For the last two months, State Education Commissioner John King has been on what officials call a “listening tour” in communities around the state.
Rochester Teachers Association
Posted inNews & Opinion
Vargas’s plea to higher ed
Bolgen Vargas may be remembered as the superhero who figured out a way to reverse 30 years of declining student performance in the Rochester City School District. Or he could be remembered as another name on a long list of well-meaning superintendents ultimately bested by an ossified bureaucracy. After two years leading the school district, […]
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Is APPR fair?
The Annual Professional Performance Review for teachers and principals is a key component of education reform. And the state Education Department’s recent release of statewide teacher and principal evaluations is supposed to help answer the question asked by many parents: How effective are the teachers in my child’s school? But the evaluations are controversial. In […]
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Hundreds of city teachers appealing APPR
More than 600 Rochester school teachers have formally appealed their Annual Professional Performance Review, says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. The appeals will be looked at by a joint district and union team beginning as early as next week. Teachers could only appeal their evaluation if they received either an “ineffective” or […]
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Rochester teachers bruised by reviews
Most teachers in the Rochester school district received the results of their first evaluations under the new state law last week, and most were rated either “effective” or “needs development,” says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. Four ratings were possible: highly effective, effective, needs development, and ineffective. Urbanski says that while he […]
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Albany is going to fix urban schools
First it was mayoral control; now we may be looking at Albany control of some urban school districts. The very idea is almost laughable. We’re talking about Albany, New York, frequently described as the most dysfunctional state government in the country. But New York Education Commissioner John King is pushing for a bill that would […]
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The test score rage: rhetoric versus reform
Well, that gave everybody something to talk about, didn’t it? State education officials released school-district scores on standardized tests last week, and the news was awful. Only 31 percent of the state’s students met or exceeded the “proficiency” standard for math. And only 31.1 percent of them met the English standard. And among the large […]
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Surveys frustrate teachers
Students, teachers, principals, and parents in the Rochester school district recently participated in comprehensive districtwide surveys. The questions were tailored to each group’s relationship to the district. For example, students were asked about their teachers’ instruction, responsiveness, and classroom demeanor. | The New York State Education Department required the surveys as part of the teacher […]
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Running out of time
Significant cuts to All City High’s teaching and non-teaching staff have set off alarms about that school’s survival, but there’s much more to it. The cuts have also ignited a much larger concern about the future of the Rochester school district and the role that charter schools will play in that future. All City High’s […]
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Tim Mains lands schools superintendent job in Jamestown
The Jamestown school board has appointed Tim Mains – a longtime educator, politician, LGBT activist – as superintendent of that city’s public schools. Jamestown’s gain is a loss for Rochester. He’ll oversee a much smaller school district than Rochester’s, and one that isn’t facing nearly the same level of difficulties. But the move could be […]
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Reductions at All City High may signal trend
Cuts to All City High’s teaching and non-teaching staff amount to a self-inflicted wound for the Rochester school district, says Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association. All City High’s instructional staff of about 120 teachers will be cut next school year to about 64, according to current plans, Urbanski says. That doesn’t include […]
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Teachers may take over some schools in Rochester
Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has asked the Rochester Teachers Association to present plans for schools to be run by teachers instead of central office administration and principals. Any proposals for teacher-led schools would be part of the administration’s new contract negotiations, which have just started, RTA President Adam Urbanski told about 200 teachers […]
