I have published several posts (see here, here, and here) about Memphis, where a “Transition Planning Committee” devised a plan to merge the Memphis public schools and the Shelby County Schools. The planning was based on work by the Boston Consulting Group; the director of the TPC is the executive director of Stand for Children in Memphis. The plan proposes to shift many children out of the Memphis public schools and into new charter schools, so that charter enrollment will increase from 4% of Memphis students to 19% by 2016. The plan also involves a transfer of $212 million from the public schools to charter schools.
I have received letters from Stand for Children and from both supporters and opponents of the plan. Today I heard from Memphis teachers:
| I teach in one of the grades K-3 in Memphis. In addition to the injustice of using test scores at all in making personnel decisions, K-3 teachers are evaluated based on the test scores of students they have never taught.Every teacher in Tennessee who teaches K-3 and every art, music, P.E. teacher, and librarian, instead of using their students’ value-added scores for half of their evaluation (because there aren’t any), is assigned their school’s value-added score for half of their evaluation.This is clearly designed to make the bad schools worse. Already, nearly all of the K-3 teachers at my failing school have transferred to other schools with better school-wide value-added scores. I don’t yet know who the principal has hired to replace them, but I’m guessing many will be TFA types (we also have a TFA-style program here called Memphis Teaching Fellows, run by The New Teacher Project), most of whom will be ineffective their first year.This legislation is designed to make the bad schools worse, so that they can be closed and turned into charters.The same teacher wrote this comment:In the meeting the Transition Planning Commission (TPC) had with teachers, the district strongly encouraged all teachers to go in place of faculty meeting. I didn’t go because I knew it would be a waste of time, but my colleagues went. According to them, it was a waste of time. They had a thousand teachers in the auditorium of a high school and no organization for the meeting. Teachers were not given an opportunity to speak the the group as a whole. Instead, they broke off into discussion groups comprised of a large number of teachers and one staff member. Teachers’ suggestions in these groups were written down and supposedly submitted to the TPC. The teachers I spoke to doubted anyone would read their suggestions. Why couldn’t they just ask teachers to email these suggestions, instead of wasting enormous amounts of time at the end of a long school day to organize a thousand teachers into discussion groups? |
This comes from another Memphis teacher:
| Let’s clear up the confusion around teacher input and the transition plan. There are NO current teachers on the Transition Planning Commission. The TPC appointed NO current teachers to the work groups who prepared the plan. The only input the TPC got from actual teachers was what they allowed them to say at community “listening tours”. These tours were usually about two hours long and held in various parts of the community. I believe there were six of these events. They were open to the public and teachers could attend and speak. The TPC members present answered virtually no questions as these were listening events. I do not call this teacher input. Additionally the teacher unions were intentionally left out of the discussions and were told their input was not needed even though the two unions involved represent over 7000 teachers. Teachers have no idea what is really in this plan. |
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Diane Ravitch's blog 
The tactic of breaking meeting attendees into small groups with one staff member per group who runs the group discussion and writes the comments on chart paper is commonly used at the system level in the county where my children attend. They did it for controversial redistricting plans, and when they were acting as if they cared about teacher and parent input regarding conversion to a charter system. The tactic drives me crazy because it is a way to control the crowd, a way to keep the masses at bay. It avoids the opportunity for the “whole” of who cares enough to show up to HEAR from each other and build a discussion that has the potential to become loud enough to BE HEARD. It was so patronizing to be led in these small group discussions, which were largely controlled by the facilitator anyway because they had parameters and categories and ultimately decided what to write on the chart paper. In our system, they then lean heavily on these “town hall meetings” to bolster their decisions because they can SAY they got input. In reality it is just window dressing.
So, it comes as no surprise that they would break such a large group of teachers down to take away the power of your collective voice. They neatly avoided what would have been said, perhaps to thunderous applause and cheers, had they allowed you to stay gathered and build on each others’ comments. I am a psychologist by training, but it doesn’t take a psychologist to see the manipulative ploy for what it is. Democracy at its best, right?
