Bloomberg is once again touting his wonderful education reforms and his plans to reform education even further. One of his big issues is teacher tenure, which he wants to change. He claims that all a teacher has to do is teach for three years and the tenure is automatic. As far as I know, this is not true. New teachers are observed quite often and a good administrator keeps track of what that teacher is doing. If there are problems, there is a system in place to address those problems and if the teacher is not satisfactory, terminate employment. The big question the mayor should be asking is why principals are not doing their jobs? Could it be that actually trying to deny tenure means extra work for the principal? I don't know how many times I've seen teachers transfer from school to school, due to a principal's suggestion to avoid the U rating and thus keep the job until tenure is earned. Years ago we had a principal who was known for being tough on unsatisfactory teachers. More than a few teachers would dropped under his tutelage. Did innocent teachers bite the bullet? I'm sure they did. But, lots of kids were saved from terrible teachers too because of this guy. Let me add, that I was not a fan of this guy, but I respect the way he did his job. We have a guidance counselor in our school who is awful. He has been awful from day one. Everyone knows this. Did this guy get tenure? You bet he did! I've heard that his mom is a friend of Principal Suit. This guy is usually found surfing the internet in his office. Now he is one of those teachers giving tenure a bad name. Why? Because of an administrator who did nothing.
The majority of teachers with tenure have earned it. We work at jobs where we are underappreciated and definitely underpaid. Our education is the equivalent of a lawyer's education but our paychecks are not. We can't go to the bathroom until a bell rings. We carry everything we own from room to room. We are abused by principals who don't like us expressing opinions different than their own. But, we have one major thing that lots of other occupations do not have--TENURE. We cannot let the UFT allow the mayor to take this away from us
The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.
5 comments:
I have mixed feelings about this. Actually, he's talking about looking at people more cardefully before granting tenure. That's a good idea, I think.
But honestly, I don't think he will follow through. This way, he can use tenure as a battering ram against those of us already here, which is far more like his MO.
And there was a lot of talk about working with the UFT. That, to me, was the most ominous of what he said.
I do think the city and UFT being in bed together and we are the ones getting f****d, without foreplay and pleasure.I do think the next step is to try to strip away our tenure
I didn't hear the speech, but saw the 4 point summary on the UFT's web site. The worst parts, I think, are directed at public education as a whole. The empowerment model is only one step removed from fee-for-service (how NYC contracts out many services), and the funding following the students fits in with this.
I am concerned about creeping privatization. And I continue to take issue with our (the UFT) stand on charter schools, which fuzzy the line between public and private. We should be firmly opposed to the creation of more charters, and we should actively be organizing the ones that exist.
That aside, we should answer attacks on tenure with one voice. Randi Weingarten's statement (also 4 pts on the UFT website) was not dramatic, but said the right things.
But what happens to teachers before they earn tenure is a problem. You raise interesting points about principals getting rid of people who won't make good teachers. But given the large and growing number of incompetent principals, and given the very large number of new teachers who get forced out in their first year, I would be interested in getting some improved process for new teachers to appeal arbitrary firings.
I agree with you 100% about bad principals and also principals that get rid of teachers because they don't like them.
I'm afraid that the UFT will allow Bloomberg to trip us of tenure altogether. Weingarten seems to give more and more away every contract.
In the face of the backlash from the last contract, she now sounds more militant, and certainly sounds firm on tenure. Whether we believe her or not (and I do believe she really is firm on tenure) it is incumbent on all of us to make clear where we stand on tenure, and to let Randi know that we appreciate the strong comments and we want more of the same.
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