Mitchell Robinson, professor of music education at Michigan State, writes a very sad story here about a dedicated teacher who was threatened with firing if she refused to name names.
“Rachel [a pseudonym] is one of those teachers who has devoted herself, personally and professionally, to her career. The kind of teacher who arrives at school early, leaves late, takes her work home with her at night, creates new projects over the weekend–and purchases the materials out of her own pocket, arranges field trips and brings in guest artists and speakers for her students, organizes birthday parties, and wedding showers, and baby showers for her colleagues, hosts student teachers from the local university, serves as a teacher leader in her school district, attends her students’ concerts, and soccer games, and piano recitals, and dance recitals, and graduation ceremonies, pursues professional development opportunities on the weekends, takes graduate classes and workshops over the summer, has little to no idea how much she makes in her yearly salary, and puts her students’ needs above her own.
“In short, a teacher.
“In addition to her job as a classroom teacher, Rachel had also volunteered to serve as her district’s compliance officer for the state’s review of their status as a PLA (Persistently Low Achieving) school district.”
Rachel mentioned to her principal that she had heard some opt out discussion and thought the staff needed a reminder that the school could be closed if it didn’t have a 95% participation rate. In short order, the superintendent called her in and demanded that she name names. She refused. She got legal counsel from the Michigan Education Association.
Nothing availed. It was her job or her integrity. Why should any teacher be forced to make that choice?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education and commented:
This time it is about overhearing a conversation about “opt out” but the story is the same. Teachers are constantly threatened with their jobs/careers over petty, ridiculous things all the time.
Meanwhile, Chester Finn wants to eliminate teacher tenure: https://edexcellence.net/articles/will-teacher-tenure-die
Finn is a “poopey head”! He likes to listen to himself think out loud. He’s an old man who couldn’t hack it as a teacher and needs his ego stroked.
Chester Finn conflates union membership with tenure. Union membership may include people who are retired and part-time workers who do not qualify for tenure but may secure other benefits from union membership. Teachers may join a union before they receive tenure. Tenure is often one aspect of union negotiations but it also may be a non-negotiable.
In the fall of 2016, public school systems employed about 3.1 million full-time-equivalent teachers. If anyone has current and definitive information about the number of tenured teachers who work full-time in public schools, please post the source and send it to Chester Finn.
In NY State, and I imagine elsewhere, tenure was in place many decades before teachers had collective bargaining rights.
But when has truth ever been an obstacle to the greed and will-to-power of so-called reformers?
“The Hypocritic Oath”
Chester Finn had tenure
Tenure as professor
Now he wants to end ‘er
End ‘er for the “lesser”
Teacher should be peon
Laborer for hire
Someone you can pee on
Someone you can fire
LOL!
I shall be telling this with a grin
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged, in a school, and Finn
He took the one of Hoover spin
And that has made all the difference
With sincere apologies to Robert Frost
Hehehheeeee! Good one!
Have any of you seen this about the Common Core?
Quite interesting. A lot that I agree with and a fair amount that I can’t and don’t agree with.
Thanks for sharing, this Yvonne!
Where are the national teachers unions when it comes to what amounts to the worst sort of bullying of teachers?
Where is Randi Weingarten?
Oops I forgot. She is too busy meeting with Betsy DeVos for photo ops.
I was a member of my district’s professional development team, a group whose job it was to develop a plan for implementation for new state rules regarding mentoring and training of new teachers. This was a voluntary, non paying committee that met after school. The principal tried to bully me into planning monthly curriculum meetings which were the principal’s responsibility because I served on the PD committee. I simply resigned from the voluntary committee, but it was an uncomfortable feeling being threatened. Fortunately, the situation didn’t escalate, but I never looked at this principal the same way after that.
You buried the lede, as they say, or left out the climax of this narrative.
The story came to a head when, as a result of the stress of this being pressured to name names — and taking drastic steps to fight that pressure — with that stress provoking “Rachel” to have a stroke in the school parking lot, placing her on indefinite disability:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Rachel :
“Well, all’s well that ends well. Our kids knocked the MSTEP out of the park, we got off the list, the state recognized our efforts, and everyone lived happily ever after.
“Except me.
