Franchesca Warren is outraged by “the deadening silence of teachers.” Teachers are afraid to say what they know and believe for fear of being fired.
She writes:
“As a pretty opinionated teacher, I am always full of ideas and speak out regularly against practices that are unjust or not beneficial to students. However, time and time again I have been “scolded” by more veteran teachers who warn me that being vocal would quickly get me “blackballed” in the district. This fact was even more evident when I was invited to a private screening of a new documentary entitled “Scapegoats.” The film uses teacher interviews to examine how teachers have historically been made to be the scapegoats with anything bad that occurs in education. While I was in total agreement with what was being said in the document, I was dismayed that more than half of the teachers interviewed opted to have their face (and voices) distorted so their administration would not retaliate against them.
“As I listened to teachers recall the atrocities that occur in public education, it was evident that these educational “pundits” and politicians have made it nearly impossible for teachers to exercise their first amendment rights. Teachers are terrified of voicing their opinions because many times it not only makes them a target but could possibly make them not get their contract renewed for the following year!
“Instead of forgetting my feelings and just chalking the film up to that how things are, I got angry.”
She adds:
“The truth is hidden while the public is made to believe that lies are the truth. Truth be told, the majority of teachers loathe the increased standardized testing in schools. Truth be told, the people who make policies about education don’t even have their kids enrolled in public schools. Truth be told, the people who run the school districts are usually not equipped with the pedagogy or experience to actually lead a classroom in 2013. Truth be told, federal programs like No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are just programs to further destroy public education and allow private entities to take our tax dollars.”
And more:
“Despite the deafening silence, there are many educators who are getting angry and speaking up with no regard to the possible consequences. You have district administrators like John Kuhn who say “enough is enough” and write eloquent pieces like “Exhaustion of the American Teacher.”
“You have teachers who decided to make the film “The Inconvenient Truths Behind Waiting for Superman” and expose the policies that hurt our students.
“You have the teachers in Chicago and Oregon that courageously decided to strike to ensure that their voices would be heard.
“Times are changing, and I for one am glad. The truth is no longer being hidden by our deafening silence. There are more teacher in the world than people who might want to silence us. So speak, act, march, discuss and demand to be heard. Apparently, we might have the 14th Amendment on our side.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
True that! It’s time to speak out regarding the damage being done by the national disaster otherwise known as Common Core. Children are being harmed. And, especially for those teachers in states that still have tenure….. if not now, when? The First Amendment is one of the great treasures of our nation. Our veterans risked and often lost their lives for this freedom. If we are afraid to speak out, what will our students learn from that? Thanks, Franchesca Warren.
I encourage all teachers to speak out but there are legitimate reasons that many teachers choose to stay silent. You can read about what has happened to me since I started speaking out here http://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/disgruntled/. This is not meant to discourage anyone from speaking out. Besides being labeled “disgruntled” and having the district keep a file on on me, I do still have a job.
Sadly, I was deemed as uncollegial when I pointed out that the current teacher evaluation tool used by my school district was created for general education teachers and discussed how the tool was inappropriate for teaching and evaluating the lowest one percent (Special Education Intellectually Disabled Students) of students I work with at a center school. Sadly the student evidence and teacher evidence for my evaluation don’t fit the reality of students’ individual needs, what special education is supposed to do. Now that due process has been taken from most teachers it isn’t a surprise that more of us don’t speak up. It is disheartening to know that the cut points for standardized testing, the curriculum the tests are based on, the acceptable timeframe for what schedule is appropriate for student acheievement, and the lack of curriculum materials to meet students’ needs all seem to be contrived to create documentation prooving that these students as well as my efforts are not good enough. Sadly if we do get the message out I’m afraid that legislators will believe that these students can’t learn and don’t deserve an education or certified teacher.
Even retired teachers who suffered at the hands of the authoritarian regime of testing madness and/or the latest round of politically correct magic bullets forced on teachers to use in their classrooms with false promises that this latest often flawed teaching method will solve every problem on earth, tend to be reluctant to speak out but for other reasons than fear.
They want to distance themselves from those painful combat years in the public school classrooms and forget the trauma they experienced almost daily at the hands of, for instance, Bill Gates, Arne Duncan and the Walton family.
We can’t blame them for doing this, because this is a vicious symptom of the cycle of PTSD that I went through for fourteen years after returning from Vietnam.
The only way to manage this trauma is to face it but that is the most difficult step to take for most victims of physical mental and/or psychological abuse.
And, according to the few studies that have focused on PTSD among treachery, at least a third of teachers suffer from different stages of PTSD due to the way they are treated by students, parents, administrators, oligarchs and politicians.
Reblogged this on Crazy Normal – the Classroom Exposé and commented:
There are more teacher in the world than people who might want to silence them. So speak, act, march, discuss and demand to be heard. Apparently, teachers might have the 14th Amendment on our side if they can force our leaders and/or the courts to enforce it
Which clause of the Fourteenth?
I let Cornell University Law School answer your question.
“Employment Discrimination laws seek to prevent discrimination based on race, sex, religion, national origin, physical disability, and age by employers. A growing body of law also seeks to prevent employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. Discriminatory practices include bias in hiring, promotion, job assignment, termination, compensation, retaliation, and various types of harassment.
“The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution limit the power of the federal and state governments to discriminate. The Fifth amendment has an explicit requirement that the federal government not deprive individuals of “life, liberty, or property,” without due process of the law.
“The Fourteenth Amendment explicitly prohibits states from violating an individual’s rights to due process and equal protection.
“The Constitution does not directly constrain discrimination in the private sector, but the private sector has become subject to a growing body of federal and state statutes.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/employment_discrimination
It’s obvious that one of the goals of the corporate funded war on public education is to strip education away from the public sector. Once the public schools are gone, then it is arguable that teachers working in the private K-12 sector, for instance, corporate charters, will probably have no due process rights and getter do as they are told by a CEO or else, and there will be no elected school board to appeal to.
