You would think that all teachers are treated the same by the DOE. However, we all know that excessed teachers are not treated the same as appointed teachers but in the bizarro world of the DOE, teachers are treated very differently. Welcome to the DOE's version of Animal Farm. If you're not familiar with George Orwell's book the animals rebelled against the human farmer and took over the farm, At the beginning all the animals were treated equally but as time passed the pigs gradually took over and became the overlords of the rest of the farm animals. Lowest on the pecking order were the cows and hens who were liquidated when their food producing days ended.
The DOE, with the complicit agreement by the UFT leadership, has developed its own Animal Farm pecking order when it comes to teachers simply by their policies.
Pigs: Young and preferably untenured teachers who have low salaries and inferior Tier VI pensions which few will ever last long enough to obtain. The DOE's school-based "fair student funding" formula ensures that almost all the 4,500 teachers hired annually are these teachers. They get the DOE's " Hero First Class"Award.. Furthermore, most of the Open Market System transfers come from this group.
Dogs: Tenured but hired under Tiers V or VI and with less than 8 years of experience. They are the gate keepers for the Bloomberg small schools and are still young and cheap enough not to be targeted. These teachers get the DOE's " Hero Second Class"Award. The remaining transfers of the Open Market System occur in this group.
Horses: Experienced teachers and used by the DOE to implement good teaching practices. However, while they are getting on in years and becoming expensive, they are still needed since these are the top teachers in most schools.. These teachers between 8-15 years of experience are the role models and mentors for the "newbies". They are the work horses that make the schools run until they wear down and are eventually enter the final two groups and are targeted.
Cows: Veteran teachers , usually over the age of 40 and 15+ years of experience. They are used by the DOE to milk their vast experience until they are of little use to the DOE. These teachers will be forced to pasture by retirement or termination once they have been squeezed of their best milk producing years.
Hens: Senior teachers who have the most seniority and accumulates the most pension credits. The DOE policies force them to lay eggs and then terminate them to feed the DOE's ever increasing monetary appetite while starving the schools. Targeting senior teachers is the top priority in their"education on the cheap" policy since they posses the"institutional memory" of what its like to run a peaceful classroom and that is a threat to the ever increasing "Leadership Academy Principals"..
In the DOE's version of Animal Farm its always "newbie teachers are good" and "senior teachers are bad".