From our steadfast reader and superb researcher, Laura Chapman, retired arts educator:
Here is an example of the empty rhetoric from the Obama/Duncan administration, still in play and revealing a totally corrupted set of meanings for trust and respect.
The Obama/Duncan administration launched the so-called RESPECT program for “Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence And Collaborative Teaching” in 2013. RESPECT was nothing more than a pitch from McKinsey & Co. for teachers to give up all quests for job security and embrace longer hours, fewer days off, tiers of merit pay for raising test scores (minimum “a year’s worth of growth” every year) and so on.
USDE enlisted board certified teachers, teachers of the year, and Presidential fellows to endorse and to market these ideas in meetings they were to convene in every state. These spokespersons and meeting conveners were given a draft of the RESPECT proposal to distribute, a fully scripted discussion protocol and time allocations for pacing the meeting (as if the teachers could not be trusted to lead a meeting.) The conveners were asked to distribute a participant form, solicit written comments from every participant on sections of the proposal. These written comments became the “feedback loop” for tailoring the next rounds of marketing. The project was not much more than a large scale series of focus groups from credible leaders, achieved at low cost. It traded on the aura of respect attained by the teachers, but it did trust them to engage in pro-actively in any critically informed discussions about their profession. McKinsey & Co.’s role in this was not advertised.
The Obama/Duncan administration’s trust in teachers and respect for them as professionals is/was nil. Nothing came from the RESPECT program. Apart from marketing USDE’s marketing of that plan, the consultants at McKinsey & Co. continue to earn big fees for the same boilerplate “fixes” for teaching, for school districts, and entire states. The formula is cut, cut, cut.extract more bang for the buck by any means you can get away with. http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/obama-administration-seeks-elevate-teaching-profession-duncan-launch-respect-project-teacher-led-national-conversation
Marketing campaigns framed as “conversations” are IN, so are faux-conversations about elevating the profession, “lifting” it up, “rebranding” this work, calling for “great teachers, great schools, and great leaders…while forwarding the commercialization of these ratings via data feeds to fake non-profit sites like greatschools.org—data for sale there, ready to exploit package deals including access to “site traffic data ” tailored to your interests and wallet.
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/conversation/
The Obama/Duncan regime in education is coming to a close, but the rhetorical moves it has used to delineate expectations and roles for teachers is still in place: the oxymoronic concept of “impacting student growth,” the mindless demands for “rigorous” and “high quality” this or that. The pompous rhetoric of “elevating” the profession of teacher and of “lifting up” teacher voices—nothing more than marketing drivel to diminish professional autonomy and hype short-cuts for entry into the enter teaching. http://marketingland.com/linkedins-newest-app-elevate-helps-employees-share-content-helps-employers-view-results-124932
Now there are efforts to just rebrand the profession of teaching. I kid you not, expertise from graphic designers, funding from the National Endowment of the Arts, replying on the high arts and developed craft skills of aesthetic persuasion. Check out the rebranding project here: http://www.aiga.org/case-study-teach/
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“A Tale of Two Interests: The Superintendent and the Union Chief vs. the Teachers in the Classroom.” A School Board Talk by Andy Goldstein, May 14, 2016
https://youtu.be/Do2n863cNPs
Transcript:
Good evening. My name is Andy Goldstein. I’m a teacher at Omni Middle School and the proud parent of an 8-year-old daughter who attends one of our public elementary schools. I’m also the elected Secretary of the Palm Beach County Classroom Teachers Association–one of four elected officers. I’m speaking as an individual.
I’m speaking tonight about the DROP extension for the President of CTA. DROP is Florida’s Deferred Retirement Option Program. The teacher makes the choice to go into DROP in return for receiving certain benefits. And at the end of the DROP period, the teacher agrees to retire. DROP is entered into voluntarily, by the teacher’s choice.
I’m speaking tonight, because as the Secretary of CTA, I was asked by both the CTA President and the CTA Executive Director, to sign off on a letter to the Superintendent, saying that our Board had approved the DROP extension request for the President. I refused to sign the letter, because I believe the DROP extension for the CTA President is unethical. Both for the CTA President, and for our Superintendent.
While a teacher can ask for, and the Superintendent can grant, a DROP extension, the CTA President is in a special position that makes this unethical. As the head of CTA, the sole collective bargaining agent for all of our teachers in Palm Beach County, there must be no appearance or actual quid pro quo going on between the President and the Superintendent.
The Preamble to our CTA Constitution states one of the prime missions for our union—obtaining for our members the benefits of an independent, united teaching profession.
