Impact bargaining again? Is Michael Mulgrew going to demand another few hours of per session for teachers to give these useless tests and input data?
The Devereux test Mulgrew is criticizing in the email below he was praising just a few weeks back in testimony in Albany.
We are happy to see that this year’s DOE budget, in part because of ARP, includes funding to hire 500 social workers and other mental health support staff. Similar to how members will be able to use academic diagnostic tools, members across the city will be able to use the Devereaux Student Strengths Assessment as a social emotional screening tool to help identify students in need. Members will be able to quickly match students with services including individual or group counseling, mentoring or small group social-skill building.
Mulgrew today:
Dear ________,
We know how important our students’ social-emotional well-being is, and as educators, we check on it every day. But the social-emotional screener that the DOE has chosen is excessive and places an unnecessary burden on our members during an unbelievably challenging year.
For this reason, we have filed for impact bargaining since the new process represents a dramatic escalation of our workload for no good reason.
In our last discussions with the DOE on the topic, school officials told us that most students would be screened in January and the screener would consist of only 5-7 questions — a manageable number — so that we could gauge how our students were doing as part of our normal workday.
Now, the DOE wants us to administer a screening that contains 43 questions, a sixfold increase over the original plan. We don’t think such a lengthy screening is necessary to identify which students need extra support, and we can’t allow another strenuous task to be added to our plates during a time like this when we are all at our limit.
The job of an educator has changed this year. We are trying to create a sense of normalcy for the city’s children, day in and day out during a pandemic, in crowded classrooms with guidance that’s constantly changing. We are teaching through masks over the sound of loud air filters and outside noise from open windows. Our students have not been in a large classroom setting for 18 months. We’ve never been this overworked and exhausted.
Again, we see the mayor trying to rush a policy without consulting with those who are doing the actual work. We recognize this pattern: claiming he’s doing something for our children (that isn’t really being done) all for political gain. We know how important assessment is, but any screenings we use have to be done in a thoughtful and efficient way so we spend our time wisely and actually help our kids with what they need.
We will keep you updated on the impact bargaining as it unfolds.
Sincerely,
Michael Mulgrew
UFT President
The test:
34 comments:
They want us to fill this out for every kid? I have 150 students instead of my normal 170. They are nuts.
How long have you guys been in the doe? It’s run by politics. ‘Look at what we are doing!’ ‘Aren’t we wonderful?’ ‘We care!’
Here is what will happen. We will do what we do with everything else. Give up? We will bs our way through this.
Heck, in my school, we were given harassment stuff to present to classes. I showed one or two slides, put together a bs assignment and moved on.
I am in my 40’s and can honestly say I am a ‘yes man’.
This whole system is a game.
Mayor and city hall play politics, superintendents don’t want to rock the boat and collect bloated salaries, other people follow along, principals are given nonsense that they shoot downstream to us and we have a few choices. One is to complain. See where that gets you. The other choice is to play the game, pretend to do real work and enjoy the weekend.
The choice is yours
I do not see any modified survey for D75 children, will this survey be adapted in any way? Teachers should be as accurate as possible I assume, this would require a modified and/or adapted version for D75 teacher's to fill out successfully and accurately.
This is another excuse to pass students. My school just yells "SEL" when we say a student is failing.
Mulgrew is all about politics. He really liked the survey when he was meeting with his political chums in Albany. That is Mulgrew works for them and kisses up to them. Mulgrew does not work for the teachers who pay his dues.
He defecates on the members of the UFT. Mulgrew defecated on the UFT members by approving the survey in Albany.
It says for grades K-8. So I guess HS level doesn't have to complete the survey?
Mulgrews mistake is his inconsistency when it comes to this mayor. Anyone with a working brain knows just how incompetent Diblahsio is. The evidence has been piling up for years and this city has taken a nosedive under this idiot's leadership. By being this mayor's lapdog he has lost respect from so many in this so called union.
I do not see the pay for setting up my google classroom on my check dated 10/29. Did anyone else get it?
Why are we made to be guidance counselors, therapists etc, why? We are teachers. Why isn't this enough? How many more things are going to be dumped on us before we say enough is enough?
This is why teacher burn out is so high-we are asked to do what should be the work of 3 people. This unrealistic expectations come from the people who do nothing, no teaching just make this crab up for us to do.
5:59: They said it was a separate check for 10/31 which is weird since 10/31 is a Sunday.
Mulgrew, stop being such an ass-kisser. Alternatively, if you decide to continue being such an ass-kisser, why don't you bring some of that love over to your constituents and fight for better member healthcare, or reinstatement of 7.25% TDA, or REAL deescalation of paperwork that ALREADY exists and is sending members to mental health offices left and right.
I wouldn't mind your being such an ass-kisser, you know, if you aimed some of it towards us...your peeps. But wait a second, you don't give a rat's a__about members as long as you play nice with pols...isn't that really the case?
Embarrassment!!! Tell your friends to vote for a challenger come next UFT election!!
Indeed. Let's see the challenger get more than 13% of the vote this time. Maybe even 14%. And don't worry about choice. There will be several challengers to pick from, each occupying a spot on the extreme left or right.
In all sincerity can someone tell me why they think Solidarity is the extreme right? I’ve never heard that except for a couple of comments on this blog. I don’t know much about them but never heard them associated with the extreme right.
UFT Solidarity is not extreme right. That is probably a Unity troll.
