OKLAHOMA TEACHERS GET $6,100 RAISE BUT STILL THREATENING STRIKE

 Jeff Kaufman sent this out earlier. It is from CNN.

Oklahoma legislators approved a measure including a $6,100 pay raise for teachers, but the state teacher's union says the bill doesn't go far enough and plans to walk out Monday.

House Bill 1010XX, which was described as "the largest teacher pay raise in the history of the state" passed both the state House and Senate this week. Gov. Mary Fallin signed the bill on Thursday.

"This is a very historic moment in Oklahoma's time," Fallin said of funding measures that included the pay boost. "It was not easy getting here."

For weeks, Oklahoma teachers have been considering a walkout over what they say is their breaking point over pay andeducation funding. The state ranks 49th in the nation in teacher salaries, according to the National Education Association, in a list that includes Washington, D.C. Mississippi and South Dakota rank lower.

Inspired by the West Virginia strike in which teachers demanded and got a pay raise from state leaders earlier this month, similar efforts have taken off in Oklahoma and Arizona.

The Oklahoma Education Association, the state's largest teachers' union that represents nearly 40,000 members andschool personnel, called the passage of the bill "a truly historic moment," but one that remains "incomplete," according to its president, Alicia Priest.

Teachers and school staff will walk off their jobs on Monday and descend on the state Capitol, she said in video commentsposted on Facebook.


Teacher militancy is alive and growing as the Arizona teachers are fighting collectively for a better deal too.

What will it take for N.Y. teachers to catch this militancy fever that started in West Virginia and is spreading throughout the country?

The answer is if there are issues that the vast majority of teachers think are worth fighting over, then we can rise too.

How about our awful NYS teacher evaluation system? Over 500 have already signed the petition at the right to repeal the evaluation law. If we all spread it, we can make a difference.

Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day. If all who signed can just convince two or three others to do the same, a movement could start to really grow.

LIVE BLOGGING FROM MARCH DA (somewhat edited)

President's Report
When I arrived (I was late; you can read a full summary of the President's Report at NYC Educator), President Michael Mulgrew was talking about Empire Center and their goal to weaken UFT and NYSUT. Their goal is to get a 20% membership drop after Supreme Court decides Janus case. We won't let that happen. Lowest percentage of agency fee payers ever. Will try to get to new people fast.

Crap will be coming after Janus, "Give yourself a raise; quit the union." We have union cards ready. We will only send them to union members. UFT app coming on phones. Discounts are a main feature. Big chains coming to us including food chains and funeral homes. Tech stuff is coming. Face to face conversations, people thanking us when we come to their doors, very important. Our strategy is to tell members union busters are coming to harm you.

If not for Janus, we would be more energetic on new chancellor. We did not want someone from DOE to be new chancellor. Got rid of Bloomberg, but people stayed in place at DOE.We wanted an outsider. Got it with Carranza.

Staff Director's Report
Leroy Barr gave a bunch of dates. Next DA April 18.

Mulgrew came back and said we will amp up paid family leave campaign with some of our city council friends.

Question Period
Question: Someone from saved closing school asking if we can not have to go to principal to go to NYSUT convention or lobby day?
Answer: Principals in Principal's Weekly told to release chapter leaders for Lobby Day

Q Teacher from Bryant asked about teachers in low performing schools being overworked while those in high performing schools seemed relaxed.
A Mulgrew started teaching Advanced Placement class. It wasn't for him. Went to low performing school and it was better. High school teachers think elementary school teachers have it easy. Found out when President how difficult elementary school teachers work. He couldn't do their job. Use open market if not happy.

Q Difference between paid family leave and parental leave?
A NYS first state to have paid family leave in law in private sector. Can't cost out paid family leave as there are no precedents. City wants a fortune for paid family leave. City worries about covering classes. We think it is a moral issue. Trying to do both family and parental leave.

Q People need a union membership card to show it is same as doing it electronically?
A We will get that out.

Q Denying PD?
A It might be an administrator problem

Q Custodian in Delegate's school saying budget has been cut. Might not even have enough toilet paper to last the year?
A City cutting custodial budget. DOE headcount rising in admin offices. We will look into this.

Motion Period
For next month: 50% of meeting time at Delegate Assembly for motions, questions and discussion.

Discuss things in depth. Nobody spoke against. It is on next month's agenda as it was voted up.

Reso not to endorse anyone from Independent Democratic Conference.

IDC gives Republicans control of Senate where Assembly bills go to die. IDC blocking good bills. We have supported IDC people.

Speaker against was Paul Egan from Unity who said IDC has been a stopgap on certain issues and helped with community schools. This is an internal Democratic Party fight. We have no business in that fight. Reso voted down but got some strong support.

Special Order of Business
Resolution on safe and supportive schools. Someone had a substitute resolution to give supports to help schools. (I was informed the person working on this resolution with the UFT leadership was from Educators for Excellence which angered some people as the UFT leadership is willing to work with this anti-union group and not pro union dissidents within the union.)

