New Haven Independent

Posted by: Anon | October 30, 2009 11:35 AM

Another good article Mr MacMillan.
Where is the contract available? Could you print the specific language of the incompetence guidelines.

I think the last paragraph of the TIMES article sums it up:
"The New Haven contract represents a promising first step. But there is still a lot of room for politicking and shenanigans. Political leaders, school administrators, parents and everyone else who cares about improving education in this country will have to keep a close eye as this effort moves forward."

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 30, 2009 11:57 AM

If the teacher is tenured, the process is more complicated. According to state guidelines tenured teachers can be fired for only five reasons, one of which is incompetence. Tenured faculty have the option of an arbitration hearing.

In any event, the process should not take more than a year, Clark said. “The design here is to tighten it up,” he said. “One thing we don’t want is a drawn out arbitration process.”

My question is to Garth Harries while the teachers are waiting for a hearing are you going to you bring the Rubber room like you mentor Joel Klein has in New York.

http://www.rubberroommovie.com/

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/08/31/090831fa_fact_brill

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | October 30, 2009 2:26 PM

3/5,

I continue to be confounded about why you interpret the existence of the rubber room as a blemish on the record of Bloomberg/Klein.

The "Rubber Room" is an unfortunate consequence to NYC taxpayers for having to subsidize (to the tune of $100 million per year) very, very bad teachers which no principal would put in front of children. Joel Klein has shown remarkable political courage by refusing to allow incompetent teachers to be in a classroom regardless of the financial cost to the system. Most other superintendents, in order to avoid the over-expenditure, would simply allow these rejected teachers to be recycled into another school only to harm another class of students.

If you have seen or heard interviews with many of these "teachers", who voluntarily report to the rubber room hell hole for YEARS, as though they have no other choice in their lives, its hard to understand how any reasonable person could not be outraged by the job protection that these people enjoy (thanks to Randi Weingarten!) at huge expense to the public.

Posted by: Concerned Citizen | October 30, 2009 2:48 PM

One of NHPS main problems that the teachers contract and this agreement does not address, and that no one seems to be talking about is the problem with incompetent "senior administrators" at 54 Meadow Street, at the New Haven Dept. of Education.

Incompetent teachers have been allowed to move around from one school to the other for decades. Some have been promoted to being administrators. Thus incompetent teachers who are supervised by incompetent administrators are burdening the NHPS sysyem and there seems to be no way to rid the system of them. Of course, some of these are sacred cows with links to power; sadly, the children are the ones who suffer a lifetime of unrealized potential.

The entire NHPS system needs to be purged from the top down. For true reform to take root in NH everyone involved and particularly the union leaders, DeStefano and Dr. Mayo need to commit to purging the system; that means getting rid of all of the deadbeats starting with the incompetent administrators.

Posted by: anon | October 30, 2009 4:23 PM

"politicking and shenanigans" - agree with the above anon.

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 30, 2009 5:45 PM

FIX THE SCHOOLS

I continue to be confounded about why you interpret the existence of the rubber room as a blemish on the record of Bloomberg/Klein.

The "Rubber Room" is an unfortunate consequence to NYC taxpayers for having to subsidize (to the tune of $100 million per year) very, very bad teachers which no principal would put in front of children. Joel Klein has shown remarkable political courage by refusing to allow incompetent teachers to be in a classroom regardless of the financial cost to the system. Most other superintendents, in order to avoid the over-expenditure, would simply allow these rejected teachers to be recycled into another school only to harm another class of students

I continue to be confounded about why you don't understand that these Teachers are accused of missconduct or Incompetence.Rember Fix under our Constitution statutory law, and state and federal case law. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says a person has the Right to a Speedy and Fair Trial.Bloomberg and Klein knows this. Rember klein was a Assistant Attorney General in the Clinton Administration. He should know better.Bloomberg How can you trust This man, Who said he was for term limits and now change the law so he can run again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsJmu8hk7DY

http://law.jrank.org/pages/2137/Speedy-Trial.html

Posted by: Blarney | October 30, 2009 11:03 PM

Seriously...bad teachers stay and become administrators...New Haven has never dealt with poor teaching ability. And yes I worked for NHPS for 10 years and now, much to my dismay, my children are experiencing it. I am looking at all options for them to go else where next year. You have teachers at Cross that just teach how they want, without thought to order or frameworks. No one checks them! This is really about the lack of leadership in many schools. If no one is observing teachers and making sure they follow through, then what are you to expect?

I am totally with Concerned Citizen about purging! Bravo!

Posted by: DavidK | October 31, 2009 2:13 AM

Where do bad teachers go? The same place bad aldermen should go, away. Why do we spend so much time and money on bad teachers? No one else gets tenure in our society. Why should teachers?

