As a parent with two children in NYC schools, I see no reason to risk their health, my wife's health, or anyone else's by sending my kids back to school buildings during Bill de Blasio's upcoming exclusive 2020-2021 opt-in period in early November. I think school should be fully remote until we get and keep coronavirus under control. The buildings should be staffed exclusively with volunteers who wish to support children of essential workers who can't get any kind of child care (the REC Centers).
I have an interesting perspective on remote learning since I am a parent who was a teacher for 32 years in NYC. I see every day the live instruction my kids receive at home. They are being educated. It's not exactly the same as what they would be getting in normal times in school buildings but we are in the midst of a pandemic which has taken the lives of over 1/4 million Americans. The teachers I witness are doing quality work under these next to impossible conditions.
I do not see teachers posting assignments and then going out to play a round of golf. I watch teachers engaging with my two kids as best as they are able to. They are attending legitimate classes. Discussions take place, work is explained, my kids are handing assignments in and it is being graded.
I also witness my wife interacting with her remote classes just as if she was live. I hear students participating in live Meets constantly from her basement classroom in our house. She is doing everything humanly possible to make the learning experience legitimate. Remote education can succeed when teachers put in the effort and kids have the necessary devices and wi-fi capability. Instead of using resources to support improving remote instruction and lowering class sizes to the fullest extent possible, the city has wasted ungodly sums of money on a blended learning model that most parents and students are rejecting.
Now Chancellor Carranza and Mayor de Blasio are telling parents that their offer to have children come back to school buildings for blended learning is a one time take it or leave it offer for early November. In their original plan, it was supposed to be quarterly opt-in periods. The new deBlasio policy says if we stay remote now, it's for the whole 2020-2021 school year. Never mind that we have no idea what the pandemic will look like in the spring of 2021. Maybe there will be a widely available safe and effective vaccine. The NY Post editorial board uses a drop-dead parents headline to describe de Blasio's latest blunder. I think it's more incompetence than anything else but certainly there are some bad intentions here as the mayor it seems will do just about anything to get kids back in buildings.
Parents have already voted for remote as only about 1/4 of the students have shown up for live instruction. Why doesn't the city try to make remote learning work instead of kind of threatening parents that they can't send their kids back to buildings all year unless they decide to do so now?
By keeping most kids at home, parents have seen through the media hype that schools are safe. We know what happened in schools in the spring when 75 in service DOE employees died of COVID-19; the bulk of the system being remote might just be preventing a repeat catastrophe in the fall. We should not be taking needless risks now as the virus spreads again but we also don't need to be locked in for remote until September 2021.
Oh, and the UFT, it looks like their strongest reaction will be on social media.
Do you see de Blasio worried about that Tweet? Does anyone respect or fear this union any longer? The union needs to be repaired so badly.
60 comments:
Don't forget appealing to logic doesn't work in the doe as doe and logic don't go together.
I agree wholeheartedly. It almost seems as if this...if you want to call it a plan (I wouldn't) by the Mayor, DOE and the UFT was worked out in advance and they are merely following the scorecard they agreed to. In my school (of 425), we had 12 students in the building today. Last week we had 30-odd and the week before 40ish. When 3% of your student body shows up, that is not a successful plan. And the UFT has done nothing after all the sabre-rattling of this summer to safeguard the health and well-being of teachers and staff. Their abdication of responsibility and false promises of "safety first" are profoundly disappointing. We need a REAL UNION that supports its workers.
You have to be able to adjust if things are not going well, and it's not going well to keep opting in and out. In fact, it's a complete disaster on programming. The entire roll-out has been a huge debacle and they had seven months to get it right. They can always opt to go remote and stay there. In fact they should all do it.
You never hear a peep out of the mayors pin cushion but buddy chancellor.... just saying.
You don't hear much out of their buddy Mulgrew either besides a weak tweet.
280K out of 1.1 million students in blended and most schools broken into 3 cohorts. Math and facts are less than 10% of students are in the building on any given day. My building has about 600 students 3K-5 enrolled, we are seeing under 50 every day...Facts
I wonder if this is happening because the medical accommodations will be renewed and last until the end of the school year.
Another reach around with a pointer finger up ur ass. Resubmitting medical accommodations will be another ordeal.
