jay Hoenemeyer · The Wharton School
Has anyone studied the 'disparate impact' on the motivated well behaved students who must share the learningspace with the thugs??
All lives matter!!! The union should be for teachers and teacher concerns only. Leave politics out of it. The evaluation system MUST be changed. Eliminate the Danielson rubric, bring back S & U evaluations and limit the number of observations based on seniority and experience.
71 student days left till I quit, yes, i quit, not retire. Not worth it. Not even for the retro. The job is the absolute worst.
Thanks for reporting on this, James.
Where Leroy Barr's analogy fails is that, while the Vietnam War was divisive, those internal union divisions were not taking place amid a vicious anti-union/anti-public education climate, such as we have now. Also, Albert Shanker's support for the war in Vietnam persisted long after the UFT membership and general public had ceased doing so, making him a very vindictive outlier at the time. He supported that war far past its bitter end, for philosophical reasons, whereas Unity seems to be making its decision here based on tactical concerns, especially since it faced an intense backlash over its support for the Eric Garner demonstration a few years ago.
That decision showed surprising courage on Michael Mulgrew's part (although my cynicism also made me wonder if it was really done to placate Al Sharpton, who led the march, and whose "organization" as far I know still receives contributions from the UFT),but he paid a price for it, which he doesn't want to recur.
You can disagree with it, but in my eyes it doesn't have the same weak-and-sucking-up-to-power/company union underpinnings that most of Unity's policies do, i.e., those regarding testing, evaluations, charter schools, class size, etc.
The ironies and contradictions here are almost paralyzing. Unity Caucus, which is ambivalent about supporting BLM, is far, far more racially diverse than MORE, which is obsessed with racial politics to the point where it can shatter over them.
Speaking only for myself, I'm tired of middle-class white people, many of whom are not from the city and have moved into rapidly-gentrifying Black and Latino communities, lecturing me and others about racism and how it should be opposed, especially in a trade union context.
The overwhelming majority of women, blacks, immigrants and other under-represented people, in fact the overwhelming majority of people, are working class, and the way to make political progress - I've made a personal promise to myself that I will no longer use the washed-out and increasingly meaningless term S#@%^l J*&%$^e - is to offer them concrete material benefits.
Unions are the way to do that, and that's where the focus should be.
The UFT lost union pay dues members when they refused to support the police unions in years past. This is another reason why droves of UFT members do not contribute to COPE anymore.
ANNO 11:49: "I'm sick of middle-class white people?" How nice. Well, I'm sick of paying $1,400 a year to a union that is doing a very shitty job of improving my working conditions. And to think about it, I'm sick of people who are sick of middle-class white people.
11:49 is not anonymous. It is Mike Fiorillo, an great guy. 12:06 you are taking that line about middle class white people way out of context. He was sick of middle class white people who come into town and lecture us about racism.
Here is the full paragraph from Mike:
Speaking only for myself, I'm tired of middle-class white people, many of whom are not from the city and have moved into rapidly-gentrifying Black and Latino communities, lecturing me and others about racism and how it should be opposed, especially in a trade union context.
He is not saying he is tired of middle class white people at all.
This is all a distraction. The UFT should invite Stormy Daniels to speak at their next Delegate Assembly if the BLM controversy doesn't work.
Leroy Barr for UFT president!!! 2019!!!
You really think Leroy would be any better? He is the head of Unity Caucus.
Stormy Daniels for UFT president!!! Now!!!
Is Leroy Barr the reason I get unpaid coverages every day during my "Admin" period? Where is the union? Where is my $1400 per year going?
Yes
COPE...ha ha ha. You should see my reaction when they ask for that periodically! They're more careful after they've discovered my tendency to ask clarifying questions about who actually pays for Dental etc...benefits when the UFT Boro Reps grace our break room. That always gets a roar. Pass the "free donuts."
BUYOUT PLEASE
She’s a lot smarter than LeRoy!
I came here tonight to thank James for his personal and professional commitment to transparency and good governance in the UFT, regardless what anyone's particular opinion is about the BLM resolution.
That said, I have to admit I got a good chuckle over "Stormy Daniels for UFT President" and another chance to exercise my occasionally aching neck muscles by shaking the head attached to said neck at yet another "black=thug" reference on this blog.
Who knew that ICEUFTBLOG could be so good for one's state-of-mind and state-of-neck!
6:16:
If you are doing coverages (plural) and not getting paid that is NOT the unions fault. That is your fault.
This is an easy one. You do more than one coverage per term you get paid. The union wins every one of those cases.
Of course, a nogood Principal is not going to just hand over money if you don’t complain. That means file a salary grievance..
If your CL can’t assist you call the union. If you Chapter Leader can’t assist you than run for Chapter Leader.
The most important person in the union is you.
They say its my admin period so they can make me do anything
9:31 is right. You grieve and you win. You have one professional assignment and that is what you are supposed to do during that period. Quote us here if you like. The principal is wrong. You need to get paid.
When did we vote for Field Supervisors to abuse the system to push ATRs out?
Leroy Barr in an expert in denying grievances.
They say that the admin assignment can be covering for someone.
Anonymous 8:56- My AP is the biggest asshole in the world, and even HE knows he can't make us do coverages during our admin. He has, on occasion, asked me to do him a favor, skip my AIS period, and cover a class, and I'll do it, but only because he acknowledges that he knows it's against the contract.
And you get paid if you do a coverage during your professional period.
Article 7N6: In secondary schools teachers who are assigned to cover classes during their preparation period or their professional activity period will be paid for such time at the rate set forth in paragraph 10 below for each such period in excess of one in any term during the applicable school year.
Is that clear enough? Contract then talks about rotation of coverages.
Well, this says a lot about the most powerful union in the world. And by the way, where is the CL with all of these unpaid coverages?
James, people are afraid to complain because they dont want to get targeted, thats why tge school CL should not allow this to happen. Obviously, Admin is taking advantage of these teachers with illegal c6 activities.
I will stand next to you in whatever way you want but the contract means nothing if we do not enforce it. If you are that afraid to stand up, then at least try to get a new CL. The coverage issue is clear.
To me, this is a simple issue that should be brought up at consultation. The principals can no longer ignore the consultation committee, as the CLs have to post the minutes monthly. My principal goes nuts if we haven't met with her by month's end, and will clear her schedule to make sure we do meet.
But if the CL is in the back pocket of principal, and staff is young, naive, scared, stupid..Guess what, I get screwed.
Oh ok, consultation committee, yeah sure. Stuff like this goes on in every school, teacher abuse, fake grades, teaching out of license, students have 50 absences and pass. Thats why we wont pay dues after janus. Tired of the abuse. Ask any atrs who rotate, what % of schools are decent, i can tell you almost none. I was force placed this year because of my good record, the same fraud is going on.
At some point you have to step up and convince a few colleagues to do the same or nothing will change. This one is an easy UFT win. I know it is not easy to come forward but if they go after you when you ask for your money, you have a case for retaliation for exercising union rights. If you have a clean record up to now, you would have a strong case. We could publicize it too. It can be difficult but your case to get paid is so clear. Email me if you want further help.
Maxine Watters for UFT president.
That helped. I will now definitely not contribute dues post Janus.
Yeah, really, this has become torture, not a job. Let it all burn down. In the morning im emailing farina, mulgew and the ny post to expose my principal. Thats what we all need to do, make it very public and very embarrassing.
Uh, here we go again, stay after school for free to plan...
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