Nobody spoke against bringing substitute resolution and it passed.

Resolution on supporting I am 2018. Standing in solidarity with working people from Memphis. Fiftieth anniversary of when Martin Luther King was killed when he was supporting sanitation men on strike some of whom were finally made hole almost fifty years later. It passed unanimously.

Resolution celebrating 58th birthday of UFT. Mel Aaronson had people there who were there back then stand. It passed unanimously.

Resolution to strengthen UFT in the face of Janus. It passed unanimously.

Resolution on gun safety passed unanimously.

Resolution on providing gender neutral restrooms at UFT. Helps families as well as LGBTQ community. It carried.

Resolution on getting C4E funds to reduce class size. NYC getting money from C4E settlement to reduce class size but they don't use it to lower class sizes.  It carried.

Reso on Puerto Rico to stand with teachers union there. It carried.

That's all folks except to say sign the petition to get rid of the teacher evaluation system. We're over 500 and counting..

FINAL FEDERAL SPENDING BILL INCREASES DOMESTIC SPENDING PROVIDING MORE EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS MONEY FOR RAISES FOR NYC EMPLOYEES

The UFT contract will expire before the end of 2018. UFT President Michael Mulgrew has been whining about how the President will cut federal spending for education creating a huge hole in the city's budget right when municipal labor contracts are being negotiated. That prediction has not turned into any kind of reality.

Federal domestic spending is increasing in the spending bill Donald Trump signed last week after it passed both chambers of Congress.

From the Atlantic:
President Obama finally got a Republican-controlled Congress to fund his domestic budget. All it took was Donald Trump in the White House to get it done.

In the $1.3 trillion spending bill that President Trump reluctantly signed on Friday, lawmakers did more than reject the steep cuts in dollars and programs that Trump proposed for domestic agencies a year ago. Across much of the government, Republican leaders agreed to spending levels that matched or even exceeded what Obama asked Congress to appropriate in his final budget request in 2016—and many of which lawmakers ignored while he was in office.

The Department of Health and Human Services received $78 billion, nearly identical to the $77.9 billion Obama sought and almost 20 percent more than what the Trump budget called for. Ditto for the Department of Labor and the Department of Education, which got $1.5 billion more than Obama’s final request and nearly $12 billion more than the reduced level Trump sought. Obama-era priorities like Head Start and Pell Grants drew increases, too.

Don't believe any cries of poverty from any city or union official. This is a Democratic budget in terms of domestic spending and a Republican budget on military spending.

UNITY CONTROLLED UFT EXECUTIVE BOARD VOTES DOWN AN ATR CHAPTER

At the last Executive Board meeting, UFT Secretary and chair Howie Schoor told the High School reps they should write a resolution if they believe Absent Teacher Reserves (teachers and other UFT members not permanently assigned to a school) want their own UFT Chapter. Arthur Goldstein responded by writing a resolution that he sent out. I added a few technical details and here is the final version that was presented at last night's Exec Bd meeting:

Resolution to Grant Representation to the Absent Teacher Reserve

Whereas, members of the Absent Teacher Reserve are dues-paying UFT members, and;

Whereas, it behooves us to represent all UFT members, and;

Whereas, members of the ATR are likely to be rotated regularly, and;

Whereas, the UFT Executive Board approved a Chapter Election Guide and Bylaws that require ATR members to vote for Chapter Leaders and Teacher Delegates in the schools they are working in on May 1; and

Whereas, ATR members are very unlikely to be represented by the chapter leaders and Teacher Delegates of the buildings in which they’re working in on May 1 next September, and;

Whereas, it’s preposterous to elect people who you know won’t represent you; and

Whereas, it’s a fundamental tenet of democracy to choose your representatives, and;

Whereas, we have no idea when or if the Absent Teacher Reserve will cease to exist; and

Whereas, Article IX, Section 7 of the UFT Constitution authorizes the Executive Board to "establish functional chapters for employees in institutions not under the direct control of the Board of Education, or whose functions in the school system differ from those of the regular teaching staff;" and

Whereas, the ATR position differs significantly from that of a teacher assigned permanently to a school;  be it therefore,

Resolved, that the UFT Executive Board will establish a functional chapter for the Absent Teacher Reserve as per Article IX, Section 7 of the UFT Constitution until such time as the ATR ceases to exist; and be it further

Resolved, that members of the ATR shall elect their own chapter leader and teacher delegates, and be it further

Resolved that this elected chapter leader and delegates shall represent them within the UFT, just as other functional chapter leaders and delegates represent their chapters.

Only an autocratic, insensitive, anti-democratic Unity hack would say no to a temporary chapter that the ATRs clearly need and want. Arthur's report shows how Unity dismisses the ATRs:

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—It’s pretty tough to be in the Absent Teacher Reserve. You have to go from school to school and you’re unable to make long term connections with either students or colleagues. We’re now telling them they can vote for chapter leaders and delegates who will, in all likelihood, not represent them in September.