School has turned into "Whose Line Is It Anyway"? The grades don't matter, the points don't matter, and in turn the value of your education is significantly lower because no matter what you do you will pass.
The deterioration of our education system will not take place in these early stages of the lack of merit for the students' diplomas. It will show in 10-20 years when these "kids" are going for jobs, don't have the skills to perform what you and I believe are simple tasks. The deterioration our Chancellor ("Never waste a good crisis") implemented is overt racism towards everyone. Whites and Asians occupy all the "elite" schools. Therefore let's rid of the entry process, don't supply minority areas with resources and programs to elevate lower level learning, and blatantly say Non Whites and Asians can't get into "elite" High Schools at a decent rate.
It becomes harder each day to just go in and babysit children. This is not what teachers signed up for. If you are in Tier 6, run for the hills.
De Blasio is intoxicated with his autocracy. So much so that he is unaware that he has his finger up his ass.
Another thing admins don't consider is that these students who they are giving free credit are going to be in some of the same college classes with students who were held accountable and they think they will get a free pass, can be late with assignments and can revise any assignment they score poorly on. They are making it really hard for the kids to go to college and yes even though they may not go to Harvard, the Community schools accept anyone and a lot of hard working students go there too.
The vast majority of NYC public school students are released into society functionally illiterate with a huge sense of false entitlement, that they can do and say whatever they want. They’ve done it inside the schools their entire lives.No arrests, no suspensions. We constantly read about our students and former students in the paper. Young man walks past the 90-year-old and just pushes her for the fun of it. Somebody bumped gets their face slashed. Make eye contact, get slashed. (I’ve seen 3 slashings inside schools or at the front door. The victim always gets a safety transfer.) Worse is the groups - any excuse for violence and looting. Are you white? Wear a yarmulke? Fat? Gay? Good looking? You are a target. This has all been facilitated by the DOE and it’s nonexistent discipline policy. Society is and will continue to pay huge price. What I find especially egregious is that Mulgrew and the Unity controlled UFT have not opened their mouths concerning any of it - grade fraud, assaults and thefts on staff and the victimization of students trying to learn. Nothing will ever go back to the way it was, drastic change that will devastate the Babysitters Club (the UFT) and the unfortunate dwindling number of idealistic teachers. Get out if there is a buyout, if you can’t, look for another career.
Its easy to say if you have an income or can work from home. If you are essential then what? Lose your job or leave your children home unsupervised? Maybe your answer is to just have the government print money and send those people checks? Does that make sense? How long do you think that might work before we see total economic collapse?
Yep. Carranza is basically acknowledging the big flaw: The DOE simply assumed all parents would come to school if they didn't explicitly opt out.
Michael Elsen-Rooney
First I've heard @DOEChancellor acknowledge this: "the number of students we planned for in-person has not materialized...it may be the way we surveyed."
The proper response to that is no shit Carranza.
I agree with 10:03 AM. This is the ultimate sham. The genius teachers of NYC, by passing everybody including no shows, we have shpown the world that we arentneeded. I can't wait till they close buildings forever, make remote classes of 500, have people from India post assignments and do zoom lessons. Real smart. I there is no attendance requirement, and then you can't include class participation, the studnets can do those posted assignments anytime, on their own. Students, in reality, are learning nothing in terms of self control and personal responsibility. Why pay 80k teacher $100k each? I get emails all day saying students can never attend my class because they have to work...And they can still pass? Why pay me then? If stunets just log on in January and complete all the assignments for the whole fall term and get 65...Why pay me?
Erica,
The point James always makes is to pay you because we have a Union. The Union is definitely NOT what people like You and I want, but we can use our voice and try to vote these retards out of office. The Union is what gives us our sense of purpose in terms of teaching. The changing of the guard is what really needs to happen for all of this garbage to be over-turned. Will things go back to normal? Probably not. It won't be like 2000-2004 (when I was in high school) BUT there could be things deemed normal like "responsibility, merit, accountability". The Democrats of this city give people like Trump a platform. Trump uses these morons to propel himself and potentially be a Two Term President. Hopefully in 2021 we can vote these dopes out.
Good luck Erica.
Well stated 10:03. A lot of them return to school and express just how lost they are in the "real world"
DC37 gave up something in exchange of no layoff until June 2022.
