Carmen Alvarez

• 
  www.csitoday.net/full_story/?storyid=4038&from=Newsmake - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/17/2009    Last Visited: 7/21/2009  

  Other honorees included: Carmen Alvarez, Vice President for Special Education, United Federation of Teachers; Maria De Los Angeles Barreto, Principal, J.H.S. 296; Eddy Bayardelle, President, Merrill Lynch Foundation; Rita DiMartino, MPA, Trustee, The City University of New York; Nydia Rodriguez-Edgecombe, Director, Alumni Relations, Hostos Community College; Harriet R. Feldman, PhD, RN, FAAN, Dean, Lienhard School of Nursing, Pace University; Jacqueline Bocachica Gonzalez, Executive Officer for Instruction, Integrated Curriculum, Inc., Learning Support Organization; Evelyn Hey, Principal, South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and Arts; Zoilo Rodriguez, Sr., Executive Assistant, New York State United Teachers; Pedro Santana, Principal, Middle School 391; Michael G. Scales, PhD, President, Nyack College & Alliance Theological Seminary; and Domingo Torres, Jr., SETSS/CTT,Renaissance High School of Musical Theater and Technology.

• 
  www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/special_ed_complaints_surg - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 11/13/2009    Last Visited: 11/13/2009  

  "We know why it's happening," UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez said.
  ...
  Alvarez charged that principals, for budgetary reasons, are breaking the law and revising IEPs to match substitute programs already in place at their schools.
  ...
  They haven't, Alvarez says.
  
  Both Laura Rodriguez, the office's chief achievement officer, and Dov Rokeach, her deputy, met with Mulgrew and Alvarez on Nov. 2 at UFT headquarters.
  ...
  Alvarez pointed out that the DOE office's own special education service delivery report, which is supposed to reflect how many students are and are not receiving various services, doesn't even capture Collaborative Team Teaching - now called Integrated Co-Teaching Services - which is now a major program option.
  
  "The report is inadequate in many respects, not the least of which is that it presents a snapshot at a given point in time," Alvarez said, "and principals are given plenty of opportunity to get their ducks in order so that things look good on the date selected to capture the data."
  ...
  "Right now, we haven't even begun to fight," Alvarez said.

• 
  www.nysut.org/cps/rde/xchg/nysut/hs.xsl/newyorkteacher_ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/1/2007    Last Visited: 8/15/2007  

  The UFT filed the complaint in January after numerous IEPs for students were changed last fall after the annual review and without a formal meeting, according to Carmen Alvarez, UFT vice president for special education.
  ...
  Alvarez said the union is carefully monitoring the city's shortchanging of special ed students."From the systemwide dragging of feet on referrals to rewriting IEPs to suit the needs of administrators rather than the needs of students, the current leaders of the city's public schools have consistently failed to provide special ed students with the kind of nurturing atmosphere that they need, deserve and, by law, are entitled to," Alvarez said.

• 
  www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/the_next_generation/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/17/2009    Last Visited: 10/17/2009  

  At the special education display table was UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez (seated, right), seen here with UFT staffer Emelina Camacho-Mendez.

• 
  www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/funding_nightmares_across_ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/2/2009    Last Visited: 10/2/2009  

  "We've had over 70 complaints since school opened," said Carmen Alvarez, UFT vice president for special education.
  
  Students awaiting placement as per their Individualized Education Program mandates and abuses to Integrated Co-Teaching "have been in the majority but there are other issues as well and they are coming in every day," she said.

• 
  www.gothamgazette.com/article//20080219/200/2433 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/19/2008    Last Visited: 5/29/2008  

  "It didn't mean there were a whole lot of people who elected us," Carmen Alvarez of the United Federation of Teachers and who once served on a board recalled.

• 
  live.gothamgazette.com/article//20080219/200/2433 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/19/2008    Last Visited: 7/15/2009  

  "It didnt mean there were a whole lot of people who elected us," Carmen Alvarez of the United Federation of Teachers and who once served on a board recalled.

• 
  www.uft.org/news/teacher/general/modify_governance_law/ - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/7/2009    Last Visited: 5/7/2009  

  UFT Vice President Carmen Alvarez voiced support for mayoral control of city schools, but stressed the need for modification of the School Governance Law at the New York State Assembly's Puerto Rican/Hispanic Task Force conference on April 4.
  
