Aimed At Troubled Schools
UFT Offers Staffing Solutions

By MEREDITH KOLODNER

United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten May 5 proposed reducing student-Teacher ratios and paying cash bonuses to encourage Teachers to transfer to and remain in hard-to-staff schools.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang 'CAN'T FORCE TEACHERS INTO SCHOOLS': United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten contends that the best way to lure top Teachers to work in schools with problems is to offer them incentives, from more pay, to fewer students or classes, to improved parking arrangements.

Those suggestions came in the wake of Mayor Bloomberg's past criticism that the UFT was standing in the way of funding changes that he hoped would place more experienced Teachers in the city's lowest-performing schools.

Transfer in Teams

Ms. Weingarten argued that some of the new state education funding should be spent on decreasing student-Teacher ratios by 20 percent in the several hundred city schools that each year have a hard time attracting and retaining Teachers. She also asserted that allowing groups of Teachers to transfer together and paying them extra for designing specialized educational programs would attract more high-quality Teachers. She likened the plan to a provision in the Principals' tentative contract that would pay them $25,000 extra per year to lead low-performing schools.

The Chief-Leader/Michel Friang  ATTENDANCE CREDIT: Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein thanked Teachers at the United Federation of Teachers' spring conference for their part in improving the city's schools, and although he winced when UFT President Randi Weingarten criticized his school reorganization plan as 'the system's third version of Extreme Makeover,' he offered a small smile when she praised him for showing up even though 'he knew he knew he might be booed.' He was.

"You cannot turn around a low-performing school by forcing Teachers to work there," Ms. Weingarten told the approximately 2,300 UFT spring conference participants assembled at the New York Hilton. "Success happens only in positive, committed learning communities where everyone feels invested." The room erupted in applause.

Ms. Weingarten said that the changes would require a 12-percent increase in the targeted schools' budgets. The changes would have to be agreed to by the Mayor, and negotiated in a future contract.

Officials at the Department of Education declined to comment on the proposals.

Gives Option to Schools

The UFT leader's plan would allow a school to choose whether to use the extra funding to reduce class size by 20 percent, or to reduce the number of students taught overall by each Teacher by 20 percent. For example, High School Teachers could be assigned to teach four classes per day instead of five. Any decrease in class size would be in addition to the overall class reduction mandates currently being set by the state.

The UFT has previously proposed a pay differential for Teachers in hard-to-staff schools. The city used a similar concept when it instituted a $15,000 housing subsidy for Teachers who move to the city to teach in a shortage area, such as middle school math or science. And the Principals' proposed contract includes a similarly-conceived provision.

Service Differential

The service differential would allow Teachers in the hard-to-staff schools to earn more money for designing programs to augment the existing curriculum. Teachers could design a school-to-work internship program, a school-wide parent involvement program or an annual Earth Day program with neighborhood environmental projects, and earn credits towards the differential.

The final piece of the plan would allow Teachers to transfer in groups of two or more to one of the hard-to-staff schools.

"I don't care how charismatic one person is," Ms. Weingarten said, "it takes more than one person to turn a school around."

The union president acknowledged that research has shown that the children who are most in need of highly-skilled Teachers are generally the least-likely to get them.

No Experience Gap

Yet she also asserted that there is currently no difference between city schools with a more-than 80-percent poverty level and those with less than 80-percent poverty, when it comes to the proportion of Teachers with five or more years of experience.

"Still, the clamor to recruit more experienced teachers into high-poverty schools is unabated," she said, before asking the Teachers assembled, "But has anybody asked you what would bring you into low-performing schools?" A resounding "No!" came from the crowd.

Ms. Weingarten suggested more parking for Teachers who travel far to their schools, which received a burst of applause, and discount MetroCards, EZ Passes or housing allowances to attract more Teachers to the hard-to-staff schools.

Guests at the lunch-time speech included an array of community and parents groups, many from the Put the Public Back in Public Education coalition that helped secure changes to Mr. Bloomberg's school reorganization plan. Thirteen of those groups, including ACORN, the Working Families Party, and the Chancellor's Parent Advisory Council, were given the union's John Dewey award, which honors contributors to public education.

Klein Thanks Teachers

Chancellor Joel I. Klein was also on the dais during Ms. Weingarten's speech. Although he was met with a round of boos when he stepped onto the stage, his brief speech prior to Ms. Weingarten's proposals was received with polite applause. He thanked Teachers for their role in improving graduation rates and student achievement.

While criticizing aspects of the Mayor and Chancellor's reorganization plan, Ms. Weingarten called it a "good step" that "a Chancellor who knew he might be booed here had the courage to come here today."

Union officials said the proposals were an effort to change the thinking about how to attract the best Teachers to the toughest schools.

"I won't hold my breath for the day that the union bashers see it this way," said Ms. Weingarten, "but the results would finally put to rest the myth - and it is a myth - that the union contract hinders, not helps, children's education."