Moose
I hate to say it but I agree with chancellor on the Elite schools. They should have the same kind of kids that every other school gets. Then we will see If they are “elite”. The only difference between them and other high schools is that they screen their kids. The teachers are no better and I would argue worse as some of them have no experience teaching a variety of students. I have met teachers from “elite”schools at grading before and they tend to be very arrogant and dismissive of the rest of the school system. Let’s see how well they teach with the same type of population as the “regular” schools. Not sure if I agree with him that it’s racism but I do think these schools should have to take the same populations as other schools do
Erica gets it.
There is a world of difference teaching in a place like East NY or Townsend Harris. Bottom line teachers are teachers some are fortunate to be in good schools but they are not any more qualified or skilled than teachers else where. I do feel that if you work in a complete shit hole you should be compensated more. Not like 10 grand more but like 20 grand more. It should be looked at as being on a special unit like in the police force or fire department, those guys make a more than the regular patrolman or firefighters. For the record I teach at a very good school.
3:59: I'm glad someone else besides me spoke up about this. As an ATR I've been to elite schools. I was in one early college school where the US History teacher for her class final had the students identify all 50 US states on a map and shade in the Rockies and the Smokies. The students also had the states listed on the back. I've also seen teachers teach at another high performing not necessarily elite school and most of them had teacher oriented lessons but they all get rated effective because the kids in class are so good and participate. They also have to make it look like their teachers are good to match the graduation rate the same way the low performing schools low ball teachers on observations to match their graduation rates.
Why are schools open?
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How is attendance 88% when all my classes are between 10% and 30%?
The mayor is concerned with the sale of the Mets. Why does he care. He should be thinking about the state of NYC public schools and the up tick of Covid in our great city.
Because the schools cant be fixed unless they replace the students.
7:22 Your school is probably not reporting it. The article said 1/4 of schools aren't reporting attendance.
The scam is simple, if a student "checks in" at any time over a 24 period they get marked present the whole day, every class. No work, who cares? Didnt attend any classes, who cares?
7:33: You need to fix poverty then the schools.
To fix poverty we need to replace the people who are in poverty with people who arent criminals and who dont want to live off the govt forever.
I agree with many of the comments which been saying for many many years the city kids and DOE are doomed for life, the diploma factory is so unethical and corrupt. These kids are basically illiterate. 1 in 4 valedictorians drop out of city colleges.
There are obviously schools which are great and have better standards, 90% of those teachers could not handle the bronx and other tougher boroughs.
WE usually have 55-60 kids in building 350 in total
There is a reason certain people never get to point B from point A.
Anonymous @3:59 I would agree with eliminating specialized high schools and the better schools
in general when all the sports teams in the US are forced to take a certain percentage of people from every culture and every race who wants to play on a professional team.
Every type of school requires a certain type of teacher. If you are the same teacher everywhere you go, that is a problem. Adjustments always need to be made depending on your school. If a "very good" teacher from Brooklyn Tech came to teach at my school, they would probably quit. At the same time, I would be miserable at Brooklyn Tech.
@8:26: Poverty is not the problem with the schools. You can see many schools in third world countries that do not have the same problems that we experience in NYC.
I think everyone knows that the problems with the schools start with the broken, fatherless families, followed by greedy, immoral and corrupt politicians, political correctness and incompetent administrators (which is tied to politics and political correctness).
Is it possible to be poor and also be nice, civil, respectful, follow directions, work hard? Yes. The students aren't being made to do the right thing. That is the problem. They are the problem
In 2020, poor and poverty means have the most expensive and unnecessary material goods yet complaining they they cant do well in school because of poverty. Sounds more like an excuse.
6:38 your analogy only works if you start with the idea that not everyone can handle the work. The sports league analogy doesn’t work because I will never dunk a basketball. But if I am put in a better educational setting I can possibly learn geometry better. The school environment definitely plays a part and if each school had a fair distribution of the students then all the schools would have a fair chance. If a school is som”elite” the admins and teachers should be able to teach anyone right? As we all know except for some of the arrogant teachers at the elite schools, it’s not the teachers it’s the student population that determines 90% of the success or failure of the school.
Many are dancing around the issue, we have a societal problem.
Or, get rid of the students who are causing the problem. Let the parents teach them...
