Editorials

Where’s the beef?

Mar 13, 2008 4:15 PM

When we sit across the table from the Department of Education, facts give us power because this administration reveres data above all. We had an opening with the 2006 contract, which contained a provision to create a union-management committee to address excessive and redundant paperwork in schools, something the union has constantly complained about to the DOE. The department was less than sympathetic, saying, with an air of dubiousness, that it needed specifics. So the UFT asked members to send their paperwork stories to paperwork@uft.org and came up with more than 200 detailed examples that it was able to show to Tweed.

In his March 4 Principals’ Weekly message, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein urged principals to reduce paperwork and spelled out a series of ways that could be done. He advised principals to “maximize” time for teachers to improve student learning and said, “Whenever unnecessary paperwork impedes this process, let’s find a way to end it.”

Now, to tackle the testing mania in our schools, we need up-to-date evidence from teachers about how test-related activities are eating up their time. The union is reprising its survey on assessment-related paperwork and test prep, this time in online form and with additional questions about ARIS (Achievement Reporting and Innovation System). It’s on the UFT home page in the Action Alert section. The more teachers who fill it out, the more ammunition we have in our fight against excessive testing.