Cuomo Administration, Reeling From Federal Probe, Touts "List Of Successes"

Ken Lovett in the Daily News:

Trying to divert attention from a federal probe into his administration, Cuomo's state agencies have been asked to put together lists of their successes that can be touted publicly, sources said.

On top of that, state Operations Director James Malatras has twice convened staff in recent weeks to urge them to keep focus on their work, the insiders said.

"He said that the best way to get out from the cloud over us is to just work hard," said one source. 

"You don't know what's going to happen here and you just can't wait. The tendency when things are going like this is to withdraw. He said you have to do the job and have to work harder now."

A Cuomo aide called it "routine" for agencies to highlight the work they've done and for the director of state operations to meet with staff.

The diversionary tactics may work with the public (as a recent Siena poll suggests), but they will not work with the feds investigating Cuomo's administration.

So, good luck with that list, Jim.

Some of the Cuomo boys can take it with them when they go to prison.

Deformers Want To Argue Students' Civil Rights Are Violated If Teachers Aren't Eligible For Merit Pay

Let's say some deformers file a lawsuit here in New York State against teacher tenure and seniority rules sometime soon.

The laws in New York are a lot different than they are in California, so they'll have to adjust the thrust of the suit.

From this Jessica Bakeman article in Capital NY, you can see how the deformers are not only dreaming big, they're dreaming too big:

New York and California’s teacher tenure rules are broadly similar, with some important differences. Unions have argued that New York’s laws are significantly more stringent than California’s, while reform leaders say the two sets of laws are the same in essence if not in content.

While both states have a probationary period for new teachers, after which teachers are generally given tenure, New York’s is at least three years, while California’s is eighteen months. Union leaders say New York’s law allows for more time to help and observe teachers.

In California, unlike in New York, uncertified teachers can be awarded tenure, and disciplinary hearings for California teachers can legally extend far longer than similar hearings in New York.

Union-allied defenders of teacher tenure here also say New York City’s intensive and controversial new teacher evaluation laws ensure quality among teachers, and point out that tenure reforms implemented under the Bloomberg administration led to a significant decline in teachers approved for tenure.

Sedlis said a potential legal complaint would likely focus on lengthening New York’s probationary teaching period and changing the way teacher seniority is used.

She said the city’s controversial absent teacher reserve, a pool of teachers without full-time jobs but who are still paid by the city, is “a clear example of tenure gone wrong.”

Beyond probationary periods, certification requirements and evaluations, education reform leaders are looking to take on larger long-term sticking points between their groups and New York’s city and state teachers’ union, including merit pay.

“It’s more about what’s missing,” Weisberg said when asked what he would like changed about New York’s tenure laws. “Laws should require that highly effective teachers be rewarded in terms of compensation.”

Merit pay would be anathema for the U.F.T., and fundamental disagreements about pay based on performance prevented the union from agreeing to a contract under the Bloomberg administration.

Sedlis agreed that legal action would be an opportunity for “parents and advocates to give every aspect of the law a fresh look.”

“Countless policies can be challenged,” she said, adding that a lawsuit could “force some real changes at the management and policy levels.”

They're going to sue over merit pay?

Seriously?

Is this the "craft" they plan to add to the New York case?

New York laws are different - it takes longer to get tenure, in NYC many teachers never get tenure at all and some have to wait well over the mandated three years to get it.

In addition, the APPR teacher evaluation system allows districts to fire teachers who come up "ineffective" two years in a row.

The argument that was used in California - "grossly ineffective" teachers cannot be fired without a long cumbersome process - doesn't hold water here.

So the deformers are looking to broaden the case, adding seniority rules around layoffs and performance pay to the mix.

They may be able to craft an argument around seniority, but I have a difficult time seeing them craft one around performance pay.
 
I'd like to see the judge in New York who agrees that students' civil rights have been violated because their teachers are ineligible for merit pay.

Often these deformers exist in a deform echo chamber where they say stuff that makes sense to everybody in their little circle, but once they get outside that circle, people look at them like they're crazy.

Arguing that students' civil rights have been violated because their teachers aren't eligible for merit pay is one of those cases.