How do poor/poverty people have expensive things that peole who make $100k don't have if they dont have money for food and shelter?
Yes I noticed people picking up food at food banks packing the food into big SUVs and minivans - new looking ones too.
Parents, Please DO NOT OPT to send your precious children into school buildings. OPT to keep them home and switch to Full Remote NOW. Information is not being fully released to the public nor is it being released to parents. My High School in Queens started testing Students and Teachers for Covid 19 this week. There are now Classrooms with signs that read "This Classroom is Closed, Do not enter this classroom." Many teachers are not in the building and students that should be in the classrooms are attending the Zoom meetings instead because they were told to stay home.
What school?
2:17: Flushing High School. Any surprises!
Try being a parent and doing what you do in a shelter of public housing with shitty wifi and get back to us
From the original post:
"Instead of using resources to support improving remote instruction and lowering class sizes to the fullest extent possible, the city has wasted ungodly sums of money on a blended learning model that most parents and students are rejecting."
The city does not care. If the majority of working class people would stick together, we'd be able to shut the madness down. School by school. Agency by agency. How? By refusing to "cover up". Stand with your colleague-shoulder to shoulder.
Waiting... the problem is some teachers look at the job as a calling, and not what it is. A job. I had a colleague tell me the schools had to open back up, because we had to do right by the kids. I asked him what about doing right by your colleagues. Crickets... people who think that way will continue to go to the schools and as long as the city has them, even if they are only 20%, they will use the, and hire young people to supplement.
Kids who don't show up, dont do hw, have criminal records, spit in the face of teachers, curse you, threaten you, etc...lol. Wake up.
@9:17 pm...
Let's be clear, the city is shi$$ing on you because you've allowed it.
Examples include:
Passing kids who don't show up and don't do hw;
Students who spit in your face (if anyone tolerates that and the assailant isn't arrested, needs to leave that environment.)
What you're saying doesn't have anything to do with working class folks sticking together. It's a distraction that you repeat all of the time. Kids didn't keep your retro. Kids didn't tell you to report to a building in March. You say Wake up?! I'm awake. Too many others are not awake.
I am 9:17, they aren't shitting on me, I'm working from home and passed about 7% because that was fair. I'm also not in an infected building teaching students on a computer while wearing a winter hat, coat, gloves and ski boots.
You pick and choose out of my statement. They are responsible for
not showing up
hw
ignoring due dates
complaining about fair grades
having criminal records
spit in the face of teachers, both literally and figuratively
cursing you
threatening you
@917...
My bad. I guess you received ALL of your retro. Many OTHER teachers in NYC are being sh$t on because they only received half of their money. I'm not sure why you said "wake up". Those students arent ruining the profession. The mayor is ruining the profession by allowing a hands off approach. If ALL educators would stick together and refuse to be treated like babysitters, those students would not be allowed to get away with the behaviors. The students don't make policy--the adults do.
It is the dumbing down or lowering standards because students can't live up to any standards. What would happen if just 1 school was honest and had a 20% passing rate? Would they be called racist?
1:49: No, they would just be closed or phased out.
@149
You don't know if students can live up to standards. Obviously some cannot however your blanket opinion isn't factual. If we know that a majority of schools are playing this game with the support of teachers, what should we call it? The profession is ours but yhe city and union have destroyed it. The teachers blame the students. Who wins?
Any principal can change any grade they want. So our grade really means nothing.
923 pm...
Really?
9:23 is correct, but according to UFT guidelines, you have to be given a written response as to what grade was changed and a reason for the change. Most teachers don't know this though. Most find out when the student comes up to them and says thank you for passing me. It's happened in my school many times. Also if the teacher left the school or retired, they can easily change it without the student finding out. Also if a student scores 85 or higher on a Regents, that student can receive 2 back credits for any class he/she failed prior to taking the Regents for that subject. It goes on their transcript as CR. This happened to me too and the doe doesn't notify you either of the change.
Really waiting. As10:59polnted out and I forgot to mention they have to tell you in writing but they can change every grade you give if they want. They don’t because they don’t want it in their name they pressure the teacher to change it instead
Got it. I believe there is a form that must be filled out and signed. A copy for the permanent file. At least both grades are documented--your grade and the admin's grade. Thanx
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