I don't doubt that at all but someone with those credentials will more likely choose the private sector, even over a teaching job at a private school with better pay but weaker job protections.
True but that's how they do it.
Are you sick of highly-paid teachers?
- Thread starter shanebp1978
- Start date
I don't doubt that at all but someone with those credentials will more likely choose the private sector, even over a teaching job at a private school with better pay but weaker job protections.
True but that's how they do it.
So since you haven't responded in quite sometime, I guess I have exposed the flaw in your argument.
eat a diiiiiiiiick
So you couldnt talk to him intelligently to get your point across? Funny thing is if you knew Shane you would know how ignorant your rant was......
but i dnt......so suck a bag of dicks
im a certified elementary school teacher... i believe everything i typed out!
teachers dnt get paid enough... 50k per year with all the perks for a beginning teachers pay is a good start!
Last edited:
Why the assault on public schools and teachers.
source: Huffington Post
White Students No Longer To Be Majority In School
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- The cheerful sign outside Jane Cornell's summer school classroom in Pennsylvania's wealthiest county says "Welcome" and "Bienvenidos" in polished handwriting.
Inside, giggling grade-schoolers who mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language worked on storytelling with a tale about a crocodile going to the dentist. The children and their classroom at the Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center, near both mushroom farms and the borough's bucolic red-brick downtown, are a subtle reminder of America's changing school demographics.
For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children.
Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority.
About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the changing population a seminal moment in education. "We can't talk about other people's children. These are our children," he said.
The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus to reflect students' tastes.
But it also brings some complex societal questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity.
The result, at times, is racial and ethnic tension.
In Louisiana in July, Jefferson Parish public school administrators reached an agreement with the federal government to end an investigation into discrimination against English language learners.
In May, police had to be called to a school in the Streamwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, to help break up a fight between Hispanic and black students after a racially based lunchroom brawl got out of control.
Issues of race and ethnicity in school can also be more subtle.
In the Kennett Consolidated School District, Superintendent Barry Tomasetti described parents who opt to send their kids to private schools across the border in Delaware after touring diverse classrooms. Other families, he said, seek out the district's diverse schools "because they realize it's not a homogenous world out there."
The changes in the district, about an hour southwest outside of Philadelphia, from mostly middle-to-upper class white to about 40 percent Hispanic was driven partly by workers migrating from Mexico and elsewhere to work the mushroom farms.
"We like our diversity," Tomasetti said, even as he acknowledged the cost. He has had to hire English language instructors and translators for parent-teacher conferences. He has cobbled together money to provide summer school for many young English language learners who need extra reading and math support.
"Our expectation is all of our kids succeed," he said.
Private schools nationally are changing as well, seeing a smaller number of white students and a greater number of Hispanic students in their decreasing pool of children.
The new majority-minority status of America's schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole. The Census Bureau estimates that the country's population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians.
Today, slightly more than 1 in 5 kids speaks a language other than English at home.
But even as the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially segregated, reflecting U.S. housing patterns.
The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline.
Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes and are less likely to graduate.
Duncan said the disparities are unacceptable, and the country needs to make sure all students "have an opportunity to have a world class education, to do extraordinarily well."
As the school-age population has become more nonwhite, it's also become poorer, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA who serves on President Barack Obama's advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
Roughly one-quarter of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line - meaning a family of four has nearly $24,000 in annual income - and some of the poorest of Hispanic children are dealing with the instability of being in the country illegally or with a parent who is, Gandara said.
Focusing on teacher preparation and stronger curriculum is "not going to get us anywhere unless we pay attention to the really basic needs of these children, things like nutrition and health and safety, and the instability of the homes," she said.
This transformation in school goes beyond just educating the children. Educators said parents must feel comfortable and accepted in schools, too.
Lisa Mack, president of the Ohio PTA, encourages local leaders to include grandparents and replace events such as a sock hop with one with a Motown theme that might be more inclusive or to provide opportunities for people of different ethnic groups to bring food to share at monthly meetings.
"I think one thing that's critical is that schools and PTAs and everyone just need to understand that with changing demographics, you can't do things the way you've done them before," she said. "That you have to be creative in reaching out and making them feel welcomed and valued and supported in the school system."
Some schools are seeking teachers to help reflect the demographics of their student population.
Today, fewer than 1 in 5 of the public schools teachers is a minority. "It is an ongoing challenge to try and make our teacher population reflect our student population," said Steve Saunders, spokesman for the Adams County, Colorado, school district outside Denver that has seen a large shift toward having Hispanic students.
The New America Foundation, in a recent report, suggested teacher prep programs have at least one class for teachers on working with non-native English speakers and that education programs embrace bilingualism.
Andrea Giunta, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association who focuses on teacher recruiting, retention and diversity, said you can't assume that teachers are a good match just because of their background.
"Just because you speak Spanish doesn't mean you speak the same Spanish your students are speaking and communicating with," she said.
This comes as the NEA, the nation's largest union, just elected an all-minority leadership team in July. The new president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, is Latina, and the vice president and secretary-treasurer, Rebecca S. Pringle and Princess Moss, are black.