A DROP extension makes the President, and the Union, dependent on our Superintendent, instead of vigorously representing the interests of our members and our teachers in collective bargaining.
Our CTA Board, which met on Monday, has not heard from our President whether the DROP extension has been granted by our Superintendent. But we have heard rumors that it has.
A granting of a DROP extension to the CTA President, puts the Superintendent in the position of occupying our union and raises the question, is there a quid pro quo going on between the heads of these two large organizations at the expense of the teacher in the classroom?
Our District has destroyed the livelihood of our teachers and created a dead-end profession. Our District has created an environment of ever-increasing stress for our teachers as they work at two, three and four part-time jobs to make ends meet. If it’s harming our teachers, it’s also harming our students.
Is this the quid pro quo for the DROP extension agreement for our CTA President?
I don’t know. But it certainly raises the question.
Other Union presidents, such as Richard Smith of Brevard County, do the right thing and retire when their DROP is over, rather than try to make a second career at the expense of our teachers.
I am here to announce that I believe the CTA President’s DROP extension is unethical, and to ask the Superintendent not to extend DROP for the CTA President, or if he already has, to rescind the DROP extension. And I ask the CTA President to do the right thing and resign.
Thank you.
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“Marketing campaigns framed as “conversations” are IN, so are faux-conversations about elevating the profession, “lifting” it up, “rebranding” this work, calling for “great teachers, great schools, and great leaders…while forwarding the commercialization of these ratings via data feeds to fake non-profit sites like greatschools.org—data for sale there, ready to exploit package deals including access to “site traffic data ” tailored to your interests and wallet.”
Absolutely agree. They’re also pushing “employee voice” which is the DC replacement for “employee rights”.
It’s not even new. It was all the rage in manufacturing 20 years ago. You get “voice” as a replacement for enforceable labor protections. They’ll allow you to “sit at the table” then they’ll pat you on the head and send you on your way. But they “heard” you! Be assured! You have been HEARD. They feeeeeellll your pain 🙂
I bet these workers feel very “empowered”:
“poultry industry workers are “routinely denied breaks to use the bathroom” in order to optimize the speed of production. In some cases, according to the group, the reality is so oppressive that workers “urinate and defecate while standing on the line” and “wear diapers to work.” In others, employees say they avoid drinking liquids for long periods and endure considerable pain in order to keep their jobs.”
It’s not enough that they steal their wages. They now can’t go to the bathroom. This is now a perfectly acceptable way to treat working people in the US- like garbage.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/11/i-had-to-wear-pampers-many-poultry-industry-workers-allegedly-cant-even-take-bathroom-breaks/
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Andy, I so appreciate everything you do, as a fellow Florida teacher.
My own district has an unwritten policy now that no one will be hired for district jobs in any department unless they have experience as a principal and an educational leadership degree. The reasoning given is that only principals will have credibility working with principals since they have experienced leadership as a principal, and the principals have all the power in the district.
Teachers, it seems, are incidental employees that are easily replaced and they must be micromanaged and constantly supervised since they cannot be trusted to do their jobs with any level of independence. Funny how that works since we are the ones who do the actual work of schools: teaching children. Everyone else is support and should be subordinate to what we do yet the way things are now it is exactly the opposite of that.
In other words, teaching has literally become a dead-end job, with no possibility of increases in pay, professional growth, or leadership responsibilities unless you give up your seniority (tenure died years ago) and enroll in the merit pay plan that ties your salary to Danielson and student test scores, including the scores of students you have never taught or met or if you abandon your role as a teacher and become management.
Principals never seem to be held accountable; their schools may do poorly on state assessments year after year but blame is always assigned to the teachers, who have little to no say in curriculum, materials, scheduling, budgeting, etc. Principals just get shuffled around every year or two and end up in a 6-figure job ‘downtown’.
Those of us who take pride in being teachers and who have attained credentials, such as National Board Certification, and worked diligently to learn teacher leadership skills and earn certifications are now being forced out and given no hope of moving up or moving forward. Principals in our district routinely move successful, experienced teachers from a grade level or subject area in which they are experts to a grade or subject area where they have no experience or knowledge to force them out so they won’t question anything the leadership says or does. It’s working too.
We are expected to surpass 16% retirement this year of experienced teachers. I have no interest in ed leadership degrees, principal jobs, or anything of that nature although I have been courted for many years.I am a teacher and proud to be a teacher!
I’m watching my beloved profession die, slowly and irrevocably it seems, and my unions, professional organizations, and higher ed colleagues are all fiddling a dance for their benefactors in the reformist movement while we burn.
