In A School Far, Far, Away With Young White "Newbie Teachers". - School #14

Well, I found myself in the second of three small high schools in a closed comprehensive high school in Southeast Queens. This school is a 6-12 school and are required to wear uniforms.  This doesn't mean that the boys keep their pants up and don't show their underwear, they do!  Interesting how the Administration thinks that uniforms will change the behavior and academic outcomes of the students.  Maybe in the middle school it might make a difference but not in the high school.  This is a themed school but I wouldn't want any of the student body working on me if I was in need of medical care.

The school is top heavy with administration and they just hired their sixth AP, this one looks about 25 and I don't think he has ever shaved.  His job is security and doing observations.  On the other hand, the school has only one guidance counselor for the 425 students in the high school while having four teachers working as a one period guidance counselor for their circular six period.  To me that seems dangerous and is a disservice to both the four teachers and the students they work with.  These teachers don't have guidance licenses and could find themselves in trouble if their advice ends up to be harmful to the student. The school should have hired a second guidance counselor and not an Assistant Principal.  I guess the Principal doesn't want to do observations and that's more important than giving the students the support they need.

The student body is nearly 100% minority with Black students making up the majority of the population and Hispanics making up most of  the rest  Teaching them is a nearly 100% young, white, and mostly untenured teachers in their 20's.  Not a good fit if you ask me. Interestingly, the students were reasonably well behaved because  of the snow and cold and more importantly, many of the problem students didn't bother to show up to school this week since it was the end of the semester and their grades were already decided upon.  According to one teacher the school doesn't allow a grade of less than 55% since it allows the Principal to raise the student's grade to passing if the student can achieve a 65% the next semester, giving the student both credits instead of one.  Credit recovery by another name if you ask me.

Parking is adequate but traveling there is a horror.  I would not want a position in this school

GRADE "D". 

Low Pants And Disrespect Equals Low Expectations - School #13

My journey seems to have me traveling in Southern Queens during the first semester of the school year as I landed in my first small school in a Campus that used to be named for a dead President.  The school doesn't have a freshman class and many of the teachers are ATRs that have been temporarily placed at the school.  What happened to the teaching staff that was there before?  It seems many left either by resignation or transfer.  In other words, the staff is simply a place holder until the school; closes three years down the road.  School morale is bad, real bad.  Interestingly, the new school that will replace this school had a tremendous shortfall of applicants for its freshman class and is worried about surviving.

The student body is over 90% Black and the Administration doesn't even bother to tell the boys to pull up their pants, take off their hats, and to stop disrespecting the staff.  Cursing and bullying is common at the school and the girls are just as bad as the boys.  In one case I saw a girl grab a boy's  privates and wouldn't let go until the boy apologized for calling her a "bitch".  Few of the students care to get good grades, "just give me my 65" is what the common statement is when asked why they don't do their school work a teacher told me. I really feel sorry for the few students that try, they stand out like little beacon of lights in an environment of darkness.  The majority of students don't seem to care and try every conceivable way to leave the classroom.

The only good thing is that there is plenty of parking around the school and is easy to get to. However, unmotivated students, a demoralized and temporary staff, an uncaring administration, and a sense of doom permeates the school and while I was treated well, I certainly wouldn't want a position there under any circumstances.

GRADE "F"

Waiting For The End - School #12

I was sent to a closing school and it has less than 60 students left.  The school is populated by senior teachers waiting for the end in June.  I was treated very well and the staff peppered me with questions about how it was to be an ATR.   During my time there I setup the Earth Science laboratory practical for the few students since they don't have an Earth Science teacher, what else is new?  The lab piratical was for students who needed the Regents to graduate.  For the most part, the students were disinterested in academics but since their all seniors, the discipline issue was not a major problem.and they were just trying to graduate by June.

I will not rate the school since its unfair to rate a school in its last year of existence.  Furthermore, the staff was told this week that their long-term Chapter Leader was terminated at his 3020-a hearing and that sapped the staff morale even further since he was well liked and protected teachers from administrative abuses and discipline. Hopefully, there will be no more closing schools after this year, or the years that follows.

