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Do Statistics Lie? When It Comes To The Regents Passing Rate The Answer Is Yes.
During my 20 years of teaching in the New York City schools, I have worked with many Science teachers. Most of them I can say were caring, nurturing, and had the best interests of their students at...
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It's Still Testing, Testing, And More Testing For The Teacher Evaluation System
Despite what you may be hearing from our UFT President, Michael Mukgrew, or the newspapers. The basic teacher evaluation system remains unchanged. True, the high-stakes Common Core based tests...
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A Rumble In The Bronx, At Lehman Campus.
The once proud and prestigious Lehman High School, like many of the large comprehensive high schools including Jamaica, George Washington, and Tilden high schools to name just a few, were flooded with...
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The "Gotcha Mentality" Still Applies To Far Too Many Schools.
During the Bloomberg Administration the DOE changed from a somewhat benign overlord to an organization that targeted teachers for termination. especially veteran teachers while shifting funding from...
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The DOE Expects Miracles But Fails To Support Teachers.
No matter where one turns to, the newspapers will blame teachers for the failure of the schools. Just look at the pounding the renewal schools are subject to and even the untrustworthy Hillary Clinton...
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How To Improve The Graduation Rate By 26%? Stop Requiring Them To Take The...
In New York State, almost all students who graduate high school must show mastery in their core subjects of English, Math, Science, and Social Studies. To show that students have achieved mastery in...
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A Second Bite Of The Apple To Terminate Teachers- New York State's Part 83.
In the New York Post today there is an article about the two female foreign language teachers who were allegedly caught, after school locking lips and being partly undressed, in a classroom. The DOE...
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My Predictions For The Year Ahead.
The year ahead will see some significant changes in the New York City Public Schools. Some good and some bad and of course some being wishful thinking on my part. So here are my 2016...
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A Thumbnail Sketch Of The UFT Caucuses.
This post is a thumbnail sketch of the three UFT caucuses as we look to vote on the different elected officials to run the UFT. Presently, I have not endorsed any caucus or any individual candidate....
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America Achieves, Just Another Education Deformer Group That Cannot Be Trusted.
In Chalkbeat I read an article by two elementary school teachers who rightly complained that Special Education students should not be graded on tests that are inappropriate for their students....
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Closing Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein Showed Lower Regents Passing Rates...
In a too little, too late report. The City's Independent Budget Office (IBO) released a damming report on the quality of student education at six closing schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan back in the...
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Restorative Justice And Other Questionable Programs Make All Of Us Unsafe In...
When Bill de Blasio became Mayor, he brought with him many ideas that progressives wanted to see in the New York City schools. One of them was how to change the student discipline code that would give...
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What Does The 70% Graduation Rate Really Mean?
With great fanfare and little scrutiny, the DOE reported that for the first time he City students reached the 70% graduation rate level. If you read the newspapers that means the education reform that...
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The Delusional Eric Nadelstern Has A Plan To Get A 100% Graduation Rate. What...
Once again Eric Nadelstern has published an article about how he would improve the New York City schools, this time by coming up with some lamebrain ideas on how to get a 100% graduation rate for the...
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The Battle For Room 314.
There were many stories about education in the New York Post this week, ranging from the "rubber rooms" (they never went away), our disconnected union leadership using our dues to thank Andrew Cuomo,...
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Time To Bring Back The Community High Schools To Combat Academic And Racial...
At the beginning of the 21st century (2000), high school were community based as each high school was zoned and the students who lived in that community zone went to their high school. The only...
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With The New Year, Think About Increasing Your TDA Contribution.
The new year has started and I am shocked how little some educators contribute to their TDA. In the school I am in now, I had to encourage some teachers to put in money into their TDA. A few who did...
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Bullying In The Classroom Continues And Our Union Does Nothing About It.
There was real hope when Mayor Bill de Blasio replaced Michael Bloomberg that the DOE "gotcha system" would be replaced with real collaboration. However, Bill de Blasio appointed Carmen Farina as...
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The Disconnect Between Graduation Rates And Being Academically Proficient.
It appears that no matter who is Mayor, be it Michael Bloomberg or Bill de Blasio, they only care about the graduation rate and not whether these graduates were academically proficient to make it in...
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When An Investigation Is Substantiated, Is The Educator Automatically...
According to the Special Commissioner of Investigations (SCI), there were 5,500 complaints made against educators in 2015 and 26% of them were substantiated or 1,430 cases. SCI investigates complaints...
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