Randi's pulling out all the stops to try to prevent the DOE from removing the worst of the worst -- the bottom 1% of teachers -- and is (I'm not making this up) holding "a candlelight vigil at the Tweed headquarters to protest the establishment of this unit and call for respect for city teachers." I actually Googled "candlelight vigil" to make sure I had the concept right: that it's something done to mourn a great loss or tragedy. A long overdue step, following the onerous due process called for in the teachers' own contract, to get rid of the very worst teachers is a tragedy?! Puh-leeeeeeze!
Let me tell you what's a tragedy: the ruined lives of tens of thousands of NYC schoolchildren (and millions nationwide) every year because their schools and teachers are failing to educate them to even the lowest standard! 52% of young black men who don't graduate from high school -- most of whom can't even read! -- end up in jail at some point in their lives. The educators who are responsible for this failure need to be identified and held accountable -- and I'm sick of listening to the endless "woe-is-us" and "blame-the-victim" excuses!
Randi is so apoplectic that she can't even read the NAEP statistics properly (I'll be generous and not accuse her of deliberately distorting the facts). She writes: "the city’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed no progress between 2003 and 2007 in three of four categories". This is false. The data shows that NYC did make progress in three of four areas between 2003 and 2007 (see: http://schools.nyc.gov/daa/reports/2007%20NAEP%20TUDA%20Results.pdf; slides 9 (4th grade math), 24 (4th grade reading) and 37 (8th grade math) clearly show progress; only slide 43 (8th grade reading) shows a (3-point) decline; and if you want to be fair and compare apples to apples, for 4th grade reading, you'd use slide 26, which shows even greater gains for all English proficient students).
The NY Sun article Randi links to, while somewhat confusing at points, confirms her false statement: #1) "This year, 34% of fourth-graders scored proficient on the math test, up from 21% in 2003."; #2) "When it comes to reading, 43% of fourth-graders in the city this year did not reach the basic level — one step below proficient — down from 47% in 2003." -- in other words, the % of students scoring at the lowest level declined from 47% to 43% (this is progress; another way of saying this is that the % of students scoring at or above basic increased from 53% to 57%); #3) Ditto for 8th grade math: "On the math test, 43% of eighth-graders scored below basic, compared with 46% in 2003." In other words, the % of students scoring at or above basic increased from 54% to 57%
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Filed under: Labor, Education — Randi Weingarten @ 5:39 pm
http://edwize.org/city-plays-gotcha-with-teachers#more-1009
On the same day that the city’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed no progress between 2003 and 2007 in three of four categories, the city revealed that it has hired a team of lawyers and former principals to help principals build cases against tenured teachers who they believe are incompetent. It is unfortunate that at the first sign of bad news, the preemptive response by this administration was to blame the teachers.
There comes a point in time that recycling old arguments no longer works. School reform is tough. It takes a lot of different initiatives working in tandem to get results. It takes qualified teachers; it takes working conditions that foster real progress; it takes an accountability system that’s fair and accurate; it takes engaged parents; and above all it takes collaboration between teachers and principals.
The blame game should stop and people should be rolling up their sleeves and working together to help this city’s kids. The mayor should apologize to the teachers and use the $1 million this unit will cost on something else.
It’s time to shift the responsibility back to the school system. This union is not against accountability. We are against “gotcha” and scapegoating and shifting blame to teachers who are working as hard as they can.
Please join us on the evening of Monday, Nov. 26, for a candlelight vigil at the Tweed headquarters to protest the establishment of this unit and call for respect for city teachers.
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