General News
Resolution highlights delegates’ concerns
Nov 15, 2007 3:41 PM
Left: Jeffrey Bernstein, chapter leader at Maxwell Vocational HS in Brooklyn, said his school was rated proficient in the qualitative review, yet got an F on its progress report. Right: Jacquelyn Peters, chapter leader at PS 3 in Manhattan, said the Salk School of Science’s grade of C “doesn’t reflect what the school is really about.”
Voicing concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the city’s school progress reports, the UFT delegate body on Nov. 7 voted to explore better accountability measures and to support any school community that wanted to protest its mark.
The resolution also called upon the Department of Education to refrain from using the school grades to close schools and to treat this year’s progress reports “as the first, not the last, word on their design” so shortcomings could be corrected next year.
“A school system is supposed to make sure the schools that are doing well continue to do well and to provide support and resources to the schools that aren’t doing well,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten, who motivated the resolution. “This progress report fails on both counts.”
The resolution found broad support among the delegates. Jeffrey Bernstein, chapter leader at Maxwell Vocational HS in Brooklyn, said his school was rated proficient in the qualitative review, yet got an F on its progress report.
“This is devastating to the school,” Bernstein said. “We were told that we were making strides and that we have improved tremendously and we were removed from the SURR list.”
District 7 Representative Patricia Filomena said educators at her school, PS 18 in the Bronx, were shocked to receive a grade of D.
“It’s a school that they bring principals to because it’s a model school,” she said. “The staff works very hard and we need an independent assessment.”
Jacquelyn Peters, chapter leader at PS 3 in Manhattan, said that her colleagues were incredulous that the Salk School of Science, a middle school that PS 3 students feed into, got a C.
“We know it doesn’t reflect what the school is really about,” she said.
Weingarten noted that while principals’ careers could very well hinge on the school progress report grades, those of UFT members would not.
DOE, if it had its druthers, would like to use individual student test scores to evaluate, pay and confer tenure on teachers, she said.
But by signing an early contract last fall, Weingarten said, the union closed the legal debate on changing the teacher evaluation system. The recent agreement between the union and the DOE to create a schoolwide bonus pilot also warded off city and federal efforts to institute individual merit pay. And a change in state tenure law last spring, won after strong UFT lobbying, was specifically intended to close the door on basing tenure decisions on test scores, though the DOE is still fighting that interpretation, she said.
“Legally and contractually, the union has fought against all attempts to hold teachers responsible for that which they can’t control — that is the issue with evaluations, tenure or individual pay tied to standardized test scores,” Weingarten said. “It is bad for kids, it’s bad for teachers and it is a core issue that we will always fight.”