“I had a stroke in the school parking lot the next year and am on medical leave trying to regain the use of the left side of my body. And learning to talk without a stutter. And I absolutely believe the PLA caused it. The stress was absolutely unreal.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
That’s an the end of the piece here:
http://www.eclectablog.com/2017/04/when-teacher-silencing-becomes-dangerous.html
Sad. Really, really sad. I want to tweet it, spread the news. But, don’t want to do it no more; it won’t be of help either. Perhaps, I am like Rachel. The question is, why do people move away from their values. A state needs to care for students, a guiding principle should be as simple as that.
Establishing complex processes- reports, closing schools – opening schools, charters, PLAs. It ain’t going to help; none of it ever has. Why can’t we just let the kids be kids, and let their teachers act like teachers? Globalization! Jobs! Economy!
May be, that’s the problem. Everybody is busy doing the best right thing. May be, we should all stop trying to do the right thing, and let the things take care of themselves.
I don’t think you’ll ever regret doing the right thing, Apurva.
Teachers must learn from nurses and take their issues to the public.
From the article: “Rachel was also insistent that her superintendent not be portrayed as the “bad guy” in this scenario–she places most of the blame on the state’s designation of certain schools as “persistently low achieving”, and the pressures that come with being singled out in this way”
Horse manure. He was the “bad guy”. There is no moral, ethical or legal excuse for his behavior and actions. He is a sh!thead in my eyes. The teacher, like most are wont to do, kiss and make up, needs to realize he is THE problem (along with the state). His cojones are so small as to be invisible. Screw him, do not play nice with a$$e$ like him.
WHERE THE FREAK IS THE UNION defending her civil rights?
It sounds like this teacher was as innocent and naive as I was believing in the ultimate goodness of her co-workers and superiors. She got used as a scapegoat by everyone. Here she VOLUNTEERED to serve as the school compliance officer and gets abused by all parties. How did she find time to put together a 300 page report and then redo it on short notice? She refuses to share the names of teachers who discussed opt-out after suggesting that some people did not understand the significance of the testing, and the teachers get mad at her? What the heck! That poor woman! I would like to say I can’t believe what they did to her, but sadly I can. She is trying to recover from a stroke; does anyone want to guess when the district will cut her loose if they haven’t already?
Teachers have been somewhat bullied into being silent. It’s a shame. Can you imagine if part of college training for teachers was how to effectively speak up and lead?
How to speak up and lead effectively?! That sounds like an oxymoron to me. Now how to suck up to your superiors… Finding a place where you are not a pawn in someone else’s game is getting harder and harder.
Gimme a break. NOW this essay, sixteen years after they took me out, and 200,000 experienced teachers and caused catastrophic failure of public schools?
Sixteen years after this
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/08/subverting-the-national-conversation-a.html
and long after they the gotcha squad demolished NYC’s teachers http://nycrubberroomreporter.blogspot.com/2009/03/gotcha-squad-and-new-york-city-rubber.html
and two decades after Karen Horwitz created this site to document the abuse http://endteacherabuse.org/ and wrote: “WHITE CHALK CRIME,”http://www.whitechalkcrime.com
AND A DECADE AFTER THIS SITE told how LA teachers were targeted on fabricated charges. http://www.perdaily.com/2015/01/were-you-terminated-or-forced-to-retire-from-lausd-based-on-fabricated-charges.html
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-and-utla-collude-to-end-collective-bargaining-and-civil-rights-for-teachers-part-2.html
GIMME A freakin’BREAK…THE UNTOLD STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED TO TENS OF THOUSANDS OF EXPERIENCED DEDICATED TEACHERS, the destruction of our civil rights, OUR LIVES, AND OUR CAREERS is the UNTOLD SCANDAL & CRIME OF THIS CENTURY!
Not a shred of accountability for the bankks CEOs so they will do ti again.
NOT A SHRED OF ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THE PRINCIPALS WHO DID THIS TO LORNA STREMCHA…and they will do it again!
Unfortunately, it is too often the default position for those who cling jealously to their power/authority. If screwing someone who is under your authority protects or advances your own agenda, too many of us will do so no matter what the profession. Now that I am retired, it is easier to avoid those types of people.