NYT: Union Urges Faster Removal of Incompetent Teachers

Michael Nagle for The New York Times A janitor cleans up a so-called rubber room at 110 Livingston Street in Brooklyn, where teachers facing charges of malfeasance are sent to languish, some for years, while they collect their full pay.

Union Urges Faster Removal of Incompetent Teachers

By DAVID HERSZENHORN

Published: January 15, 2004

The New York City teachers' union proposed yesterday cutting to six months the time it takes to remove incompetent teachers, speeding up a process that can now drag on for years.

As part of a broad overhaul of the disciplinary process and evaluation system for teachers, the union president, Randi Weingarten, also called for ending so-called rubber rooms, where more than 200 teachers facing charges of malfeasance are sent to languish, some for years, while still receiving full pay. She proposed the appointment of a special master and a task force of pro bono lawyers to clear the backlog of cases.

"Yes, this is a union president who is going to talk about removing teachers who should not be teaching," Ms. Weingarten said in a breakfast speech to the Association for a Better New York. "And I do that without hesitation, because this a union that is not about just keeping people. We are about keeping qualified people."

Ms. Weingarten's public effort to reach out to the Bloomberg administration and Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein seemed to signal a thaw after months of icy relations with the city, a state of affairs that had begun to draw criticism from the business and nonprofit communities.

Business leaders, in particular, who have donated more than $160 million to the administration's ambitious plans to overhaul the schools, have raised concerns that the constant bickering with the union would doom the mayor's efforts.

"I want you all to know that I fully briefed Joel Klein last night on this speech," Ms. Weingarten said, "because I want to do in every way possible what I can to extend my hand in partnership, and my members' hands in partnership. We want the city school system to be the crown jewel of public education in the United States of America."

Chancellor Klein's response was enthusiastic. "I think she has some very positive, constructive proposals," he said, adding that he looked forward to working out the details in formal contract talks, which are expected to resume next month.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also sounded a conciliatory note. "We're not going to solve the problems of the public schools without a joint effort between teachers and principals and parents, the administration and the general public, and along with the Police Department and school safety officers," he said. "We are all in this together, and I think that Randi understands that."

Business leaders were elated at the signs of a truce.

"There is nothing more critical to the reform movement than that the various critical players in the system are on the same page and working together," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group that pledged $30 million to the city's new academy for training principals. "This is a very positive move in the right direction."

Ms. Weingarten's proposal calls for expanding an existing peer intervention program for troubled teachers. Under her plan, a teacher in danger of being fired would enter the intervention program for up to 90 days. If the teacher was still ill-equipped to return to the classroom, Ms. Weingarten said, union representatives would counsel the teacher to leave the school system. If the teacher refused, an existing 90-day grievance and arbitration process would begin. Currently, city officials say they must spend at least two years building a case, with a principal giving the teacher two annual unsatisfactory ratings, to stand any chance of dismissing a teacher through the 90-day arbitration process.

In her speech, Ms. Weingarten also said that retaining good teachers was even more critical to the future of the public school system than removing the few bad ones. She cited statistics showing escalating retirements among older teachers and high numbers of resignations among new teachers who leave after one or two years.

"The single biggest dilemma the city faces in dealing with the quality of its teaching staff today is how to retain that overwhelming majority of teachers who are highly skilled professionals," she said, "because they are leaving in droves."

She added: "This combination of new talented teachers resigning with older more seasoned professionals retiring has become a formula for disaster."

Mr. Klein said he agreed that the city faced a crisis in retaining good teachers. "She's absolutely right on about that," he said. To retain good teachers, Ms. Weingarten urged higher pay - "the first step is the one you would expect me to say," she told her audience - and said the city's primary obstacle to retaining teachers was that base salaries remained 10 percent to 15 percent lower than in surrounding suburbs, despite big raises in the last teachers' contract.

But she also stressed working conditions and proposed a new career ladder for teachers, modeled after the medical profession, with teacher interns, teacher residents and a master teacher position for experienced, veteran educators.

...she [the NYCteachers union president] also stressed working conditions and proposed a new career ladder for teachers, modeled after the medical profession, with teacher interns, teacher residents and a master teacher position for experienced, veteran educators

OK, beyond the shock you might feel at what this union president is saying throughout this article, and beyond the local political situation in NY that she claims to be adressing, here is my take on this news article:

This union president, in this election year, has wised up to the fact that more and more teachers no longer vote Dem because some teachers got fed up with the union a long time ago.

So, how to reach out to those disillusioned voters? By adopting the policies people like Gov Jeb Bush have already turned into law, such as: the "career ladder" she now mentions, above.

This new career ladder / new salary ladder is a new FL state law, going into effect in FL this August, statewide -- and so far, none of my Dem teacher colleagues are happy about it. But, I am happy about it, because some highly qualified teachers leave teaching because they feel there is nowhere they can go once they become "a teacher," since the union has a strangelhold on keeping salaries the same for all teachers across the board. Gov Bush has long said this has to change - and, he changed it. Without any union support.

I would also note this:

"There is nothing more critical to the reform movement than that the various critical players in the system are on the same page and working together," said Kathryn S. Wylde, president and chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, a business group

Here in FL, Gov Bush has taken the lead in education, and the union has fought him every step of the way, even though his proposals and plans and new laws always seek to do this: empower more teachers, and help students achieve more. No union leader ever helps him in FL. Nor do they give him credit when he deserves it, which is more often than not. Many people on FR know about his education record from my numerous FR editorials on this topic of Jeb Bush and education, but you don't often read about all the good education news that keeps coming out of FL in the local newspapers.

So, in short, finally, in an election year, we have a teacher union president supporting, and endorsing, the philosophy of FL's GOP governor. That's how I see it.

Now -- will this make any impression on the FL Teachers Union? I will watching for their response to the news coming out of NYC, which to me could have been headlined like this: HEY! WE NYC TEACHER UNION LEADERS HAVE FINALLY FIGURED OUT: A LOT MORE TEACHERS ARE ABANDONING THE DEM PARTY, AND VOTING GOP! WE GOTTA STOP THAT FROM HAPPENING! TIME TO CHANGE OUR PLATFORMS!

Actually, I'm pretty impressed with the progress my son has made in a public school. He's in Kindergarten in SoFlo, and has already mastered basic mathematics in their "advanced" kindergarten math class. He showed me how to use a calculator yesterday, which I frown upon, but was overall impressed he was already learning to use such tools. We've been working on his multiple languages at home and his reading is preceeding very well in class.

Altogether he is about 1.5 years advanced of my level when I was in kindergarten. I know some of the stuff he covewrs now was material I specifically remember from 1st grade as standard class material. It may be the teacher, whom we really like a lot and have heard so many good things about, but then again, perhaps the environment in this school is just overall better for learning.

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