Case of New York City Teacher Abuse of Probationary Teacher

[tonysam]

I found this an interesting read about the situation of at least one untenured NYC teacher:

Teacher abuse is alive and well in this corrupt system run by the NYC Department of Education AND I would even venture to say the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). The motives of administration in placing hard-working, innocent veteran or tenured teachers in these “rubber rooms” range from personal (personality conflicts) vendettas to political feuds (violation of a teacher’s Academic Freedom). Most of the publicized stories are about tenured teachers placed unfairly and unjustly in these “detention centers.”

Now imagine the treatment UNTENURED or probationary teachers must endure by power-wielding administrators who are disciplined for simply expressing opinions, questioning policies or procedures that simply do not work, or even more egregious, for personality conflicts with members of the administration. The press MUST publicize these untold stories and hold the NYC Department of Education AND the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. Many administrators, not all, have a ‘superiority-complex’ due to their positionality and experience (number of years) in the system. New teachers by virtue of their position as “inexperienced,” “young,” or “new” to the system are devalued and seen as easily dispensable if they go against the grain in ANY way. I am reminded by the poignant statement Senator Barack Obama made in one of his speeches when he asserted, “Longevity does not necessarily guarantee good judgment."

Inexperienced or probationary teachers who graduate from accredited teacher education programs bring passion, creativity, and innovative ideas that have the potential to transform oppressive working and teaching conditions to empowering educational experiences for students, parents, and teachers alike. Probationary or untenured teachers’ naivety comes from trusting an educational system that claims to want success for all of its students and trusting that they will receive adequate support from a union that requires ALL teachers, regardless of rank, to pay dues. They soon learn the hard way that regardless of degrees earned or union dues paid, they have very little power and voice under the tyranny of the NYC DOE. There is a culture of fear that permeates in NYC that new teachers learn quickly: if one conforms and has a “go-along-to-get-along” attitude, s/he will persevere and “earn” tenure. The following is a story from the 2007-08 school year that I am confident many probationary teachers can relate to in some way or another..

Much more

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Painfully familiar. I tell new teachers to keep their mouths....

... shut. I actually sound them out about stuff privately just as a "do you see what I see" , reality-testing thing that I have to do once in a while just to get my bearings. If they agree with my analysis, my advice to them is NOT to say anything out loud... at staff-meetings and the like.... until they are tenured.

Sad thing is: the better ones may not last that long. The most common complaint is too much paperwork, not enough teaching. It's special ed, so it's "all paperwork, all the time."

One rookie told me this week that if he knew how little the job had to do with actual *teaching* he never would have gone into the field in the first place. He's one that won't make probation, I'm thinking. Too bad.... a naturally gifted teacher.

[tonysam]

2. I went through the exact same thing

The trouble is I COULDN'T keep my mouth shut (I was already post-probationary or tenured) when my principal approached me to violate federal law and cheat by having me put all my life skills students on alternate testing. It couldn't be done, period, but that didn't stop the harassment, and ultimately this jerk wrote me up on a petty complaint. I demanded to be moved elsewhere but wasn't allowed to pick my school; instead, I was tossed in a school which was notorious for staff problems. I didn't last the year thanks to this idiot principal not knowing what she was doing and fired me because H.R. put her up to it.

It's a shitty system, and it's getting worse, unfortunately. If I had known years ago what I know now, I would NEVER have gone into this field, especially in midlife. Now I have no career anymore at age 55.

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Mmmmm. Nothing is as it seems in public education.

Last year, one of our teachers ( probably more then one) was strongly pressured to "improve" the alternate testing scores to make the school look better. Mind you... this is *alternate* testing that the state ( and I believe the FEDS) require because the kid is, by definition "untestable".

There's more contradictions and catch-22s built into that situation alone than you can shake a hickory stick ( Remember them? Neither do I) at. Said teacher was told she must have selected the wrong testing level.... it was too high for the kid. In other words the kid's not allow to score below 80% success NO MATTER WHAT.

Looks bad for the school. Or is mean to the kid. Or bothers the district office. Or gives President Obama angina.

