Chicago principals told they will only speak what is in line with school board's agenda.

[madfloridian]

They were in effect told to watch what they say.

Here are the words of a Chicago principal.

Under Emanuel, principals have no voice


Blaine Elementary School Principal Troy LaRaviere with teacher Tiffany Tafe. | Sun-Times files

I am the son of a black father from the South Side and a white mother from the North Side. I grew up in Bronzeville and now live in Beverly. I attended five Chicago Public Schools and I’ve taught in every corner of Chicago, in schools that were predominately African-American, Latino-American and European-American. I have served students who were homeless, and students whose families owned multiple homes. I was an assistant principal in a turnaround school, and I am currently the principal of Blaine Elementary, one of the city’s highest-performing neighborhood schools. Finally, I am a CPS parent with a son at our neighborhood public school.

I am fortunate to have experienced public schooling from such diverse viewpoints. However, nothing I’ve seen can compare to what I’ve witnessed as a CPS principal under the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

They were told to have "elevator speeches" ready in support of Rahm and the school board's agenda and be ready to provide that speech at any time.

The administration’s interaction with principals is often insulting. During the debate over the longer school day, some principals questioned its merits. CPS officials were then dispatched to tell the principals their opinions didn’t matter. “You are Board employees,” a central office official told a room full of principals at a meeting, “and when you speak, your comments must be in line with the Board’s agenda.” He instructed us to have an “elevator speech” supporting the longer day ready at a moment’s notice. We were told that if Emanuel and the press walked into our schools, we’d better be prepared to list the benefits of his longer day. In a move that further humiliated principals, they were called on at random to give their elevator speeches at subsequent principal meetings.

.....Several months later, I spoke about overcrowded schools on WYCC television. A few hours before filming, I emailed CPS officials to inform them. Later that afternoon — unaware the show had already been taped — those officials told me not to appear because I did not have permission. On the subject of whether I had the right to speak as a private citizen, CPS said I should wait to receive clarity. After more than two months I’m still waiting for “clarity” from CPS on my right to speak.

My one comment. We can not expect principals, teachers, and other educators to be treated with due respect unless the powers that be in both major parties treat them that way publicly.

[charmay]

1. Education is a scary place to be right now. Coworkers where I taught have been told that they are

not to question anything and to smile and say yes.

[madfloridian]

3. A response from testmaker Pearson UK about their gag order on teachers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/04/25/aft-asks-pearson-to-stop-gag-order-barring-educators-from-talking-about-tests/

Words of a teacher:

I’d like to tell you what was wrong with the tests my students took last week, but I can’t. Pearson’s $32 million contract with New York State to design the exams prohibits the state from making the tests public and imposes a gag order on educators who administer them. So teachers watched hundreds of thousands of children in grades 3 to 8 sit for between 70 and 180 minutes per day for three days taking a state English Language Arts exam that does a poor job of testing reading comprehension, and yet we’re not allowed to point out what the problems were.

Words of the AFT head to the UK company Pearson:

Dear Mr. Fallon and Mr. Moreno:

I was deeply disturbed to read recently in the New York Times and other newspapers of the issues teachers, principals, parents and students raised about Pearson tests. Principals and teachers in New York who recently administered the Pearson-developed Common Core tests have said they are barred from speaking about the test content and its effects on students. This appears to be a result of a Pearson contract term that has been construed as disallowing them from expressing their concerns and views. Elizabeth Phillips, the principal at Public School 321 in Brooklyn, N.Y., summarized these concerns in a recent New York Times opinion piece. On behalf of teachers, parents, students and your shareholders, including our pension plans, I ask you to immediately remove these prohibitions (referred to as “gag orders” in the press) from existing and future contracts.

These gag orders and the lack of transparency are fueling the growing distrust and backlash among parents, students and educators in the United States about whether the current testing protocols and testing fixation is in the best interests of children. When parents aren’t allowed to know what is on their children’s tests, and when educators have no voice in how assessments are created and are forbidden from raising legitimate concerns about these assessments’ quality or talking to parents about these concerns, you not only increase distrust of testing but also deny children the rich learning experience they deserve.

Words of Pearson:

Thank you for sharing your concerns. As you know from when we met, I completely agree that teachers are at the very heart of the education system and have every right to express their views as to how best to educate their students. I also agree that States should regularly release test questions and that the content and structure of the test should be transparent to parents, students and teachers.

Myself, or my colleague, Doug Kubach, our global President of Schools and Assessment, would be very happy to meet with you and your members to better understand your concerns and to work together to improve educational opportunities for all young people.

I look forward to meeting again soon.

We'll have to see what happens.

[mike_c]

2. this is a direct blow to the professionalism of educators in Chicago....

One seeks the advice and help of professionals in the city's employ-- calling them "Board employees" with no right to express their considered professional opinions is demeaning and insulting. The CTU needs to support the principals on this, and the principals need to demand respect. This is unbelievably messed up.

[madfloridian]

7. Yes, it is a blow. They are not being given respect as professionals.

A lot of this is happening in Florida as well. Educators treated badly, profit considered over the needs of students.

[kysrsoze]

8. YEAH, and considering the board is a bunch of mayoral appointee lackeys... the situation sucks

Elected board members wouldn't act like this... at least i don't think they would, but then I look at 80% of the aldermen who are nothing but sycophants.

[ladjf]

4. The Chicago "schools" are not schools. They are propaganda centers.

These kinds of administrative shenanigans can not possibly produce valid educations. All good teachers will exit this situation as soon as possible.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. I wish ths little fuckwad was given a nice corporate job somewhere so he can stop fucking things up

for the rest of us.

[madfloridian]

6. “This administration gets away with this because we let them."

http://www.suntimes.com/opinions/letters/27339293-474/under-emanuel-principals-have-no-voice.html#.U3Jy__08LBb

“This administration gets away with this because we let them. We are the professionals. Yet, we allow political interests to dominate the public conversation about what’s good for the children in our schools. Every time these officials misinform the public about the impact of their policies, we need to follow them with a press conference of our own to set the record straight.”

Those who responded expressed concerns about being harassed, fired or receiving a poor evaluation. Principals sat paralyzed by fear of what might happen if they simply voiced the truth. One of them asked me plainly, “Aren’t you afraid of losing your job?” The question awakened a memory:

...In 1989, when I was in the Navy, I was stationed onboard an aircraft carrier and accustomed to hearing the “General Quarters” battle readiness exercise. However, on January 4 of that year, it came with a sobering declaration: “This is not a drill.”

....So when people ask me, “Aren’t you afraid of losing your job if you speak out?” this is my answer: I did not travel across an ocean and risk my life to defend American freedoms only to return and relinquish those freedoms to an elected official and his appointed board of education.

If I were still teaching instead of being retired, I would never be able to keep my mouth shut. The day I was told not to criticize Jeb Bush at the teachers' table at school, and later called on it by the principal....I realized my days were numbered. I watched most of the others bend to the wishes of the admin....I had to retire because I couldn't.