Hidden in the ATR pool, teachers trained for disappearing jobs
Chancellor Joel Klein likes to say that many of the teachers who’ve lost their jobs and remain on the city’s payroll aren’t trying to find new work. But a back-of-the-envelope analysis of teachers in the reserve pool shows that even if all of them doggedly pursued open positions, nearly a quarter are trained for jobs that are disappearing.
Most teachers in the absent teacher reserve — a pool of people cut from schools when they were closed or enrollment dwindled — are certified to teach core subjects that every school offers. But the most recent datashows that almost a quarter of teachers in the pool are only licensed to teach classes like swimming, jewelry-making, and accounting, among other subjects that are nearly extinct in the public schools.
The pool also includes music, dance, and art teachers for whom getting a new position will be difficult in a year when schools will have to lay off thousands of teachers.
As of November, there were 1,247 teachers in the pool, working as substitutes and collecting salaries that totaled $134 million. After announcing a deal to close the notorious rubber rooms for teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence, Chancellor Klein said last month he would turn his attentions to the ATR pool.
But the composition of the pool raises questions about Klein’s claim that its members ought to be fired because
Most teachers in the absent teacher reserve — a pool of people cut from schools when they were closed or enrollment dwindled — are certified to teach core subjects that every school offers. But the most recent datashows that almost a quarter of teachers in the pool are only licensed to teach classes like swimming, jewelry-making, and accounting, among other subjects that are nearly extinct in the public schools.
The pool also includes music, dance, and art teachers for whom getting a new position will be difficult in a year when schools will have to lay off thousands of teachers.
As of November, there were 1,247 teachers in the pool, working as substitutes and collecting salaries that totaled $134 million. After announcing a deal to close the notorious rubber rooms for teachers accused of misconduct or incompetence, Chancellor Klein said last month he would turn his attentions to the ATR pool.
But the composition of the pool raises questions about Klein’s claim that its members ought to be fired because
Remainders: A student-run bank branch opens in Harlem school
- A debate is shaping up over whether Congress authorized Race to the Top. Politics K-12 weighs in.
- Capital One bank is opening a student-run branch inside Harlem’s Thurgood Marshall Academy.
- A “neighborhood schools sellout” explains her difficult decision to send her kid to a magnet program.
- It will take $4 billion a year to get nutritious school meals to America’s hungry schoolchildren.
- Britain’s Conservative Party is taking some inspiration from the KIPP charter school chain.
- Colorado’s two teachers unions disagree over whether to support that state’s new tenure bill.
- A parent tries to shield her seventh-grader against the trauma of HS admissions but it may be too late.
- Mrs. Mimi plans to blog about the “Top 100 Children’s Novels of ALL TIME.” First up: The Egypt Game.
