Ann Marie Corgill, Alabama’s teacher-of-the-year for 2014-15, resigned on October 29. She had had it. If states treat their best teachers the way she was treated, shame on them.
Mercedes Schneider sums up the sorry story here.
“She is state certified to teach primary through third grade. Corgill is also National Board Certified to teach through seventh grade.
Corgill began the 2015-16 school year teaching second grade but was moved to fifth grade.
The state says that she now needs to renew her state certification to include teaching fifth grade.
But here’s the kicker:
When she was chosen as state teacher of the year, Corgill was teaching fourth grade– outside of her state certification.
On October 29, 2015, Corgill decided she had had enough and tended her resignation. Here is an excerpt:
“After 21 years of teaching in grades 1-6, I have no answers as to why this is a problem now, so instead of paying more fees, taking more tests and proving once again that I am qualified to teach, I am resigning. …
“Please know that I wanted to give my all and share my expertise with Birmingham City Schools. …”
“In order to attract and retain the best teachers, we must feel trusted, valued and treated as professionals. It is my hope that my experience can inform new decisions, policies and procedures to make Birmingham City Schools a place everyone wants to work and learn.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And this is exactly what the corporate education reformers paid for by the Waltons, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, the Koch brothers and a snakes-den of hedge fund frauds and crooks want—to drive out and crush the real educators and teachers to get hold of our children and the money that comes with them, so they can teach children virtually or in autocratic Suspension Corporate Charter schools—the American gulag for our children—as they keep driving the US toward a fascist nation designed to favor the wealthiest fools and torment and torture the rest of us as they drive us all into poverty to increase their wealth and power and to create a world of their own making and to hell with the U.S. Constitution and democracy.
If the oligarchs win, we will all be forced to live in a world of their making by rules that smother while they do whatever they want that will send to the rest of us to prison.
Eventually, there will be life/death sentences for stealing a loaf of bread or a bottle of water.
It is also why, the reformers can convince parents there is little need of certification. Licensing requirements are often developed as the pet project du jour and teacher placement is based on principal manipulation to meet district/union agreements.
Following thirty-three years of teaching general-education students, I worked under a special education credential, teaching special education. The district would not allow me to teach a mixed group of special-education and general-education students unless a general education teacher was present. Whether this was because of federal regulations, NCLB, or contract agreements, I never understood. Frankly, it made little sense, but given the nature of the district’s legal aggressiveness, it would have been folly to be caught doing so in case a problem arose in the classroom.
One isn’t wise to do anything one has not been specifically assigned to do by someone in authority.
The nice thing about charter schools is that they can be free from these mindless bureaucratic requirements that unions put in place.
WT, are you really that ignorant and biased? The unions had little to do with the mindless bureaucracy you mentioned. That mindless crap came mostly though legislation at the state and federal level and decades of court verdicts.
About the only time the teachers’ unions get involved and send in their lobbyists is to counter the threats to the teachers future survival and livelihood—jobs and income. Who pays the corporate lobbyists for the testing and/or publishing industry—not the teachers’ unions.
Name who funded the mindless Common Core Crap and you will discover who’s responsible. For instance, ALEC, Eli Broad, Bill Gates, UK’s Pearson, the Walton family foundation, the Koch brothers and their vast spider web of non-profit’s they founded and funded that are spreading a Tsunami of cherry picked lies to fool more fools, who have been well program ed and brainwashed to blame the teachers’ unions.
Who founded the Vergara decision to strip teachers of their due process rights?
Right, mindless bureaucratic requirements like expelling & suspending kids with disabilities or denying them their civil rights.
Lloyd Lofthouse: I am surprised that you don’t understand the secret sauce cooked up by publicly funded/privately run charter schools.
😳
Not that I believe in this, but let’s get disruptively creative a la rheephorm: shut your mouth, puff your cheeks out, walk between the painted lines and tuck that shirt in!
😱
You never know when SRO Slam is gonna make sure you understand the consequences for not servilely bowing down to charter edubullies, er, properly constituted authority…
Although, to be honest, I’m with you on this.
😎
P.S. Am I having trouble translating Rheephormish into English, or has something changed so that a rheephorm-minded state requirement is actually a union rule?
My first reaction is always what I was trained to do in boot camp. Identify the enemy and totally destroy them with any weapons at hand. In this war, our weapons are words, and I hope it is true that the pen—bleeding red ink—is mightier than the sword.
