Parents and teachers in Concord, Massachusetts, are outraged over the firing of the teachers’ union leader, an 18-year teacher of third grade, allegedly for ineffectiveness.
“The catalyst for the protest was the decision by Thoreau Elementary School Principal Kelly Clough not to renew the contract of veteran third grade teacher and Concord Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy.
“Barbara Lehn has been a teacher with Concord’s school system for 25 years. She said she has known Najimy since she was hired 18 years ago. She said the idea that Najimy could have been found deficient in every single area of her evaluation as suspect and “laughable.”
“The evaluation system that exists has been misused and abused,” Lehn said. “It’s not because of her teaching, but because she is president of the Concord Teachers Association. … Merrie has been an exemplary teacher.”
Did it ever occur to any of the proponents of the new teacher evaluations that they could be used arbitrarily and capriciously?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Anyone who has ever worked in a “merit” system knows that this is what it really means — favoritism, nepotism, oppression, and retribution.
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Jon Awbrey: based on my experience at a fairly wide variety of jobs in different parts of the USA, a simple statement of fact.
And just who “rises to the top” in such situations? In other words, not just becomes favored by management but becomes part of management? Too often those who are least capable of doing their jobs in a competent, effective and sustainable way. A phrase that illustrates one characteristic of those folks is that they are experts at “kissing up and kicking down.”
And then they wonder why they don’t have the full confidence and support of those ‘under’ them. Go figure…
Thank you for posting.
🙂
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AMEN…favoritism, nepotism, oppression, and retribuion also exists in professional organizations as well, not just in schools.
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Any teacher involved with unions will be targeted.
I am also wondering about the upcoming mayoral primary. Why would Tish support Thompson unless he is on board with all the reforms???
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Seems to
me it is time to walk out in protest.
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ALL teachers across this nation should not go to school. What mayhem that will cause. Businesses will be upset, because students will “hang out” at convenience stores, malls, on street corners, etc. Will this country put ALL the students in jail? Ooops forgot the school to jail pipeline is well and alive as well as FOR PROFIT jails.
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It’s likely happening at my school. Two of the 6 union leaders at my charter school network were fired last week, allegedly for ineffective teaching (IDK how effective or not their teaching is, but it certainly seems like a weird coincidence). At another Chicago charter school currently in negotiations, one member of the bargaining team was fired while another was led out of the building by police for allegedly leaving her students alone for a couple minutes.
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Any media coverage? Links?
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Brian, Is this charter school network UNO?! If so, get it in the papers!!! (But have somebody do it anonymously–you’ld be fired, as well. In fact, I hope you didn’t post here using your real name, because SOMEBODY on the other side is reading Diane’s blog!) UNO’s already under scrutiny, so the Sun Times reporter (Dan Milhalopoulos) would eat it up!!
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A school named after Thoreau did that? Really?
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Irony, thy name is Kelly Clough.
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This is Merrie Najimy. It is an honor that my story has made it to the Blog of Diane Ravitch. Later, I will post my thoughts about what this struggle means to teachers, teachers’ unions, parents, students and the life of public education and public sector unions.
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Merrie Najimy: “People don’t follow titles, they follow courage” [William Wells Brown, African-American abolitionist, 1814-1884]
Thank you for leading with courage.
🙂
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Good luck. Never give in.
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From the Thoreau School website:
Our school was named for Henry David Thoreau, who was a naturalist, a writer, and a teacher. He was born in 1817 and died from tuberculosis at the age of 45 in 1862. He wrote:
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to this music he hears, however measured or far away.
At Thoreau School, we value and appreciate many different drummers.
http://thoreau.colonial.net/AboutThoreau
Really.
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I teach at Concord Middle School in Concord, MA. Earlier in my Concord career, I had opportunity to supervise the support staff in the Thoreau School. At that time, Concord Schools valued and promoted and supported an effective “special education inclusion model.” I and the support staff welcomed the opportunity to include children with special needs in Merrie Najimy’s classroom. Merrie was and continues to be is an exceptional teacher with the expertise and experience to teach all children- well. Her classroom was and is dynamic, inclusive, vibrant, and welcoming. So, why would the administration now rate her as unsatisfactory? It is not her teaching that is unsatisfactory to the administration. Merrie Najimy is undesirable to an educational administration that practices top down and exclusionary leadership.
