A new teacher recruitment effort that raised eyebrows among layoff-weary schoolteachers will be paid for with federal money, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools officials said today. The New Teacher Project, a national nonprofit group that helps school systems recruit teachers, is opening an office in Charlotte and will be helping CMS recruit up to 100 teachers a year. It specializes in helping non-teachers make the switch to teaching; it charges school systems fees for helping them find effective new educators.
Teachers have questioned why this is happening, even as the district makes plans to lay off as many as 600 teachers to help close a $100 million budget gap. Asked about this Wednesday at his weekly press conference, Superintendent Peter Gorman said the project is aimed at recruiting hard-to-find teachers of math, science and exceptional children. (Finding "effective" teachers in those areas, he said). Asked how it would be paid for, he said federal Race to the Top dollars. No local money would be involved.
Asked how much it would cost, Gorman's aides later sent an e-mail showing it will cost $1.7 million over four years. CMS officials insist this program won't replace existing teachers with career-changers from other professions. Some teachers say they don't buy it.
Only the layoffs themselves, and the criteria CMS develops for them, will tell for sure.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
CMS explains new teacher recruiting project
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16 comments:
A few comments that might lead to further investigation. Federal money from Race To The Top is not free. The state has set up another organization to oversee the administration of the program. Also, each LEA, in turn, has to build an organization to administer the program. Ask Dr. Gorman how much this is costing.
Is CMS accepting that they can't attract talented teachers with the people they have in HR? How many people have been let go now that they don't have to recruit science and math teachers?
With the reputation CMS is building with its treatment of teachers, the pool of interested teachers must be shrinking. Maybe that is why they have to pay someone to find teachers.
Many of the best teachers are leaving CMS. We've taken two from them this past year to fill positions at my school. We are working on a third. These teachers are good finds for us. We found them through relationships they have with some of our current teachers. Why on earth would anyone want to stay in CMS if they didn't have to?
I am so disgusted with CMS that I am at a loss for words. And to allow strategic staffing to continue is dispicable.
No matter what others may say, and I am probably in the minority with this opinion, but I believe that the NAACP should have maintained its efforts to boycott the city of Charlotte. Not that Charlotte is a bastion of racism. I do not believe that. But because nothing other than money talks.
Ann,
Dig deeper - there is more to this story. Is this the same money we were allocated last year and Dr. Gorman said we would be saving for the upcoming year in order to "save jobs" with the federal funding cliff.
The previous poster is right about the reputation CMS is building for how it treats teachers. In my we have already lost several good, young teachers to private schools and other positions this year. Several others have plans to leave at the close of the school year. They are all good teachers and will be a loss to CMS.
Please hold Dr. Gorman and his staff accountable - there is too much of hidden agenda in all his budget maneuverings despite his constant talk of transparency.
Interestingly, Exceptional Children's teachers have to meet Federal Highly Qualified standards. I have a Master's degree, Bachelor's degree, NC licensure, and National Board certfication in Exceptional Children, yet still had to prove, after 13 years, that I was Highly Qualified to teach EC. I am also licensed to teach Middle School language arts. I fail to see how we can recruit from non-educators and provide children with disabilites "effective" teachers. EC teachers are responsible not only for providing specialized instruction, but also for maintaining legally compliant documents, which can result in loss of state and federal funding if not compliant. Futher, we have to go through a "verification" process in order to be able to conduct certain testing to determine if students are eligible for Exceptional Children's services. Will our non-educator comrades simply waltz into the classroom while we complete their testing and serve as case managers for their students, while earning the same pay? If CMS wants to recruit "effective" special educators, they should look first to nearby colleges and universities, such as UNCC or Winthrop University. These students have spent several years preparing for a career in special education and are likely in it for the long haul - something the rest of the world calls a long-term investment, and something which CMS is seemingly uninterested in.
I believe most of us that have been in CMS for the long run have no problems with teaching, students, parents, lack of supplies, substandard facilities, mold, etc.,etc, ad nauseum. The new standard of data for data's(or Pete's resume)sake is killing what spirit is left in this community's teachers. One only needs to talk to some former principals and assistant principals thrown under the bus by the current adminstrator in charge to verify the sordid details. The sad fact is current employees are all categorized as Burgess Meredith was in the Twilight Zone episode "The Obsolete Man." "You are obsolete!" At least that character had a choice of elimination. Was there any bidding for this contract? Any due diligence? Anyone see evidence of transparency in this? Finally, with the turnover of unqualified HR and legal eagles chosen by the super and summarily decimating those departments and creating this mess, the responsibility for these dysfunctional departments is now on his desk while the buck keeps getting passed.
8:13, this was Eric posting, not me. But I was at the same news briefing so think I can answer: No. The money they held over was stimulus (aka ARRA), and this is Race To The Top. Yes, I admit my head hurts trying to keep up with all the programs, "pots of money" and acronyms.