In Kennett Square, superintendent Tomasetti said Hispanic students in his district are performing at levels, on average, higher than their peers statewide. One recent graduate, Christian Cordova-Pedroza, is attending Harvard University this fall. Cordova-Pedroza is one of five children of a mushroom farmer from Mexico.
Cordova-Pedroza credited the motivation instilled by his parents combined with access to a variety of educational opportunities for his success, including an after-school program that included tutoring and help with college applications. He also was active in a Latino leadership club that helps provides translation services in the community and participated in summer programs at Penn State and Princeton.
"Certainly, I had to work hard to get there, but I feel like at every opportunity that I had a chance of participating in or doing that, I was always like, `Yes, I want to do that,'" he said.
Nearby, at El Nayarit Mexico Grocery Store, owner Jaime Sandoval, a native of Mexico with six kids, said he's been pleased with the education his children have received. His 9-year-old daughter, he said, wants to be a teacher.
"She loves to read and all that stuff," Sandoval said. "She always has good grades on English and she loves it much."
source: Huffington Post
White Students No Longer To Be Majority In School
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- The cheerful sign outside Jane Cornell's summer school classroom in Pennsylvania's wealthiest county says "Welcome" and "Bienvenidos" in polished handwriting.
Inside, giggling grade-schoolers who mostly come from homes where Spanish is the primary language worked on storytelling with a tale about a crocodile going to the dentist. The children and their classroom at the Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center, near both mushroom farms and the borough's bucolic red-brick downtown, are a subtle reminder of America's changing school demographics.
For the first time ever, U.S. public schools are projected this fall to have more minority students than non-Hispanic whites enrolled, a shift largely fueled by growth in the number of Hispanic children.
Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent. But the National Center for Education Statistics says minority students, when added together, will now make up the majority.
About one-quarter of the minority students are Hispanic, 15 percent are black and 5 percent are Asian and Pacific Islanders. Biracial students and Native Americans make up a smaller share of the minority student population.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the changing population a seminal moment in education. "We can't talk about other people's children. These are our children," he said.
The shift creates new academic realities, such as the need for more English language instruction, and cultural ones, meaning changes in school lunch menus to reflect students' tastes.
But it also brings some complex societal questions that often fall to school systems to address, including issues of immigration, poverty, diversity and inequity.
The result, at times, is racial and ethnic tension.
In Louisiana in July, Jefferson Parish public school administrators reached an agreement with the federal government to end an investigation into discrimination against English language learners.
In May, police had to be called to a school in the Streamwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, to help break up a fight between Hispanic and black students after a racially based lunchroom brawl got out of control.
Issues of race and ethnicity in school can also be more subtle.
In the Kennett Consolidated School District, Superintendent Barry Tomasetti described parents who opt to send their kids to private schools across the border in Delaware after touring diverse classrooms. Other families, he said, seek out the district's diverse schools "because they realize it's not a homogenous world out there."
The changes in the district, about an hour southwest outside of Philadelphia, from mostly middle-to-upper class white to about 40 percent Hispanic was driven partly by workers migrating from Mexico and elsewhere to work the mushroom farms.
"We like our diversity," Tomasetti said, even as he acknowledged the cost. He has had to hire English language instructors and translators for parent-teacher conferences. He has cobbled together money to provide summer school for many young English language learners who need extra reading and math support.
"Our expectation is all of our kids succeed," he said.
Private schools nationally are changing as well, seeing a smaller number of white students and a greater number of Hispanic students in their decreasing pool of children.
The new majority-minority status of America's schools mirrors a change that is coming for the nation as a whole. The Census Bureau estimates that the country's population will have more minorities than whites for the first time in 2043, a change due in part to higher birth rates among Hispanics and a stagnating or declining birth rate among blacks, whites and Asians.
Today, slightly more than 1 in 5 kids speaks a language other than English at home.
But even as the population becomes more diverse, schools are becoming more racially segregated, reflecting U.S. housing patterns.
The disparities are evident even in the youngest of black, Hispanic and Native American children, who on average enter kindergarten academically behind their white and Asian peers. They are more likely to attend failing schools and face harsher school discipline.
Later, they have lower standardized test scores, on average, fewer opportunities to take advanced classes and are less likely to graduate.
Duncan said the disparities are unacceptable, and the country needs to make sure all students "have an opportunity to have a world class education, to do extraordinarily well."
As the school-age population has become more nonwhite, it's also become poorer, said Patricia Gandara, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA who serves on President Barack Obama's advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.
Roughly one-quarter of Hispanics and African-Americans live below the poverty line - meaning a family of four has nearly $24,000 in annual income - and some of the poorest of Hispanic children are dealing with the instability of being in the country illegally or with a parent who is, Gandara said.
Focusing on teacher preparation and stronger curriculum is "not going to get us anywhere unless we pay attention to the really basic needs of these children, things like nutrition and health and safety, and the instability of the homes," she said.
This transformation in school goes beyond just educating the children. Educators said parents must feel comfortable and accepted in schools, too.
Lisa Mack, president of the Ohio PTA, encourages local leaders to include grandparents and replace events such as a sock hop with one with a Motown theme that might be more inclusive or to provide opportunities for people of different ethnic groups to bring food to share at monthly meetings.
