Value-Added Suck-Up

I'm particularly interested in Ms. B's ratings because she let another teacher (not me) take the wrap for something she herself did.

Back in early 2006, Ms. B. was teaching a math class that took place first and second periods.  Liar Principal S.T. had instituted the rule that no student could use the bathrooms first and second period, so Ms. B. dutifully refused to allow a student to go to the bathroom.  At the end of the math class the boy ran to his third period science class taught by my colleague K.N.  This extremely obedient child asked for a pass to the bathroom, but K.N. reminded him that he had to wait 10 minutes because the bathrooms were locked during the first ten minutes of the period (another rule imposed by Liar S.T.).  The boy couldn't wait, so he ran out in search of a bathroom.  However, they were all locked.  He had an accident in his pants, his parents were called to bring him a change of clothes, and someone filed a complaint.  Ms.  B. who had had him for two periods--a total of 90 minutes-- was not charged.  Liar S.T. who ordered the bathrooms to be locked was not charged.  My colleague K.N. was brought up on charges of physical abuse.

I was the only teacher in the building who defended K.N.  

K.N. spent a year in the Rubber Room and eventually left the DOE. Ms. B. is still teaching at the school, and now we can all see her name  in the newspaper.  Despite my feelings to the contrary, I'm willing to admit that not ALL the teachers that appear in the newspapers deserve to be there,  but SOME of them, like Ms. B., deserve that and more.

Ms. B. was Liar S.T.'s best friend.  I'm sure she was useful to S.T. in mounting cases against more than one teacher, including myself.

So let's look at her ratings, shall we?

The 2007-2008 TDR tells us that Ms. B. had 6-10 yrs of teaching experience: That her multi-year score was 21, and her 2008 score was 33.  Wow!  Those scores are really low, Ms. B.  Too bad they couldn't value-add the suck-up factor--or maybe they did.  Maybe that's what value adding is all about--because nobody except the Math and ELA teachers have any idea what it means.

The 2008-2009 TDR tells us that Ms. B. had more than 3 years of teaching experience.  Her multiyear score was 17 and her 2009 score was 6.  Just in case we couldn't figure it out for ourselves, the DOE put big letters next to these numbers "BELOW AVERAGE".  

The 2009-2010 TDR shows that Ms. B. had a much better year.  She was back in double-digits with a 30 for that year.  The DOE calls this an AVERAGE RATING.  The multi-year score is also back in double digits (18), but still BELOW AVERAGE. 

So there you have it:    Other teachers were U-rated out of the school, but Ms. B. survived to teach year after year.  Now you know why.  It's thanks to value-added sucking-up, and the margin of error on that is infinite.

Occupy Teacher Ratings - Day 2

I started looking at the teacher ratings yesterday, and I had to stop because I got a headache.

It was a headache like so many others that I suffered while I was being tortured by Slave Brain Principle S.T. and the rest of the Bloomborg in my school.

The earliest ratings that are available are from 2007-2008.  I still have the year book from that year.  My memory has mercifully fogged over the names and faces of the Math and English-Language-Arts teachers, but now they are clearly smiling out from the year book.

On the published lists, teachers' names have been organized alphabetically so that you will have a hard time comparing teachers in the same school unless you have a year book or some other way of getting a list of teachers' names and the subjects they have taught. 

This is all about the individual teacher:  Not about the school or the neighborhood.  Scroll down and one by one you will find the teachers, isolated from their communities, next to the numbers that are supposed to define them.

It is also just about two subject areas--Math and English-Language-Arts.  You won't find my name, because I was a science teacher.  You won't find many other names.    Social Studies, Art, Music, Computer, ESL, Speech, Guidance, and many more are not there.

I have distanced myself from the woes of the world of NYC public education because of the anger and pain that I associate with it.  I know that by doing so, I have given Bloomberg a small victory, but sometimes a small victory for your enemy can be a large victory for yourself.

I was...am angry at everyone associated with my suffering--including the other teachers in my school, not to mention the other teachers citywide.  My feeling about these published ratings?  It serves you right!  If you hadn't allowed Slave Brain S.T. to isolate and torture me, you wouldn't be publicly humiliated right now.  Learn your lesson.  An Injury To One Is An Injury To All.  Assholes.

But...

This still isn't right on so many countless levels, so I will be Occupying teacher ratings for a while.  Now that they are out, and there's nothing you can do about it -- use them, flip them, make the Bloomborg sorry it ever thought about publishing them.

An Injury To One, Is An Injury to All.  Make the Creeps sorry!  Make them very sorry!

Armed and Ready!

Bloomberg's Abuse is Killing Teachers

I just watched this documentary on Netflix.  If you haven't seen it already, find it and watch it.  I now realize why I feel so much better physically and mentally than I did two weeks ago.

Abusive administrators are literally destroying our minds and bodies.

Chapter 4 of Jude's Story: FOUNDATIONS

Continued from Chapter 3:  THREATS AND COVERUP

I'll give you a quick review of Jude's Story which I started back in October.  Jude reported to her principal that some of the questions on her students' 4th grade math test might have been incorrectly graded.  The Principal asked the Assistant Principal to carry out an investigation, and it was found that all of the 4th grade math tests had been graded incorrectly and that many students had received lower grades than they should have.  Not only that, but the sixth grade math tests had the same problem.  In retaliation, one of the other 4th grade teachers threatened to turn the parents against Jude.  Jude went to her UFT rep, who refused to help her.