Christie Plummets In New WSJ/NBC News Poll

And the erosion of Chris Christie as a viable presidential candidate continues:

Positive feelings about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are eroding across the board — even among his  once-loyal base of Republicans and Northeasterners – in the wake of allegations that top deputies engineered a massive traffic jam to get back at Democratic mayor who withheld an endorsement.

Overall, the potential 2016 contender was viewed positively by 17% and negatively by 32% in the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. That’s a stark contrast from October, when the Republican governor was on the verge of a landslide re-election on Democratic turf and viewed positively by 33% and negatively by 17%.

Feelings about Mr. Christie have soured among independents (12% positively/28% negatively), Republicans (23%/ 29%) and Northeasterners (28%/25%). In fact, not a single group of voters viewed Christie more positively than negatively in the poll.

As the Bridgegate and Sandy aid scandals continue to play out, the news is going to get worse before it gets better for Christie.

With the news that the feds have opened an investigation into Christie crony David Samson for potential conflicts of interest involving the Port Authority, Christie may have three full-fledged scandals on his hands.

Difficult to see how Christie's poll numbers improve with all that sandal news ebbing and flowing over the next year.

Performance Assessment Thursday

We are giving the ELA Measures of Student Learning Performance Assessments to students today and tomorrow so that every teacher in the school can be evaluated to see how much growth students make from September to June.

Because it makes total sense that social studies, science, art, physical education and other teachers outside of English Language Arts be evaluated using the ELA Measures of Student Learning Performance Assessments.

Oh, wait - no, it really doesn't make sense at all.

In fact, James Eterno reports at ICEUFT that even our intrepid UFT leadership seems to understand that:

He then spoke about evaluations and said we would not go back to the old system even though the current process is not that great.  The biggest concern is the Measures of Student Learning portion of the system. He said we had an agreement with the Department of Education in March that fell apart that was much better than the system State Education Department Commissioner John King imposed in his arbitration.

 

He added that there are contradictions in the arbitration and that it isn't going to work but that the point of it is to support and develop the work that teachers do.  He told us he can't understand how a teacher who does not teach English can be held accountable for English test results.  He then stated that this is not the evaluation system we would want a year from now and said it would be fixed in contract negotiations.

That's interesting that Mulgrew is now stating the system as currently imposed isn't so great because he keeps sending us emails telling us how much better it is than the old evaluation system (see here and here for that.)

But I have some news for our intrepid UFT leadership over their hope of "fixing" the problems with the system in contract negotiations with the new mayor.

NYSED Commissioner King, the man who imposed this system on NYC teachers through the 2016-2017 year, has final say on any revisions or changes to evaluation systems through contractual negotiation.

So whatever changes they hope to bring to this system, whatever "fixes" they want to propose, they have to not only get the new mayor on board with them, they have to get NYSED Commissioner King on board.

King has already attacked Buffalo over a side agreement the district made with the union, pledging not to fire any teachers using the APPR system the first year because the system kinks still have not been worked out.

King was outraged that Buffalo wanted to make sure the system worked before using it to fire anybody and he and his boss, Governor Cuomo, threatened to pull back all kinds of funding for the district if they did not agree to use the untested, unpiloted, unfinished evaluation system for high stakes decisions like firing teachers.

This is not the action of somebody who will readily sign off on "fixes" to the current teacher evaluation system he imposed on us.

Now maybe Mulgrew and the next mayor can convince King and his NYSED reformers that the changes they want to the system make sense and are fair and just to everybody involved.

But I have yet to see any glimpse of common sense, fairness or justice from our NYSED commissioner in Albany, so they have an uphill battle at getting major "fixes" to the system through.

As always, hope to be wrong about this stuff.

I hope Mulgrew and de Blasio make an agreement on the system that gets rid of much (or all) of the insanity and makes the system as workable as possible within the confines of the law.

But it pays to be cynical these days around anything in education, so I have my doubts that King will sign off on anything that doesn't look pretty much like what we already have in place.

Unless pressure is put on Cuomo and the other pols in Albany over this stuff, that is.

That would be the only way I see King caving on his "reforms."

Happy Performance Assessment Thursday everybody!