Thank God, we don’t do that or we’d all be ash in nuclear fallout. Never been in boot camp, so what do I know. Maybe on a larger scale it is to neutralize an enemy – they may be an ally later. Witness the author of this blog.
Lloyd, we are talking about certification requirements here. And you will find no bigger supporter of certification requirements than unions.
Every single time a charter supporter points out that certification requirements aren’t actually that useful or meaningful, or asks for alternative certification, the unions and their allies (including Dr. Ravitch herself) wax eloquent about how important certification supposedly is.
Yet as this post shows, however hypocritically, the certification requirements that they demand at every turn can come back to bite a good teacher.
If you have an actual argument, and aren’t just trolling yourself, feel free to try to write it out.
WT said, “If you have an actual argument, and aren’t just trolling yourself, feel free to try to write it out.”
WT, are you a party to this debate and the judge and the jury too?
I’ll leave it up to those who read my comments—-and not you—-to decide if I’m a troll for calling you ignorant and biased after I provided reams of evidence in some if not all of my comments in this thread with links to support my allegations about your credibility and wrong headed claims.
Obama and Duncan, and Bush before him, designed NCLB to be Certification heavy with their highly qualified nonsense, however
I assume you would want your house designed by a certified architect rather than just a carpenter. Educating children is serious business. It’s not for hacks.
Read one of my other comments placed today in this thread about teacher certification. Because it had numerous links, Diane will have to approve it first.
What in your encounters with unions has left such a bitter taste in your mouth WT?
I found that the NEA here in the Show Me State has been and is in bed with administration and has been GAGA over the educational malpractices that are the educational standards and standardized testing. I was “counseled” by them to look for a job in another district when the principal attempted to have an assistant principal file false sexual harassment charges for me having once used the phrase “mental masturbation”. Fortunately, the AP (one of the very few that I consider a good one) was strong enough to resist the principal’s devious attempt.
I quit the NEA after that, but I still believe in strong unions who represent the workers and not management/administration.
WT,
I’m not sure you know what you are talking about. In fact, if we are talking about the same thing, I know you don’t know what you are talking about—-at least for California.
The certification I’m familiar with in California had little to do with the teachers’ unions. The requirement to earn a teaching credential and be certified in California came from the state legislature and the details were refined by the state’s department of education after the legislation was passed.
For instance, I earned one of the last life credentials in the state in 1975-76. The following year, the state starting issuing 5-year teaching certification that had to be renewed every five years after proving that the teachers had taken approved workshops or classes on a regular basis to keep improving their teaching skills—a never ending process for those who stay in teaching. Even doctors are not forced to do this even if all their patients would like it to be that way.
And this was in 1975-76, several years before the fraud and lies of A Nation at Risk came out in 1983 under the Reagan admiration. In California, the pressure was already on to improve teacher training.
But I wouldn’t be surprised if the state teachers’ unions did send their lobbyists to influence elected representatives in Sacramento to make sure that the legislation wasn’t too punitive for teachers—after all isn’t that the reason for a teachers’ union, to look out for their interests of their members?—but the state teachers’ unions did not write that legislation that made teaching more difficult for teachers. The teachers’ union was not in charge just like Eli Broad or Bill Gates are not supposed to be in charge—but these billionaires do have more money then the teacher’s unions to influence legislation and buy elections for their puppet politicians as you will see when we get to the comparison below.
The teachers’ unions was also not responsible for creating the urban residency program that I went through for one full school year in a master teacher’s classroom.
I repeat, the teachers’ unions do not control the teacher training programs at the universities where teachers earn their credentials and certification.
The teacher certification laws toughened up after the fraud and lies of A Nation at Risk and eventually in the early 1990s I had to go back to school and take more than 20 units of graduate work (approved classes that fit what I was teaching in high school) to keep my life credential so I could continue to teach. I had to pay for that on my own and take night classes after teaching during the day—-only one of those classes actually benefited my teaching skills. Traffic is horrible at that hour in Los Angeles Country and I often sat in traffic for an hour or more to get to my night classes at Cal State LA. By the time I arrived, the upper parking lots were full and I had to park in the lower parking lots and climb the staircase that was known as heart attack hill. Then hours later, I was back home correcting student work knowing I also had home work of my own if I wanted to stay in teaching.
Now I know the lobbyists for the teachers’ unions were involved in that because the legislation at the state level wanted to throw out all the teachers who didn’t fit the new certification legislation working its way through the process. If the union hadn’t been active in that legislation, I would have been out of education after teaching successfully—and I have evidence of this success—for more than 15 years, and I wouldn’t have been alone. The state would have lost most of its teachers.