"I think one thing that's critical is that schools and PTAs and everyone just need to understand that with changing demographics, you can't do things the way you've done them before," she said. "That you have to be creative in reaching out and making them feel welcomed and valued and supported in the school system."
Some schools are seeking teachers to help reflect the demographics of their student population.
Today, fewer than 1 in 5 of the public schools teachers is a minority. "It is an ongoing challenge to try and make our teacher population reflect our student population," said Steve Saunders, spokesman for the Adams County, Colorado, school district outside Denver that has seen a large shift toward having Hispanic students.
The New America Foundation, in a recent report, suggested teacher prep programs have at least one class for teachers on working with non-native English speakers and that education programs embrace bilingualism.
Andrea Giunta, a senior policy analyst at the National Education Association who focuses on teacher recruiting, retention and diversity, said you can't assume that teachers are a good match just because of their background.
"Just because you speak Spanish doesn't mean you speak the same Spanish your students are speaking and communicating with," she said.
This comes as the NEA, the nation's largest union, just elected an all-minority leadership team in July. The new president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, is Latina, and the vice president and secretary-treasurer, Rebecca S. Pringle and Princess Moss, are black.
In Kennett Square, superintendent Tomasetti said Hispanic students in his district are performing at levels, on average, higher than their peers statewide. One recent graduate, Christian Cordova-Pedroza, is attending Harvard University this fall. Cordova-Pedroza is one of five children of a mushroom farmer from Mexico.
Cordova-Pedroza credited the motivation instilled by his parents combined with access to a variety of educational opportunities for his success, including an after-school program that included tutoring and help with college applications. He also was active in a Latino leadership club that helps provides translation services in the community and participated in summer programs at Penn State and Princeton.
"Certainly, I had to work hard to get there, but I feel like at every opportunity that I had a chance of participating in or doing that, I was always like, `Yes, I want to do that,'" he said.
Nearby, at El Nayarit Mexico Grocery Store, owner Jaime Sandoval, a native of Mexico with six kids, said he's been pleased with the education his children have received. His 9-year-old daughter, he said, wants to be a teacher.
"She loves to read and all that stuff," Sandoval said. "She always has good grades on English and she loves it much."
http://clclt.com/charlotte/when-school-administrators-go-rogue/Content?oid=3469288
When school administrators go rogue
You'd think firing a teacher would be hard
By Emiene Wright @emienewrites
Fuck you, Mr. Wilson."
The slight, dark boy shifted from groggy to confrontational in a flash, embarrassed and angry at being awakened, and enjoying the focus of 30 pairs of eyes. A small smile played around his mouth as all chatter ceased.
"Sorry Randall, I don't go that way."
The classroom exploded in laughter and the lesson continued, but later, in a quiet moment, the teacher took the student aside to talk. In a considerate way, he laid down the law: "You respect me and I will respect you, but you can't talk that way in my class."
George Wilson taught history classes for the 2013-14 school year much the same way he had for all of his 13 years in education. The former businessman and coach is a gregarious type, serious about education but quick to crack a joke with — or on — his kids. Students who start off the year hating the teacher who won't let them sleep in class are often the last ones lingering by his door in June, trading last-minute jokes with sheepish grins.
"There's no big, a-ha moment like in TV or the movies, where we hug and suddenly we're best friends. It's a process," he says in an accent still softened by his Roanoke roots. "I'm not from the 'hood, but I don't front about that. I was born in the country. But I have high expectations for them, and I set a high bar."
Wilson, who requested we use a fake name, just completed his third year in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools this June. His co-workers at Whitewater Middle School regularly bounced discipline cases to his room rather than refer kids to the principal's office, and he had continually been rated "proficient" on his evaluations. So he was stunned when he was summoned to the office in mid-April and told his contract was in danger of not being renewed.
TEACHERS IN NORTH CAROLINA are expected to perform near-magical feats: create lesson plans that meet the individual needs of dozens of students in classrooms with no size caps; circle back to re-teach difficult subject matter while still making adequate yearly progress; and at evaluation time, demonstrate proficiency in standards as varied as global awareness and making instruction relevant to students' lives. When a teacher meets most of these expectations, you would think his or her job would be secure. You'd be wrong.
North Carolina educators have next to no job security or protection if targeted by a rogue administrator. Principals can conduct unfair evaluations, go back and add negative comments after a teacher signs off on an observation, or sit on evidence that could save a teacher's job, and a teacher has very little recourse to preserve his or her reputation or livelihood in response. Adding insult to injury, the way in which such terminations are accomplished is nightmarishly murky and convoluted — nowhere spelled out and publicly available — so a teacher caught up in the process is essentially fighting blind. This year, dozens of CMS teachers experienced just such a situation. And the effects on students and schools are immediate and lasting."Consistency in staffing is important to building the culture of a school. The experience families have with their schools builds year over year — it's easier to connect with people you know well," says LaTarzja Henry, assistant superintendent for CMS community partnerships and family engagement. In the past, she recalls, teachers often taught generations of families — siblings and even parents. "That kind of trust is harder to achieve when turnover rates are high."
"CMS is aware of the problem" of principals using observations as weapons, an official close to the administration said. It would appear so. In a mass reshuffling, CMS released a report assigning over 40 principals to new schools for the 2014-15 school year, with nine more positions expected to be filled before fall. Overall, a quarter of CMS schools will have new leadership when school recommences. Last year, 28 new assignments were made during May and June. Coupled with the losses of teachers, this kind of instability could hurt students.