I'm Unity, but only partly a troll. I agree that Solidarity is not nazi, but I bet the gang over at MORE believes them to be so. My point is that the opposition always kills themselves. An effective opposition would be good for everyone. But, I've never seen it.
726. I'm a MORE member. UFT Solidarity members are not Nazis. Go away Unity Troll, you are not helping us by making these statements.
You have to read the story in Gothamist about the anti vaccine protest in Manhattan today. Someone had the nerve to compare the vaccine mandate to the Holocaust. Sorry, forcing you to get an injection which will save your life is not the same as someone stuffing you into a cattle car, taking you to a concentration camp and gassing you to death. He totally insulted and dishonored 6 million people.
Ok. I'm glad you don't think they're nazis. That's progress. But will you support a Solidarity fusion candidate. That's where the rubber hits the road. I say you won't
Wait a second. Solidarity believes in pure bread and butter trade unionism. In our world, that's right wing, isn't it. The nazi thing is ridiculous but I think Solidarity is to right of Unity and way right of MORE.
Re holocaust comparison:I am Jewish.of course, it isn't putting people in cattle cars.the comparison is because the GOVERNMENT is scapegoating a group of people
Back then, it was Jews.Today it is the unvaxxed.scapegoating was how the Holocaust began.you promote hate and violence by blaming society's ills on a group.the rest follows... biden started it all.shame on him.already, people are divided and against each other due to the way the politicians handled the mandates. The first responders who worked crazy hours, who got sick(many died and infected families) who saved lives are so disrespected.it disgusts me.i fear the results of them standing against the mandates and the result lies with diblasio. This country disrespects hard work and sacrifice, starting with veterans and now first responders.the big apple is really rotting thanks to delerious diblasio who thinks he is so great that he should be born and/or wirk on a national level.
Oh please. Right wing doesn't believe in unions at all. Not in this country they don't.
"The relentless Republican assault on unions in the industrial belt states during the first half of this decade was an unquestionable success, politically speaking. It resulted in decreased Democratic turnout, a crucial drop in the bankrolling of Democratic candidates and, more subtly but no less significantly, a debilitating sense of powerlessness among union members."
This SEL stuff is nuts. I am expected to answer 43 questions for 31 students whom I hardly know. I feel unqualified to fill out these forms. Teachers are being told to play social worker. The PD we had for this, a video, was ridiculous. It sounded like a 50 minute filibuster; a lot of talk but no substance. The people in the video seem to be quite talented in blather. Perhaps this SEL stuff is just another way to provide jobs to those who cannot do anything else other than blow hot air and sound cheery while doing it! The people in the video are as phony as a three dollar bill!
When will the NYC tax payers have enough of the DOE waste?
I think it was Mark Twain who said "Don't let schooling get in the way of you education." I think of this quote every day that I am in school.
I am slowly becoming a charter school and voucher supporter!
921.. it's not "progress." we never thought they were nazis on the first place. the progress needs to come from you, and the rest of Unity. don't spread disinformation about other Union members.
not only will i support it, i voted for it within my caucus. this may come as a surprise, since members voting on action is not part of Unity's belief system.
926. No. Trade Unions come out of the left. They were born in opposition to employers/capitalists. Why are you spreading all of this false information about Solidarity? Is this Unity's play, hijack a comments section on a blog?
912. Thanks to our garbage education, especially history and political education.. the holocaust is the only historical reference many people can conjure up. And yes, it's downright insulting. There are plenty of other mandates, right here in the US, that these people could use for comparison.
The democrats are against unions too. They are now the party of elites. I don’t vote for democrats anymore. They whisper sweet nothings in your ear before an election, get your vote and leave you to walk home alone in the morning. I agree with 3:23.
1058. yes, we have an anti worker system. and the political class works hard to keep that way. Unity is a part of that. vote for the opposition, and let's get them out.
Cut it out with the Holocaust comparisons, please.
I support Solidarity because they are to the right of Unity and MORE. Never mind all the resolutions in support of Trans Eskimo rights. Stick to bread and butter unionism... pay, hours, benefits.
135. what's wrong with you? you think there aren't Trans UFTers? come back when you grow up. and seriously, get yourself a little bit of a political education.
She means focus on union issues instead of solely on social justice.there are many groups for many causes.our is all things for ufters.i think she said Trans Eskimos as an example of other things ie save the whales etc.good causes but that's not what we pay dues for.its about US.dont be so literal.no, I was not that poster...
Exactly. I'm the poster. I'm pro Trans, and pro Eskimo too, for that matter. But I want to hear more about our jobs and less about Burundi and Guatemala.
638 The person said Trans Eskimos because for some reason they feel compelled to single out that community and make a joke of them. the point could have been made without the hate. And, eskimos? this is the insult chosen? there certainly are many things to focus on, and a good strong caring union would be able to pull all of this off. Our union/Unity Caucus just placates to a liberal take on identity politics. it is a soft right wing social view, that ignores class politics and the system that creates these social problems in the first place. we need true class solidarity, along all the lines that intersect, including Gender lines. US is all of US, and all the conditions and boundaries we find ourselves with.
Just show up to work, say good morning, and yes to everything. when your in the classroom you throw it in the garbage. you worried about informals, have a great backup plan to use on the fly. 80 percent of this job is bullshit. There isnt one teacher in the doe that can do everything these principals ask of ourselvbes.
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