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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

NYC Educator: Dealing with King Reformy John's Folly

NYC Educator: Dealing with King Reformy John's Folly:

Dealing with King Reformy John's Folly

It's not the best year to be a chapter leader. Among your other responsibilities, you must now negotiate a way to conduct the 20% local junk science to supplement the 20% state junk science. You do get to do this with a joint committee of UFT and admin, but if your recommendation is not to the principal's taste, it gets taken out with the trash.

"Talent coaches" who know only what DOE tells them are making good money, money that could've gone to a raise for teachers, to come to schools and instruct administration on what they believe Reformy John's 241-page manifesto to mean.

One very interesting proposal from the DOE geniuses is that of rating lesson plans independently of lessons. So, for example, if you happen to give the most stunning lesson of the century, if your plan doesn't pass muster, you still suck. Or if you fall asleep as the army of observers take copious notes on the frequency of your snoring, you may get some points for the excellent structure inherent in your plan.

This is a violation of UFT contract, not that the geniuses at DOE can be bothered to read such things. It's enough work already to not read that thing Reformy John supposedly wrote, which he probably didn't, and just as