Senate Republican leader John Flanagan has a bill to slightly change teacher evaluation while adding all kinds of goodies for charter and private schools.
This is from the Times Union:
In addition to addressing teacher evaluations and testing, the bill expands the cap on charter schools from 460 to 560 and rolls back restrictions on private schools in New York City.
At least NYSUT has come out against this legislation. We should all along have been demanding repeal of the entire teacher evaluation system as our petition seeks. Instead, we are asking for a tweak and our enemies in return want a pound of flesh just to concede to us a crumb or two.
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ReplyDeleteWe have told people very politely to stay on topic and we need to enforce that. Please stay on topic and don't post articles on issues you may find interesting, and may very well be, but have nothing to do with the topic. Sorry. I have to pay a little closer attention to this.
ReplyDeleteMaybe post on the issue of how enough of this kids act, why they act this way, what their parents aren’t doing to correct this poor behavior, why we are be blamed for the decrease in education progress, what our union is doing to protect our reputation and our jobs when we are accused by one of these students a verbal abuse, what our union is doing to protect us from being verbally abused by these poor behaving students, or posts on the correlation between having 2 parents in the home and student behavior and educational progress, or how drugs, incarceration and out of wedlock births have decimated the families of the kids we teach and how it impacts our job environment. I can go on an on. Maybe if you had posts like this we would stay on topic
ReplyDeletewhy don't you start your own blog and say anything you want rather than trying to jump on the work others are doing? Then you can rant all you want about how every single kid is horrible. Send us the link.
ReplyDeleteEvery single kid? You exaggerate much?
DeleteI totally agree with Norm. Start your own blog and post away.
ReplyDeleteReminder again to please stay on topic. I am trying to monitor it closely.
ReplyDeleteWhere’s the other posts? You leave only the ones you agree with. Only one point of view. Sad, sad. Free speech has finally ended. You had a good run james.
ReplyDeleteWhat about a petition to not allow no show students to do packets on June 13 in order to pass every class, with absolutely no seat time?
ReplyDeleteStay on topic and you can say whatever the heck you want. I'm not accepting putting your own articles out that then become the posts. Stick to the topic and disagree to your heart's content.
ReplyDeletePlease put my comments back thanks
DeleteAlLL OF YOU CLOWNS PLEASE STAY ON TOPIC! i am glad that the senate is holding up passing the new evaluation bill because frankly, it sucks balls. The new bill still has HEDI and we are not returning to S/U. We need a full repeal of the current evaluation law. Maybe the senate ask get a full repeal if they get their stupid charter cap lifted. Then they can send the bill back to assembly and then on to Cuomo. i am fine with that. What say the rest of you?
ReplyDeleteOh ok, back to meaningless rule changes with the DOE, it gets worse every year, so lets discuss a Bill. What about the last contract? Did we discuss that much? What changed since then?
ReplyDeleteAll of this wouldn’t matter as much if we just fixed parenting. 4 observations wouldn’t matter, regents scores wouldn’t matter, school funding wouldn’t matterI, and of course yearly ratings wouldn’t matter. Iyou guys are smart enough to figure it out but I guess I was wrong. The breakdown of the family of many of our students leads to all sorts of social and educational challenges that must be addressed by the teachers. We are blamed for all of it. Fix the drug problem, the behavior problem, the crime problem, the family structure problem and you will see many of our educational system problems motive. Who cares if we have 4 or 10 observations the kids are highly motivated and encouraged by their families to succeed. Hi cares if our yearly rating is based on regents scores the kids parents are sitting down with them and helping them achieve success. If this is off topic m sorry but we debate the superficial issues and not the real issues that are keeping our students from reaching their full potential. Yes more school funding would be great and more experienced teachers would help and more programs to assist the under profiting kids would do wonders but at the end of the day it pales in comparison to the real problems in our society. God bless sorry it’s a habit I was taught in parochial school.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that observations and administration wouldn't matter if the kids all cared if the administrator is insane. However, this comment at least mentions the topic and then does go off on a tangent but I won't censor anything like that.
ReplyDeletePosting articles that have nothing to do with the blog post is basically hijacking this space and taking over. I feel I have to stop that.
A lousy administrator in a good school can sink ratings too.
Disagree all you like but please stay within our fairly liberal (sorry) guidelines.
God bless you too. I spent a couple of years in a parochial school too.
4:38, Yeah we discussed the contract at length. See the May 2, 2014 post.
ReplyDeleteStay on topic please 3:30 and you can post whatever point of view you like.
ReplyDelete4:00, I don't necessarily agree on lifting the cap but that is how a union is supposed to negotiate. Forget that with our union.
Anno 4:43, I disagree in a big way with you. If all of our kids were "great", evaluations, observations, and ratings will still matter. That is why the evaluation law is in effect for all of NYS. There are plenty of "great" kids in "great" districts in NYS but we are all evaluated under HEDI and not S/U. The reason is there is a war on teachers. The powers that be do not want teaching to be a life long profession. Veteran teachers cost money. Pensions cost money. Health insurance for teachers and their families cost money. We have the crappy evaluation laws in place for the simple reason to make teachers miserable and quit the profession as soon as possible before these teachers get to be vested. I care deeply about getting 2 observations and I am deeply concerned about my rating because i have been teaching for 25 years and I live in fear that the powers that be are going to want me gone soon. I have seen both veteran and newer teachers harassed via the evaluation system and have seen some fired for nonsense. This fear is not just in NYC. I have tons of teacher friends in "good" schools in Westchester who are living in fear as well due to evaluations and ratings. Just my 2 cents here.
ReplyDeleteI agree with a lot of what you said. I’m a 23 yr veteran and believe they are trying to get rid of me and many veteran teachers but they would have to work much harder if we fix the reasons the kids underperform. Good post and thank you for your thoughtful analysis. You have given me something to think about in my own analysis of the problems we are facing as I attempt to make it to 25/55. God bless
DeleteI'm in 25/55 as well. Teacher morale is in the toilet due to the current evaluation system. We are all walking on egg shells each and every day. I miss the days of only having only one or 2 observations per year along with S/U.
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ReplyDeleteFlanagan has been anti-public school teacher and anti-public school for some time. It's time everyone tells him he won't be receiving our, our families or friends votes. Write him, I just did. Here's his contact info - flanagan@nysenate.gov
Can you tell us what you wrote Bronx ATR?
ReplyDelete