The original punitive and draconian version of the legislation working its way through committees in Sacramento would have driven a lot of teachers out of teaching if the union had not sent in their lobbyists to help draft a compromise through their elected allies that allowed teachers like me, who didn’t fit the language of the original legislation, to stay in the classroom. And even with that compromise, I had to take another TEST and more than 20 units in graduate work to continue to be certified to teach.
Now I’m going to compare who has more influence on education legislation at the state and national level—the teachers’ unions or the billionaire oligarchs.
Between 2005 and 2010, the Teachers unions spent a little more than $25 million on lobbying.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=l1300
But how much did the Walton family spend to influence education legislation for the same time period?
Between 2005 and 2010, the Walton Family Foundation gave nearly $700 million to education reform organizations.[20] Specifically, the family provides lavish funding for voucher programs, charter schools, and policy and advocacy groups devoted to establishing and promoting alternatives to public schooling.
http://walmart1percent.org/issues/education/
How about Bill Gates?
Since 1999, the Gates Foundation has spent approximately $3.4 billion on an array of measures to try to improve K-12 public education, with mixed results.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-bill-gates-pulled-off-the-swift-common-core-revolution/2014/06/07/a830e32e-ec34-11e3-9f5c-9075d5508f0a_story.html
The Koch brothers are also spending millions to influence education issues:
http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/03/27/14497/inside-koch-brothers-campus-crusade
What about Eli Broad?
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/got-dough-how-billionaires-rule-our-schools
In conclusion, the $25 million from teachers unions versus billions from the just a few of the billionaires (not counting the hedge fund billionaires who have also spend hundreds of millions to influence education legislation), and you continue to blame only the teachers’ unions for the mess that the oligarchs and their puppet President and Secretary of Education have created.
I think you must worship one of the talking heads of hate radio funded by the billionaires, a talking head on hate radio who bashes teachers and their unions exclusively with cherry picked facts and lies. Who is that hate radio talking head you read or listen to?
Again, I laud you for your ignorance and bias against teachers and their unions.
Lloyd, you have no evidence or logic to counter my only point: it makes no sense to spend so much time saying that certification is important, that teachers shouldn’t be uncertified, that charters should be held to the same certification rules, etc., only then to spin on a dime and complain about certification rules when someone else’s ox is gored.
Obvious troll is obvious. Fail. 0/10
Oops, the comment above should have been here: If you have an actual argument, and aren’t just trolling yourself, feel free to try to write it out.
WT,
I can’t claim to be a lawyer, doctor, nurse, car dealer, realtor, banker without certification. We have certifications for auto technicians, computer programmers, therapists, plumbers, electricians, chemists, quality specialists. Businesses proudly proclaim accreditations from industry groups. In fact, many good businesses WANT certifications and industry requirements to ensure a minimum level of competence. The best businesses see industry certification process as a way to keep out subpar and dishonest operators and raise the trust and level of quality overall. Of course some, like car dealers, can use certifications to limit competition.
So the question is if it is all certifications you oppose, or just for teachers?
I know you just troll. But too many Reformers turn trolling into policy.
I didn’t say I oppose certification. I said that it makes no sense for the same people who demand certification all the time to whine about certification requirements.
Good to see you support certifications for teachers as well as others. I have heard teachers complain about certification, especially the mindless, irrelevant paper work. My understanding is once a person passes the Bar or Medical Boards, they aren’t going to lose their certification to practice except for misconduct. Even then, in these professions, the license is usually just suspended. But teachers must frequently re-certify, at least in our state, or they cannot teach.. But complaining about the process (“whining” as you call it) is far different than advocating for no certification. I think your argument is more just an anti-union position from whatever ideology controls your thinking.
In Utah, teachers have to be fingerprinted again every five years. No other profession requires a new fingerprint and background check every time they renew their licenses.
WT: I am at a loss to figure out why this makes ‘no sense’ to you. Why is it a problem to understand two totally different regulatory schemes. On the one hand, teachers (at least many of the ones who make teaching a career) support the idea of comprehensive teacher education — leading to certification not dissimilar to the manner in which bar exams for attorneys, medical boards for doctors, etc. all establish that they have mastered a baseline of knowledge to practice in their field. On the other hand, teachers are NOT fans of meddling bureaucracies that take the idea of sound, thoughtful certification — and turn it into a mindless labyrinth of annual hurdles to make any lateral moves within their profession. I am not talking about continuing education — many professions have some of that, and as long as it is a reasonable requirement, great. But what the Alabama teacher described is bureaucratic meddling over small lateral teaching moves (from 3rd grade to fifth, etc.) by individuals who have already been tested and shown to be qualified to teach.
