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PIP gets rave reviews

by Ellie Spielberg

May 22, 2008 11:47 AM

Union’s program to help struggling teachers ‘works,’ but mayor plans to cut funding

“It’s impressive when masterful, veteran teachers want to give back and work with their colleagues. It’s terrific when an educator has the option of reaching out to her union for a mentor to give her the support she needs in a non-threatening way.”

A quote from the director of the UFT’s Peer Intervention Program?

Or, perhaps a quote from a PIP participant who’s now shining at the head of a well-managed classroom?

Guess again.

The words are from none other than a principal.

Jill Hoder, in her fourth year as head of PS 161 in Queens, is not the only New York City principal who feels “very positive about the Peer Intervention Program.” More and more administrators are getting hip to PIP.

Why are they welcoming the program into their schools?”

“Because it works,” said Principal Joseph Gagliarmello at James Madison HS in Brooklyn.

But despite such judgments by virtually everyone who has had a connection to the program, PIP funding has been frozen for next year, which, with contractual salary increases, amounts to a budget cut. If that decision is not reversed, PIP will lose staff and its effectiveness could be seriously curtailed.

The UFT is fighting to keep education funds from being cut and for the Department of Education to increase funds to the extraordinarily successful PIP program, which has been emulated around the country.

The program works by helping struggling tenured teachers and guidance counselors become more effective by teaming them up with experienced, specially trained colleagues. Or, if education is really not the profession they should be in, by helping them into another career. All assistance is given on a voluntary, confidential basis. No report is given to the principal or any other administrator. In fact, no report is given to anyone. The intervention is solely for the benefit of the educator seeking help. Period.

“And the program really does work,” said Hoder.

Most of PIP’s clients are those who have received U-ratings or been warned that they are at risk of doing so. Nearly two-thirds, 63 percent, come out of the program getting S-ratings.

Of those who had already received U-ratings, 55 percent improved to S-ratings. Of those who had been warned, 81 percent did not slip but maintained their S-ratings. Overall, according to an independent survey last year, 90 percent of those who were successful in the PIP program maintained S-ratings five years after they left the program.

Hoder taught 6th grade and then K-6 science before getting on the principal track. Gagliarmello was an English teacher at Madison for no less than 20 years. And neither has forgotten where they came from.

“In my heart I’m an educator and a staff developer,” Hoder said. “We need to give every option to every person for them to be as successful as possible.”

She said that PIP has always been available to the staff at her school but it was only last year that a teacher felt the need for it.

She explained that the teacher was having difficulty planning and executing a solid lesson and got support from an intervenor who came in regularly, modeled lessons, planned them with her, basically filled in the gaps and then weaned her off the intervention process so she was able to plan and implement a successful lesson independently.

The only time Hoder stepped in was to make sure that the lessons were being planned in the same vein as the rest of the building.

“We’re a Teachers College project school. I believe in the program and wanted the lesson plan to be loyal to that. So I spoke with the PIP person and we worked together on a format that was in unison. There was no problem,” she said.

While asserting that poor teaching can’t be allowed, Hoder stressed the importance of putting all efforts into assuring that the quality is where it should be without being punitive.

“It’s important to reach out to each other, to network and to keep your eye on the prize, which is the success of the children,” she said.

Principal Gagliarmello has been at the helm for five years and says PIP has been in the school at different times throughout that period. He says he has seen genuine improvement of instruction as a result of the program.

“You know, we talk a lot about differentiated instruction for kids, that you can’t really help a student without customized individualized attention,” Gagliarmello said. “I think that PIP does that for teachers. It’s served as a really good supplement to supervision of instruction.”

He said that he was concerned about improving instruction without being punitive.

“PIP fits that spirit,” he said. “The intervenors truly understand that improvement doesn’t have to have a negative context; that the ultimate goal is about helping kids. They’re really solid people and really pleasant to work with.”

Gagliarmello has seen improvement in classroom management as well as in teaching content.

“The PIP person working with the teacher sees the whole picture, gets a realistic look at strengths and shortcomings, and creates the interventions accordingly,” he said. “We talk about addressing the whole child. Well, PIP addresses the whole teacher.”

The program, Gagliarmello summed up, is win-win for students, teachers and administrators.

Hoder couldn’t agree more.

“It was very successful in this building and I truly support the concept of colleagues helping each other,” she said. “We’ve got to look out for each other!”