That’s absurd. I understand the rationale that the ATR is a temporary thing, and I have been hearing that since 2005. I certainly hope it’s temporary, and bearing that in mind, this resolution suggests we eliminate the chapter as soon as we eliminate the ATR. It is, therefore, a win-win. I urge you to vote for this resolution and empower our brothers and sisters in the Absent Teacher Reserve.

Dolores Sozopony—Been on for years. If I recall, we brought this issue up several times. Was brought up three years ago. I understand and feel it but they have representation from the CL of whatever school they are in. Ask vote against.

Eliu Lara—To create functional chapter is too agree we want ATR forever. Idea is to reduce that. No doubt that any ATR who needs representation will have it, at least in the Bronx. We don’t need this functional chapter because they are represented.

Stuart Kaplan—Opposes. When I first started in 2003, I was an ATR. First person I met was CL, who was my CL. Taught me I should treat ATRs same way I would treat any other member. Should think of training CLs to have respect for ATRs that they deserve. I’ve had an ATR In my school for three months. Always left feeling like they were part of the family.

KJ Ahluwalia—New Action--People presume I was an ATR. I wasn’t. I was in a closing school. Supposed to be temporary, but around for 13 years. It’s ideal we treat all members with same respect, but it’s not happening. Why not ask 800-900 ATRs what they need. If they think they need it they should have right.

Fails on party lines. 

Michael Mulgrew's Unity Caucus again tells ATRs they don't need their own temporary chapter.

Ever wonder why so many people can't stand the UFT leadership?

You can send President Mulgrew a message by spreading the petition to repeal the teacher evaluation laws in NYS.

ROSTER VERIFICATION TIME PROVIDES ANOTHER REMINDER TO SPREAD OUR PETITION FOR A SANE TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM IN NYS

Below is a section from the UFT Weekly Update for Chapter Leaders on verifying rosters for the Measures of Student Learning portion of evaluations. The time to speak up is now if students are there who shouldn't be.

If you don't think this is a valid way to rate teachers, then come on board by signing our petition to repeal the teacher evaluation laws in NYS and send evaluation back to local districts free from state mandates. We need your help or this will not get off the ground.

Evaluation

Student roster maintenance verification for MOSL: Teachers should have received an email from the Department of Education asking them to verify their class rosters before the Friday, May 4, deadline. Teachers should be aware that roster verification is important because it determines which students are linked to them for the Measures of Student Learning (MOSL) for their final rating as part of the Advance evaluation system. For more information, see the DOE guidance on roster verification. Michael Mulgrew thinks this is a valid way to evaluate teachers. Do you? Now you can do something about it.

NYC UNEMPLOYMENT LOWEST SINCE 1976

The NYC economy continues to do well. The latest evidence is the city's unemployment rate which now stands at 4.2%.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The state Department of Labor says New York City's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest since the nation's bicentennial, while the statewide jobless rate is at its lowest in more than a decade.

The agency's monthly unemployment figures released Thursday showed the city's jobless rate had fallen from 4.3 percent in January to 4.2 percent in February, an all-time low based on records going back to 1976.

The statewide jobless rate dipped from 4.7 percent in January to 4.6 percent last month, the lowest level since July 2007, six months before the Great Recession began.

The Labor Department says the state's private-sector job count rose by 28,700 last month, bringing total employment to more than 8,151,000, the highest ever in New York.

When the city cries poverty during contract negotiations with city employees, don't believe a word they say.

However, if you (and I mean all of you), are not willing to get involved by doing something as simple as signing and spreading a petition around to get rid of the teacher evaluation system, then please stop complaining.

PETITION TO REPEAL NYS TEACHER EVALUATION LAW

Thanks all who commented on the original draft. Roseanne added some but MoveOn thought it was too long so the rationale is here at ICE.

Please sign and then share the petition to repeal NYS Teacher Evaluation Law. Spread it to the world.

 Petition to Repeal NYS Teacher Evaluation Laws 3012-c and 3012-d

We must return teacher evaluation to local districts free from state mandates by repealing New York State Education Laws 3012-c and 3012-d.

• Evaluating teachers based on student results on tests and other student assessments that were never designed to rate educators is neither a scientifically or educationally sound way to be used for a Measure of Student Learning portion of a teacher's rating.

•  The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher evaluations is subjective and highly unfair, particularly in NYC where the Danielson Framework has been used not to help teachers grow as professionals but as a weapon to frighten teachers into teaching to score points on arbitrary rubrics in multiple unnecessary classroom observations.

Why we are starting this petition?

The teacher evaluation system in NYS is broken beyond repair. NYS passed a flawed evaluation system into law in order to receive federal Race to the Top funds. However, the current version of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act no longer requires states to rate teachers in part based on student test results to receive federal funds.  Rating teachers on student exam scores is not recommended by the American Statistical Association as it is not a reliable way to measure teacher performance yet in New York we only have a moratorium on using standardized tests to rate certain teachers. Teachers are still rated on tests and other assessments that were never designed to rate teachers. The Measures of Student Learning portion of teacher ratings is highly unreliable. Many call it "junk science."