Why won’t teachers wake up and take to the streets to save our essential and rewarding profession and our public schools?
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Chris, I am so sorry that you are being demoralized by the current climate in your school district. You are exactly the type of person we need in teaching, and you are being marginalized by the twisted, ignorant era of “reform.” How is your district going to attract decent people that are also administrators as well when Florida is notorious for its low pay scale? It seems like a plan doomed to fail.
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“The Error of Reform” (Sometimes referred to in the literature as “The Era of Arne Err” and “The Cretinaceous Period”)
In “Error of Reform”
Tyrantosaurus Wrecks
And Dumbosaur’s the norm
And Teachosaurs are hexed
And VAMosaurs wreak havoc
On Publosaurus schools
With Demosaurs ecstatic
That Chartersuarus rules
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When the former members of the Obama Administration go on to their private sector careers working for the same billionaire ed reformers they promoted when they were on the public dime, do they get an employment package with enforceable terms and conditions?
Why don’t they rely on the touchy-feely “employee voice” and “empowerment” to protect their own rights? That’s what they’re selling as good enough for teachers. Should be good enough for them.
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Education policy is the new Wall Street; revolving door patronage and power with no accountability or informed pragmatism regardless of party.
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President Dwight David Eisenhower warned about what he called the “military-industrial complex.”
And now we should be warning everyone about what I call the “educational-industrial complex.” Or maybe the “educational-corporatist-political” complex. 😦
(And it’s not just the administration’s education people who move on to private-sector, way more lucrative jobs. It’s the administrative people in the Treasury Department and other economic advisors, Defense Department people, National Security people, State Department people, Justice Department people and on and on and on. And it has been this way for a long, long time.)
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Spin, hype and marketing strategies will not save the teaching profession. Unless teachers are given the hard fought for rights that lots of us fought for, it will be difficult to attract quality people to teaching. The whole reform movement is patronizing and demeaning. Testing, VAM, loss of due process rights are designed to put teachers on the defensive and keep them in their place. People like Gates, Obama and his cronies want to dictate and dominate, not elevate. Without real meaningful change that allows teachers to do what they really want to do which is teach without oppressive outside influence, young people will be avoiding teaching en masse. All the hype and spin Gates can muster will not attract them, unless the working conditions, compensation and stability include true RESPECT.
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB
Oh (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect (sock it to me, sock it to me,
sock it to me, sock it to me)
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I posted this column in a post where I explained that the Respect project was one big marketing ploy, a last ‘gift’; as Obama Duncan exit.
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Do I have this right? In order to give teachers RESPECT, they have rebranded the school and teacher icons from apples, ABCs, and pencils to dots. And just how is this working today? Never mind that their web site says people are downloading their posters. (don’t pay attention to the man behind the curtain)
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“How do you spell RESPECT?
How do you spell RESPECT?
With Common Core and VAM
With poverty neglect
And “public” charter scam
With NCLB waivers
And sleazy Deasy deals
With Billyanaires as saviors
And civil rights appeals
With marketing and hype
And testing till they drop
With Chetty study tripe
And Races to the Top
You spell with it with a book
As far as I can tell
Should really have a look
A book by George Orwell
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The name Lori Wheal comes up a lot in the US DOE propaganda promoting RESPECT, and the USDOE’s then (2011) newly created position / concept of the “master teacher.” Here’s one such piece, straight from Arne Duncan, where Wheal is the show pony, and Wheal’s astroturf organization “Educators for Excellence” (E4E) leading the way in the promotion of “RESPECT” with a new “report”:
http://blog.ed.gov/2012/03/e4es-advice-to-schools-to-keep-great-teachers-respect-their-careers/
Official release from Duncan’s USED:
“After earning her law degree while teaching full time, Lori Wheal thought she might leave the field of education. She had spent 10 years as a middle school teacher in the Bronx and was tired. Thanks to low pay, little respect, and limited opportunities for growth, she was at a crossroads. Should she leave a profession she truly loved for something more financially lucrative and well-respected?
“Before Lori had to make that decision, she was encouraged to apply for a new position at her school as a master teacher. ”
————-
and on it goes ….
Well, that rings a bell, as I recall multiple teacher blogs in New York City blew up when Wheal posted an op-ed (link BELOW) where she celebrated herself as “a master teacher”.
Unfortunately, however, although she attained the USDOE-created status a “master teacher,” she was still reluctantly leaving the teaching profession, as there was not enough opportunity for career advancement … tiers on a ladder… or whatever..