Just a highly paid manager, who may be as ruthless as he/she wants to be with the hired help and pay them anything they want.
Your next task would be to email a constitutional law professor as to whether the government would have a “reasonable basis” for its position. The words “reasonable basis” may pose a problem.
As a retiree I no longer have to worry about retribution from administrators, but I am still interested in public education because I firmly believe that education is one of the only roads left for people to make a better life for themselves and their families. As a veteran educator, I have had to weather many storms along the way. In fact, the district in which I worked once held the record for the longest strike in New York history,and I didn’t get paid until March that year. I think it is important to remain vigilant and united and supportive of each other. Here are some suggestions: Frequently contact state senators and local officials. I have sent numerous emails and forwarded Diane’s blog about charter school waste in my state. When politicians misrepresent facts, call them on it. It drove me crazy when Scott was claiming that he gave more money to education. Politicians keep claiming that charters are public schools. Just because they are paid from taxpayer dollars, they are not public schools. They are not subject to the same rules as public schools, and most of them do not hire certified teachers. I think we have to let the public know what an unsavory, hybrid mess these schools are. We should continue to try to stay informed. Facts are helpful when the other side attacks.
Teachers are being blasted by well-funded spin masters.
One of these, paid by billionaire foundations that want to dismantle public education, is busy attacking the head of a teacher’s union, defending ” his friend” (and former employer) Arne Duncan, defending the head of LAUSD who supported the lawsuit attacking teacher due process rights, and so on.
He is a shill paid to promote the policies intended to dismantle public education except for redirecting tax dollars to private and for-profit education .
See the phony baloney and informed criticism at http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/11/05/11cunningham.h34.html
It will be even tougher to be a teacher in future years. The new teacher evaluation system will make sure that very few teachers will obtain continuing contract status/due process rights. It will be easy to walk teachers out the door as they age and become too expensive for the district to employ.
I talked the other day to a young teacher who is in her 4th year of teaching. She is a wonderful, creative teacher who works extremely hard. Her students love her. She told me that she has already taken steps to retrain into another profession. She said that there was no way she could reach retirement in the current toxic state of education. She said that her choice was to begin her master’s degree or start taking classes for her Associate’s degree in a medical field. She chose the Associate’s degree and can get a lot done throughout the summer. How sad education will lose her, but all of us can understand her suffering. As I’ve said before, it is our kids who will suffer from the actions of the evil politicians. Hope the politicians love very hot places. They are all headed there for hurting our children.
Sad Teacher: excellent posting.
Let me restate the obvious for all you bidness minded “education reformers” out there: when you incentivize leaving the teaching profession and disincentivize staying, you are gutting the profession. You are incentivizing short-term burn-and-churn and guaranteeing systemic long-term failure.
And the billion-dollar question: why isn’t the same being done to Lakeside School [Bill Gates] and Delbarton School [Chris Christie] and Sidwell Friends [Barack Obama] and Harrpeth Hall [Michelle Rhee-Johnson] and U of Chicago Lab Schools [Rahm Emanuel] and the like?
Answer: google the phrase “two-tiered school system” and “Diane Ravitch’s blog A site to discuss better education for all.”
It is not pleasant for teachers (and let me add, other staff) in public schools to admit to the dire straits we are in, but a genuine American hero had this to say about self-awareness:
“I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted.”
It’s hard in these times, but stand tall. Teaching is one of the noblest professions and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise:
“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.”
Frederick Douglass has your back.
😎
That is a tragic consequence of the assault on public education. We will lose our best and brightest. What incentive to they have to pursue a difficult career? Many others like this young woman will just opt out.
Perhaps the deformers don’t really want dedicated, enthusiastic people in the profession. All too often they have independent minds, personalities that can motivate others, and other qualities inimicable to the assembly-line drones they seem to prefer, or like the ones who stop by the schools for a few years before moving on to more important work.
Schools are like a rest stop on the interstate for them. Pull in, use the restroom, look at the maps and brochures for a few minutes before getting back to your real destination-the destruction of the public school system.
This posting is literally a exposé of the reality behind the “choice” mantra of the charterite/privatizer movement. A while ago Chiara provided a handy expansion of the term (referring to parents), adding the words that the leaders of the self-styled “education reform” movement customarily leave out:
“Choice but no voice.”
The above literally applies to teachers.
Let the silence be broken. Let this not be the “curious case of the shills and trolls on this blog.” Show some moral backbone. Show some intellectual integrity and consistency.
How about teachers being able to exercise their right to free speech? And enjoy whatever job protections are necessary to ensure that they are not punished for exercising their constitutional rights?
*I include this observation. I know a teacher that works at a school that was targeted by Parent Revolution. Some time ago she mentioned that word came all the way from the top, His Lordship John Deasy Himself—and a representative of said Lord appeared at the school—to sternly inform the teachers in a mandated meeting that they were to say nothing at all about the issues that PR employees were raising with parents. If a parent said something to them, or asked a question, they were to stay silent. Thankfully PR and their LAUSD agent, Deasy, didn’t quite have their way. But like all rheephormistas, they tried mightily to enforce ‘choice but no voice.’*
Silence is consent. Speak now or forever hold your peace.
😎
KTA,
If I may modify your last statement “Silence is GOLDEN consent.”
As in more “gold” for those who silence others.
“Silence is Golden
but my eyes still see.”
That’s what union membership should enable. Unfortunately union leadership sold out to Gates, Broad, hedge fund mangers, etc.
