The Offical Website of the PJSTA

Posted on February 23, 2015 by thepjsta

Governor Cuomo Wants to Fire You

Via Newsday…

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo Sunday called for a state review of all Long Island school districts because many use a union-provided evaluation he said is skewed to favor teachers.

A Newsday analysis of teacher evaluation systems in Long Island public schools found that in many the portion that local districts control is weighted toward ensuring teachers score an overall “effective” rating.

Principals’ judgment of teacher performance in classroom observations and other subjective criteria accounted for 60 percent of a teacher’s overall 100-point evaluation, according to the Newsday analysis. The other 40 points are determined by student test performance.

“Recent news reports found that most Long Island school districts have used their local discretion in teacher evaluation systems to skew the overall scoring to ensure that their teachers are rated only ‘effective’ and ‘highly effective,’ ” said Jim Malatras, the state director of operations, in a statement on behalf of Cuomo. “Most districts adopted the scoring procedures specifically drafted by the teachers unions.”

Seventy of Long Island’s 124 school districts use scoring ranges promoted by New York State United Teachers, the state’s largest teachers union, for the classroom-observations component of job ratings, according to Newsday’s analysis.

State law says the state education commissioner must ensure the local evaluations are rigorous and accurate. Cuomo’s statement Sunday asked the acting commissioner if she found any concerns in reviewing the local evaluations and, if so, what action the state Education Department took.

The teachers union said the evaluations are accurate and Cuomo wants to give more weight to students’ grades, which they argue are statistically questionable in evaluating teachers. Spokesmen for the New York State United Teachers union and the state Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday.

In other words, Long Island districts are not firing enough teachers, so the state should strip local control of teacher evaluations from those districts and force Cuomo’s junk science evaluations onto those districts. Cuomo’s war on teachers continues and today he has turned his focus specifically on Long Island’s teachers. The time to fight back is upon us.

1 Comment

Posted on February 23, 2015 by thepjsta

Students Not Scores Forum

Students Not Scores is hosting a forum at the Port Jefferson Village Center on March 7th. It has a great lineup of speakers, including MORE’s Jia Lee and Comsewogue’s Ali Gordon. The flyer for the event is below. You can also click here to download it, print it out, and distribute among your friends.

PJSTA’s McMullan’s Letter to Cuomo

So very proud of our own Melissa McMullan whose letter to Governor Cuomo was published on Diane Ravitch’s blog yesterday.

Via Ravitch…

Melissa McMullan, a teacher in Long Island, explains in this comment how deeply insulting Governor Cuomo’s plan for teacher evaluation is. Will he listen to reason? Will he insist on crushing the morale of every teacher in the state? Why?

McMullan writes:

“I have been a teacher for thirteen years. I graduated with highest honors from Rutgers University, earned my masters degree from Queens College, graduating with honors and begun work on my PhD to help me become a better teacher. The teacher I am today is not the teacher I was yesterday, nor is she the teacher I will be tomorrow. I learn every day from students, families, colleagues, professional development, research and my own mistakes. In thirteen years, former students of mine have become writers, teachers, philanthropists, doctors, nurses, mechanics, beauticians, small business owners, etc…

“My employment as their teacher has been carved from a relationship I have built with the district that employs me. The district I graciously serve. I am a public servant. I do not take this assignment lightly.

“Governor Cuomo is holding state aid to public schools hostage. His ransom? Using eleven hours of tests, that the state scores, and converts to teacher ratings, assigning a great many teachers, including myself, ineffective. One score. Six days of testing to remove a teacher who works 12 hours a day, gives her students her cell phone number so she can help them with homework at home and invites Spanish-speaking parents in to the classroom to explain, in Spanish, the value of reading and writing. A teacher who will stop at NOTHING to push her students forward. Passing rates on the state test vary year to year from 72% to 83 % depending upon how the state wants teachers to be perceived from year to year.

“Governor Cuomo and the New York State Board of Regents want to use test scores it assigns to my students, against me, their teacher. This is not the role of assessment. Assessment has a single purpose – to inform instruction. Its responsibility is to let students, teachers and families what students know, and what they do not know. Under the Governor’s proposed plan, these scores would warrant my removal from the classroom, violating the agreement that my school district and its community have established with me, by using children as its weapon of choice.

“We get no feedback from these scores. No view into what our students know or don’t know or what we as teachers have taught well nor what we have not. But it costs millions of dollars to implement each year.

“As a mother, I will not permit my own four children to be used as pawns against their teachers. The only way we can stop this abuse of power is to refuse to permit our children to be used as pawns.

“The cornerstone of public education in the United States is the local community school district. Allowing scores the state assigns our children after six days of testing to be used to remove teachers we have placed in their classroom is an unacceptable, egregious overstepping of power. We have power as parents to protect our children from harm, and we have an overwhelming responsibility to keep the over-reaching powers of the state from reaching into our children’s classrooms.”

3 Comments

Posted on February 13, 2015 by thepjsta

Mobile Billboard Hit Long Island Streets!

Today NYSAPE’s mobile billboards encouraging parents to refuse the New York State tests hit the streets of Long Island! Be sure to look for these billboards throughout your travels between now and the tests. If you see one snap a picture and tweet it to us with the hashtag #LIRefuse or send it on to us and we will tweet it out!

Seen on Long Island streets today! Refuse the tests!

NYSUT’s Favorite Local President

Earlier we covered the “secret meetings” between Karen Magee, Mike Mulgrew, and aides for Governor Cuomo. I mentioned my belief that the NYSUT and UFT ads would not not be pulled from the air any time soon. As I mentioned, it is important that they at least make it appear as though they are putting up a fight before ultimately capitulating to the governor and sticking us with a worse APPR scheme than we have now.

Still there is one thing that continues to stick in my craw about the entire situation. It certainly doesn’t surprise me to see him involved, but the presence of Michael Mulgrew at these meetings can’t possibly make any teacher in the state comfortable. Last spring, in the lead up to the NYSUT elections, Revive NYSUT went out of their way to claim that the UFT held no extra sway over NYSUT’s leadership and that the UFT were simply one of NYSUT’s hundreds of locals. They scoffed at the notion that the installation of new leaders (other than the UFT/Unity Caucus’ own Andy Pallotta, of course) was a power grab by the UFT leadership.

Yet yesterday we read about Mulgrew being involved in these secret meetings. Again, this isn’t suprising. Anyone with even a passing interest in NYSUT understands that the head of the UFT calls the shots in both the UFT and NYSUT. Mulgrew’s presence in the Cuomo meeting only furthers that notion. It’s why they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with claiming that he is simply just another local president. If that were the case there are hundreds of other local presidents they could have called on. Virtually all of them would have had more classroom experience, and therefore be more in touch with our membership, than Mulgrew. As a matter of fact, I am sure our very own Beth Dimino, who was busy teaching science last week, would have cleared her schedule to send the governor a message. Dimino, after all, has some skin in the game, as they say. She will be evaluated, just as her members will be, by whatever APPR scheme New York’s teachers end up with. That doesn’t apply to union elites like Mulgrew or Magee. After all it’s doubtful they have been inside many more classrooms than Cuomo has this year.