As I mentioned in Chapter 1 ,  Jude had achieved the American Dream in spite of being raised in the projects of the South Bronx.

Graduated from Bronx High School of Science
Bachelors degree from Hunter College
Masters degree from Lehman College
Highly Respected Teacher in the New York City Board of Eduction--tenured, vested
Homeowner on Long Island
Married with three children
Active and respected in her church and community

If you start to describe your own life, you will soon find that you are really describing the groups to which you belong.  The structure of your life rests on the foundations that are your groups.
 
"Oh no it doesn't," you might say.  "It rests on my strengths, my abilities, and my hard work."

I agree.  But the choices you made on how to apply your strengths, abilities, and hard work gave you admission to certain groups.  Those groups support your lifestyle.

You had no choice on the family group you were born into.  For the first eighteen years or so of your life your parents determined your sibling group, your extended family group, your neighborhood group, your peer group, your school group, your social class group, your religious group, etc.

Parents have a lot of power in our lives.  They are the original foundations.

But then you came of age, moved out, and started to build your own lifestyle.  Your choices, your foundations:   To graduate from high school or not.  To get married or not.  To  go to college or not.  To get this degree or that degree.  To join this club or that club.  To live here or live there.  To buy or to rent.  To save or to spend.  To have one child, many children, or none. 

These are the foundations that you establish.

Depending on the number of foundations you have, and the quality of those foundations, you can survive many serious assaults by nature or by man.  It's very, very hard to survive bad times on your own.  If you find yourself dependent on the charity of strangers, you  have seen the pillars of your life crumple around you.

"Isn't this Jude's Story?"  You might ask.  "Why are you talking about me"?  Instead of rambling on about 'you this you that', talk about her."

If you belong to one of Jude's groups.  I'm talking about you when I talk about her.  It's a cautionary tale.  But unlike most cautionary tales, it's not about an individual that messed up.  It's about groups that failed under pressure.

So, I'm talking about you if:

You're black.
You're a woman.
You're a wife.
You're a mother.
You're a religious person.
You're a teacher.
You're a homeowner.

I have already warned you that this story is about a woman who has been assaulted over and over.  As I tell her story, I will remind you again and again that she could be you and you could be her.  








 

Attention Re-Reassigned Teachers: Call Your Payroll Secretary !

 I did just that when I was told that there was no record of me having punched in or out during all of September.

The Payroll Secretary told me that she was no longer handling my payroll.  I then called the Union Representative for Reassigned Teachers, and asked him who was handling my payroll.  He hasn't gotten back to me on that.

In September, I took two sick days and wanted to turn in proof that I had consulted a doctor (had really been sick).  I tried to give it to the Payroll People at my new work site, but not only did they say that they did NOT handle my payroll, I would later find out that they were at that time planning to put in scanners to prevent  Reassigned Teachers (aka Terrorist Teachers)  from smuggling weapons into the building.

In October I took another sick day, this time self treated.  That means that I didn't go to a doctor, but just stayed home until I felt well enough to return to work.  When I had a Payroll Secretary, I signed for these illnesses, but now there was no one to see, no where to sign.

As long as I was at the Linden Street Reassignment Center in Queens i.e. Rubber Room, I had a Payroll Secretary who received my doctors' notes and who kept track of my attendance records. 

Then I found out through word of mouth about how badly Reassigned Teachers were being treated by DOE attorneys, Arbitrators, and even their own NYSET (union paid) attorneys.  Teachers weren't being allowed to even consider having their cases heard at a 3020a hearing.  They were being forced to take settlements they didn't want/and or didn't understand.  Those that insisted on having their hearing were forced to represent themselves or hire a very expensive private attorney.   Even those with private attorneys were not faring well before the Arbitrators.  The emphasis seemed to be on pushing as many cases through in as short a time as possible and making sure that all the teachers were in the end declared guilty of something in order to justify everything that had been done to them.

Since most teachers just wanted to go back to the classroom and get on with their lives they acquiesced and admitted some degree of guilt whether they were guilty or not. 

Salem was in full swing.  3020a hearings had officially (in my opinion) turned into witch trials.

I have considered retiring ever since Principal P., a Business Model Bloomburger, came into my life, but I have held on.  I always thought that there was some way to fight her and win within the system.  At one time I thought the 3020a hearing was my one chance to present my case to an unbiased observer--so I have held on, even though the harassment has affected me physically, psychologically, and spiritually.  But now I have lost all hope of being treated fairly in the Bloomberg Department of Education.

So, I decided that I should definitely look into retiring some time this year.  On Thursday I went for a Final Pension Consultation and got all the forms I needed in order to retire, except one:  The OP44.  Do you know what that is?  That's the form asking to be paid for the days you have in your Sick Day Bank--otherwise known as the CAR.  But guess what?  I can't file that form myself.  The only person who can file that form is the PAYROLL SECRETARY that I don't have.

The Union is taking no responsibility for this aspect of my retirement.  This is a Department of Education problem, not theirs.  The nice lady that did my final pension consultation didn't even tell me about the OP44 Form until I asked.  She then told me to go to the Queens UFT and talk to a Payroll rep.  So yesterday I went after work to try to see a Payroll Representative.  I was told that the Union has nothing to do with this matter and to go back to the building where I have been assigned and ask them to take care of it.

"But they won't even take my doctor's notes.  They say they can't even access my time sheets."

"You still have to make the attempt," was the reply.

Ok.  But this time, I think I'll call an attorney to do the attempting for me.