Teachers in NY state must speak out now before its too late. And we must do so without the full support of our union leaders. Mulgrew and Magee as they have abandoned us, like political orphans, on the doorstep of Andrew Cuomo.
We should speak out and protest with goals in mind:
1) General disruption of the testing process, within our legal rights
2) Indirectly encouraging parent/student opt-outs
3) Inducing a fatal mistake that will allow us to bring a winnable class action suit against the powers that be
4) Proving the fact there is safety (and power) in numbers. We are half a million strong!
Did you read how Cuomo blamed the loss of the state Senate on Democratic dissallusionment with Obama?
What a hoot! YOU were at the top of the ticket Mr. Cuomo, not the President. NY Democrats were disillusioned by your policies, your decisions, your governance. How many counties did you win statewide…17 out of how many?
Yeah, it was Obama’s fault. What a sad, pathetic tool, making excuses for his own failures
17 out 62 counties. And in this man’s dreams he is in the White House? A tool and a fool!
Somewhat off topic…
————–
The authors and backers of CCSS, including the U. S. Dept. of Education, claim that CCSS is “research- and evidence-based”. This claim has been made repeatedly, emphatically, and unanimously by CCSS spokespersons. However, this claim has not been substantiated. There is no published document that identifies the research and evidence that CCSS is claimed to be based on.
Because the claimed research and evidence is unavailable, outside experts (i.e., those not involved with the CCSS project) cannot evaluate the quality (e.g., bias, completeness) of the research and evidence, or the soundness of the manner in which the research and evidence was applied to CCSS. In essence, the nation is being asked to accept on faith that there is no significant flaw in the research and evidence base of CCSS. Clearly, this is an astoundingly high and unnecessary risk given the enormous impact that CCSS will have on the nation’s educational system and tens of millions of parents and children.
Therefore, the U.S. Dept. of Education should be challenged to: 1) publish a document that identifies with specificity the research and evidence that CCSS is based on; and 2) how that research and evidence influenced the design of CCSS.
Furthermore, major american educational organizations, such as AERA and teachers unions, should be challenged to evaluate the quality of the research and evidence base of CCSS and the soundness of the way that research and evidence was applied to CCSS. As the experts in our society, and given the enormous impact of CCSS on our society, these organizations have a professional responsibility to conduct this evaluation and inform the public of their findings. If they are negligent in doing so, they will complicit should the CCSS research and evidence base turn out to be of poor quality or unsound.
—————–
The general public, many of whom trust the “experts” to hash out these details, will be surprised that the claimed research and evidence base of CCSS have been kept hidden from the experts. Further, whether or not CCSS organizations choose to publish their claimed research and evidence, it will help everyone to get a clearer and more truthful understanding of the underpinnings of the reforms, which we, as a nation, are in dire need of.
One way to challenge the U.S. Dept. of Education in a way that will raise the public’s awareness on this “research and evidence” issue would be to take out a full page ad in a national newspaper. Of course, this requires someone (such as you, perhaps) to garner enough support and raise enough money.
There has been no validation whatsoever of the CCSS in ELA, and there could not be.
As Wilson has proven!
You have hit upon the “dirty little secret” of the test-and-punish reform regime. They NO evidence, NO research, NO studies, NO data – they have NOTHING tangible or credible to support their claims. And the burden of proof is on them. Just like the teapot analogy. Their claims are no less outlandish then the claim that a small teapot is in orbit in our solar system. For a crowd that worships data, isn’t it odd that they have none to offer anyone who questions their snake oil solutions?
You are so right. As the rich politicians and tech industry completely take over education. the new PARCC testing with its hours of hours of online testing will drastically lower student test scores, which is now directly linked to teachers’ evaluations. With it now being online, the tests now also become a computer test, adding one more variable to stressed out teachers.
The ultimate goal is to take these low test scores, take away state money from public schools with low test scores (a large %) and begin to shut down schools, one school at a time. States want “out” of funding public education. As they are gradually shutting down one public school at a time, teachers with 3 years of poor evaluations will be fired. It will be extremely easy to get 3 years of poor evaluations, due to the unfair PARCC testing and the developmentally inappropriate Common Core. I also believe that the state will take away power from local boards, and local boards, even when they know they are firing an excellent teacher, will still have to legally let him/her go.
As charters pop up to replace the public schools, charters will pick and choose the children they are willing to educate. We will begin to see 9 year olds walking around town at 10 AM with nowhere to go because they did not pass the application process for the local charter schools. As education is taken away from our children, the middle class will completely disappear from the U.S.
Parents must begin to become more aware of this evil lurking. They must unite and begin to show their dissatisfaction with all of this testing. I can’t believe we are at the point we are at. Anyone in their right mind knows that a child should not be tested this many hours in a school year. Yet, it is happening in our schools right now. We are in a crisis. The evil ones know that they must test the child this much in order to get rid of the public school systems. As they are getting rid of the public school systems, they will be making some good money too. It is a win-win situation for the evil ones. The ones who will pay dearly for all of this is our children. Once the evil ones get rid of most public school systems, watch all of this silly testing magically go away. The charter schools will not have to administer any high stakes testing to students.
Is there any data to back up the rubrics for teacher evaluation?
The Ohio Teacher Evaluation system follows the Marzano Rubric. As a classroom teacher with 25 students this year, it is very hard to follow the Marzano Rubric and get good test results. The Marzano Rubric “looks down” on direct instruction and wants students in small groups teaching one another, with the classroom teacher in the background as a facilitator. If you get marked “teacher led” you are marked down on your evaluation. I know how my students learn best, and I know the rigors that are ahead of them. I teach them the way I know in my heart is best for them. Since I am so close to the end of my career, I can survive. What are the younger teachers going to do?
There is no data to back up Marzano or Danielson except their own painfully stretched out interpretations of other people’s data and their own in-house ‘research’ of very statistically limited groups of true believers.