Tony Brantley described this here on the Ravitch Blot in the Comments section:
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TONY BRANTLEY:
There’s another asinine meme that has lately emanated from the E4E folks:
the “real” reason that teachers are leaving the profession is…
NOT because of constant propagandizing against and scapegoating of them…
NOR is it that their salaries, benefits, and job protections are being shredded and their unions busted…
NOR is it the de-professionalization of teaching executed by such orgs as the NCTQ and TFA…
NOR is it ballooning class size …
NOR is it having themselves evaluated and paid according to the dubious measures of their students’ test scores… and why put up with such a brutal, demanding job in the face of all these attacks.
No, no, no… none of that…
Teachers are leaving because they do not have “opportunities for advancement”…. a “career ladder” in which teachers will achieve the newly-created designation of “Master Teacher”, whereupon they may leave the classroom, either totally or partially, for more fulfillment and higher compensation… or other such nonsense.
(This is, in part, also a justification for Bill Gates’ and Erik Hanushek’s ludicrous idea of firing teachers who are less “excellent”—based on test scores, of course—then increasing the size of the classes taught by the remaining “excellent” “Master Teachers”, who will then be paid more, because… now, more students will be exposed to such “excellent” “Master Teachers”).
This moronic thesis was propagated in an New York Post op-ed by a ranking member of E4E’s New York City chapter… Ms. Lori Wheal.
She cited the absence of this “career ladder” as her reason for leaving teaching for greener pastures of “education policy”—where thankfully, the heart-breaking agony brought on by her abandonment of her students will now fortunately be compensated with the significantly higher pay that comes with such a courageous move to being a corporate reform policy wonk:
(NOTE: Ms Wheal—the E4E op-ed writer and a teacher with just a few years in the classroom—is a self-proclaimed “Master Teacher”, and who actually uses that improvised title for herself on LinkedIn and Twitter… don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back, Ms. Wheal):
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/why_nyc_can_keep_great_teachers_aySFH5cmkDYrnRxwXBnycK
Thankfully—and exactly one year ago today… August 1st, 2012—Ms. Wheal’s drivel was met with this withering response from a career teacher on his / her “Accountable Talk” blog (and also from some veteran teacher COMMENTERS that followed this… SEE BELOW):
http://www.accountabletalk.com/2012/08/note-to-lori-wheal-teaching-is-its-own.html
(NOTE, this blogger / teacher has very strong opinions on E4E, strong enough that he / she refuses to use call the group by its actual name, preferring instead to call it by a common nickname among The Big Apple’s veteran, non-E4E educators— “Asshats for Education”—“A4E”. I’m usually averse to such name-calling, but, in this instance at least, my aversion is considerably muted than it otherwise would be.)
———————————————
“Wednesday, August 1, 2012
“Note to Lori Wheal:
Teaching is its own Career Path
“Lori Wheal, member of ‘Asshats for Education’ (‘A4E’), regaled us today with the sorrowful tale of why she is leaving the classroom. In typical ‘Asshat’ style, she tells her tale of woe while informing us – repeatedly what a wonderful teacher she is and what a shame it is to lose her. She tells us she is a great teacher ‘by all measures’. She lumps herself in with the ‘irreplaceable’ teachers the city loses every year. She talks about being in the ‘Master Teacher’ program, and refers to herself as a ‘Master Teacher’ at every conceivable opportunity.
“No, really. She uses the title on LinkedIn and on Twitter. She even got NY1 to refer to her that way.
“I don’t know Ms. Wheal at all, but I do know that people who feel the need to toot their own horns all the time are usually the weakest and most insecure teachers.
“So what’s causing Ms. Wheal to leave and put the entire NYC school system in jeopardy of imminent collapse? Well, she was (as you may have heard) a ‘Master Teacher’ at a turnaround school, and now that position has been eliminated because those schools will not be closed. This has left poor ‘Master Teacher’ Wheal hopeless, as her precious ‘career ladder’ has been yanked out from under her. Clearly, she has no option but to leave the system, because despite her ‘Master Teacher’ credentials, she no longer has any intention of teaching children and wants to turn to education policy.
“Maybe there’s a way to introduce ‘Master Teacher’ Wheal to Ruben Brosbe, another Asshat who had no trouble telling everyone else how to teach but headed for the hills when there was real teaching to be done.
“I’ve got news for the boo-hoo-ing Asshats like ‘Master Teacher’ Wheal:
“Teaching is its own career path. If you have gone into teaching because you hope one day to run a school district, you are in the wrong profession.
“If telling other teachers how wonderful you are is more important to you than getting in front of kids and doing the day-in-day-out work of actually educating children, you are in the wrong profession.