Wilson says his superiors cited shortfalls in his classroom leadership and ethical standards. But when he pressed for details, he couldn't get answers. He couldn't understand the former charge, when up until the final days of school, students were continually dispersed to his class when other teachers were either absent or couldn't control the students' behavior.
"On more than one occasion, I had administrators bring students to my class because they were acting up in other classes. So that was shocking. Also the insult of not being proficient in ethics. You may never see a teacher demonstrate ethics, but if you never see them do anything unethical, you mark it off [on the evaluation]. That one also hurt; it pissed me off."
Though Wilson had objections, his principal pressured him to sign off on the summation, which she said was due to the district that day. She assured him that she would retract it when he brought in evidence, called artifacts, to show he met the standards. He complied within days, rushing to turn them in over the first weekend of spring break. Weeks went by without word. When he asked his principal about pulling back his evaluation, she stalled, promising to call after lunch or stop by his room to discuss the progress. She never did. About a month later, she told him the superintendent had decided not to accept his evidence. Crushed, he requested his artifacts back. But when he stopped by the office to pick them up, the principal "literally pulled them from the same place, behind her desk on the floor in the corner, where I saw her put them when I first gave them to her. From the exact same spot. Right then and there, I felt she had never looked them over." Principal Valarie Williams, who was replaced by Beth Thompson in June, refused to comment for the story.
THE SYSTEM MAY not be set up to fail teachers deliberately, but due to lack of oversight, it often does. Probationary teachers (those with less than four years in CMS) get at minimum one announced observation and two unannounced visits per year. In addition there are walkthroughs, or 5- to 30-minute unofficial observations that are used to build the official report, the timing of which are up to the principal's discretion. Post-observation, teachers huddle with administration to discuss their scores. There are six state standards to meet, and CMS provides an extensive list of indicators for each standard that provides examples of behavior that meets the standard. To pass muster, at least two (preferably three) observers must have checked off each standard.
One observation can't show proficiency, but taken together over the course of the year, they measure growth. Teachers are allowed to add comments to supplement what the observers didn't see. Most educators don't worry too much about the evaluations, as generally CMS principals and other administration are not seeking to hurt their teachers.
CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison has said on several occasions that if an administrator has a teacher who is struggling, the job is to help them improve, not run them out the door. If after a second observation a teacher is still receiving "developing" as opposed to "proficient" marks, they receive a Performance Counseling Letter (PCL) that spells out areas they need to work to improve, and they should begin to meet regularly with the principal or administration to build a goal plan around that. Following the completion of the PCL plan, if a principal remains unconvinced of their progress, the teacher receives a letter stating the recommendation that their contract not be renewed, known as a nonrenewal.
The process looks good on paper, but there is no oversight to ensure the administrators are executing it effectively or fairly: Wilson never received a PCL plan or counseling. His experience went from a blindsiding evaluation to the nonrenewal letter. And while teachers can submit rebuttals, those don't trigger an investigation — they are filed, but there's no assurance that they will be seen by higher-ups.
"I sent my letters to the correct people and got back form letters; I tried to talk to HR and got Anthony Ratliff, a liaison," Wilson says. "Ratliff is a good guy, but he's a bridge, not a decision maker. But for someone to make the change or get you into a meeting or a hearing, you can't talk to them. I honestly believe no one read my objections. I thought I would have the chance to tell my story, or someone would at least look at my case individually, but I couldn't talk to anyone." Ratliff, who works in human resources at CMS, refused to comment for the story, and as of press time his boss, executive director of CMS Employee Support Services Avery Mitchell, had not returned calls.
WILSON FACED a coyote ugly choice: he could resign, foregoing unemployment assistance, and hunt for another job, or try to fight the recommendation for nonrenewal and run the risk of losing. A nonrenewal on a teacher's record is a career-ending scarlet letter: most school districts won't even consider hiring a teacher with that mark.
Teachers fighting a nonrenewal must petition the CMS Human Resources chief Terri Cockerham for a board hearing, comprised of three district-selected administrators, but there's no guarantee they will be granted, let alone win, one. Charles Smith, president of the Charlotte-area chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators, put it this way: "So do I take the sword in the right hand and stab myself, or take the sword in my left hand and stab myself? In most cases we try to convince our teachers to fight it, but if you don't have your ducks in a row, you don't have a great opportunity to win your appeal before the committee."
Smith is that rare North Carolinian who grew up in a union house; his dad, a sheet-metal mechanic, joined a collective bargaining organization, and his brother is a union member. He acknowledges the reservations many in the state have about unions, but insists there's strength in numbers, ticking off benefits like the 40-hour work week, minimum wage, women's protections and equal pay for equal work, all results of hard-won union battles that the general public now enjoys.
