This teacher worked in a New York City public school that won high marks because of its use of teams.
It was an exemplar of “lean production.”
It did all the right things.
Teachers were constantly conferring.
Only problem: the kids weren’t learning.
Read this article and learn about lean production.
With the expanded use of business thinking in education, it’s coming your way.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Taylorism on steroids; yet another example of taking engineering concepts like stress test and (mis)applying them roboticly to human beings as if the humans were bars of steel or vulcanized rubber tires. If these ideas are so good, then let’s see them in use on Wall Street and Harvard Business School. Until then, no thanks.
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I’ve not experienced lean production to the degree the author has, but I can relate. I appreciate being part of shared decision making but only so long as the matter is one in which I have some expertise and care about. For example, I like having a say in our department’s curriculum.
I definitely have been subjected to some onerous “empowerment,” though. I recall a time that in an effort to reduce the number of severe misconduct consequences (ISS, OSS) our school adopted a rather tedious system of sequential behavioral interventions that were sold to us as a way to empower teachers to have more involvement with discipline.
As far as conferring and collaborating go, I’ve never been required to be a part of a group except for Professional Learning Communities. More and more districts use PLC’s, and in theory they seem like a good idea. Having a designated time to collaborate with colleagues should definitely be a good thing, right? The problem is that rather than having time to freely confer about matters we recognize need attention, we spend an increasingly inordinate amount of time fulfilling a mandate that invariably involves data.
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So-called shared decision making is a sham, since the parameters are established and policed by management. The real purpose is to have teachers “buy-in” to the premises they are discussing, while giving them the illusion of control and autonomy. Very insidious, indeed.
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I’ve been a part of sham shared decision making and far more legitimate kinds. In the latter, the administrators trusted the expertise of the people in the group and understood their own limitations.
There is something to be said for teacher “buy-in,” though I find it insulting whenever it’s clear that whatever input we’re offering is a mere formality, an illusory say in the outcome. In those situations, I’d just as soon the administrator make an openly autocratic decision, and I’ll base my buy-in on the merit of the decision.
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This sounds something like company unions, or corporatism (fascism).
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“Lean Production” … now the source of teacher stress has a name. After a few moments of contemplation, I realize that I have experienced several examples of this phenomenon. In particular, the team collaborative approach is used for all of our school initiatives. This is over and above our teachiing efforts. It’s supposed to “help” all teachers do a better job. Hmm … doesn’t seem to be effective.
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Come on all you teacher leaders,…are you feeling used? I have seen more teachers jumping through hoops for administrators who take the credit for the teachers work. The upside (?) for teacher flunkies is that they might get to keep their jobs. To be fair, I have also seen administrators jump through hoops for their bosses. Generally, they don’t lose their jobs. They just get switched to a different position.
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Do I sound bitter? Maybe a little. I was clueless for too long although I’m not sure it would have made any difference. I actually thought the kids were important.
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