Merrie Najimy, Concord Public Schools’ union president, supports Concord’s effective and promising school system with her strong union leadership and her demands for collaborative and transparent interactions with the administration.
Finally, I love teaching. I love teaching in Concord- highly qualified teachers, extremely supportive parents, and exceptionally kind and engaged students. Although I am an energetic and youthful 60+ “with miles to go before I sleep,” I retire from Concord Public Schools on June 30, 2013. I will teach elsewhere for many years.
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It seems ironic, doesn’t it.
I do want the world to know, though, that the Thoreau School faculty has a reputation of being dissenters. Because we speak up for what is best for children and teachers and stand up for what we believe in, we are regularly and purposely mischaracterized as the problem child and complainers. With pride, we follow in the footsteps of our namesake, Henry David Thoreau. I feel privileged to be in this struggle with my colleagues.
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Those are American values. It’s sad that you guys are being made to be villains.
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Concord actually isn’t using the new DESE evaluation system yet. Teachers on the Evaluation Committee who are familiar with the new system tell me that what has happened to Merrie wouldn’t be possible with the new system.
It is not Merrie Najimy, a fine teacher, who is being evaluated. Rather, it is Merrie Najimy, the strong and effective President of the Concord Teachers Association, who is being unfairly harassed by the misuse of our evaluation policies and procedures.
Barbara Lehn
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In Boston they ARE using the new evaluation system and whoever told you this would not happen under it is naive at best. I have been teaching for 26 years and as the editor of the Boston Union Teacher I am frequently writing critiques of the district. Under the new evaluation system I was observed ONCE so far this year…for 10 minutes! 2 observations were made. One that I helped all students during the class. And 2 that I had science posters up in my class. One prescription was also included saying that I need to differentiate my instruction for English Language Learners. When the evaluator came into my classroom I gave her the handouts that I had given the students over 2 days (They were working on creating a presentation to be given the next day). One of the handouts was a list of sentence frames students could use during their presentation. This was put together specifically as an aid to help English Language Learners!!!
Under ANY evaluation system administrators can make arbitrary comments that then follow the teacher around. Sometimes the comments are right, sometimes they are wrong, and sometimes they are vindictive. ALL evaluations are subjective. What the legislature did in Massachusetts in crafting this new evaluation system was to change the burden of proof from “just” cause to “good” cause. The reason…to make it easier to fire any teacher. The goal…make it riskier for strong teachers to speak out against injustice.
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“Did it ever occur to any of the proponents of the new teacher evaluations that they could be used arbitrarily and capriciously?” -DR
Diane, I’m guessing that you are being facetious here. That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. They have been crying for years about how “impossible” it is to remove experiences, expensive, outspoken teachers who don’t put up with the BS that the newbies and alternative certs do. They found a way and boy, are they going to over reach in their wielding of this new power. They always, always do.
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If they want to get you, they will. I have spoken out for what I believe and kept my mouth shut. I have seen some pretty blatant examples of kissing up; I hate to say it, but it seemed to work. Not being tenured made it easier to get rid of a lot of us, but I saw veteran teachers “encouraged” to leave as well. Evaluations make a very effective weapon.
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Divide and conquer, indeed. Waiting for the details of the lawsuit.
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P.S. more bad news?
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2013/05/nlrb-needs-our-help
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Please sign and share this petition in support of Merrie.
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/no-retaliation-for-union
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Diane Ravitch: How much time have you spent in Merrie Najimy’s classroom? How many walkthroughs and full observations have YOU done?? You are simply taking a story and using it to push your agenda against teacher evaluation. You say: “Did it ever occur to any of the proponents of the new teacher evaluations that they could be used arbitrarily and capriciously?” Are you aware that Concord Public Schools is NOT currently using the new Massachusetts teacher evaluation system? Ms. Najimy was evaluated under the system that has been in place for many years.
Next time, perhaps, you might want to do something called RESEARCH!
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Oh, how rude. Would you speak to Dr. Ravitch to her face the same way you addressed her here?
I suppose you are next going to say that YOU have spent time in Merrie Najimy’s classroom and YOU have “done” walkthroughs and full observations of her teaching. If so, how is it possible that she was dismissed despite all other reports of her being an exceptional teacher? Can you explain it? Can you prove that her dismissal had nothing to do with her position of leadership in the union?