"My great-grandmother worked in a cotton mill from age 10 or 12, making 7 or 8 cents an hour," he says. "One unified voice is much more powerful than a thousand individual ones." Smith says teachers often wait until trouble comes to turn to the association, when the group could offer more help if it was aware of issues from the beginning. In states with strong teacher unions, such as Michigan, teachers have free legal support when taking on administration; are guaranteed duty-free lunches (where they can eat without being forced to watch classes); and are paid overtime for putting in extra hours. By contrast, North Carolina administrators can require teachers to come in early, leave late and attend extracurricular activities with no compensation; commandeer teacher planning periods for meetings (so teachers spend more unpaid time at home on lesson plans); and refuse sick days, docking teachers $50 per day instead. All this for the privilege of ranking 46th in the nation in teacher earnings.The North Carolina Association of Educators recently won several legal battles in the General Assembly, including one fighting the repeal of teacher tenure, at least for those who have already earned it. But this isn't tenure in the traditional sense, such as a college professor or skilled tradesman might have, which would insulate someone from layoffs and staff cuts. For North Carolina schools, tenure simply means that teachers who have worked more than four years in a district would be guaranteed a board hearing before three schools officials if their job is in jeopardy. It grants them career status and due process, but not actual protection against getting fired.
Wilson, who as a three-year teacher was ineligible for tenure, decided to fight the nonrenewal. Wilson put together two heart-felt letters explaining why he felt he deserved a hearing, but received vague form letters with no confirmation that his request was approved, and no time line for when he could expect to hear anything definite.
For the last five years, the number of teachers leaving the district has nearly doubled, from 449 in 2009-10 to 858 as of April 2014, out of 8,309 in CMS altogether. According to figures provided by the district, not counting the roughly 30 percent of those separations that were linked to the low pay and the 5.59 percent who retired, a whopping 65 percent left or were driven from the district. At Whitewater Middle School, 28 of 44 teachers will not be returning for the 2014-15 school year. The issue hit home personally for this writer: my husband, a math teacher at Whitewater, was one of the ones forced out of the classroom. It was in attempting to navigate the subsequent maze of appeals, timelines and evidence that I discovered there is no clear and accessible guide to direct teachers fighting for their jobs.
"UniServ directors help teachers navigate the process," Smith says, referencing people who act as go-betweens for the local and state affiliates of the National Education Association, including the NCAE. "But I'm not going to tell you that CMS or any school district makes it easy to do — and this is just my personal opinion — but it's so you will resign and not collect unemployment."
AFTER RECEIVING a form letter from Superintendent Morrison stating that the recommendation for nonrenewal would stand, Wilson started job searching.
"Looking at applications for other teaching positions, that's one of the questions they ask: 'Were you nonrenewed?' I thought I had to resign to look more viable." So at 5:59 p.m. on the deadline day for teacher resignations, he buckled.
It's hard to say that wasn't the wisest action. Even if Wilson had been granted a hearing, which is questionable, the board may have opted to simply review the paperwork and not have him present.
"In North Carolina, they do not give [all] teachers the right to a hearing," says Ann McColl, general counsel for NCAE statewide. "That's a big deal, because that's when you have the chance to say 'That's not fair.' North Carolina does not provide that, or a means of disputing evaluations, so these evaluations are kind of a bright line. All we're looking for is the basic notion of fairness. We know there are problems with the implementation of evaluations."
What to do if you think you may face nonrenewal
Find a copy of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards at ncpublicschools.org and request from the district CMS' standards, called the CMS Indicator.
Keep evidence, such as professional development certificates, throughout your career to show you're meeting standards.
If you get an evaluation you don't feel is fair, write a rebuttal each time and submit it to your administrator.
If you get a PCL, do what's on there and document that you've done it. Create a paper trail.
If the performance counseling meetings, which should follow a PCL, become contentious, file a grievance with HR. They won't change a rating on a summative unless they see a pattern at the school where it's happening to more than one teacher, or if it's such an egregious attack on a teacher that it's crystal clear. But when you have documentation, it's hard to refute
The bold part comes to mind every time someone gets on tv and talks like all teachers' unions are the same and all of them have these great job protections.
When school administrators go rogue
You'd think firing a teacher would be hard
By Emiene Wright @emienewrites
Fuck you, Mr. Wilson."
The slight, dark boy shifted from groggy to confrontational in a flash, embarrassed and angry at being awakened, and enjoying the focus of 30 pairs of eyes. A small smile played around his mouth as all chatter ceased.
"Sorry Randall, I don't go that way."
The classroom exploded in laughter and the lesson continued, but later, in a quiet moment, the teacher took the student aside to talk. In a considerate way, he laid down the law: "You respect me and I will respect you, but you can't talk that way in my class."
George Wilson taught history classes for the 2013-14 school year much the same way he had for all of his 13 years in education. The former businessman and coach is a gregarious type, serious about education but quick to crack a joke with — or on — his kids. Students who start off the year hating the teacher who won't let them sleep in class are often the last ones lingering by his door in June, trading last-minute jokes with sheepish grins.
"There's no big, a-ha moment like in TV or the movies, where we hug and suddenly we're best friends. It's a process," he says in an accent still softened by his Roanoke roots. "I'm not from the 'hood, but I don't front about that. I was born in the country. But I have high expectations for them, and I set a high bar."
Wilson, who requested we use a fake name, just completed his third year in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools this June. His co-workers at Whitewater Middle School regularly bounced discipline cases to his room rather than refer kids to the principal's office, and he had continually been rated "proficient" on his evaluations. So he was stunned when he was summoned to the office in mid-April and told his contract was in danger of not being renewed.
