Testimony of Mary Vaccaro, Vice President of Education before the New York City Council Committee on Education

My name is Mary Vaccaro and I serve as the vice president of education of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and the executive director of the UFT Teacher Center. On behalf of the union’s more than 200,000 members, I would like to thank Chairperson Mark Treyger and all the members of the New York City Council’s Committee on Education for holding this important hearing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning and academic achievement.

From the moment Mayor de Blasio announced the closing of schools on March 15, 2020, the UFT focused on ways to support educators, students and parents with remote learning. Many educators had to rely on their colleagues to guide them through a whole new world and they had only a matter of days to make the transition. But they did it. In my capacity as the director of our UFT Teacher Center program, I can wholeheartedly say that the program was instrumental in the herculean effort. So, before I begin, I would like to say thank you to all the members of the City Council for your continuous support of the UFT Teacher Center program. Without your support, our success would not have been possible.

Challenges with Remote Instruction

When we shifted to remote instruction, our educators discovered that many students did not have all the technical skills necessary to fully engage in remote learning.  Others did not have access to the physical technology needed to participate in remote learning, especially those students in shelters and those not living in their own homes. Students often had to share laptops, iPads and computers with siblings and other family members. Many parents were unable to help their children due to work responsibilities; others were unfamiliar with the technology. Remote instruction posed, and continues to pose, many challenges. It’s not surprising that in many instances it’s been a struggle to maintain academic standards.

We have always made ourselves available to work with the New York City Department of Education (DOE) during this time. Although the DOE prepared lengthy guidance documents with descriptions of different models and digital learning tools, we have serious concerns about how the DOE disseminated these documents to teachers in classrooms, where they are most needed. Most teachers I speak with, and I speak with many, have never seen these documents, so it is difficult to say if they have been helpful tools in our efforts to maintain academic excellence.  In addition, the documents are not always specific to the curriculum in schools.  

I would also like to urge members of the City Council to continue to press the DOE to finalize the hiring of virtual content specialists. Many of our educators feel there is a dearth of virtual content available to them. The DOE promised over the summer that it would hire these specialists for the start of the 2020-2021 school year to develop this content for remote instruction. But the hiring only started in December and still has not been completed.

UFT Steps in to Fill the Gaps

The UFT knows teachers cannot continue to teach the way they did before the pandemic if our students are to succeed. So, throughout the spring and summer we ramped up our efforts to provide educators with the skills necessary for remote learning. Once buildings reopened in the fall, we provided professional learning opportunities so teachers on remote assignments and those in schools could work together.  

The UFT Teacher Center provided many professional learning institutes over the summer and fall and continues to do so. That was possible because of our extensive network of 115 school-based sites. In fact, over the course of the 2019-20 school year, the UFT Teacher Center provided more than 121,000 hours of professional learning, technical support, mentoring and instructional guidance to more than 234,000 participants in New York City, including classroom educators, principals, paraprofessionals and parents.

Our classes continue to fill up as fast as we open them. For example, courses All about G-Suite and English Language Acquisition each registered more than 1,000 participants in just two days. We are also collaborating with Apple so teachers can enhance the technology skills they need for teaching and learning.  

In addition to providing support for educators, in December 2020 our UFT Teacher Center staff launched a three-part series of free Saturday Student Academies that served as engaging remote enrichment for students from preschool to high school.  Five thousand families registered for activities, held on consecutive Saturday mornings, such as virtual field trips to see holiday celebrations around the world and opportunities to virtually explore career choices linked to students’ interests and dreams. We plan to have additional sessions in the spring. 

Measuring Academic Achievement

Graduation figures released last week show that New York City is just above the state average, and numbers even increased from 2019.  Our members are working hard to make sure these numbers do not decrease in the face of nearly a year of exceptional circumstances. 

We can all acknowledge that this is not a normal year and can, therefore, debate the validity and reliability of standardized tests, the traditional method of determining academic achievement, to measure success this year. We have already begun to look at other measurements such as authentic assessments that might consider the current learning environment and the challenges faced by many of our students.  

Conclusion

I want to again thank the City Council for its continuous support of the UFT Teacher Center. I hope this testimony was able to demonstrate to you how our union has stepped up to fill in the gaps the DOE has failed to close. We need the guidance put out by the DOE to reflect the reality that plays out in our schools during this time of remote and hybrid instruction. And while the DOE finds a way to provide better support with technology for our educators, students and parents, you can continue to count on the UFT Teacher Center to be on the front line.

We look forward to working with the city and the state on what these measures could look like. To stay up to date on remote learning from our union’s perspective, you can listen to our UFT podcast, “On the Record with Michael Mulgrew,” which you can find on any podcast platform. Throughout these difficult times, the UFT reaffirms its commitment to doing whatever is necessary to make sure all students receive the instruction and the academic support they deserve.