Posted by: Chris Gray | October 31, 2009 3:54 AM

Would that we could criminalize incompetence or non-criminal misconduct, if only to satisfy some people's misunderstanding of that to which the language of the U.S. Constitution actually refers. Another common misconception, which my eighth grade history teacher, Carrie Goodrich Doody, called attention to in her final letter to the Register in the '80s, is that the Declaration of Independence is not a document of the United States government.

Meanwhile, for New Haven, at least, I'd say Concerned Citizen hit the nail on its head.

Posted by: Taxed to Death | October 31, 2009 10:41 AM

Failing teachers are being addressed. When will the voters address the problem of a FAILING MAYOR and EXCESSIVE TAXES

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 31, 2009 11:12 AM

Notice UFT is Not Drinking the Kool-Aid On this type of Contract.

UFT Less Likely to Sign On

The United Federation of Teachers is currently embroiled in contract talks with the city of New York, but seems unlikely to agree to such wideranging changes: for one, the charter cap in the state is still limited at 200.

While an experimental program for merit pay of Teachers has been hailed as a success, use of test data is regarded much more warily by Ms. Weingarten’s successor, Michael Mulgrew. In an August interview, when asked about the subject, he said, “we’re not going to listen to people from the outside telling us how to use a tool in the classroom when they’ve never been in a classroom. . . it’s a tool for our profession and that’s something we will control.”

New Haven Teachers Ease Charter, Evaluation Rules

Accord Praised by Weingarten
By DAVID SIMS
RANDI WEINGARTEN: ‘Worthwhile’ concessions. A new contract for the New Haven Federation of Teachers is being hailed as a nationwide blueprint for future negotiations by American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, despite changes that would allow the city to close schools and turn them into charters, as well as use student test data in evaluating Teachers.

“I rarely say that something is a model or a template for something else, but this is both,” Ms. Weingarten told the Wall Street Journal after the contract was ratified by members Oct. 13. At the AFT’s executive council the next day, Ms. Weingarten said that striking the deal had been difficult, but worthwhile. “Sometimes you have to fight to collaborate,” she said.

12% Raises Over 4 Years

While the contract, which was also hailed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, guarantees raises averaging 12 percent over four years and increased medical payments by the city, it also contains a swath of other revisions that unions across the nation have traditionally resisted.

ARNE DUNCAN: ‘Monumental breakthroughs.’ Failing schools in the city, designated as “turnaround schools,” can now be closed and reopened as charter-type schools, free of many of the city’s traditional rules governing the length of the school day, work rules and pedagogy.

While Teachers at the closed schools can re-apply to work at the turnaround schools, there is no guarantee they will be hired, although if they aren’t, they get transferred within the school system. All new hires, as well as existing ones, must remain within the union, although they will be “exempt from many provisions of the collective bargaining agreement.”

Perhaps even more controversially, the contract also introduces a Teacher evaluation program that takes into account student test scores. It also includes factors like attendance, parental involvement and class participation, with a committee of Teachers and administrators called for to codify a more-formal system for evaluation in the next months.

Lays Groundwork for Dismissals

Through the evaluation system, if a Teacher is evaluated “fairly,” given time to improve after being notified of his or her deficiencies, and fails to improve, that Teacher can be dismissed. The improvement period is limited to about 120 days in the contract.

Mr. Duncan called the new provisions “monumental breakthroughs” telling the Journal he was pleased with the AFT’s “willingness to go into areas that used to be seen as untouchable.” Through his Race to the Top stimulus funding program, he is attempting to spread such reforms nationwide. States that lift charter caps or agree to evaluate Teachers with student data are much more likely to receive education funding from the multi-billion dollar program.

The AFT seemed equally pleased by the collaborative nature of the contract and its overwhelming approval by members—it passed the NHFT vote by a ratio of 21 to 1. In a statement, the national union called it “a first-in-the-nation agreement between a city and a teachers union to work together to change the way public schools work.”

NHFT President David Cicarella added, “we have no problem being held accountable, but it has to be topto bottom accountability.”

UFT Less Likely to Sign On

The United Federation of Teachers is currently embroiled in contract talks with the city of New York, but seems unlikely to agree to such wideranging changes: for one, the charter cap in the state is still limited at 200.

While an experimental program for merit pay of Teachers has been hailed as a success, use of test data is regarded much more warily by Ms. Weingarten’s successor, Michael Mulgrew. In an August interview, when asked about the subject, he said, “we’re not going to listen to people from the outside telling us how to use a tool in the classroom when they’ve never been in a classroom. . . it’s a tool for our profession and that’s something we will control.”