Who knows, who cares.

The teacher in question complied... and retested the kid until the administrator got a score he/she was pleased with.

If people only knew.......

[tonysam]

4. I taught a "cross-category" life skills class

so there were "LD" kids in with kids with more serious cognitive issues. The majority of my students were "LD." The LD kids do NOT qualify for alternate testing; NCLB made sure only those students with moderate-to-severe cognitive issues (basically mental retardation) would be allowed to take alternate tests. But this moron principal seemingly could not EVER get it out of his head that just because a student was in a life skills class, that it meant it exempted the student from taking regular standardized tests; being in a self-contained classroom had nothing to do with taking alternate assessments. But I think he knew that; he thought he could take advantage of me having been a teacher who was getting licensure in sped and thinking I was stupid enough to cheat for him.

I could have sued the district over this, but of course Washoe Education Association didn't advise me to seek legal counsel to take this bastard to federal court, which I could have done. So the statute of limitations ran out. A lawsuit then would have saved me a lot of grief. I am in the process of getting an attorney to sue Washoe County School District over my wrongful termination.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Just to clarify: he wanted them on alternate testing....

... so they wouldn't drag down the general ed standardized testing stats?

Also... doesn't the iep specify how the child must be assessed? How would you even have been in a position to change their testing category?

Good luck with the lawsuit. The silver lining to all of this, you realize, is that you wouldn't have become the driving force of this forum ... which you are, BTW.... had it not been for these travails.

Small consolation .... I know. But you are accomplishing a lot right here, imo.

[tonysam]

6. He wanted me to put ALL of my students, not just the two who qualified,

on alternate testing because he was afraid the schoolwide test scores would be pulled down. The special ed department chair at the middle school where I had worked had said just that thing when this principal had him come into my class during the school day to tell me the principal ok'd substitutes for me while I tested ALL ten kids. This edict came down only two months before the deadline for completing the alternate tests; it would have been IMPOSSIBLE to test all the kids anyway on such short notice and hold meetings to revise IEPs, which couldn't be done, as only the school psychologist could change the eligibility (and of course agreed upon by the team). Furthermore, all of the testing was recorded on video for special education services and for the state department of education to make sure the testing was legit. Didn't matter. I told the department chair that in no uncertain terms this could not be done, and he said for me to try and see it from the principal's point of view, but it wasn't a matter of one's point of view but instead it was a matter of legality. When the department chair left, I thought that was the end of it, but after school that day, the principal came in and we had a screaming match of a fight. He eventually backed down, but he spent the rest of the year trying every way he could to get me out of there.

He is still breaking federal law at this school: He instituted pullout classes for sped kids (LD kids, not kids that were in my class) in reading, math, and now social studies, which is in direct violation of IDEA in terms of "least restrictive" environment. The kids used to be pushed in with regular students and the special education teachers would co-teach. This moron principal evidently didn't think the resource teachers did any work, so instead of hiring extra math, reading, and science teachers, he decided to utilize pullout. Worse still, he wrote a memo saying the "lowest" ESL and sped kids would not be taking science, which of course is absolutely illegal. Of course none of the current teachers there has the courage to report him. To date he hasn't been held accountable for his actions, but that could change when I sue.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. We are also being pressured to put kids on alternative test plans

There is no way you can justify this for a kid with LD. But they try. I had one and was told "But his test scores were in single digits!" I said "Oh, so now we are basing eligibility on how he performed on last year's test? When did that start?" I wasn't asked about that kid again. LOL

[tonysam]

8. And it's totally illegal

An attorney friend of mine told me if I had contacted her after this principal approached me, she would have taken my case. She said it was a major, major, major civil rights violation. I know there are lawsuits being filed in other states over principals committing similar offenses. An administrator approaching a teacher to break the law is a major offense in public education.

The principal should, at the very least, have his administrative license suspended.

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. If I am pressured to do this I will report it

I think I derailed it though.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. If they're clever.....

... they do it in a non-explicit way. To create plausible deniability.

Nothing in writing, of course.