NYS ELA tests cannot measure student progress under any particular standard.From a statistical standpoint, a handful of questions per standard is not a statistically sound measure of a student’s mastery of that standard.  Additionally, test passages that are on, above or even slightly below grade level cannot measure the progress of a struggling reader who enters a class two to four years below grade level. These tests cannot measure the progress of newcomers to our country who are learning English as a new language.  It takes many years for newcomers to master the nuances of the English language.  In effect, students such as these described above can make more than a year’s worth of progress and yet still not show progress on the NYS ELA due to the text complexity of all test passages.

The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher ratings in New York City is based on the Danielson Framework whose creator, Charlotte Danielson, said this about teacher evaluation in Education Week:

"There is ...little consensus on how the profession should define "good teaching." Many state systems require districts to evaluate teachers on the learning gains of their students. These policies have been implemented despite the objections from many in the measurement community regarding the limitations of available tests and the challenge of accurately attributing student learning to individual teachers.

"Even when personnel policies define good teaching as the teaching practices that promote student learning and are validated by independent research, few jurisdictions require their evaluators to actually demonstrate skill in making accurate judgments. But since evaluators must assign a score, teaching is distilled to numbers, ratings, and rankings, conveying a reductive nature to educators' professional worth and undermining their overall confidence in the system.

"I'm deeply troubled by the transformation of teaching from a complex profession requiring nuanced judgment to the performance of certain behaviors that can be ticked off on a checklist. In fact, I (and many others in the academic and policy communities) believe it's time for a major rethinking of how we structure teacher evaluation to ensure that teachers, as professionals, can benefit from numerous opportunities to continually refine their craft."

The Danielson Rubric describes an ideal classroom setting and was never intended to be used as an evaluative tool against teachers. Examples: A rubric that rates a teacher "developing" when he/she "attempts to respond to disrespectful behavior among students, with uneven results" (Danielson 2a) is not a fair rubric. A rubric that rates a teacher ineffective because "students' body language indicates feelings of hurt, discomfort, or insecurity" (Danielson 2a) having nothing to do with how that particular teacher treats her particular students is not a fair rubric for teacher evaluations. Teachers do not just teach emotionally well-adjusted children from idyllic families and communities. We teach all kinds of children who live under various conditions. These conditions have a major impact on the emotional well-being of children.

Children experiencing emotional distress due to factors beyond their teachers' control quite often have trouble concentrating in class yet to be considered "highly effective" under Danielson, Virtually all students are intellectually engaged in the lesson." We teach children with selective mutism and other speech and language and learning disabilities yet Danielson doesn't take this into account. Students' emotions have an impact on their academics, and students' emotions are impacted by many factors beyond any teacher's control such as homelessness, marital stress in their home or divorce, loss of employment of a caregiver, physical or emotional abuse, mental illness, bullying outside of their classroom, personal illness or illness of a loved one and many other factors too numerous to list. Holding a teacher accountable for these factors that are beyond a teacher's control is not reasonable and yet that is what some of the components under Danielson demand.

Teachers in NY are frustrated and demoralized by a teacher evaluation system that has robbed us of our professionalism.

We demand an end to this absurdity. We demand that NYS change its education laws so teachers can return to the practice of seeing their students as human beings who are so much more than a test score or a robot that must adhere to absurd requirements under the Danielson Rubric in order for their teacher to be judged "effective" or "highly effective." NYS has created an adversarial relationship between students and their teachers and this absurdity must end now.

Teachers have no confidence in the evaluation system that reduces teacher worth into a meaningless series of numbers and letters. Teachers in NYC fear classroom observations are not being used to help them grow professionally, but instead teachers must teach to try to score points on Ms. Danielson's often misused framework.

In NYC, there is a climate of fear in the classroom which does not lead to improved teacher practice. Four observations per year for veteran teachers is excessive. One per year or every other year is sufficient for the vast majority of veteran teachers. Ms. Danielson stated in Education Week that after three years in the classroom, teachers become part of a "professional community" and should be treated as such.

Danielson says:

Personnel policies for the teachers not practicing below standard—approximately 94 percent of them—would have, at their core, a focus on professional development, replacing the emphasis on ratings with one on learning.

We agree. To get there we must first repeal Education Law 3012-c and 3012-d and return teacher evaluation to local districts, free from state mandates.

UFT LOBBIES IN ALBANY SAYING NYC TEACHER EVALUATION SYSTEM "COULD BE A MODEL STATEWIDE"

This came to me from UFT materials that were taken up to Albany for Lobby Day today.

While statewide umbrella union NYSUT is at least talking a good game about repealing the NYS teacher evaluation law and sending teacher evaluation back to districts free from state mandates, the UFT is telling state lawmakers the teacher evaluation system in NYC could be a "model statewide."

Who is Michael Mulgrew kidding?

