SUE EDELMAN HAS STORIES ON DOE'S LACK OF ATTENDANCE POLICY & THE LATEST ATR COUNT

There are two Sue Edelman pieces in Sunday's NY Post on the schools.  They are basically updates on grade fraud and the Absent Teacher Reserves.

Here is what Sue reported on the NYC Department of Education not having a minimum student attendance policy:
Going to class is not required to receive a city diploma.

It’s not widely advertised, but under Department of Education rules, students cannot be denied credit or  graduation “based on lack of seat time alone.”

Under state law, school districts may adopt a “minimum attendance standard.” New York City does not. While city schools must take attendance, kids can still  pass or be promoted even if chronically absent, which is missing more than 10 percent of days.

Students can pass classes because there is no minimum seat time policy in New York City schools.  This isn't exactly new news. We have been writing about this since 2009. I guess it's news as Maspeth High School shows that the problem is worsening now. I used to think the high school diploma was being rendered meaningless because of pressure on administrators and teachers to pass everyone, regardless of student ability but since 2009, the students no longer have to even show up. We advocated for the enforcement of a minimum attendance requirement while serving on the UFT Executive Board when the meetings were still held at 260 Park Avenue South circa 2001.

I have said before that I was a lucky teacher.  When I got a job at Middle College High School in 2014, I discovered that the Principal enforced a seat time requirement. For the first time in my 32 year career, I had to defend passing grades for students who had more than 8-9 absences for the trimester. It was a good policy.  For the previous 28 years, Jamaica High School administrators never questioned me if I failed a student who seldom showed up. I understand there are extenuating circumstances but I can't comprehend how this grade fraud has not yet been stopped by anyone in authority. Teachers should not have to fight this alone but should do it as Chapters backed up by their Union.

Sue also has an article on the Absent Teacher Reserves.
The city still keeps 930 excess teachers on the payroll, and many other school employees without permanent jobs, The Post has learned.

As of this month, the tenured teachers alone cost the Department of Education close to $100 million a year in salary and benefits, but remain idle or serve as roving substitutes.

DOE officials refused multiple requests to reveal the number of guidance counselors, social workers, secretaries and others in the “Absent Teacher Reserve.”

Despite the surplus personnel, the DOE continues to beef up its workforce.

“We hired over 5,000 teachers over the summer,” Chancellor Richard Carranza boasted in a radio interview on Hot97 last month.

DOE spokeswoman Danielle Filson corrected Carranza, saying the department hired about 4,800 new “teachers, guidance counselors and social workers.”

As someone who was an ATR and has someone very close to me in the ATR pool, I find it quite uninformed that teachers are referred to as being "idle or serve as roving substitutes." When teachers in the ATR are given long term assignments, they are teaching a class like everyone else but with no job security in a particular school. In addition, roving substitutes can be a very difficult assignment when going into some NYC schools. I will say it is positive that Sue got the DOE to turn over ATR numbers for teachers but who knows how accurate any figures from the DOE are?