TEACHERS IN NORTH CAROLINA are expected to perform near-magical feats: create lesson plans that meet the individual needs of dozens of students in classrooms with no size caps; circle back to re-teach difficult subject matter while still making adequate yearly progress; and at evaluation time, demonstrate proficiency in standards as varied as global awareness and making instruction relevant to students' lives. When a teacher meets most of these expectations, you would think his or her job would be secure. You'd be wrong.
North Carolina educators have next to no job security or protection if targeted by a rogue administrator. Principals can conduct unfair evaluations, go back and add negative comments after a teacher signs off on an observation, or sit on evidence that could save a teacher's job, and a teacher has very little recourse to preserve his or her reputation or livelihood in response. Adding insult to injury, the way in which such terminations are accomplished is nightmarishly murky and convoluted — nowhere spelled out and publicly available — so a teacher caught up in the process is essentially fighting blind. This year, dozens of CMS teachers experienced just such a situation. And the effects on students and schools are immediate and lasting."Consistency in staffing is important to building the culture of a school. The experience families have with their schools builds year over year — it's easier to connect with people you know well," says LaTarzja Henry, assistant superintendent for CMS community partnerships and family engagement. In the past, she recalls, teachers often taught generations of families — siblings and even parents. "That kind of trust is harder to achieve when turnover rates are high."
"CMS is aware of the problem" of principals using observations as weapons, an official close to the administration said. It would appear so. In a mass reshuffling, CMS released a report assigning over 40 principals to new schools for the 2014-15 school year, with nine more positions expected to be filled before fall. Overall, a quarter of CMS schools will have new leadership when school recommences. Last year, 28 new assignments were made during May and June. Coupled with the losses of teachers, this kind of instability could hurt students.
Wilson says his superiors cited shortfalls in his classroom leadership and ethical standards. But when he pressed for details, he couldn't get answers. He couldn't understand the former charge, when up until the final days of school, students were continually dispersed to his class when other teachers were either absent or couldn't control the students' behavior.
"On more than one occasion, I had administrators bring students to my class because they were acting up in other classes. So that was shocking. Also the insult of not being proficient in ethics. You may never see a teacher demonstrate ethics, but if you never see them do anything unethical, you mark it off [on the evaluation]. That one also hurt; it pissed me off."
Though Wilson had objections, his principal pressured him to sign off on the summation, which she said was due to the district that day. She assured him that she would retract it when he brought in evidence, called artifacts, to show he met the standards. He complied within days, rushing to turn them in over the first weekend of spring break. Weeks went by without word. When he asked his principal about pulling back his evaluation, she stalled, promising to call after lunch or stop by his room to discuss the progress. She never did. About a month later, she told him the superintendent had decided not to accept his evidence. Crushed, he requested his artifacts back. But when he stopped by the office to pick them up, the principal "literally pulled them from the same place, behind her desk on the floor in the corner, where I saw her put them when I first gave them to her. From the exact same spot. Right then and there, I felt she had never looked them over." Principal Valarie Williams, who was replaced by Beth Thompson in June, refused to comment for the story.
THE SYSTEM MAY not be set up to fail teachers deliberately, but due to lack of oversight, it often does. Probationary teachers (those with less than four years in CMS) get at minimum one announced observation and two unannounced visits per year. In addition there are walkthroughs, or 5- to 30-minute unofficial observations that are used to build the official report, the timing of which are up to the principal's discretion. Post-observation, teachers huddle with administration to discuss their scores. There are six state standards to meet, and CMS provides an extensive list of indicators for each standard that provides examples of behavior that meets the standard. To pass muster, at least two (preferably three) observers must have checked off each standard.
One observation can't show proficiency, but taken together over the course of the year, they measure growth. Teachers are allowed to add comments to supplement what the observers didn't see. Most educators don't worry too much about the evaluations, as generally CMS principals and other administration are not seeking to hurt their teachers.
CMS Superintendent Heath Morrison has said on several occasions that if an administrator has a teacher who is struggling, the job is to help them improve, not run them out the door. If after a second observation a teacher is still receiving "developing" as opposed to "proficient" marks, they receive a Performance Counseling Letter (PCL) that spells out areas they need to work to improve, and they should begin to meet regularly with the principal or administration to build a goal plan around that. Following the completion of the PCL plan, if a principal remains unconvinced of their progress, the teacher receives a letter stating the recommendation that their contract not be renewed, known as a nonrenewal.
The process looks good on paper, but there is no oversight to ensure the administrators are executing it effectively or fairly: Wilson never received a PCL plan or counseling. His experience went from a blindsiding evaluation to the nonrenewal letter. And while teachers can submit rebuttals, those don't trigger an investigation — they are filed, but there's no assurance that they will be seen by higher-ups.
"I sent my letters to the correct people and got back form letters; I tried to talk to HR and got Anthony Ratliff, a liaison," Wilson says. "Ratliff is a good guy, but he's a bridge, not a decision maker. But for someone to make the change or get you into a meeting or a hearing, you can't talk to them. I honestly believe no one read my objections. I thought I would have the chance to tell my story, or someone would at least look at my case individually, but I couldn't talk to anyone." Ratliff, who works in human resources at CMS, refused to comment for the story, and as of press time his boss, executive director of CMS Employee Support Services Avery Mitchell, had not returned calls.