Both are known for their meta analyses using research conducted by others and Marzano I know has been called out many times for exaggerating or misinterpreting (usually through overgeneralization) the work of other researchers.
Both created systems under the tutelage and patronage of Bill Gates with the express purpose of creating stack ranking systems that would allow the firing of the bottom 25% of teachers each year.
Both deny culpability for the horrible, life-altering consequences that comes from using their bogus systems, claiming misuse or misunderstanding and saying they only want to ‘help’ teachers improve their practice yet providing the means of destroying their careers using bogus walk-through and observation checklists.
Neither are experts on classroom teaching, educational history, or pedagogy and neither was considered an expert in the field of teacher preparation or improvement before they received the reformist imprimatur.
Both have and are still amassing wealth from selling their snake oil programs to gullible districts and states.
Neither had or have any history of credibility as an educational practitioner expert or research expert and their backgrounds and education were not in the field of study of education.
Both created systems for high schools and then back drafted it to ‘fit’ middle school and elementary school settings and both are sorely lacking in developmentally appropriate practices regarding primary-age students and teaching those students.
Frauds. Both of them. Very famous and wealthy now but frauds, nonetheless.
It is well worth remembering that the only true freedom is freedom of the mind and if one does not have the courage to speak for truth, then falsehood prevails. Without that courage and intellectual freedom, true freedom does not exist.
Hitler could have been stopped at the very beginning IF people who knew and understood what was happening had risen up then. When they didn’t, the rest is history. Yes there is a cost for freedom as our military keeps reminding us. Traditionally educators were the people who led intellectual discourse.
There are instructors, teachers and educators. Too few educators speak out now. Thankfully we have Dr. Ravitch who has the expertise and courage to speak out.
The General is here. We need more officers and enlisted personnel to follow in that path.
“Yes there is a cost for freedom as our military keeps reminding us.”
No, they (the Department of War) keep propagandizing us to believe there is a “high cost” of freedom. The only “high cost” is “buried in the ground”. It is possible to keep this country “safe” and at a fraction of the costs. We as a country choose otherwise when examples (Costa Rica being just one) are to be found of not needing such bloated war spending.
“The General is here.”
NO!, the general is not here and NO! we don’t “need more officers and enlisted personnel to follow in that path.”
Military analogies are just the opposite of what we need to describe what needs to be done.
I’ve been disconcerted for years about the lack of questioning or even awareness of these issues. So many people, including other teachers and student teachers have no idea. Another version of this silence is questioning, and then finding ways to justify. For instance, some teachers and parents initially worry that a particular practice is not appropriate, but conclude that the kids are managing to do it so it must be acceptable. I put that in the category of just because some can doesn’t mean that they all should. I can think of many analogies that fit. Another line of questioning that I don’t see is what are the kids missing out on when they are managing to deal with kindergarten being the new first or 2nd grade or what have you.
However, there may be some quiet, but significant ways that teachers and parents are fighting back.
Last year 3 of my students were opted out. It was a really tough decision for their parents, but what helped was that these students had IEPs due right around the same time the state test results from the previous year had been mailed out to families. There is so much pressure on us teachers not to disclose this option to parents especially if we teach in schools that haven’t or may not make AYP. Parents can understandably be reluctant to hurt the school by opting their children out.
Speaking to friends, colleagues, and neighbors helps. My friends and husband ask for my ideas during election times. My neighbor who sent his sons to Lake Side stopped me for a chat recently. He wanted to tell me about a sped teacher he and his wife met in Central America who taught in Oakland. They were shocked by her stories and admired her courage. They also thought about me, and were worried about the conditions I may be facing teaching high needs students.
In Utah, we have been told that if we tell parents about opting out, that the state may take our licenses. It’s very hard to speak out under those circumstances.
Speaking out got me refused all continuing education that I even offered to pay for myself, less pay than every other SLP in the district including the new grads, and the loss of all professional discretion to dismiss a student. Ended up moving districts to a job I didn’t want just to stop getting screwed in my evaluation. Wisconsin isn’t the place to speak up.
I agree Peggy: it depends what state you are in. Texas has no unions, we have VAM evaluation pilot at our school, and I get a one year contract every year ( yes, I have been at the same district for 6 years now). I don’t want to lose my job, even as tenuous as it is. I have an elderly father and family to support.
A friend of mine who grew up in Russia had a father whose best friend was an official under Joseph Stalin. At some party meeting, everyone stood to clap when Stalin stepped up to the podium. They clapped and they clapped and they clapped, and this went on and on. No one wanted to be the one who stopped clapping first. Eventually, after many minutes of this, the fellow got tired and sat down. The next day, he was disappeared.
During China’s Cultural Revolution (1965-75 give or take a year or so), my father-in-law wrote on the back of a postcard about sun spots to a fellow astronomer in Russia. He thought it would be safe because it was on a postcard with no attempt to be secretive. But because Mao was considered the sun and saying the sun had spots, my father-in-law was sent to a re-education camp.
After Mao died and Deng Xiaoping stepped up to take over the CCP, he had the gang of four arrested by the PLA, and stopped the insanity of the Cultural Revolution.
Poor guy, when my father-in-law was a child in 1938, he watched two of his child cousins get beheaded in his front yard by Japanese officers practicing their sword craft on real live bodies.
And before the Japanese invaded China, Chang Kai-Shek had tens of thousands of communists and anyone who belonged to one of the new labor unions in Shanghai executed, because the factory owners who exported products to the West didn’t want to pay higher wages.
Of course, the famous Milgrim Experiment showed just how far average citizens can be pushed when it comes to obeying authority, even when that authority is morally wrong.
