NYC Educator: Invasion of the Talent Coaches

NYC Educator: Invasion of the Talent Coaches:

Invasion of the Talent Coaches

by NYC Educator

I'm hearing stories all over about the DOE's dreaded agents, doing practice observations. Armed with their adapted Danielson rubrics, with the three domains they have determined are inevitable, they do 15-minute observations. During these 15 minutes, they determine whether teachers are highly effective, effective, developing, or ineffective. The fact that the evaluation system does not yet exist deters them not at all. The fix is in, they figure, and Reformy John (King) will grant them whatever they ask.

So teachers even principals think are great get rated developing because they went seven and a half full minutes without having students turn and talk. Some of them used the much-praised workshop model, gave a mini-lesson, and because the talent coaches neither saw nor cared what followed, they just didn't hit the mark.

Another problem is lesson plans. Article 8E of the UFT Contract reads as follows:

The development of lesson plans by and for the use of the teacher is a professional responsibility vital to effective teaching.  The organization, format, notation and other physical aspects of the lesson plan are appropriately within the discretion of each teacher. A principal or supervisor may suggest, but not require, a particular format or organization, except as part of a program to improve deficiencies of teachers who receive U-ratings or formal warnings.

You'd think that meant teachers had wide latitude over how they planned their lessons. But the DOE knows