We have a petition to repeal the evaluation system we will be posting later. It is time to tell the Legislature, Governor and President Mulgrew how we feel about the teacher evaluation system.

Please don't tell me how the student growth scores saved your annual rating. The NYC DOE is discontinuing probationary teachers with effective ratings and bringing dismissal charges against tenured people who were never rated ineffective.

JERSEY CITY TEACHERS UNION REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT TO TO END STRIKE

The Jersey City teachers' strike is over as the union and the school board reached a tentative settlement. Union members will vote in April as will the Board of Education. We don't know the details yet.

NJ.com says this:

The deal came after a 13-hour negotiation session Sunday.

"I think we reached a fair and equitable agreement with the district," Ron Greco, president of the Jersey City Education Association, told The Jersey Journal. The union represents 4,000 teachers and other school workers.

Further down, NJ.com continues:

Teachers and more than 1,000 other school workers walked off the job Friday to protest high health care costs. Schools remained open for a half-day with substitute teachers. It was the first teachers' strike since 1998.

Teachers say Chapter 78, the 2011 New Jersey law that revamped how school workers pay for their health benefits, has resulted in them taking home less money despite salary increases.

This dispute has been closely watched by the statewide teachers union. A win in Jersey City on what teachers call "Chapter 78 relief" could help teachers in other towns win lower health care costs. 

The details of the deal remain unknown, but Thomas said it includes an agreement on salaries and health care costs.

A judge on Friday afternoon ordered teachers to return to their classrooms on Monday, citing a New Jersey law that bans public union workers from going on strike.

We'll need a few more details to see if this was a win for the teachers.

TEACHER SALARIES ADJUSTED FOR COST OF LIVING DIFFERENECES

Sean Ahern sent us this piece from nprED on teacher salaries compared state by state (and DC) but also factoring in the cost of living in the region.

If we go on salary alone, NYS teachers are number one in the country. However, if we put in the cost of living, NYS teacher salaries go from 1st in the nation to 17th. If we just did NYC, I can bet we come even lower down on the list.

Michigan, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the states with the highest teacher pay when factoring in the cost of living.

The bottom five are: Hawaii, Maine, South Dakota, Arizona and Utah.

Note that West Virginia and Oklahoma where teachers are rebelling are not in that bottom five if we adjust for cost of living.

JERSEY CITY TEACHERS ON STRIKE (updated)

I woke up this morning to see that teacher strike fever has spread to Jersey City where teachers went to picket lines instead of classrooms today. They have been working without a contract since September and they have had enough.

From NJ.com:

Jersey City's 3,100 public-school teachers appear ready to walk off the job Friday morning after no deal was reached Thursday night to end an eight-month contract dispute.

The nine-member school board adjourned its meeting at 12:30 a.m. on Friday without coming to an agreement with the Jersey City Education Association on a new contract.

Ron Greco, the union president, said Wednesday that if a contract was not approved tonight then "game over."

Teachers received notice at about 10:30 p.m. Thursday saying to prepare to strike Friday morning, sources told The Jersey Journal. About an hour later, school officials sent an automated call to parents saying there will be a half-day on Friday because teachers will strike.

Teachers have worked under an expired contract since Sept. 1 and are demanding lower health care costs.

From the Jersey City Public Schools Website:

Dear JCPS Families,

We know that you may have been bombarded with rumors of a strike by the members of the JCEA, and you are understandably concerned. We are continuing to negotiate with the JCEA leadership, and it is our hope that we will be able to reach an agreement shortly, without any disruption to your child’s education. We are taking Mr. Greco at his word that he does not want to strike.

Obviously, should there be a job action, we will need to make provisions to ensure the safety of your children. That will be our paramount concern. To that end, while schools will be open, it will be necessary to have an 8:30 to 12:45 schedule for all students. We will not have Morning Stars, CASPER or other before or after school activities. We will still provide breakfast and lunch.

Despite what may you may hear, the Board does value our teachers and we appreciate the work they do each and every day. JCPS is fortunate to have thousands of dedicated staff in every position throughout the entire city.  I also want you to know that our negotiating team has been working tirelessly to find ways to address teacher concerns while ensuring that we can maintain the quality of our programs. I know the Board is committed to responsibly acting in the best interests of the 4,000 employees, the taxpayers of Jersey City, and most importantly, the children of our schools.

Dr. Marcia V. Lyles

Superintendent

Jersey City Public Schools

I believe that is the same Marcia Lyles who used to be one of Joel Klein's deputies here in NYC.

MIDDLE COLLEGE PARTICIPATES IN NATIONAL STUDENT WALKOUT OVER GUNS

From CNN:

Thousands of students across the United States walked out of class Wednesday to demand stricter gun laws in a historic show of political solidarity that was part tribute and part protest.

From Maine to California, the 17-minute walkout -- one minute for each of the 17 people killed at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School one month ago -- began around 10 a.m. in each time zone.

Great to see the students at Middle College High School participate in the protests-show of solidarity .