I know there are teachers who can’t fight back because it’s not in their nature or they are so worn out or ill they can’t get back into the ring for another round….or they have huge problems they are dealing with at home. No doubt that could be me someday….any day. Who knows? But there are still plenty of other educators along with parents and lawmakers who CAN take a stand.
What if some monster like Stalin or Mao was ever able to acquire power here in the U.S.? How would citizens here react then? (Arne Duncan and Michelle Rhee and NYS Commissioner of Education John B. King, just to name a few examples, are certainly NOT monsters…… If people are afraid of the local school board president down the road right now how would they react if we ever had people like ISIS running around our country?)
History DOES matter. That’s why I think history teachers have a special responsibility to step up now and say something. I mean how can people teach about a hero like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and then not be willing to at least raise a hand and ask a simple, honest question during a faculty meeting? Like, why are so many people going along with these lies when we know they are wrong? We know how misguided and harmful all this testing really is, for example. What we are doing is WRONG. Even if someone likes the Common Core, it’s being carried out in such a half-assed way.
I can’t be another Martin Luther King. But IF I can try to be be one-tenth, even one-hundredth the man he was then at least I’ve accomplished that in my career.
The children in my life deserve no less.
And there ain’t no standardized test or crazy APPR rubric or 10 minute “mini-observation” what will be able to judge me in that regard -that’s for sure!
typo: should be “THAT will be able to judge me”…… Sunday morning and my fingers still aren’t working…. that’s middle age for you LOL
I think THAT is one of the reasons why history, geography, and civics have been lessened and outright denigrated in the curriculum since NCLB. If the kids don’t know history, they won’t realize what is happening and won’t know how to fight it even if they DO realize what is happening.
I briefly worked with someone who had taken part in the Milgram experiment. I didn’t ask him much about it. All he offered was that it was “a profound experience.”
I bet. It’s one of the many things that came out of the 1960s that still inform our lives today.
And that is why NO ONE should be clapping!
Neither is Florida. I’ve been blackballed for years now for speaking up. Our stae union actually warned us to stay quiet due to an ALEC law passed last year that makes it far easier to fire any teacher who questions policy. Our due process rights are an illusion now. If I had another way to pay rent and buy food I’d speak up,even more but it’s hard to start over when you are nearing 60.
In part I blame teachers for continuing to vote for the same union leadership.
Well Michael, we can elect any union leadership we want but with a severely gerrymandered state there is little chance that the union could have any impact in this ‘right to work’ state agains the republican/tea party supermajority in Tallahassee.
ALEC has offices right next door to the state capital, I hear, and would be inside the building itself if they could get away with it. Lots of dirty money flows through that place and anything ALEC wants, they get.
The last time we had a statewide strike the state stripped teachers of all seniority and made the returning workers start at the bottom of the pay scale as retaliation. There is no taste for illegal strike actions here.
But I do agree that many teachers voted for Rick Scott and the supermajority in the Florida legislature. When they convene in March and start to strip away public pensions, which is one of Rick Scott’s campaign promises, then we will see how those teachers react.
I have a colleague who will retire next year who swears that the republican party, of which she is a lifetime member, will never go THAT far so she votes for them anyway, while grumbling about how horrible our working conditions have become under their lawmaking. More common feeling than not down here, I fear.
Michael,
Have you read the latest post by Mercedes Schneider on her Blog?
http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/cuomo-reelection-an-obvious-moskowitz-opportunity/
87% of AFT’s teachers can only blame themselves for having Weingarten for their union president.
But don’t we have to feel for the 13% who didn’t vote for her in the last election?
How does she get away with fooling so many of the members of AFT? Weingarten doesn’t have that much time as a teacher in front of a classroom. How is she different from the authors of the CCSS?
From 1991 until 1997 she taught a total of 122 days, on per diem basis, at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. In the fall of 1994 she taught history full-time at the school. Weingarten’s former colleagues and students have discussed her time as a teacher. In 1995, after six months of full-time teaching, Weingarten was elected Assistant Secretary of the UFT. She continued teaching per diem from 1995 to 1997.
Thanks for the info. I read the post you linked to and it raised my already high blood pressure.
:o)
High blood pressure doesn’t have to be a bad thing unless you have clogged and rigid arteries that can’t stand the sudden pressure change.
For instance, I survived an extremely high spike in blood pressure back in the 1980s when the dictator of a principal at the middle school where I was teaching at the time told us that we had to stop teaching grammar and mechanics and throw all of our Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition textbooks in the trash—hundreds of copies (many of the teachers in the English department defied that order and hid at least one class set for each English teacher—I did. I even attempted to teach stealth grammar and mechanics but got caught and threatened that I’d lose my job if I continued to defy the district’s orders).
The order had come down from district administration that the entire distract was switching over to the Whole Language approach to teaching that was based on the theory—without much if any data—that all kids had to do was read 30 minutes or more a day every day outside of the classroom and they would learn all this stuff on their own automatically.
That theory—forced on teachers often against our will—swept the state of California and within a decade, California had gone from near the top academically to almost dead last in reading and writing skills when compared to the other states. that was when Whole Language was dumped and the district had to start buying new grammar and mechanics textbooks. But by then, the schools had a decade of new teachers who never went through training to teach grammar and mechanics and most of the English teachers who were under ten years in the classroom were required to go back to night school and take classes on how to teach it, because they didn’t know how.
At that meeting, my blood pressure shot up so high, I ended up with a double nose bleed, and the other teachers in the English department at the meeting had to calm me down.
Perversely, you made me laugh!
Re: the 87%, my recollection is that the turnout for teachers’ union elections is pretty anemic among active teachers. I have read compelling arguments, by Norm Scott among others, that Weingarten and Mulgrew benefit from the effects of that low turnout, which include outsize influence for retirees and the one-party system. It seems to me that the AFT (like the UFT) is not a militant union, or at least it hasn’t been for 50 years, and that its longstanding model has been one of collaboration with education policymakers rather than opposition.
