Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due
With the announcement of the increases in recent state and city math and reading test scores both the mayor and the schools chancellor have been thumping their chests, claiming that their education policies are now vindicated. That, of course, is open to question, but meanwhile very little praise has gone to the people who were really responsible for the gratifying increases: you the educators.
UFT President Randi Weingarten has repeatedly tried to make the press — and therefore the public — aware of where the greatest credit should go. Too bad that much of the press has failed to convey that message.
Immediately upon the release of the scores, Weingarten said, “Today is a day to thank our hardworking teachers and celebrate the success of our students.
“We are pleased that test scores rose dramatically across the city in math and English Language Arts. We are especially pleased that in Region 5 (Districts 19, 23 and 27) and District 9, where the UFT is intensively involved in collaborative skills development and innovative programs, scores exceeded the citywide gains.”
Weingarten said that last year’s flat scores were an “anomaly,” which she blamed on “all the confusion of the school system’s reorganization.”
And she added: “This shows what can be accomplished when educators and administrators work together and build on past accomplishments.”
She noted that city educators have been working without a contract for two years, which is “unprecedented and unconscionable. The city has a $3.3 billion surplus. We are happy that Mayor Bloomberg gives teachers credit for these increases. Now it is time for him to negotiate a contract, before the school year ends, that gives our teachers what they deserve. They earn it every day.”
Weingarten even appealed directly to city newspapers, trying to get them to give more credit where credit is due. In a letter to The New York Times she wrote:
“Your editorial lauding Mayor Bloomberg for his handling of education and the recent test scores fails to do what even he and Chancellor Klein did — give credit to teachers.
“Certainly the mayor and chancellor deserve to share in the credit. But what about the classroom educators who, despite going an unprecedented two years without a contract, earning approximately 20 percent less than suburban instructors and having handled every new initiative, reorganization snafu and reform that was thrown at them, rolled up their sleeves and worked their magic in the classroom?
“Scores were up citywide, but in two areas where we worked collaboratively with administrators — Region 5 and the Community Collaborative schools in District 9 — the gains far outpaced the city as a whole. That shows what can be accomplished when we work together — and when teachers get the respect and credit they deserve.”
And in taking Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch to task for an anti-teacher union column she noted that the union “has been instrumental in every major reform in the city’s public school system and is in the forefront on ideas like a career ladder for teachers, incentive pay to attract teachers to the lowest performing schools and in trying to streamline the disciplinary process for teachers while safeguarding them from false accusations.
“It is too bad Mr. Crouch is so anti-union simply because we seek competitive salaries and fair treatment for teachers and paraprofessionals who are responsible for these latest test score increases,” Weingarten wrote.
VP Michelle Bodden conceded that “it is very hard to change someone’s mind-set when their opinion is entrenched, as is the case with so many New York editorial writers and columnists.” But she added that the union will continue to try.
“Besides,” she said, “the kids and their parents know who did the heavy lifting to get the kids ready for those tests. And they credit the teachers even if the editorial writers don’t know any better.”