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An Interview With Chancellor Dennis Walcott
After reading the transparent propaganda piece that the Department of Education published about how Chancellor Dennis Walcott will improve teacher training and accountability, I decided it was...
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It Appears That The UFT Will Endorse Bill Thompson And That Is Too Bad.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the UFT leaders will toss their collective hats and endorse Bill Thompson for Mayor. This is the very same Bill Thompson who agreed with Mayor Michael Bloomberg...
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Will The Next Mayor Grant Retroactive Raises? Yes...But.
One of the major questions that City workers have is whomever wins the Mayoral election will the new City Administration negotiate a deal that includes "retroactive raises"? The short answer is yes...
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Finally, Even The Non-Educators At Tweed Admit That The Leadership Academy Is...
The City's Independent Budget Office (IBO) found that there has been a drastic decline in "Leadership Academy Principals" in the New York City School System. It was only a couple years age that 17% of...
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Why Experience Counts When Hiring Teachers.
It's time for the Open Market Transfer System (OMTS) when teachers look for positions that better suit them or just looking for a change of scenery. Unfortunately, in the last two terms of the...
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The Union Attemps To Make Lemonade Out Of A Lemon And Fails When It Came To...
I almost laughed out loud when I read Michael Mulgrew's letter telling us how we won in the battle with the DOE on teacher evaluations. According to the Mulgrew memo we enhanced our "due process...
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The DOE Admits That Poverty Affects Student Academic Achievement, Despite...
The New York Post published an article that stated that 150 schools who had their Regents graded outside their schools showed a significant decline in passing rates ranging from 6.7% in Living...
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Why Teacher Tenure Is Important - The Unfortunate Case Of Paraprofessional...
I have been following the unfortunate case of Sheila De La Cruz and the lesson I learned is why teacher tenure is so important. The New York Post printed an article of Ms. De La Cruz appealing her...
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The DOE Exempts Charter Schools From Its Rule On In-House Regents Grading.
This year the DOE has mandated that all Regents be graded outside the schools and by a central grading group unaffiliated with the school. While that seems fair since the New York Post did expose...
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The Evaluator For The Teacher Evaluation System And PIP+.
One of the more ominous aspects of the newly imposed teacher evaluation system is the requirement of an evaluator for the "ineffective teacher". The new teacher evaluation system will provide an...
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Comptroller John Liu Says That He Would Honor The Previous "City Pattern" And...
On June 12th, in an interview Democratic candidate Comptroller John Liu made it clear that he would honor the previous "City pattern" for the teachers (UFT), supervisors (CSA), and nurses (NYSNA)....
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The Unsatisfactory Observation Of Deputy Chancelllor Shael Polakow-Suransky's...
One very unlucky high school in Queens was subjected to a professional development day that was straight out of hell. The primary part was for the school's unfortunate teachers to listen and see a...
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My Best Guess On What The Retroactive Raises For UFT Members Will Be.
There is widespread talk about how inevitable it is for the next Mayor to settle with the three unions when Bloomberg unwisely decided "to kick the can down the road" and forced the new administration...
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To Me It's Students First! And It's Not Simply A Slogan.
A couple of days before the Earth Science Regents I discovered that three of my students at the school had not taken the Earth Science laboratory practical. I then spoke to the other teachers and...
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Chancellor Walcott, First Clean Up Your Own House Before You Complain About...
Unfortunately, the rag, the Daily Snooze, oops I mean the Daily News has once again went after teachers that were accused of "sexual misconduct" but were found by an independent Arbitrator to have...
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Will Heads Roll At Tweed Due To The Regents Fiasco? Don't Count On It.
The DOE's ill-advised Regents grading policy by outsourcing the scoring to a private consultant for a three year contract worth $9.6 million dollars has been a colossal failure and waste of money to...
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The DOE's Idea Of Academic Excellence Is Different From The State And The...
I was always wondering why the State's and the City's idea of academic excellence were somewhat different. So I decided to look at what differences are there in Science and to my shock I found out...
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Just Another DOE Double Standard When It Comes To Punishing Principal Minerva...
Here we go again! The DOE fails to take any action against a Principal of a closing school who allegedly made racist remarks about Black teachers in her school and then terminated or excessed them....
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What Is The Most Important Characteristic of A Quality Teacher? Connecting...
Everybody agrees that all classrooms should have a "quality teacher" instructing the students. However, when you ask the various education reform groups what is a "quality teacher"? You get vague and...
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Randi Weingarten's Legacy That Has Made Teaching In The NYC Classroom A...
There is little doubt that teaching in the New York City classroom has become an increasingly hostile experience under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellors Joel Klein, Cathie Black, and Dennis...
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