Weingarten’ ability to keep her power so dominant suggests a few things: perhaps that the criticisms of her that are so common on education blogs and comment threads are just complaints from a radical and irrelevant to fringe; perhaps that a stunningly overwhelming majority of teachers approve of their union’s management; perhaps that a stunningly large percentage of teachers are either completely ignorant of union politics or so cynical that they’ve opted out of the election process.
Weingarten also benefits from what appears to be the complete support of almost person of influence, most notably including the author of this blog, who provides Weingarten with a huge platform for her press releases and has an official policy not to criticize her. Even the billboard attacks on her seem like they may just be one more part of the ecosystem that consolidates her power, as unionists and fellow travelers rally around her in defense.
As an outsider, there is much I don’t understand about the workings of union politics. But this is how it looks to me from the outside.
Flerp!
My experience with teacher’s unions was mostly through my local that represented about 1,000 teacher in the district where I taught for thirty years–a district that had about 19,000 students.
And that local was pretty militant—not totally militant, but more than willing to fight to hold down class sizes, gain pay raises, improve curriculum, etc.
We even fought the district over adjunct duties that required teachers to stay after school or come in on weekends to supervise sports and other student activities that took place outside of regular hours. The district wanted no limit on the number of hours and the district held firm for a total of 20-unpaid extra duty hours a school year and the union won, but that fight took a few years to win.
I think the closer the union president is to the action—-and most presidents of locals are also active teachers—-the more willing they are to stand their ground and fight. It may also work better in smaller districts. It seems the larger an organization, the more prone it is for all sorts of corruption.
Gee Chris, I’m a member and missed that law and warning some how. Send more info please. Maybe being deemed uncollegial as part of my official teacher evaluation last year for asking questions and stating facts about the now required processes was a way to begin the process of getting rid of me? As an older person I was educated to ask questions, research, and look for answers. The system seems to have done a good job then and politicians were very thorough today in taking away due process along with taking control of every factor to meet their goals; not what good research shows works.
deb, I posted this before, when I received it. It is an email from Andy Ford, president of the FEA entitled: “Alert: What YOU Need to Know About Opt-Out Testing”
Although the main subject is testing, this email made it clear that challenging any state statutes (that would include VAM, testing, standards, etc.) is now a very risky business and could result in immediate dismissal under Senate Bill 736, signed into law by newly-re-elected governor Rick Scott soon after his first election.
This is the most telling paragraph of the email to me:
“Wow. Don’t I have the right to voice my professional or personal opinion on this issue?
Gagging teachers is one of the many direct and intended consequences of Senate Bill 736, the very first bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott. Teachers can no longer speak out in the best interest of students or for themselves. Teacher evaluations are affected and job security can be threatened if teachers do not implement current policies … even those widely recognized as educationally unsound. The most effective and highly effective annual contract teachers can be released for any reason or for no reason at all. ”
Here is the content of the email in its entirety deb.
“Dear Colleague:
As educators, we know that the idea of all children moving through school at exactly the same pace, under the tutelage of the perfect teacher and performing equally well on the exact same tests might be convenient for adults, but it has little to do with how our children actually learn.
Sadly, what is convenient for adults rather than what is best for students has become the guiding principle for almost every education “reform” in Florida. Education experts know this is not sound practice. Teachers know it is not sound practice. Parents know it is not good for their children. And it must STOP.
In recent weeks, frustration among parents, teachers and students has boiled over.
On August 27, parents in Lee County succeeded in pressuring their school board to pass a motion to opt the district out of all statewide standardized tests.
The reaction to the Lee County action from those heavily invested in high stakes testing was swift and the potential penalties stunningly severe: high school students might not be allowed to graduate, state funding including lottery funds and school recognition money might be withheld. It has even been suggested that teachers who talk to students and/or parents about the opt-out controversy might be targeted for sanctions from the state against their teaching certificate.
The Lee County School Board called an emergency meeting and rescinded their vote just six days later.
Earlier this month, a Gainesville kindergarten teacher risked losing her job by saying she would not administer new state tests to her young students. She had the backing of her administrators and school board. Coincidentally, this week the state DOE suspended the FAIR test for this year, citing technical difficulties, rather than the growing opposition to testing.
This debate must continue and educators must speak out. But the threat of retribution is real. School employees – particularly teachers who hold professional certificates — must be aware of the difference between advocating for policy change and encouraging disregard for current statute.
Below is a Q&A that should be helpful in the coming weeks.
Questions and Answers about Opting Out of Standardized Testing
I am hearing parents, teachers and even some students talk about opting out of state standardized tests and local assessment tests … is that even possible?
Currently, there is no legal process for a parent or student to opt out of testing in Florida.
Our school’s open house is coming up. What should I tell parents who ask me about opting their child out of standardized tests?
As a teacher, you need to know that you have a professional and ethical obligation to uphold district policy and state law. Therefore, you should not encourage students and/or parents to opt out of any mandatory test because that action MAY lead to sanctions from the state against your certificate and/or discipline by the district. Parents should be directed to the principal, the district superintendent and/or school board members as the ones who set and implement district policy.
Wow. Don’t I have the right to voice my professional or personal opinion on this issue?
Gagging teachers is one of the many direct and intended consequences of Senate Bill 736, the very first bill signed by Gov. Rick Scott. Teachers can no longer speak out in the best interest of students or for themselves. Teacher evaluations are affected and job security can be threatened if teachers do not implement current policies … even those widely recognized as educationally unsound. The most effective and highly effective annual contract teachers can be released for any reason or for no reason at all.