All of you are pawns and they decided on their game plan a long time
ago. They know where they are going and your input is a dog and pony show. Their play book will be out in the open eventually as they slither from city to city in our country. They want to create a cheap, pliable, young work force. They want teachers to leave every five years and then just start over. They are not worried about stability and quality because this is about money. They are very good at the manipulation of all for their own greedy purposes. This is theater for them. BCG and SFC work hand in hand.
Where is your union or is that gone already?
Gone already. We still ostensibly have the MEA, an affiliate of the NEA, but teachers in Tennessee lost their collective bargaining rights recently and the district has implied that when our current contract expires a year from now, a new one will not be negotiated.
This answers my earlier question about teacher involvement. Similar “tours” are occurring across the country, and teachers are expected to roll over and be passive.
This post is deja vu for me. It was a while back but I believe it was a picture of things to come. I was interviewed for a city-wide coordinator’s position. One of the initial questions was about putting together a training session for the teachers. One of the interviewers asked me what I would do first. In response, I said I would get input from the teachers. The interviewer snapped at me and said that she already knew that and asked what would I do next? The rest of the interview went very quickly and of course I was not chosen for the position. I believe that if the teachers and parents are not part of the discussion, no real success can be achieved. It seems obvious but somehow the people in power are ignorant to the fact or do not care. Eventually we will get back on track but it is sad that the children are caught in the middle and may be losing out on a quality education which we have an obligation to provide them.
Donna, I posted the below in a separate discussion on Diane’s blogsite. I believe the below further illustrates the motus operandi of those who seek to (mis)inform the public and/or teachers about education.
(previously posted in Louisiana topics) “It seems that the school “choice” proponents are searching for a lead propagandist for the state of Louisiana. Here is their classified add, dated July 6, I found in the Baton Rouge paper “The Advocate.”
“The American Federation for Children—the nation’s voice for school choice—is searching for a full- time Communications Associate to manage media relations, community relations, and marketing in the state of Louisiana. This is a salaried position—with benefits—located within the state (work from home).
Primary Responsibilities
The incumbent will be responsible for generating significant positive publicity for school choice programs and efforts in the state, as well as:
•Assisting in-state staff and allies in communicating with legislators and key stakeholders
•Developing content, including news releases, newsletters, and advisories
•Planning small-to medium sized promotional and informational events
•Conducting radio media tours, drafting opinion pieces for placement in newspapers, and scheduling editorial board meetings
•Assisting with the marketing and implementation of the state’s school voucher programs to generate increased parental interest in those programs
Secondary Responsibilities
•Assist in the writing of Louisiana-specific content for the annual School Choice Yearbook and other publications
•Assist the national director of communications in developing media strategy in Louisiana
•Regularly monitor Louisiana school choice news and compile periodic news summaries
•Other duties as assigned
Requirements
•A bachelor’s degree and two to five years of experience in political campaigns, advocacy communications, journalism, media, or public relations. Salary is negotiable and dependent on experience
•To apply, send your resume, salary requirement, and one writing sample to Malcom Glenn at mglenn [at] federationforchildren [dot] org with the subject line: “Louisiana Communications”
•To learn more about the American Federation for Children, please visit http://www.federationforchildren.org and http://www.louisiana4children.org”
Gee, no professional teacher/educator credentials required? Imagine that. I suppose if a TFA alumnus, e.g. John White, with no academic/professional credentials in education can lead Louisiana’s Department of Education, then it makes sense that someone with “experience in political campaigns” be the advocate for school “choice.” Education in Louisiana,as many have suspected and asserted, is all about satisfying those with political power and not, unfortunately, about doing what is best for our children.
The Magical Mystery Town Hall Tour resumes this week: http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/jul/09/greater-memphis-school-merger-panel-to-hold-town/.
I went to the town hall meeting today. They went over the TPC powerpoint for the first hour. That powerpoint can be found on the website and if a person chose to go to this two-hour long meeting, that person had probably already read it or the the commission report.