WILSON FACED a coyote ugly choice: he could resign, foregoing unemployment assistance, and hunt for another job, or try to fight the recommendation for nonrenewal and run the risk of losing. A nonrenewal on a teacher's record is a career-ending scarlet letter: most school districts won't even consider hiring a teacher with that mark.
Teachers fighting a nonrenewal must petition the CMS Human Resources chief Terri Cockerham for a board hearing, comprised of three district-selected administrators, but there's no guarantee they will be granted, let alone win, one. Charles Smith, president of the Charlotte-area chapter of the North Carolina Association of Educators, put it this way: "So do I take the sword in the right hand and stab myself, or take the sword in my left hand and stab myself? In most cases we try to convince our teachers to fight it, but if you don't have your ducks in a row, you don't have a great opportunity to win your appeal before the committee."
Smith is that rare North Carolinian who grew up in a union house; his dad, a sheet-metal mechanic, joined a collective bargaining organization, and his brother is a union member. He acknowledges the reservations many in the state have about unions, but insists there's strength in numbers, ticking off benefits like the 40-hour work week, minimum wage, women's protections and equal pay for equal work, all results of hard-won union battles that the general public now enjoys.
"My great-grandmother worked in a cotton mill from age 10 or 12, making 7 or 8 cents an hour," he says. "One unified voice is much more powerful than a thousand individual ones." Smith says teachers often wait until trouble comes to turn to the association, when the group could offer more help if it was aware of issues from the beginning. In states with strong teacher unions, such as Michigan, teachers have free legal support when taking on administration; are guaranteed duty-free lunches (where they can eat without being forced to watch classes); and are paid overtime for putting in extra hours. By contrast, North Carolina administrators can require teachers to come in early, leave late and attend extracurricular activities with no compensation; commandeer teacher planning periods for meetings (so teachers spend more unpaid time at home on lesson plans); and refuse sick days, docking teachers $50 per day instead. All this for the privilege of ranking 46th in the nation in teacher earnings.The North Carolina Association of Educators recently won several legal battles in the General Assembly, including one fighting the repeal of teacher tenure, at least for those who have already earned it. But this isn't tenure in the traditional sense, such as a college professor or skilled tradesman might have, which would insulate someone from layoffs and staff cuts. For North Carolina schools, tenure simply means that teachers who have worked more than four years in a district would be guaranteed a board hearing before three schools officials if their job is in jeopardy. It grants them career status and due process, but not actual protection against getting fired.
Wilson, who as a three-year teacher was ineligible for tenure, decided to fight the nonrenewal. Wilson put together two heart-felt letters explaining why he felt he deserved a hearing, but received vague form letters with no confirmation that his request was approved, and no time line for when he could expect to hear anything definite.
For the last five years, the number of teachers leaving the district has nearly doubled, from 449 in 2009-10 to 858 as of April 2014, out of 8,309 in CMS altogether. According to figures provided by the district, not counting the roughly 30 percent of those separations that were linked to the low pay and the 5.59 percent who retired, a whopping 65 percent left or were driven from the district. At Whitewater Middle School, 28 of 44 teachers will not be returning for the 2014-15 school year. The issue hit home personally for this writer: my husband, a math teacher at Whitewater, was one of the ones forced out of the classroom. It was in attempting to navigate the subsequent maze of appeals, timelines and evidence that I discovered there is no clear and accessible guide to direct teachers fighting for their jobs.
"UniServ directors help teachers navigate the process," Smith says, referencing people who act as go-betweens for the local and state affiliates of the National Education Association, including the NCAE. "But I'm not going to tell you that CMS or any school district makes it easy to do — and this is just my personal opinion — but it's so you will resign and not collect unemployment."
AFTER RECEIVING a form letter from Superintendent Morrison stating that the recommendation for nonrenewal would stand, Wilson started job searching.
"Looking at applications for other teaching positions, that's one of the questions they ask: 'Were you nonrenewed?' I thought I had to resign to look more viable." So at 5:59 p.m. on the deadline day for teacher resignations, he buckled.
It's hard to say that wasn't the wisest action. Even if Wilson had been granted a hearing, which is questionable, the board may have opted to simply review the paperwork and not have him present.
"In North Carolina, they do not give [all] teachers the right to a hearing," says Ann McColl, general counsel for NCAE statewide. "That's a big deal, because that's when you have the chance to say 'That's not fair.' North Carolina does not provide that, or a means of disputing evaluations, so these evaluations are kind of a bright line. All we're looking for is the basic notion of fairness. We know there are problems with the implementation of evaluations."
What to do if you think you may face nonrenewal
Find a copy of the North Carolina Professional Teaching Standards at ncpublicschools.org and request from the district CMS' standards, called the CMS Indicator.
Keep evidence, such as professional development certificates, throughout your career to show you're meeting standards.
If you get an evaluation you don't feel is fair, write a rebuttal each time and submit it to your administrator.
If you get a PCL, do what's on there and document that you've done it. Create a paper trail.