GRADE "Not Applicable"

Fight Club - School #11

I was in another small school that replaced a closed comprehensive high school in Southeast Queens and am quite pleased to have survived the experience.  At one time this school was superior to the school it replaced but then the DOE stopped supplying the school with extra funding and exempting them from taking "high needs students".  Therefore, of late, the school struggles (and fails) to attract good students and has found it with a student body of only a smidgen over 300 rather than the 425 the school was built for.  The composition of the student body is 70% Black and 30% Hispanic.

The freshman and sophomore classes are populated by level "1' and low level "2" students and they run the hallways, rather than go to class, overwhelming the one dean and administration.  The Regents passing rates, never good in the first place, has plummeted last year and the teachers expect even worse results this year.  The students are disrespectful to their teachers and curse words are common even when talking to the teacher.  I don't need to tell you how they treat the ATRs.  Every day I was there a fight occurred, sometimes two and the girls are just as bad as the boys. The school is slowly unraveling and the students see it.  Many of the students appear to be "marking time" before they transfer, dropout, or end up in the juvenile justice system.

Staff morale is bad, real bad.  Many teachers privately told me that they would leave if they could while the newer teachers are seriously thinking of finding a new profession. It appears many of the teachers ended up with an "ineffective"  observation that doesn't sit well with the staff considering the student body they are working with.  There were three other ATRs at the school with me and every day we all had coverages since at least four teachers are absent on any given day during my stay there.

The only positives I found was that they had an excellent teacher room, with computers, a friendly staff, and onsite parking.


Would I take a job there if offered one.  "No way Jose"!     "D-"

A School Struggles To Survive With A Changing Student Body - School #10

The school I was in this week was one of the 32 schools that Mayor Bloomberg wanted closed through the "turnaround model" back in 2011.  While the Mayor's transparent attempt to remove senior teachers eventually failed, the damage was done for this school in particular. 

The school now has a majority Hispanic population with an increasing Middle Eastern component, especially Egyptians and Yemenites. This is quite a change from the Eastern European population the large comprehensive school had only a few years back.  The Eastern European student population is barely in double figures and decreasing yearly. More importantly, is the rapid increase in "English Language Learners" and the dumping of large numbers of "over the counter" students to further destabilize the school.  Many male students walk the hallways in groups of four or more during class and even as school suspensions are rising, the students don't seem to care.  Teacher disrespect among the middle eastern boys, in particular, is a common occurrence and they tend to disrupt classes with little fear of consequences.

The school staff is highly experienced and while staff morale is low, the teachers have been able to keep the school from falling into the abyss that Tweed wanted to see happen.  They are friendly, caring, and try to engage the students as much as possible.  The teaching staff treated me well and the Chapter Leader gave me a place to keep my belongings in and I received a key to the bathroom.  The Administration keeps a "hands off policy" and allows their teachers to teach, within limits.

A big negative is that the school is out of the way from mass transit and its difficult to find parking,  This will get worse next year as a 1,000 student elementary/middle school will open across the street and with no parking area.  This will mean that nearly 100 school staffers will be bringing cars to the area and drastically increase the already terrible parking problem.  Moreover, the school suffers from non-working radiators and the smell of urine in some stairwells is overwelming.  There is no teacher cafeteria for teachers to go to eat their lunch.

While I liked the school's teaching staff, the low academic levels of the student body, the travel and parking problems getting to the school, and the general student disrespect by the males in particular for their teachers makes this school one to avoid.

GRADE "D"

Escape From Purgatory! - School #9

I must have been in the worst small school in Queens this week.  It's in the top three of Chaz's "do not apply" list and I can see why.This school is one of four schools that were carved out of a failing large school in Southeast Queens and the students of the school are the type of people I wouldn't want to encounter at night. The students dress and act "thuggish", even the girls!  This despite the fact that there is supposed to be a uniform dress code at the school.  The student disrespect of the school's staff and each other is very evident and if you're replacing a teacher the students are "out of control".  Curses and threats are heard everywhere in the school and the students have little fear of discipline when caught raiding the teacher's cafeteria to get chips and soda.  I never, saw anything like this anywhere else in Queens.