After going over the powerpoint for an hour, they did not have time to answer everyone’s questions (and there were only 30-50 people in attendance). They did not allow people to stand up or to raise their hand to ask a question. They required that all questions be written on a note card and submitted to the panel to be read aloud by a panel member.
They did not allow follow-up questions, several times interrupting audience members mid-question.
I did not feel that my concerns were heard or that any changes will be made to the plan in response to the community concerns, one of which was discomfort with cutting librarians in elementary schools.
Mayor Mark Luttrell inadvertently made it clear at the beginning of the meeting that changes will not be made to the plan based on community response. He said that what the TPC is doing now is “selling the plan to the community.”
Meghan,
This is depressing and heartbreaking to read and I don’t want to sound like a broken record but go back up to the top 9:32…they have no intentions of including any concerns. The plan is already done….BCG and Stand on Children already know what they are going to do. I will post two articles again about both groups. Read when you have time and forward to all who are concerned.
Excerpt and link:
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has been around the block or two when it comes to corporate schooling, even though it profits from other consulting and includes as alumni Mitt Romney, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and hedge fund manager John Paulson.* Along with Broad Foundation support, the consulting firm worked on Delaware’s Vision 2015 for a longer school day in 2007, designed a business plan for the North Carolina New Schools Project, and have left footprints in Cleveland, Arizona, Seattle, Chicago, Memphis, and New Orleans. BCG, as Daniel Denvir has noticed, recommended “that New Orleans, which has decimated its teachers’ union and put most schools under charter control, create the exact same species of achievement networks in 2006” as the ones proposed for Philly.**
Since at least 2007, BCG has been working on linking teacher pay to student test scores and so-called academic achievement for the Dallas Independent School District. Under J. Puckett’s Texas office leadership, BCG has also struck a deal with Uplift Education, where Jeb Bush’s son, George P., sits on the board of directors. Puckett and Phil Montgomery, Uplift’s founding member, both sit on the board of Commit, an IBM, Bank of America, Bank of One-funded school group. Puckett was also a player in the Exxon Mobile/Gates Foundation-hyped National Math and Science Initiative (page 27, PDF box).
http://btownerrant.com/2012/05/18/in-the-city-of-corporate-love-and-beyond-the-boston-consulting-group-gates-and-the-filthy-rich/
Excerpt and link:
Soon after agreeing to Patrick’s reforms, though, SFC broke away from the pack. Claiming that the measures weren’t bold enough — specifically, that principals, superintendents, and school boards should have more if not all power over teacher evaluations and firing — the group paid more than $300,000 to gather signatures to advance a unilateral proposal in the form of a ballot initiative. The compromise that’s likely to pass the state legislature in July is less severe in its stripping of union controls, but the fact remains that SFC is the new education power broker on Beacon Hill, and that its agenda represents the will of corporations — not the grassroots.
Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/news/140448-as-schools-struggle-to-get-better-is-selling-out-/#ixzz20BP4EHXK
The value-added measures will work the same in Florida. Non-test subject teachers will be evaluated those tests. Whether they will be judged on the entire school’s performance or at least (in a middle/high school) the performance of their actual students will vary from district to district.
OMG…Okay I teach in a different state. We are in a turnround school. We had to sign onto the school and reinterview. When we signed onto our new contract, we had no idea what the new plan for the school was. We had to sign anyway b/c there weren’t enough openings in the system to land another job (by another interview). Then we had the meetings where teachers, parents, and students were invited. Well I think one parent showed, and students from the principal’s advisory showed. We were put into groups on topics and areas. NOTHING we found to be priority was selected and at the following meeting we were told other topics (theirs) were what we selected.
Now we have our plan. Our school day was extended 45 minutes for no pay as of yet. We now have a company helping our schools that was tossed out of the last place they tried to reform. I think that cost the city 5 million dollars, but yet they fired all the teachers the previous year b/c they couldn’t balance the budget. REALLY?