[cs_edworkers] Report-back from UFT May delegate assembly

  • From: Marjorie Stamberg <marjoriestamberg@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "cs_edworkers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <cs_edworkers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 18:38:13 -0400

*Report-back from the UFT Delegate Assembly, May 20, 2015 * *



*President’s Report*


The most controversial point was the new “Outside Observer” law, which was
rammed through in Cuomo’s budget bill. More on that shortly.



President Mulgew began with national news about the ESEA (Elementary and
Secondary Education Act) reauthorization bill to replace No Child Left
Behind and Race to the Top. If it passes, the federal government will no
longer mandate testing to be linked to teachers’ evaluations. It will no
longer mandate any schools to be closed or changed into charter schools.
Apparently, that bill has now moved out of Congressional committees.



On local items, the UFT is lobbying the City Council on the amount of (and
the existence of?) Teachers Choice for next year.



*New York** State**—Outside Observer law*



The new Outside Observer law was included in Cuomo’s budget. This does not
affect P2G to my knowledge, because we here in District 79 have a waiver
from the HEDI teacher evaluations and are still using the old “S-U”
system. But it affects the great majority of teachers in the DOE.



What is this about? Cuomo believes that the principals are in cahoots with
the teachers *not* to rate teachers as “ineffective,” and thus not to get
rid of them in masse. Albany went ballistic last year when, despite all
the teacher-bashing measures, very few teachers were rated “ineffective,”
particularly in NYC. (Only 1 percent of teachers in NYC were rated
“ineffective.” That’s a good thing – we have good teachers!)



So now they’ve come up with the cockamamie rule that teachers need two sets
of evals—one from the principal and one from an “outside observer.” Under
the regulation, 50 percent of a teacher’s eval is to come from
observations, and 50 percent from standardized tests. There are no more
“local measures” (considered a UFT “loophole”) unless the Board of
Regents/SED comes up with an agreement with the unions.



So the UFT leadership, as per usual, has responded -- not with a solid
“No” but with a so-called “strategy” how to ameliorate the disaster. What
is it? The UFT and state NYSUT are now arguing with Albany over
implementation: what percentage of a teacher’s evaluation will be
principal’s observation, what percentage by the Outside Observer, and what
percentage by student scores on the standardized tests. This is an insane
matrix, and is of course one of the consequences of the UFT’s original
decision to secretly pilot-test and then cooperate with the new teacher
evals in the first place.



NYSUT is arguing that the “outside observer” portion should be 5 percent.
But the UFT is arguing for 25 percent. WTF, Mulgrew wants to give more
weight to these outsiders? This sparked bafflement even among Unity-loyal
chapter leaders at the D.A.



Mulgrew tried to explain, repeatedly, that the UFT’s “strategy” is to avoid
a specific figure. They were able to get specific figures deferred to the
State Board of Education, which the UFT through lobbying has tried to fill
with allegedly teacher-friendly educators, not vicious teacher-bashers.


The UFT is arguing that the initial bargaining figure (25, or 5, or
whatever) is a fiction, because they want a “range,” to be set by local
negotiations in each school board.



Huh? Did anybody buy this “strategy”? Certainly not, from the questions
that kept popping up in the meeting. It defies logic-- Why is higher
better when the whole thing is bad?



For a fuller discussion of this unworkable and insane issue, I am citing
two accounts: One, from Daniel’ Katz’ blog, which is the best account I
have seen. Dr. Katz is a director of Secondary Education and Special
Education Teacher Preparation at Seton Hall University. See
http://danielskatz.net/2015/03/31/who-will-be-nyseds-outside-evaluators


The other is a basic explanation of the new evaluations, from *Chalkbeat:*

http://ny.chalkbeat.org/2015/04/01/after-rancorous-debate-lawmakers-begrudgingly-pass-big-changes-to-evaluations/#.VV-PJk9VhBc


The whole UFT strategy of trying to avoid a direct confrontation with the
privatizers and teacher-bashers is a recipe for defeat. The UFT together
with students and parents should have mobilized real power to sink Cuomo’s
assault on public education



*Motion for next month’s agenda—Sports for All*



Megan Moskop of MORE put up a motion on behalf of an initiative of teachers
at Bronx international high schools. It calls for the UFT to get involved
in the campaign to provide access to sports for the more than 38,000
overwhelmingly black, Latino and other minority students who have no access
to sports and no sports teams at the schools. The D.A. voted to take up
this motion for consideration at the June meeting. For more information on
this campaign, see: http://www.nycletemplay.nyc and on Twitter,
#NYCLetEmPlay.



The campaign grows out of organizing flowing from the Bronx Small Schools
Athletic League that has been starved for funds. David Garcia-Rosen, a
dean at International Community High School (ICHS), has even been sent to a
DOE detention center for leading his students on direct actions to address
inequities in sports funding in the city. More on this in next month’s
report.



*Resolutions*


The rest of the meeting was spent voting up a bunch of resolutions
including: opposition to Cuomo’s tax credit to private schools; oppose
increasing cap on charters; oppose “right to work” legislation; march in
this year’s Gay Pride Day March.



One important item was to support a return to “unit costing” for the
DOE. Under Bloomberg, each school had to “pay” for its own teachers – a
legal myth, but a very useful one, since the DOE actually pays for all the
teachers. But because the principals each had to “pay” a teacher under
their own budget allotment from the DOE, it meant that the principals were
under pressure not to hire senior teachers –because they could get two
“new” teachers for the price of one. So senior teachers ended up in the
ATR pool after their schools were closed, and couldn’t get new positions.



Of course, Tweed has to agree to this, but if they do, “unit costing” could
go a long way to get teachers out of the ATR pool and back in the
classroom. But we must still demand permanent positions for all ATRs,
because even eliminating the financial incentive not to hire them, many
principals refuse to do so.



*Leaflet -- “Full Rights for ATRS – Labor Department “No Friend of
Labor”*


Class Struggle Education Workers had a leaflet calling for “Full Rights for
ATRs and For a Functional ATR chapter. At the same time we were sharply
critical of the ICE/MORE supporters who sent their appeal to the U.S.
Department of Labor. The Labor Department is no friend of labor. We need
the government to stay out of the unions; history has shown, from the
Teamsters to the TWU, any time the Labor Department comes in, it is to
weaken and bust the unions.

That’s it for now.



*As one of your UFT delegates I report-back on the monthly meetings. These
reports are "my take" on the meeting. For official minutes, let me know and
I'll send them along to you.

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