UFT, DOE Feuding Over Class Size And Vet Teacher Report

By MICHELLE FRIEDMAN

Tensions escalated in the ongoing battle between the Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers last week over a report by the New Teacher Project on Teachers with no permanent assignment and DOE's failure to reduce class size.

JOEL I. KLEIN: UFT suspects he inspired report.

The New Teacher Project's report found that nearly half the 600-plus Teachers excessed from their jobs since 2006 had not applied for any of the vacancies in the system that were posted on-line. Noting that Teachers in the Absent Teacher Reserve have cost the DOE $81 million over the past two years, the report suggested the program should be eliminated.

Sees DOE's Fingerprints

The UFT denounced the report, calling TNTP a "wholly-owned subsidiary of the DOE."

The DOE denied exerting any influence over TNTP. In a May 2 phone interview, a spokeswoman for Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein, Melody Meyer, said: "TNTP is a national non-profit. We did not ask them to write this report, nor did we pay for this report to be written. They do work with the DOE in New York and are under contract to help run our Teaching Fellows alternative certification program. That contract predates this Chancellor and extends beyond this Chancellor. They write reports with some frequency about large urban school districts."

DOE Press Secretary David Cantor embraced the report's findings. "TNTP's valuable report demonstrates that under this system a small percentage of excessed Teachers who are unable or unwilling to find a new job remain indefinitely on the public payroll at significant expense - funds that could otherwise be sent to classrooms," he said. "TNTP recommends instituting a fixed period of time after which excessed Teachers would no longer collect a paycheck but retain access to job openings at their current salary levels."

The UFT claimed in an April 28 statement that this proposal "is virtually identical to the proposal this same group made as part of the DOE negotiations in the spring of 2005.".

Second Bite At Apple?

The union called it "an attempt three years later to get what they tried to get in 2005."

The UFT recently filed an age-discrimination lawsuit against the DOE, claiming older Teachers in the ATR were not given a fair shot at permanent assignments that became available. The UFT believes the DOE should be making greater use of those in the ATR pool - despite their higher salaries - rather than recruiting new Teachers at an additional cost.

The debate over class size also was reignited during an April 28 press conference held by the UFT, which cited statistics showing that DOE frequently failed to remedy overcrowding despite additional state aid intended to address the problem.

The DOE dismissed these findings. "The UFT report is politically driven and factually flawed," said Mr. Cantor in a statement. "With the help of new state funding, the DOE increased the number of classroom teachers by more than 1,800 compared with last year. Collectively, our efforts helped the city continue to reduce its class size every year at virtually every grade level since 2002. The UFT is able to reach its pre-determined conclusions only by ignoring key data."

DOE: Report's Key Omissions

The DOE claimed that the UFT study failed to take into account the impact of approved methods to decrease class size, such as team teaching and innovative scheduling that splits large middle school home-room classes into smaller groups for core classes. "The UFT is aware that these strategies are not captured in its analysis, but chose to ignore those facts in the interest of political expediency," continued Mr. Cantor.

The UFT study found "little positive change" after the city received $152.7 million in new state funds meant to lower class sizes.

"The DOE has failed to implement a comprehensive class size reduction plan to meet state goals and has allowed class sizes to rise at a third of the city schools receiving the funds," according to the UFT report.

No Help Where Needed Most

The study found that nearly half of 390 elementary and middle schools that received state funding did not lower class size, and that class sizes rose at 34 percent of these targeted schools. At 43 percent of schools citywide with kindergarten through eighth grade, class sizes increased.

The study also found that 60 percent of middle schools failed to meet targets for reducing class size, while little progress was made in schools struggling academically - the very ones targeted by increased funding.

The study called for stricter state oversight to achieve real class-size reductions, a stronger state law on that issue, a review by the City Comptroller, transparent reporting, and mandating caps instead of averages to regulate class size.