The kids are definitely alright.

CLASS SIZE DEBACLE AT UFT EXECUTIVE BOARD

I worked with Arthur Goldstein on a resolution to lower class size. I believe Norm Scott and Mike Schirtzer were also involved. When our resolution was presented to the UFT Executive Board by Arthur last evening, Unity gutted it to make it into just another call for more money from Albany. Unity would allow administration at the Department of Education to have a free hand in spending it on what they  want and not what schools need.

The State Legislature in 2007 passed into law lower limits for the average class sizes in NYC as part of what is called Contracts for Excellence to settle the Campaign for Fiscal Equity Lawsuit. However, since that time class sizes have gone up while Unity/UFT has stood idly by.

MORE/NEW ACTION representatives opposed to Michael Mulgrew's majority Unity Caucus did not push last night to make lower class size a major contract demand because the UFT will argue that this will take away from money for salary increases. Fair enough, so why not use the C4E law to force the DOE to use state money earmarked for this purpose to actually lower class sizes to levels the city agreed to back in 2007? It's the law.

Here is the original major resolved clause as we wrote it:

Resolved, that the UFT will make lowering class sizes to C4E limits of 20 students in a class in k-3, 23 in a class grades 4-8 and 25 in high school core classes a major goal.

The Unity/UFT response to our resolution was to amend it by striking this resolved clause that would force the DOE to lower class sizes and replacing it with:

Resolved that UFT will continue to fight to get C4E monies dispersed to NYC.

We need more than just more money from the state. Too many principals are spending the Contracts for Excellence money on their own slush funds for their pet programs while NYC class sizes remain the highest in the state. Arthur asked that this be changed without it impacting contract negotiations but the Unity people said no. Instead, they just want more money from the state that can be spent on more administrators or more school closings.

You wonder why many UFT members can't stand the UFT.

The entire motivation from Arthur and the Unity response from Arthur's report are below.

Class sizes

Arthur Goldstein—MORE—Since our last class size resolution, we’ve given a lot of thought to the idea that all contractual negotiation was the province of the 300 member committee. We acknowledge and understand that position, which is why this resolution makes no mention of the Collective Bargaining Agreement and proposes nothing related to it.

Instead, we’re focusing on an existing mandate. This gives us a golden opportunity to support our students and members without touching upon confidential negotiations. It’s been a long time since we’ve taken concrete steps to help the class size situation. In actual fact, it’s been over half a century.
Here’s a way for us to address not only class size, but also the problematic nature of enforcement. Instead of giving teachers a day off from tutoring, let’s offer those who violate the law consequences worthy of lawbreakers. Let’s make recalcitrant principals and DOE lawyers subject to actual law and its consequences. Let’s decisively end the practice of making teachers and students pay when administrators and lawyers who claim to place, “Children First, Always” practice contempt for the law. We can do that right here and right now.

Let’s take this opportunity to show communities and members that we will zealously press for the enforcement of regulations designed to help and support them. Let’s show our colleagues, at this crucial juncture, that union is there to support them. Let’s show city parents that we, the people who wake up every day to work with their children, are the people who really put children first.
And let’s tell politicians who cavalierly ignore the law that we won’t allow them to do it anymore.

Stuart Kaplan—amendment—Strike second to last “Whereas” and first Resolved. Adds Resolved that UFT will continue to fight to get C4E monies dispersed to NYC.

Gregg Lundahl—Asks to strike second to last Whereas (same one) Says there is a difference between C4E and CFE, C4E doesn’t have specific numbers, but there is a great deal of money withheld since 2015. Don’t wish to pay for it in contract negotiations. These are specific numbers. Much more comfortable with our substitute resolution. If we fight to do this for the contract money will have to come from somewhere. Let’s get money from state.

Kiera—Point person for class sizes. Speaks in support of the amendment. Looks at it from negotiation standpoint. Doesn’t want to make class size negotiation public policy.

First strike next to last whereas—Vote.

Passes on party lines.

First resolved—dropped

Passes on party lines.

Additional resolved.

Passes on party lines.

Resolution as amended passes on party lines.

We are adjourned.
RESOLUTION TO REDUCE CLASS SIZES TO C4E LAW LEVELS (actual class size language now stricken)
Whereas, reducing class size has proven to be one of the best ways to improve student learning, lower teacher attrition rates and disciplinary problems, and narrow achievement and opportunity gaps between racial and economic groups; and

Whereas, NYC schools continue to have the largest average class sizes in the state, and NY’s highest court said that our class sizes were too large in our schools to provide students with their constitutional right to a sound basic education; and

Whereas, UFT contractual class size limits continue to be ignored by the DOE; and

Whereas, the DOE uses outlandish “action plans” to address these limits; and

Whereas, the NYC DOE recently reported class sizes have continued to increase this year; and

Whereas, Article 8L in the 2005 Contract called in part for a labor-management committee to discuss lowering class size if Campaign for Fiscal Equity Settlement funding was available; and