“I may not know as much as ‘Master Teacher’ Wheal; after all, I have only been teaching for more than twice as long as she has. But I do know that getting a gig in a turnaround school with a nifty title doesn’t make you a ‘master teacher.’
“What makes you a ‘master teacher’ is dedication to those children in the classroom. It’s sticking it out even when the going gets tough. It’s being dedicated to teaching as a career and not looking at it as a stepping stone to greater things for your own advancement. It’s knowing that every year in the classroom teaches you something you can use the next year, and the next.
“If you go into education with the view that being a classroom teacher is the bottom rung of the ladder, you are a disgrace to the profession and you should leave.
“That means you, ‘Master Teacher’ Wheal.
“Don’t let the door hit you on the asshat on the way out.”
————————————–
HERE ARE SOME GREAT COMMENTS (from non-E4E, veteran teachers) THAT FOLLOW THIS:
————————————–
Michael Fiorillo said…
As you correctly point out, this woman’s arrogance and self-regard is just beyond the beyonds, to say nothing of her blindness/indifference to using her colleagues’ throats as a career stepping stone.
In a less-debased, disinformed era, something like this would be published as a case study of public preening and vanity, instead of an “opinion” piece.
There must be an Organizational Psychology/Human Resources profile, questionnaire and checklist for deformers to identify and promote these people, since they’re replicating out of control:
— Self-centered-ness?
— Self-importance?
— Seemingly willful lack of awareness of how their actions affect others?
— Unquestioning willingness to obey authority and channel received opinion?
Check, check, check and check.
—————————————–
AND THIS
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Anonymous said…
Lori Wheal couldn’t even keep herself engaged as a full time teacher. I wonder how many of those years were actually spent full time in the classroom with a full teaching schedule. In my 16 years of teaching full time in Harlem, I have seen countless teachers come and go. Ms. Wheal is just another one.
August 1, 2012 at 12:37 PM
—————————————–
AND THIS
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ASTRAKA said…
Ms Wheal, real “Master Teachers” don’t care for the title. They do not look to get out of the classroom for more money. They stay and teach 30-35-40 years.
Their colleagues know them and ask them for help whenever the need arises. You know you are a “master teacher,” when your colleagues respect you for your knowledge, and respect you as trustworthy person.
August 1, 2012 at 5:37 PM
—————————————–
AND THIS
—————————————
BronxEnglish said…
I’ve been teaching for fifteen years here in New York City. It has NEVER come into my head to call myself a “Master” teacher. . . nor has it come into my head to enter that stupid “Master Teacher” program.
Why is that, you ask?
#1: I am a teacher because I want to teach students. I want to do the best I can, all year. I want to improve each year. If I run away from my students so I can get a couple thousand extra bucks, what does that say about me as a teacher? Not much. (Another concern was the DOE–everyone knows they try a new program, don’t wait to see if it works, throw it away, repeat. Why should I bother, even for one year?)
I am, however, proud to call myself a “veteran” NYC public school teacher. I think I’ve earned that moniker. But Wheal’s editorial reads like the bleats of a self-aggrandizing, pompous, self-serving jackass. I can’t imagine any of my colleagues writing a ridiculous column like that. She sounds like a big fan of my favorite deformer, Michelle Rhee.
How she can show her face to colleagues and pretend to be collegial after this debacle is beyond me?
Oh yeah. . . she’s so much smarter and more talented than her colleagues. She’s gonna pull a Brosbe and go into policy? Can’t wait for her edicts!
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Please don’t be too quick to reject help from the design community. Visual images hold great power and our profession could truly benefit from more compelling images of the importance of what we do, it’s complexity, and the true purposes of teaching and learning. Yes be attentive to motives, but steal (as Michael Moore would do) the good ideas to use in the battle for hearts and minds.
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Joan, per my reply to Cheryl. The graphic design branding project is not formally conneced with the RESPECT program from the US Department of Education. I am in error if I created that impression. The National Endowment for the Arts has had a long-standing program of co-sponorship of advocacy advertising with the AD Council. This re-branding project is a variant. It is not specifically about teachers in public schools. In my view the USDE program was a dis-information campaign, not an ounce of respect for teachers, just the acronym.
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Lewis Ferebee, one of the new “Chiefs of Change”, rec’d an award from the Gates-funded Mind Trust ($1.4 mil.). The blurb from Mind Trust, “provide every student -regardless of income, background or circumstance -access to a great high-performing school”. The Brain Trust connotes originality. IMO, the Mind Trust verbiage suggests
hackneyed PR phrases.
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