Shining a light on respect

By Deidre McFadyen

New York Teacher, Dec 6, 2007

Holding white candles, more than 1,000 teachers and other UFT-represented educators and friends gathered outside the Department of Education's Tweed headquarters on the evening of Nov. 26 for a solemn vigil to protest the establishment of a unit headed by a prosecutor to help principals go after tenured teachers for incompetence.

“This vigil was intended to demonstrate that we take our responsibility for educating kids seriously, and the DOE should take its responsibility for treating teachers with respect seriously,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten.

The rain held off during the hour-long vigil on what turned out to be an unexpectedly mild evening. Dots of light marked the column of educators stretching all the way down Chambers Street and around the corner.

Teachers at the vigil bridled at the DOE's punitive approach to improving teacher quality.

“Their team should include education experts and professional development people, not lawyers to build a case against you,” said Andrew Landers, a teacher at Wadleigh HS in Manhattan. “That doesn't seem like much support.”

Weingarten said that the Peer Intervention Plus program that the union and the DOE negotiated in the 2006 contract provided a fair and effective way to tackle the issue of teacher incompetence.

She criticized the DOE for not giving the program, which started in October of this year, the chance to work.

To be successful, Weingarten also said, teachers need support and the right teaching and learning conditions, including smaller class sizes, safety programs, special education services and quality mentoring.

“Teachers work their hearts out every day and want to be effective,” she said.

Deflecting bad news?

The DOE announced its new $1 million initiative in the Principal's Weekly the night before the release of lackluster scores by city students on national reading and math tests [see “NAEP shows weak results for city” below].

“It is unfortunate that at the first sign of bad news, the pre-emptive response by this administration was to blame the teachers,” said Weingarten at a quickly called press conference at UFT headquarters.

The new Teacher Performance Unit will be staffed by five lawyers who will help principals from an early stage prepare 3020a cases for incompetence against tenured teachers. A parallel Labor Support Unit, staffed mostly by retired principals, will also be involved in documenting performance problems if its effort to improve a teacher's performance fails. Both units will be made available at no cost to principals who request their assistance.

“The creation of TPU represents a significant infusion of resources that will ensure we have the capacity to seek the removal of all ineffective tenured teachers who, in spite of receiving the time and support sufficient to allow them to substantially improve, won't or can't do so,” wrote Dan Weisberg, the DOE's chief executive for labor policy and implementation, in the memo to principals.

In the 2006-2007 year, 1,333 teachers, including 918 tenured teachers, received “Unsatisfactory” ratings from their principals. The previous year, 981 teachers, including 662 tenured teachers, were rated U.

Hours before the early evening vigil, Chancellor Klein sent a conciliatory letter to teachers that lauded their contribution and said “all but the tiniest minority of teachers are doing good, and often outstanding, work.”

He said that the DOE's “modest steps” were mischaracterized “as something bigger than it is.”

“I regret the confusion and concern that the public conversation on this issue has caused and, specifically, our role in it,” Klein wrote.

Referring to the letter, Weingarten said, “I hope it is a signal that he has heard us and that the ‘blame the teacher' routine will stop and we will get back to working together to educate kids.”

Weingarten said all agree that every child deserves a qualified teacher.

“This union is not against accountability,” she said at the previous week's press conference. “We are against gotcha and scapegoating and shifting blame to teachers who are working as hard as they can.”

The creation of a “gotcha squad,” she said at the vigil, marked a departure from this year's attempt at collaboration.

“We are saddened because a school year that began with promise and optimism is now in danger of deteriorating into a climate of fear,” she said.

Such a punitive approach, she warned, could prompt many teachers to leave the profession because they feel their work is neither appreciated nor respected.

Why teachers leave

“The predominant teacher staffing issue is why so many good teachers leave,” Weingarten noted, citing statistics that showed a significant increase since 2001 in the number of resignations of certified teachers for reasons other than retirement.

Lenny Brown, a physics teacher at Cardozo HS who is now sitting in a rubber room for a year on what UFT officials believe are trumped-up charges, was one of the speakers at the vigil.

“I remember a time when teachers could be thought-provoking or unconventional and not be afraid of intimidation,” said Brown, who was sent to a Teacher Reassignment Center when a student accused him of inappropriate touching after he asked her to press her hands against his hands to demonstrate Newton's third law of physics in front of the class.

“Where does it all end?” Brown asked. “How many good teachers will be persecuted before we say ‘enough is enough'?”

Lia Galeano, chapter leader of the HS of Arts and Technology in Manhattan, said from the podium that her principal began to insult and harass her after she complained that special education students in her school were not receiving appropriate services.

After experiencing how easily a good teacher can fall out of favor with a principal, Galeano said the creation of the Teacher Performance Unit disturbed her.

“I question why the $1 million being spent on this unit isn't being used to give students the services they deserve,” she said.