Whereas, the 2007 Contracts for Excellence (C4E) law, which settled the CFE case, required NYC to reduce class size in all grades; and

Whereas, the goals for class size in the city’s original C4E plan, approved by the state in the fall of 2007, are for an average of no more than 20 students per class in K-3, 23 in grades 4-8 and 25 in high school core classes; and

Whereas, the Department of Education has flouted this law flagrantly since 2007; and
Whereas, the DOE gets C4E funding that is often not used to reduce class size; be it therefore

Resolved, that the UFT will make lowering class sizes to the C4E limits of 20 students in a class K-3, 23 in Grades 4-8 and 25 in high school core classes a major goal; and be it further

Resolved, that funding for this class size reduction should not in any way affect monies for contractual raises for UFT members as the DOE is already receiving C4E money to reduce class sizes from the state. 

Added: Resolved that UFT will continue to fight to get C4E monies dispersed to NYC.

DRAFT OF TEACHER EVALUATION LAW REPEAL PETITION

Now that the second trimester at Middle College High School has ended and I actually have some time, I wrote a draft of a petition to repeal the NYS teacher evaluation laws. I want to use Move On but I admit I am brand new at this petition thing.

It is rather unusual to draft something online on a blog but since the readers at this blog inspired this draft, I leave it up to you to edit and hopefully we will get a consensus. While anonymous comments are welcome as usual, any serious editing should be done on email. Email at ICEUFT@mail.com so we can work on this.

It's time to come forward and say who you are since we will all need to sign the finalized version. The recent West Virginia strike proved that from the ground up teachers can improve their lives but we have to stop hiding and come out in the open.We can't expect Michael Mulgrew or Randi Weingarten to help us; we must do it ourselves.

I want to send this to President Mulgrew, Governor Cuomo and the Legislature.

Draft petition to repeal NYS Teacher Evaluation Laws 3012-c and 3012-d

We must return teacher evaluation to local districts free from state mandates by repealing New York State Education Laws 3012-c and. 3012-d.

• Evaluating teachers based on student results on tests and other student assessments that were never designed to rate educators is neither a scientifically or educationally sound way to be used for a Measure of Student Learning portion of a teacher's rating.

• The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher evaluations is subjective and highly unfair, particularly in NYC where the Danielson Framework has been used not to help teachers grow as professionals but as a weapon to frighten teachers into teaching to score points on arbitrary rubrics in multiple unnecessary classroom observations.

Why we are starting this petition?

The teacher evaluation system in NYS is broken beyond repair. NYS passed a flawed evaluation system into law in order to receive federal Race to the Top funds. However, the current version of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act no longer requires states to rate teachers in part based on student test results to receive federal funds.  Rating teachers on student exam scores is not recommended by the American Statistical Association as it is not a reliable way to measure teacher performance yet in New York we only have a moratorium on using standardized tests to rate certain teachers. Teachers are still rated on tests and other assessments that were never designed to rate teachers. The Measures of Student Learning portion of teacher ratings is highly unreliable. Many call it "junk science."

The Measure of Teacher Practice portion of teacher ratings in New York City is based on the Danielson Framework whose creator, Charlotte Danielson, said this about teacher evaluation in Education Week:

There is ...little consensus on how the profession should define "good teaching." Many state systems require districts to evaluate teachers on the learning gains of their students. These policies have been implemented despite the objections from many in the measurement community regarding the limitations of available tests and the challenge of accurately attributing student learning to individual teachers.

Even when personnel policies define good teaching as the teaching practices that promote student learning and are validated by independent research, few jurisdictions require their evaluators to actually demonstrate skill in making accurate judgments. But since evaluators must assign a score, teaching is distilled to numbers, ratings, and rankings, conveying a reductive nature to educators' professional worth and undermining their overall confidence in the system.

I'm deeply troubled by the transformation of teaching from a complex profession requiring nuanced judgment to the performance of certain behaviors that can be ticked off on a checklist. In fact, I (and many others in the academic and policy communities) believe it's time for a major rethinking of how we structure teacher evaluation to ensure that teachers, as professionals, can benefit from numerous opportunities to continually refine their craft.

Teachers in NY are frustrated and demoralised by a teacher evaluation system that has robbed us of our professionalism.

Teachers have no confidence in the evaluation system that reduces teacher worth into a meaningless series of numbers and letters. Teachers in NYC fear classroom observations are not being used to help them grow professionally, but instead teachers must teach to try to score points on Ms. Danielson's often misused framework.

In NYC, there is a climate of fear in the classroom which does not lead to improved teacher practice. Four observations per year for veteran teachers is excessive. One per year or every other year is sufficient for the vast majority of  veteran teachers. Ms.Danielson stated in Education Week that after three years in the classroom, teachers become part of  a "professional community" and should be treated as such.

Danielson says:
Personnel policies for the teachers not practicing below standard—approximately 94 percent of them—would have, at their core, a focus on professional development, replacing the emphasis on ratings with one on learning.

