345 Webster Ave.
Brooklyn, New York 11230
January 8, 1996
Mrs. Joyce Coppin
Superintendent of Brooklyn High Schools
Edward R. Murrow H.S.
1600 Ave. L.
Brooklyn, New York 11230
Dear Mrs. Coppin,
Please attach this letter to your letter dated December 20, 1996.
Mr. Cohen exercised bad judgment last year in saying my lessons were unsatisfactory in the face of my conviction that I had improved instruction in Regents Physics. Mr. Cohen never taught this subject and is not qualified to so thoroughly condemn my instructional innovations.
Mr. Bruckner exercised even worse judgment in connection with the Article 24 conciliation (Case #31-94). Your behavior towards me at the meeting of January 5, 1995 and the subsequent letter of February 3, 1995 were extremely ill-advised. Given your authoritarian management style, you ought never to have gotten involved in the conciliation process.
I have the right to teach Regents Physics using the methods I have found from experience to be the best for my students. This right is supported by the New Compact for Learning, the Agreement between the Board of Education and the United Federation of Teachers, and the Interim Report of the New York State Curriculum and Assessment Council to the Commissioner and the Regents. The last document was published in October 1992 and is entitled "Building a Learner-Centered Curriculum for Learner-Centered Schools".
The New Compact for Learning notes the economic, technological and sociological changes that are bringing in the new century and the staggering "failures" of our schools. The Compact then states that the cause is not lack of dedication on the part of people who work in the school systems:
The problem is that the system they are caught in- -schools as we still organize and run them, prevailing notions of curriculum and instructional method, the existing allocations of responsibility and authority - has become obsolete. (page 1)
Among the responsibilities of teachers are... to participate in making decisions about the educational program in the classroom and the school, including such matters as curriculum and materials, methods of instruction, student grouping and scheduling, budgeting, and staffing. (page 8)
Building a Learner-Centered Curriculum for Learner-Centered schools is a broadside against current practices and is a call for a new vision of curriculum, instruction and assessment. The following quotations support the methods I am employing in the class room.
Their teachers (of learner-centered school) function more like coaches, mentors, wise advisors, and guides than as information transmitters or gatekeepers. (page 1)
The compact also emphasizes that learning 'must begin and end with students themselves' as the ultimate authors of their own understandings; and that the 'service delivery model' of packaged schooling and passive students in not a model for genuine learning". (page 2)
At all levels of schooling, the implementation of common high-level standards for all will require attention to creating means for open-ended pacing (allowing for more time and different uses of time responsive to student needs) access to a thinking curriculum for all students, and the use of multimodal teaching strategies that address the many ways students learn by all teachers. (page 8)
Teachers and other staff should be accountable for identifying and meeting the needs of individual students responsibly and knowledgeably based on professional standards of practice, for continually evaluating how well their own practices and those of their colleagues are accomplishing this goal, for seeking new knowledge and information, and for continually revising their strategies to better meet the needs of students. (page 16)
At the appeal of my unsatisfactory rating, I will try to show that my teaching methods and practices are consistent with the pedagogic ideas contained n these two documents.
I want to advise you to make sure that any writings, documents, and verbal statements that you make about me to the Board of Education be accurate, fair, and create a true picture. The following letters, which are attached, show that filing charges against me for either incompetence or insubordination would be an act of defamation.
- Bruckner to Roemer (September 14)
- Roemer to Bruckner (September 14)
- Cohen to Roemer (September 22)
- Roemer to Cohen (September 21)
- Cohen to Roemer (September 22)
- Roemer to Cohen (September 26)
- Bruckner to Roemer (September 28)
- Roemer to Bruckner (September 28)
- Bruckner to Roemer (October 3)
- Roemer to Bruckner (October 5)
- Bruckner to Roemer (October 5)
- Bruckner to Roemer (October 10)
- Roemer to Bruckner (October 18)
- Bruckner to Roemer (October 13)
- Cohen to Roemer (October 20)
- Roemer to Cohen (October 23)
- Bruckner to Roemer (October 25)
- Bruckner to Roemer (November 20)
- Roemer to Roth (November 27)
- Bruckner to Roemer (December 7 )
Very truly yours,
David K. Roemer
cc:
Frank Uolpicella, District Representative
Saul Bruckner, Principal of Murrow H.S.
Bill Forster, Chapter Leader of Murrow, H.S.