Ed Notes Extended

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Can Deans Be Granted Tenure?

The Dean at my school is up for tenure this year. My principal is very supportive of her but is unclear on what a Dean should submit in their portfolio. Does anyone have any experience or guidance on this?
UFT/Unity stance on tenure
The above was today's question posted on the MORE chapter leader listserve. The discussion is useful for people who may be in the Dean position in your school. Clearly there is little or no guidance from our esteemed union, which basically acts like there is no such thing as nontenured teacher rights as it has allowed tenure rules with unlimited extensions to be used as a political football and slapped all over the place. Here are the responses.
There's no such thing as a Dean's license. It would be in her license area.
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I don't know the exact process but my principal also indicated there is a separate tenure process for Deans. Our Dean is licensed but is a full-time Dean and is up for tenure. She has been told by admin she is being recommended for tenure but has never been observed because she doesn't teach any classes and just confirmed last month with admin that Deans can be granted tenure differently. If that is definitely incorrect, please let me know what you find!
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Well let's hope she gets tenure but there is no Dean license. I'll be surprised the Supt approves it without classroom experience. As CL I would never allow a full time comptime position. 
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Now we hear from a CL about our UFT Is Not At Work:
This happened at my school. The superintendent didn't inform the principal, and neither did the UFT, that a dean up for tenure needed to be teaching 60% of their day in order to get tenure. No one is really sure where this number came from, but it was cited as the reason our dean's probation was extended. The next year he taught one more class and was granted tenure. I would recommend that the principal and/or teacher check with the superintendent ASAP about portfolio expectations and any other expectations that are generally not communicated. 
This is just one other outrage against the non-tenured. Do we know that the 60% number of classes that must be taught is citywide or just one district supt making it up as she went along?

11 comments:

  1. Question: Are people with comp time positions who only teach 2 classes under the same evaluation system? I recall reading some where that people in comp time jobs ( ex Dean - 3 Deaning 2 teaching periods) are under the old S /U system? true or false? anyone?

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  2. You think it is OK that a brand new teacher teaches no classes?

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  3. How can we judge? There are entire schools of untenured. And look at result. They won't get tenure unless they teach

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  4. How can you judge??? All you ever do is judge. And no matter what happens, your solomonic decree is always piercingly familiar. "The UFT is at fault." Anyone with half a brain knows that it is bad practice to have anyone, let alone a newbie, act as dean full time. Tenure is serious business. It is very bad for all of us to have unsuitable candidatess granted tenure. It is entirely proper that the DoE should insist that a teacher prove her competence in her license area not as a dean.
    Norm, your knee jerk criticism of UFT diminishes your effectiveness as a thoughtful counterweight. Youve become a shrill caricature, waving your hands and stamping your feet.

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    1. I've been a shrill voice on the uft for 20 years and for 15 years before that. So vats new? Show me where this info on tenure for deans is available from the uft. And show me where the uft has warned its Cl people to avoid putting people in this situation. Elfrank knows enough to tell people that. The uft should put pints like this out for its dist reps at their meetings but is more preoccupied with its agenda. Like how important the Hillary campaign is.

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    2. Anonymous, you call Norm's criticism "knee-jerk" and "shrill." I call it experienced, informed and booming. Prove competence by Danielson standards? True story: 2 kids with a history of bad blood between them are about to come to blows in a classroom. Teacher uses her loud stern voice and gets kids to separate before any punches are thrown. Admin gives teacher a developing in one component because the kids should mediate their own disputes and you can't be effective if you intervene. This happened at PS 8 two years ago. Are these the standards you chastise Norm for ignoring with respect to tenure? Luckily for us that AP is now gone from our school... and our useless UFT leadership had nothing to do with making that happen. The UFT cares NOTHING for the membership it represents. Norm's criticisms are spot on. Roseanne McCosh PS 8x.

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  5. The problem is there should not be any untenured deans... I was under the impression all comp time positions had to be filled by tenured teachers. When admins became lax and gave untenured teachers these positions that's the problem!

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    1. The uft has district reps who should be monitoring this stuff but they have their heads up their asses.

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  6. Norm:
    Perhaps you don't know what is going on you have not been around for along time and you are getting your info from the uninformed. Before you post perhaps you should read the official website or the New York Teacher.

    Every single DR has at least one tenure information meeting for all probationary members. The DRs invite the District Sups to those meetings so that each probationary teacher can understand what the Sup expects in portfolios.

    These meetings are well attended. Many thousands have attended. Most (an extremely large percentage) achieve tenure. The DRs are always advertising these meetings. If Members can not attend there are Ed Liaisons and Special Reps at every Borough Office.

    You have a well known opinion. You are entitled to your opinion. You are not entitled to the Facts.

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    1. I go by the MORE CL listserve which has experienced chapter leaders from all over the city. Look at the comments from these people on this issue. The DR may have meetings with untenured - I wonder if they tell them they have few if any basic rights. Do they tell them about the threat of being discontinued if they don't polish the principals shoes? I know all about the DR meetings with CLs where they shove their agenda at the CLS and don't address the issues in the schools. Poll even your Unity CLs to see if they knew this about untenured deans.

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