If the performance counseling meetings, which should follow a PCL, become contentious, file a grievance with HR. They won't change a rating on a summative unless they see a pattern at the school where it's happening to more than one teacher, or if it's such an egregious attack on a teacher that it's crystal clear. But when you have documentation, it's hard to refute
The bold part comes to mind every time someone gets on tv and talks like all teachers' unions are the same and all of them have these great job protections.
As someone who knows THIS particular system well, I find a couple of faults with the story - yes, unfortunately, some principals run their schools as "mini-communist" sanctuaries, making the law their way or the highway. There is a new evaluation tool out now that will do a better job of holding EVERYONE, when it comes to their evaluations, accountable. I personally, at the state level, worked on my own evaluation/appraisal tool and I can't say others get the opportunity to work on and create the actual document that will be used to evaluate my job performance.
I do wish the state of NC did have unions, and that is a MAJOR, MAJOR fault with it - but it's been this way for a while. Many teachers who migrate here from union states know this BEFORE they come to NC, and no one holds a gun to their head to tell them to come down here. But, it's not the draw of a "salary" that lures people to NC - it's the climate, cost of living and opportunity for their spouses in banking/IT industry, and other populous ones here.
Whitewater Middle is a hot ass mess of a school, and it's known, across the district, working in that school is nailing your own coffin. It's unfortunate not all schools are one-and-the-same, but the shift in principals and assistant principals are a way to change the depressing school climates created by many principals and to regain trust that has been lost between principals and staff. Previous to Morrison, you had a hungry aristocrat in Dr. Peter Gorman that encouraged principals to rule with an iron hand and "take no shit" from no one. There is a completely different mindset coming from the top down, now...I'm hopeful it'll be better for the district - if not for my own children, but the staff and students who currently are in school.
In reference to the previous post...
As someone who knows THIS particular system well, I find a couple of faults with the story - yes, unfortunately, some principals run their schools as "mini-communist" sanctuaries, making the law their way or the highway. There is a new evaluation tool out now that will do a better job of holding EVERYONE, when it comes to their evaluations, accountable. I personally, at the state level, worked on my own evaluation/appraisal tool and I can't say others get the opportunity to work on and create the actual document that will be used to evaluate my job performance.
I do wish the state of NC did have unions, and that is a MAJOR, MAJOR fault with it - but it's been this way for a while. Many teachers who migrate here from union states know this BEFORE they come to NC, and no one holds a gun to their head to tell them to come down here. But, it's not the draw of a "salary" that lures people to NC - it's the climate, cost of living and opportunity for their spouses in banking/IT industry, and other populous ones here.
Whitewater Middle is a hot ass mess of a school, and it's known, across the district, working in that school is nailing your own coffin. It's unfortunate not all schools are one-and-the-same, but the shift in principals and assistant principals are a way to change the depressing school climates created by many principals and to regain trust that has been lost between principals and staff. Previous to Morrison, you had a hungry aristocrat in Dr. Peter Gorman that encouraged principals to rule with an iron hand and "take no shit" from no one. There is a completely different mindset coming from the top down, now...I'm hopeful it'll be better for the district - if not for my own children, but the staff and students who currently are in school.
As someone who knows THIS particular system well, I find a couple of faults with the story - yes, unfortunately, some principals run their schools as "mini-communist" sanctuaries, making the law their way or the highway. There is a new evaluation tool out now that will do a better job of holding EVERYONE, when it comes to their evaluations, accountable. I personally, at the state level, worked on my own evaluation/appraisal tool and I can't say others get the opportunity to work on and create the actual document that will be used to evaluate my job performance.
I do wish the state of NC did have unions, and that is a MAJOR, MAJOR fault with it - but it's been this way for a while. Many teachers who migrate here from union states know this BEFORE they come to NC, and no one holds a gun to their head to tell them to come down here. But, it's not the draw of a "salary" that lures people to NC - it's the climate, cost of living and opportunity for their spouses in banking/IT industry, and other populous ones here.
Whitewater Middle is a hot ass mess of a school, and it's known, across the district, working in that school is nailing your own coffin. It's unfortunate not all schools are one-and-the-same, but the shift in principals and assistant principals are a way to change the depressing school climates created by many principals and to regain trust that has been lost between principals and staff. Previous to Morrison, you had a hungry aristocrat in Dr. Peter Gorman that encouraged principals to rule with an iron hand and "take no shit" from no one. There is a completely different mindset coming from the top down, now...I'm hopeful it'll be better for the district - if not for my own children, but the staff and students who currently are in school.
Peace. Peace to all.
I have lived 36 yrs on Terra.
For you whom are ignorant, google Terra, 23.4°
This woman is not just amazing, she is the greatest black woman who walks on earth in our era.
She knows what she's speaking. Period.
If you do not believe or understand.
Please check yourself into, " Hotel I do not Know what the fuck I'm talking about. "
I heard they have multiple vacancy.
I have lived 36 yrs on Terra.
For you whom are ignorant, google Terra, 23.4°
This woman is not just amazing, she is the greatest black woman who walks on earth in our era.
She knows what she's speaking. Period.
If you do not believe or understand.
Please check yourself into, " Hotel I do not Know what the fuck I'm talking about. "
I heard they have multiple vacancy.
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