So what can we, as education professionals, do to fix this misguided system? Our students are being subjected to toxic levels of testing and cheated out of an education!
There is little disagreement that Florida’s so-called accountability system has gone horribly wrong. Florida’s use of testing must change, but we must follow the rules and work within the system. Many education stakeholders, including FEA, are calling on Gov. Rick Scott and the State Board of Education to immediately stop using standardized testing for any purpose other than as a diagnostic tool. Until standardized testing is again focused on teaching and learning, Florida should adopt a comprehensive opt-out policy that allows parents the choice to have their children excused without penalty from participating in statewide standardized or state required assessments.
What can I tell friends and family who are concerned about their children and the future of our public schools? What can they do to help?
Florida voters must hit the reset button on education reform by turning out and voting out those who are responsible for what one newspaper has dubbed, “an incomprehensible mess.”
Sincerely,
Andy Ford
President, Florida Education Association ”
I hear you. I’m imagining how to do student groups when students don’t speak English or maybe as an ESE student who needs total support for communication through hand over hand assistance and a communication board. My District too uses the Dr. Marzano evaluation tool and I need training in how to facilitate the things that are mandated and part of my evaluation. We ESE teachers keeps questioning if it’s research driven to mandate higher level thinking skills that require independence for a Dr. Marzano “four,” as a part of each lesson. Meaning we have to make the materials, program the communication boards, and take the time to facilitate it when students are functioning on a total hand over hand participatory level in the self contained, lower groups. Wouldn’t it be more practical to try to bump students up to the next level of communication with partial prompts with high interest, multisensory curriculum? I can notice the difference when I try to work on curriculum that isn’t interesting to my students. If their IQ is on the 9 month old level and the curriculum is demanding abstract information that pictures and concrete object just don’t communicate the concept, I do my best to bring it down to their level of complexity but it then doesn’t meet the evaluation tool’s requirements. It feels like it’s a trick to make it look like I can’t teach and my students can’t learn. They can and do learn. I’ve seen growth over eight years when finally one day a student demonstrated a skill in my class. That growth was invisable until the day it happened. Too bad it doesn’t count towards any of the student growth measures or teacher evaluation measures used. If that’s not grit…. The lightbulb went on and it made a quality of life change for the child while it made me happy for her.
My motto this year is “working within systems to change systems.” So…what do you think if you prepared a document based essay question which included a series of Opt Out articles (like the link below) and asked students to respond to an argumentative prompt “Should students be allowed to Opt Out of standardized testing?” in order to prepare students for the new Common Core aligned writing exams. Maybe give students this essay prompt in February (we do some writing intensive every February at my school called “Stake it and Claim It”). This DBQ could be shared amongst teachers across districts and could also be shared at the national Opt Out conference in Fort Lauderdale in January.
This is an example of what I’m talking about http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-81910099/
Students just refusing to take the test on the spot.
I’d say in most places you’d be out on your ass after trying such a thing , but good luck with that ! ; )
[Maybe if you included a prompt highly praising the tests they’d have more trouble going after you…]
I think reading teachers could at least get away with having their students read the article and maybe even having a class discussion about whether or not there should be punishments for students who refuse to take a test. It’s just a newspaper article, not porn. But then again, reading teachers’ jobs are dependent on the testing industry. They wouldn’t need remedial reading teachers if there wasn’t a test students kept failing. Of course if this whole testing system worked in the first place, there wouldn’t be any students in high school who needed remedial reading classes in the first place.
I must sadly report that even in the bucolic state of Vermont there are pockets of timid teachers and ego-driven administrators who manipulate the current political climate to help themselvs and hurt teachers. It is so important for teachers to speak, first, to each OTHER and then to reach a critical mass and band together to speak publically. I left a school after the union failed to address a toxic environment of workplace bullying–with a clear, demonstrable pattern over time and many people. They addressed technicalities to win my job back but failed, also on technicalities, to protect a colleague who had endured even worse treatment. When I complained to the state that the administrators had colluded to alter my personnel file, the state declined to investigate and my union attorney actually admonished me for doing so, saying I would be blackballed throughout the state. Shocked as I was that she would be complacent about such a thing, I realized she is only doing what our union–my fellow teachers–demand or fail to demand. Back at the school, anyone who becomes a target is advised by their peers and local union reps to ride it out and show their willingness to be meek and subsurvient rather than risk their job by speaking the truth. At this time, and after that trauma ( as others above have explained well), I did not feel I could bear to go back.
“. . . show their willingness to be meek and subsurvient. . . ”
This AI diagnosed teacher says FTS to that thought.
Debbie,
It is the same here in Jersey. My local advised me to do as I am told, avoid being insubordinate and pray!
FLERP!
Thanks for locating me on the radical fringe. Actually my views are pretty mainstream amongst my colleagues.
Diane Ravitch plea for help
A teacher asks: Why teach?
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…82/students-teachers-tests-teacher.html.csp
March, 21013
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…219/district-teachers-program-says.html.csp
Feb 17, 2014 … Ann Florence, who teaches English at Wasatch Junior High, says she is not the only instructor who has resisted the Acuity testing program the …
Paul Rolly: Utah teacher who balked at testing gets placed on leave
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…/teachers-district-florence-students.html.csp
Mar 28, 2014 … The ongoing conflict between district brass and Wasatch Junior High teacher Ann Florence came to a head Thursday. Florence, who was on …
April 9, 2014
Paul Rolly: Test-bucking teacher gets canned during spring break
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…/students-florence-district-parking.html.csp
Ann Florence, an honors English teacher at Wasatch Junior High, received a certified letter March 31 from Assistant Superintendent Mike Fraser telling her that …
May 12, 2014
Paul Rolly: Utah principal decries politici.. | The Salt Lake Tribune
archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=57920517&itype=cmsid
“Speak, act, march, discuss, and demand to be heard!” urges Franchesca Warren. I already tried those and was promptly fired. Cause for termination? Insubordination.