  She called for adding "institutional checks and balances [to the law which is scheduled to expire on June 30] that give a meaningful voice to parents, teachers and community members, indeed all New Yorkers who care about how our children are educated."
  
  Alvarez spoke as a member of a panel - Grading Mayoral Control: Governance of New York City's Public Schools - which included Chancellor Joel Klein and other education, union and community leaders and was held in the Legislative Office Building in Albany.
  ...
  "We are creating an underclass," Alvarez warned, "and that must stop."
  
  To warm audience applause, she continued, "We cannot have success for one group of students at the expense of another. Our goal must be success for all students."
  
  Alvarez has been co-chair since 2007 of the UFT School Governance Task Force which held dozens of meetings and six public forums attended by more than 12,000 people. Testimony and debate at those meetings, she said, endorsed reform of an effective governance system that should: ensure accountability and transparency, encourage public involvement in decision making, provide clear lines of communication and responsibility, comply fully with state laws, support teamwork and collaboration and ensure stability and oversight of resources on which schools depend.

• 
  www.uft.org/news/teacher/general/uft_assails_special_ed - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/28/2009    Last Visited: 3/28/2009  

  Testifying before a City Council Education Committee hearing on special education throughout New York City public schools, Carmen Alvarez, UFT vice president for special education, assailed the recent "principal empowerment" trend which has "fostered an atmosphere of intimidation and lawlessness."
  
  Alvarez gave many examples to back up that charge during her Jan. 29 testimony, ranging from a failure to provide copies of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) to the teachers and service providers who must implement them, to teachers being required to sign IEPs attesting to their participation in meetings they did not attend, and being told that they cannot request students be evaluated for special education or speak to students' parents about their concerns.
  
  There has also been a failure to properly staff collaborative team teaching classes, and a routine under-servicing of students who should receive occupational and physical therapy, Alvarez said.
  
  The sheer volume of complaints that her office receives "demonstrates that there are significant systemic issues," she said. By all measures, including the poor graduation rate for special education students (20 percent in four years with Regents or local diplomas and a fraction of a percent with IEP diplomas, which do not qualify graduates for higher education, civil or military service, or paraprofessional work), New York City is lagging behind other cities throughout the state.
  
  These and other abuses stem from a 2003 reorganization of special education, which eliminated expertise at the school level, gave "flexibility" to principals regarding use of special education funds and resulted in the failure to hold schools accountable for implementing IEPs, she told the committee.
  
  With yet another reorganization of special education recently announced - this time under the leadership of lawyer Garth Harries, who Alvarez said "admits that he has little knowledge of special education" - she said that she was skeptical about the outcome.
  
  "We are in the midst of a severe budget crisis and special education is one of the most high-ticket items in our public schools. ... the chancellor's spokesperson ... told [the] Gotham Schools reporter that the reorganization is laying the groundwork for the department to eliminate positions," Alvarez testified.
  
  Despite the serious charges, Alvarez ended her testimony on an upbeat note, calling on the Department of Education to "salvage the reorganization and work in a new way with stakeholders. There is a vast amount of knowledge, experience and talent in this room," she said.
  
  "We say to the chancellor, take the leap: share leadership," she said.

• 
  www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/121793 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/5/2008    Last Visited: 8/5/2008  

  Carmen Alvarez, vice president for special education for the United Federation of Teachers agreed that special ed students need more inclusion but added that those changes don't happen overnight.
  
  "I think these are very lovely, noble ideas but unless they're embedded in some very concrete short-term and long-term strucutres, it's just not going to happen," she said.
  
  Other suggestions in the study included setting clearer standards on which students are eligible for Distict 75 services and preparing general ed teachers and principals to work with students with disabilites.Funding should be merged with the city's 32 other districts and students should be kept in District 75 for less time.
  
  Ms. Alvarez said she was happy to see some of the recommendations on paper but said she was cautiously optimistic about what it could mean for the district as a whole.
  
  "There's a lot of information in there," she said of the 99-page report.

Page:  1 2 3 4