Posted by: FIX THE SCHOOLS | October 31, 2009 12:00 PM

3/5, The school system is not a court of law. The process for separation in an employment relationship is and should be far less burdensome than a criminal trial. If a teacher is fired unfairly, then they are free to bring a lawsuit - afterward. If they win, they will be compensated for being treated unfairly.

But to build a system of arbitration, negotiation, and obstruction into the school system itself is ludicrous and only ends up hurting the children and taxpayers.

As for Bloomberg, thank goodness he is going to be mayor again. New York can't afford a return to the incompetence of Thompson in running schools.

3/5, instead of listening to extremists and conspiracy theorist, just take a look around and see what most people think about the job that Bloomberg has done in NYC, especially in schools. You should expect that people who have lost much will continue to gripe about losing their "rights". What about our rights as parents and taxpayers?

Posted by: THREEFIFTHS | October 31, 2009 11:04 PM

FIX THE SCHOOLS
3/5, The school system is not a court of law. The process for separation in an employment relationship is and should be far less burdensome than a criminal trial. If a teacher is fired unfairly, then they are free to bring a lawsuit - afterward. If they win, they will be compensated for being treated unfairly.

But to build a system of arbitration, negotiation, and obstruction into the school system itself is ludicrous and only ends up hurting the children and taxpayers.

The school system is not a court of law? I never said it was. I said the that The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says a person has the Right to a Speedy and Fair Trial. In fact My main man fix According to the new york state Education
Law 3020-A state law requires disciplinary hearings for teachers, known as 3020a hearings, to be completed within four months, read it fix,Sounds to me like what the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says a person has the Right to a Speedy and Fair Trial. Yet some of these teachers have wait for years. Even the New york times has said that the city should speed up the Hearings.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/01/nyregion/speed-is-urged-in-disciplining-of-teachers.html?pagewanted=1

But to build a system of arbitration, negotiation, and obstruction into the school system itself is ludicrous and only ends up hurting the children and taxpayers.

You should blame the crooked arbitration system
that Bloomberg and Klein Up Hold. Check it out.Mr. Levy blamed ''institutionalized indolence'' for much of the delay and said the board had spent $19 million a year just to hire substitute teachers to replace the ones enmeshed in disciplinary proceedings. He said arbitrators, who are paid $500 to $1,000 a day, routinely refuse to schedule consecutive hearing days, even though it is required by law, and often work less than the full day they bill for.

He said he was disturbed to learn that arbitrators try to create balanced track records, finding for teachers some times and the Board of Education other times, so they will not incur the enmity of either side and fail to be rehired.

Notice the taxpayers money being wasted. Look botton line any one who has been accused of any charges should have a speedy and fair trial or hearing.

3/5, instead of listening to extremists and conspiracy theorist, just take a look around and see what most people think about the job that Bloomberg has done in NYC, especially in schools. You should expect that people who have lost much will continue to gripe about losing their "rights". What about our rights as parents and taxpayers?

Last.
extremists and conspiracy theorist
Let us look the meaning of conspiracy theorist.
a theory that explains an event or set of circumstances as the result of a secret plot by usually powerful conspirators. Most of my information is got from mainstream media. Would you call the New York Times,Cnn.Wall Street Journal. I doubt if they are conspiract theorist. Next Let us look at the meaning of Extremist.
advocacy of extreme measures or views.I think this fits you.After all you have extreme views on the teachers union,Which you would wipe out if you could. By the way even check this out.Union claims Filipino teachers held in 'virtual servitude' in Louisiana.The complaint, filed Wednesday by the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), alleges that Universal Placement International charged Filipino nationals about $15,000 apiece to get jobs — more than 40% of some new teachers' salaries in a few Louisiana parishes — and required that they pay 10% of their monthly salary for two years to keep them. feel free to read the rest of this report from USA Today or would you say USA TODAY are conspiract theorist.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-10-01-filipino-teachers_N.htm

Also check out this letter to President Obama.Would you call her a Extremist.

http://www.teachers4justicenow.org/OpenLtrPresBarackStandAlone.pdf

As for Bloomberg, thank goodness he is going to be mayor again. New York can't afford a return to the incompetence of Thompson in running schools.

As far as Bloomberg you are right he will get in.But when you have that type of money you can buy anything. and I mean anything. Look what his money paid for.Newark Mayor Backed Bloomberg, Then Got Funds

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/nyregion/28booker.html?_r=2&hpw

But As you say I must Be listening to extremists and conspiracy theorist.

P.S. Here is a copy Of the education law 3020-2a.

http://www.lexisnexis.com/educationlaw/pdfs/NYDTTA.pdf