Teaching Profession News in Brief

‘Absent Reserve’ Teachers Heading Back to New York City Classrooms

By Liana Loewus — November 14, 2017 1 min read
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Hundreds of New York City teachers who’d lost their full-time positions but stayed on the payroll are back in classrooms or headed that way.

About a third of those teachers have faced legal or disciplinary charges, and 12 percent of teachers in the pool received a rating of “ineffective” or “unsatisfactory"—the two lowest.

District officials announced this summer that schools that hadn’t filled all their teaching positions by Oct. 15 would be assigned educators from the “absent-teacher-reserve” pool. The district has said it expects to fill 300 or 400 vacancies that way.

The move has caused upheaval, with critics accusing the district of instituting “forced placement” of teachers and putting unfit people in front of students. The district disputes those claims.

A version of this article appeared in the November 15, 2017 edition of Education Week as ‘Absent Reserve’ Teachers Heading Back to New York City Classrooms

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