Wait a second, isn't Mr. Gorman in charge of the overall performance of the school system? By hiring outside help to do his job he is admitting that he cannot do his job, nor can the Human Resources Dept. There are PLENTY of qualified teachers to work those jobs. Mr. Gorman is full of more crap than a Christmas Turkey.
Race To The Top does not, and will not pay for teacher salaries. It is not an ongoing source of revenue. Therefore CMS will pay $1.7m over four years to recruit 100 teachers per year through TNTP. That equals $4,250 per teacher. To echo then some other posters...what are we paying the HR Dept recruiters for? Oh, and don't forget the 250 TFA cadets we are "contracted" to take, how much is that costing?
From the RTTT press release announcing the winners: "The 10 winning applicants have....created pipelines and incentives to put the most effective teachers in high-need schools, and all have alternative pathways to teacher and principal certification..." Has CMS? No, but they have now contracted with TNTP to do so. So was their (or NC's) RTTT application truthful and honest?
Anyone who doesn't believe this (and more importantly, Ann, TFA) are taking jobs away from good teachers in CMS is blind to the math of it all. The issue seems to revolve around high-poverty schools not being able to recruit quality teachers. Ok. But the vast majority of high quality teachers, including SCIENCE AND MATH AND EC teachers laid off last year were NOT UNQUALIFIED OR FAILING TEACHERS (remember, the % below standard was very small, I want to say less than 10%).
Ann, you still have not dug into TFA and asked the hard questions about it. Another 250 TFA teachers are coming in while we will be laying off 600 more people (who will almost ALL be high quality teachers since the last two RIFs have essentially cleaned out the bottom feeders)
And no questions asked about why CMS can't recruit teachers? Maybe its the salaries that have been frozen for four years now (including next year) and were, four years ago, significantly behind the national average. Maybe its because the workload of teachers has increased 2,3,4-fold over the last three years.
Ann, this is hardly worth the blog you printed it on...please try to investigate....
Has TFA/CMS ever provided a retention rate for the TFA members brought to Charlotte, or nationwide? Where would these folks be at six months, one year, and especially, those fulfilling the entire two year commitment? I'm sure Wendy Kopp would be happy to provide a non-biased analysis via one of her non-partisan foundation supporters.
Everyone, I know this may sound redundant, but the posters are right. There are excellent teachers right here in Charlotte throughout our Universities, as well as those who were rifted going back three years. All so, please pay close attention to those who will be let go this year.
Teachers and citizens of Charlotte, it could be time for us to request that our school board and Superintend be investigated by the same Accreditation team that has put a school district in Georgia on probation. We can no longer sit back and allow Dr. Gorman to use our city, as well as our State as an experimental lab. Pete Gorman is not only diminishing the people’s way of life in Charlotte , but he is also costing the state of NC millions of dollars. Check out his article by “Daily Political Briefing”
'Robbing Peter to Pay Paul’ Backfires on NC
North Carolina begins repayment on a $2.5 billion IOU to the federal government this September. The state began borrowing from the federal government in February of 2009 in order to make payments to unemployed workers, of which 5,000 were public school educators.
The cuts to public education resulted in job loss of over 5,000 educators – 88% from the classroom – and contributed to North Carolina’s need to borrow $2.5 billion from the federal government to help pay for unemployment benefits to those out of work.
“Cutting educators from the classroom was not only bad for North Carolina students and their learning, it was bad economics,” said NCAE President Sheri Strickland. “Now we have higher class size, fewer educators in the classroom, and a $2.5 billion bill that we can’t immediately repay and is growing with interest.”
Strickland warned the $2.5 billion owed to the federal government is on top of the $3.8 billion shortfall predicted in 2011-2012, and legislators need to understand that a cut to personnel in the state budget is not a cut. “Educators can either show up in the classroom as teachers or they can show up in unemployment lines as a debt on our unemployment insurance fund,” she said.
sorry(also)
Next they'll designate all teachers as independent contractors rather than employees. Then they won't be eligible for unemployment insurance when they are laid off.
Eric, if you are going to blog under Ann's name, speak up so that we know who you are.
As former CMS Administrator and Special Education Teacher, here is the truth. Dr. Gorman's agenda is to change the teaching and administrative profession of CMS to a no nonesense business model that completely diminishes the organizational and social capital of each learning organization. He clearly does not concern himself with the cares and concerns of the teachers, especially EC Teachers and Assistant Principals. Pay for Performance, use of outside agencies/sources such a TFA, Principal/Leadership Programs and others things alike have yet to impact student learning. There are AP's who have been with CMS for years, but do not meet the Administrative Business Personnel Model of a Leader that Gorman likes and hires. Also, most TFA candidates leave after two years for graduate school and never return to teaching (National Stats). CMS needs a new School Superintendent, a non-partisian School Board and a Open School Model where parents/students can choose their school of choice (providing their own transportation/public transportation works fine in other big cities, why not Charlotte). Ending on a positive note, CMS Teachers need a voice, a voice of unity that speaks directly to the overt and covert actions of the School Board and challenges the actions/reasoning of the School Superintendent.
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