Here is one comment from someone who obviously was in her classroom:
“I teach at Concord Middle School in Concord, MA. Earlier in my Concord career, I had opportunity to supervise the support staff in the Thoreau School. At that time, Concord Schools valued and promoted and supported an effective “special education inclusion model.” I and the support staff welcomed the opportunity to include children with special needs in Merrie Najimy’s classroom. Merrie was and continues to be is an exceptional teacher with the expertise and experience to teach all children- well. Her classroom was and is dynamic, inclusive, vibrant, and welcoming. So, why would the administration now rate her as unsatisfactory? It is not her teaching that is unsatisfactory to the administration. Merrie Najimy is undesirable to an educational administration that practices top down and exclusionary leadership.
Merrie Najimy, Concord Public Schools’ union president, supports Concord’s effective and promising school system with her strong union leadership and her demands for collaborative and transparent interactions with the administration.”
Regardless of the evaluative tool–it’s in the way that you use it (to quote the song). So what say YOU of her dismissal, oh splitter-of-hairs?
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I have not seen Merrie’s evaluations, however ANYONE can get a few teachers and parents to say you are wonderful. Are these people trained evaluators? I think not.
YES — I would certainly speak with Diane Ravitch face to face and tell her the same thing. She’s a big girl — and I don’t think she needs an overemotional Concord Middle School teacher defending her!
Now — given the fact that I am in education (for over 22 years) and have work to do — I am going to get to it. I would suggest you do the same.
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Oh, I’m sorry for my late reply–just got back from a 12-hour day at my school, so no, I do not require you or anyone to tell me to “get to work.”
I’m trying to glean what exactly YOUR agenda is. Is it that you don’t care for Merrie, or are you just playing the part of angry old windbag who likes conflict? I see nothing in your post that refutes the possibility that she was dismissed for anything other than her position as union president? Where is YOUR research on the topic?
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Interesting. I don’t think anyone here has an agenda that says teachers should not be evaluated. So let’s knock down that straw man immediately. What has been argued here is that this evaluation was motivated politically because Merrie has been a strong advocate for the rights of teachers. And while I’ve never been in Merrie’s classroom I know her as a person and as a lifelong activist for social justice. In addition I know the principal at this school was graded harshly by the teachers at that school and in addition was not highly regarded in the Lowell school district…where she was previously. And Mr. Morris…if you think that evaluations in education are somehow ALWAYS objective because administrators are trained evaluators…well…we obviously have observed very different administrators.
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I find that I am in agreement with Mr. Miller.
Given what I know about the teacher evaluation process in public schools, Ms. Najimy would have had a number of years to learn what her principal required regarding her pedagogy. During this time, she received feedback on her performance. I am assuming that the observations were announced, thus providing her with time to prepare the lesson to be observed. In addition, she also had the right to react to the feedback that she was given after the lesson, either through discussion with the principal or in writing. Further, she had the right to contest the findings and to seek redress through the union grievance process if she thought judgments of her supervisor were unfair. Following this process has the potential to reach a mutually agreed upon standard of performance between a teacher and her principal.
Failure to reach this kind of agreement would of necessity led to the creation of an improvement plan. This would be designed by the principal in collaboration with colleagues from central administration. In this case, I would assume the plan would have input from a well-respected consultant. Again, it is my understanding that there would be opportunity to dispute the plan, but after discussion, the principal’s determination is the decisive factor.
Time would be allowed for improvement. Failure to meet the standards contained in the plan can lead to a recommendation for dismissal, but there is ample time and opportunity provided to the educator to make the suggested improvements.
In light of this extensive process, it would seem disingenuous for a person who in her role of union president to claim that a recommendation for her dismissal was arbitrary and capricious. From what I have read on this blog, Ms. Najimy is an able leader who has the ability to inspire the loyalty of her union constituents. However, few of her supporters have stated that they are familiar with her pedagogy. Despite the numerous testimonials on her behalf, based on the process above which I am sure was followed by the principal, and prescribed by Ms. Najimy’s own union, I would question Ms. Najimy’s contention that the recommendation for her dismissal was based on her union activities, not her pedagogy.
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