We agree. To get there we must first repeal Education Law 3012-c and 3012-d and return teacher evaluation to local districts, free from state mandates.

UFT WANTS ATRS TO VOTE IN CHAPTER ELECTIONS IN SCHOOLS THEY WILL NOT BE ASSIGNED TO IN THE FALL

One of the most absurd parts of how the UFT leadership runs the union is the way Absent Teacher Reserves are cast aside and treated as third class members.

ATRS have been screaming for years that they need their own separate chapter within the UFT as their needs are different from those of the regular teachers so they should have their own representatives. For anyone not familiar, Absent Teacher Reserves are teachers and other UFT members who have no permanent school assignment. Either their school was closed, their program downsized or they beat charges where the DOE tried to fire them and didn't succeed but the employee loses their position in their school.

The Union's argument against having a separate chapter for ATRs is that the ATR job is temporary. That just doesn't fly. The UFT created the huge expansion of the ATR pool in the 2005 contract by agreeing to end preferred placement for teachers and other UFT staff when schools closed or placement within a district for teachers and others when programs were downsized. Before 2005, principals were getting qualified people just as supervisors in other civil service jobs such as police officers firefighters get qualified people when they are transferred. We work for the city and not a particular school where we are assigned.

Teachers do have rights to stay in the school based on seniority if the school remains open but we can no longer transfer based on that seniority. 2005 gave principals total hiring power and basically turned way too many schools into patronage mills. In most cases, once you have a basic license it is much, much, much better to know someone than to be qualified.

Throw fair student funding into this mix, where teachers on higher salaries cost schools more money than new teachers on their budgets, and it makes it nearly impossible for an ATR to be hired in a school permanently if someone has too much experience. The DOE also labels certain teachers who have beaten 3020-a dismissal hearings so they are stuck in the ATR pool too. I was told that I was on a troublemaker list but somehow I was still hired. I know I am the exception, not the rule.

Having ATRs vote in Chapter Elections in schools they are at on May 1 of this year is the height of ridiculousness. ATRs are voting and running for office in schools that they are virtually guaranteed not to be working in after this school year ends when the people who win the Chapter Elections will take their positions.

It's kind of like saying whatever state you in on November Election Day is the state you will vote in, whether even if you don't live there. It is is nonsensical.

Here is the actual language of the proposed section in the Chapter Election Guide and Bylaws:

Eligibility

Any full-time member may nominate, run for a position and vote in a school’s election if he or she is on the school’s permanent table of organization or assigned to the school on the first Monday in May of an election year.     

I hope at Monday's Executive Board meeting that the MORE-New Action people will protest and propose an ATR Chapter.

Finally, three of us complained to the Department of Labor that ATRs were disenfranchised in Chapter Elections. We lost because the DOL ruled that since the Delegate Assembly has the constitutional authority to make policy but makes no policy (we sent them minutes of DA Meetings), it does not have to be elected. The UFT is so in need of structural reforms. 

I fully understand why people want to leave after the Supreme Court says we can. I especially get it why ATRs will say enough already. However, the Department of Education wanted a time limit to stay in the ATR pool before someone gets terminated like they have in Chicago. The UFT to their credit said absolutely no and have held to that since 2005. 

If the ATRs leave the UFT in droves, do you really think ATRs will be in a stronger bargaining position afterwards? It's better to fix our Union now.

WILL TEACHER STRIKES NOW COME IN WAVES?

West Virginia Teachers had a successful illegal strike. Is this the start of something that could spread among teachers around the country?

Bloomberg's Josh Eidelson thinks it might be.

The fury among low-paid teachers that triggered a wildcat teachers’ strike in West Virginia—the longest in its history—may be spreading.

Teachers across the country may soon build on the state’s example. The Oklahoma teachers’ union said it will shut down schools within months if its demands aren’t met, and some teachers said they may strike even if a deal is reached.

“The end goal is funding for public education and our core services, and if it takes us closing down schools to do that, then we are prepared and willing to do so,” said Alicia Priest, president of the Oklahoma Education Association. On Thursday, the OEA will announce a timetable that could culminate in a school shutdown if lawmakers don’t pass teacher raises, something the legislature hasn’t done in a decade. While some teachers may have been on the fence, said Priest, the two-week West Virginia strike “has given them an emboldened sense of purpose and a sense of power.”That may not be enough for the rank and file. 

Some Oklahoma teachers are planning a wildcat strike of their own. Leaders from a dozen schools met last week to discuss such an unsanctioned walkout, and they plan to reconvene Wednesday to vote on a strike date. If the union’s plans aren’t to their liking, they may walk out, said Larry Cagle, who teaches advanced placement courses and is one of the organizers behind the independent effort. “We’re going to force this on the union and on the superintendent,”  he said. “Teachers are ready—they are chomping at the bit.”

The whole piece is worth reading.

As we have said before, the point is not to wait for union leadership to become militant. That militancy must come from the rank and file in the schools.