I lost my position as an English teacher in Salt Lake City for refusing to grade my own students’ writing on the McGraw-Hill Acuity Test, which was given seven times in the last two years. In other words, we were not only required to administer an insane number of tests, we were forced to subjectively grade the writing samples ourselves. Some of our teachers have 250 English students, which amounts to 3,500 student responses.
Half our department took an ethical stand, declaring this to be a conflict of interest. Threatened with termination, hundreds of others went ahead and graded the tests while privately protesting the inordinate amount of time wasted, the potential for bias, and the uselessness of the data–tests weren’t even aligned with our curriculum!
I am a current member of AFT and former member of NEA, which were both powerless to block my termination. According to local UEA leaders, Granite’s attitude toward teachers is that “they own you, you are expendable, and you will do what you are told.”
Granite District has become infamous for intimidation, bullying, retaliation and abysmal morale. Teachers are so paralyzed by fear that not one of them dares to publicly defend me or condemn the testing policies. Despite petitions, letters, emails, and phone calls supporting me, students and their parents also stand powerless.
I followed my heart into the classroom at age 50. During the last 14 years, I was granted tenure, earned a master’s degree, taught hundreds of students in a state that stretches its education dollars until they snap, walked thousands of extra miles, produced stellar test scores, and earned high marks for performance.
I have been vocal in my objections to excessive testing. My op-ed ran in the
Salt Lake Tribune in March, 2013. http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/56010884-82/students-teachers-tests-teacher.html.csp
Last spring, a Salt Lake Tribune columnist wrote about my story four times:
February 17, http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…219/district-teachers-program-says.html.csp;
March 29, Paul Rolly: Utah teacher who balked at testing gets placed on leave
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…/teachers-district-florence-students.html.csp
April 9, Paul Rolly: Test-bucking teacher gets canned during spring break
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/…/students-florence-district-parking.html.csp
May 12, Paul Rolly: Utah principal decries politici.. | The Salt Lake Tribune
archive.sltrib.com/printfriendly.php?id=57920517&itype=cmsid
In television interviews, three stations quoted the district’s public relations
director, who slandered me instead of addressing the testing issues.
http://www.good4utah.com/story/d/story/utah-teacher-claims-she-was-fired-over-a-standariz/23523/jNTn8NEekU-lcGLtkucDlQ
http://fox13now.com/tag/ann-florence/
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=29487933
In firing me, the district cited past reprimands which were nothing more than
trumped up charges brought against me after I challenged my principal’s unjust and dictatorial policies in 2011.
Because I had resigned from NEA for not defending me against the false charges
and recently joined AFT, neither union will assist me with legal funds. I am in the
process of appealing for reinstatement, the restoration of my retirement bonus, and restitution for the damage done to my reputation by the district’s smear campaign.
My initial appeal, a useless formality, cost $3500, and I am told that my second, more formal hearing could run between $5,000 and $10,000—unbelievable! A supporter is setting up a defense fund at a local bank. A contribution to my cause is a
contribution to teachers everywhere whose civil liberties have been stolen from
them.
This is Ann FLorence. I accidentally posted the wrong copy of my reply to Debbie Franks. Please delete that post and let me post the correct one.
they expect the “speaking out” by teachers, but they never expect it to really escalate…
“See, people with power understand exactly one thing: violence.”
― Noam Chomsky
time to escalate!
Why not start the violence yourself?
I am not an advocate of violence of any sort.
Rather than violence, we have to first of all be willing to risk our jobs. Then, we have to be willing to support those who have risked their jobs and pony up in their legal defense: we can play the same game they have with Vergara. Does anyone know of a place where this is being done, where local unions are seriously challenging VAM/ BS teacher evals/ teachers persecutued for speaking out against excessive testing? Specific test legal cases around the country we can assist in?
Debbie,
A teacher in New York State has filed a lawsuit about her evaluation. I will look it up.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/10/31/high-achieving-teacher-sues-state-over-evaluation-labeling-her-ineffective/
This is the link Debbie. How do you propose to organize this campaign?
Their case–see if they need funds or witnesses. I am not sure how to publicize, but perhaps Diane’s blog might help. I have had zero luck locally contacting news media or state legislators but that might be different in NY.
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
When teachers speak out, most parents listen. We can indirectly speak out against testing in many creative ways. When I am pulled from my classroom for yet another worthless PD session, I tell my students that I fought to stay in the classroom but was forced to miss the day of teaching. I tell them to tell their parents and have their parents complain to school officials. The key is to have parents completely reject the test-and-punish movement through opt outs. We cannot advise them to opt out but we can let our general discontent be known and have them draw their own conclusion.
It is workhttp://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/states-listen-as-parents-give-rampant-testing-an-f.html?hpw&rref=education&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0ing in some states:
Ooops:
Try the link now (today’s NYT):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/us/states-listen-as-parents-give-rampant-testing-an-f.html?hpw&rref=education&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
Go to the ‘comments’ link for this article to get a sense of how the mood of the public is shifting strongly against the test-and-punish reform regime.
Yes you are right. Several teacher friends I know have secretly told me they do not support the Common Core but since they are terrified of losing their jobs in this insecure economy for teachers. With several teachers getting pink slipped left and right very few have the power to speak up. Principles also feel pressured to abide by the new Common Core regime laws. There is no democracy in public school education and that is why I think it is imperative that legislation be drawn up to protect our public school education system from suspect and potentially corrupt overhauls such as Common Core. Several are profiting from this and no one within the system can call them out. Does anyone know what is the first step toward creating this protective legislation?