Overall certification and bureaucratic busywork are two totally different things — and my mind has no problem with seeing why teachers might support general accreditation programs (frankly I think some are overrated — but the good ones are worth their weight in gold) — while at the same time criticizing the mindless bureaucratic haggling that is described in the article.
Is an education license required to run a charter school? Ha!
After 28 years of teaching public preschool with a MA K-3 license, I was forced to take two MTEL’s to get the new PK-2 license or I would lose my job. They had replaced the
K-3 license years before, but had allowed me to renew it every 5 years. Strange.
I had also been allowed to supervise student teachers seeking the newer Pre-K-2 license for several years.
I was told there was strictly no “grandfathering in” which I think was false. I was insulted, but then glad I took the tests because I saw how flawed they were.
Good for Ann Marie for resigning! Hopefully it will bring attention to this insanity.
How is she going to make a living? I hope another district picks her up.
WT, the union wanted to help me, but there was nothing they could do. It was a state requirement. And it put more money in Pearson’s pockets.
To Barbara:
If teacher cannot make a living, could you imagine those law makers to be like when they are out of work? Population did not trust politicians who are cheating for their own individual monetary gain.
Please remember that teachers have mastered their skills of teaching, NOT LEARNING. For this reason, teachers can do a lot of things to make a living from honesty, kindness, and being considerate The only matter is whether teacher is willing to fight back those vicious business’ manipulation which is dishonest, cruel, and intimidated to population.
Teachers can TEACH parents, new teacher students, and all students of all grades to exercise their power in number to opt out, to boycott all INVALID testing schemes, to boycott Walmart products or Pearson products, to redesign RULES in teacher union organization …
I am sad that those academic retirees sell their soul for money by using their expertise, experiences, and connection to enable rich idiots to distort the law through all loopholes in order to bully all conscientious educators. Back2basic
As I understand the info published at the teacher’s blog and AL.com, the qualification in question derives from federal NCLB reqt that all teachers at Title I schools be ‘highly qualified’ per fed definition, as further defined by the state. Most of this AL Teacher of the Year’s considerable prior experience was in Alabama (non-Title I) public schools, mostly 1st but also upper primary grades. Her certs include AL thro 3rd gr & Natl Board Cert 4-6. Apparently the latter cert has to be buttressed by Praxis exam/ full AL cert to fulfill Title I reqts.
Corgill was hired into this Title I school as a 1st-gr teacher, then abruptly moved to 5th gr after 5 wks to fill an emergency need. The principal would have been well aware of her certs having just hired her, & presumably should have issued her an Emergency Cert for the duration of the school year. That would have bought time to discuss the issue of Praxis test for 4-6 vs returning her to 1st-3rd when the need subsided.
Delaying paycheck for 2 mos, moving to another grade then informing her she’s unqualified to teach it sure sounds like they didn’t want her there.
This is sad. But you are wrong about corporation reformers
The resignation of the best teachers, is part of Duncan’s legacy. News outlets, like Politico, won’t cover the topic. Instead, they fawn over the agents of the hedge funds and Silicon Valley.
It’s typical diabolical plotting by men like Broad and Gates, to drive teachers out of the public system, enabling private schools to pick them up without paying competitive wages and benefits.
Now that the U.S. is a service economy, the productivity gains that once were gained through better raw material utilization and automation, are now achieved by impoverishing workers.
“Delaying paycheck for 2 mos, moving to another grade then informing her she’s unqualified to teach it sure sounds like they didn’t want her there.”
Bingo. What’s interesting about this story is that it doesn’t make sense, in terms of anybody’s framework of what’s “best practice” in so-called education reform–it’s not really about testing or school governance models or teacher evaluation. It’s about how a school weaseled around (moving her to a new grade, not paying her) to find a way to get rid of a fantastic teacher.
This is not a new story (see: Rafe Esquith). Many schools are wary of superstar teachers. Many principals don’t want teachers to write provocative, widely read blogs or work on leadership initiatives that aren’t tightly controlled. Some teachers don’t want to be compared to a celebrity teacher whose work has been publicly lauded. It’s the crab pot theory: Don’t rise above your station in life.
I feel tremendous sympathy for Ann Marie Corgill, who wanted to do the right thing. It was her very success that stopped her progress in its tracks.