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WASHINGTON - Congressman Charles Rangel today hailed the provision in the teachers union contract settlement that will provide for the assignment of "master teachers" to the city's lowest performing schools.
"This initiative could prove to be the most important long-term contribution to improving education in schools where students need the most help," Congressman Rangel said. "These master teachers will bring with them not only their outstanding teaching skills, they will help inspire a sense of pride in the schools and among the students."
Congressman Rangel has long advocated an assignment policy that matched up the best teachers with the poorest students. After working on the issue behind the scenes for months, last September he went public, joining forces with Columbia University Teachers College president Arthur Levine; Darlyne Bailey, Teachers College dean; David Jones, president of the Community Service Society; and Dr. Lorraine Monroe, founder of a leadership institute named after her, to call on the contract negotiators to include such a provision in any settlement.
Under the agreement, part of the larger contract which must be ratified by the union membership, experienced master teachers who will also be required to mentor others will be paid incentives of $10,000 a year. Details on the number of master teachers and the schools where they will be assigned will be announced later.
Some 60 percent of the city's low-performing schools are concentrated in one third of the schools, nearly all of them in high-poverty areas of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; Manhattan and the South Bronx.
"Many of our children are facing a crisis of opportunity because they are just not learning in school," Congressman Rangel said. "The most productive path to ensuring that every child has a chance to compete in the future is to provide them with the best teachers who can give them the tools to succeed."
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