The school is supposed to have uniforms but few students bother to dress appropriately and there is no consequences for not having the school uniform.  Furthermore, the physical education classes do not enforce the rule for students to change into their gym clothes and 50% of the students don't even bother to participate in class, instead they sit on the bleachers and gossip until the period is over.

The student body consists of 75% Black and 25% Hispanic and many of the students come from the many low income projects in the area.  Most of the student body are either "level one" or "level two" students with either attendance or disciplinary issues and most of the students  admit that this was the only school that accepted them.  There are no advanced placement classes at the school and the highest science taken is Earth Science which has a Regents passing rate of below 20%.  By the way, there is no certified Earth Science teacher at this school, like many other schools I have been to.

The teachers approach their day as if they are planning a battle in a war and in a school of twenty teachers, most days see an average of two teachers absent due to the high stress in dealing with this challenging student body.  It's little wonder that there is a very high teacher turnover in the school.  I pity the teaching staff when many of them are rated "ineffective" due to the poor test scores with this deep poverty and "high needs" student body.

The only good thing I can say about this school is that I escaped unscathed and I won't be back this school year.

GRADE "F"

A Nice Neighborhood Small School - School #8

The school I was in for the last two weeks is a real oddity in the New York City Public School System.  Its a small high school that is an extension of the long existing middle school it shares a building with.   Over 90% of the students come from the neighborhood and because of the school's relative isolation, it's difficult for students to attend the school from outside the community.  The school does not screen the students but they informally review applicants that apply from outside the neighborhood.  This is a true neighborhood high school.

Demographically the school has about a 50-50 split between Hispanic and South Asian students with a smattering of Black and White students as well.  Like all small schools there are no self-contained special education classes even though the school claims that 10% of the students are classified as self-contained.  The question is why and is this common for all small schools? There are few English Language Learners and of course few if any "over the counter students" are assigned to the school by the DOE.  Most of the teachers are young but not all. The Administration is a "mixed bag" with the well-liked Principal being the "good cop" and his two Assistant Principals being the "bad cops".  More about them later.

The students are well behaved and the Principal's "zero tolerance policy" for misbehavior is a deterrent for the student body.  The Principal is unhappy with the "career and college readiness grades" of the school which is lower than the average city school and has tried different approaches to improve the scores and improve Regents passing rates.  To achieve his goal he has brought back the 5-1 program for all Regents Sciences.  Meaning all students have five days of instruction and one day of lab during their lunch period.   Like all small schools the students complain of inflexible schedules, lack of extracurricular activities and few optional courses.

The negatives are few but significant.  The most obvious are the two Assistant Principals who are as nasty as they are pretty. Many of the teachers are terrified of them and will try to have the Principal intercede and mediate problems with the two of them.  The new teacher evaluation system is a weapon in their hands and the staff is worried about how they will use the weapon on them.  My first encounter with one was to report to her office for assignment as a "push in teacher". She was on the phone so I sat down, she stopped her phone conversation and told me "don't sit down, I will be off the phone in a minute". Five minutes later she finished her phone conversation and lectured me by saying "don't touch the students, don't yell at the students' and don't curse at the students". Then she gave me my assignment as I stood with my coat and bag during the entire time in her office.  Last year the other Assistant Principal told a female ATR the following "did you show your students porn or did you hit a kid"?

Other negatives is the long commute by mass transit to the school, lack of a bathroom key and no teacher's room. The Chapter Leader never bothered to show her face or introduce herself to me or the other ATR and that is totally unacceptable in a small school.

On the bright side there is plenty of parking, the staff is friendly, and you are allowed out of the building during the school day.  I would gladly work in the school if offered a position even with those horrible AP's..

GRADE "B"