Whistle-blowing teachers targeted

[Starry Messenger]

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/whistle-blowing-teachers-targeted-812369.html

His bosses had no trouble dismissing Ryan Abbott’s report of cheating on standardized tests in an Atlanta school. They simply cast him in a self-fulfilling role, Abbott says: “disgruntled teacher.”

<snip>

Abbott was already on probation, after four years at Benteen Elementary. His students had not posted the big increases in test scores seen in other classrooms. Yet he had the audacity to level charges against a popular colleague. After word of Abbott’s allegations spread through the school, Benteen’s principal opened an ethics case — against him.

<snip>

The newspaper reviewed reports of the school district’s internal investigations and spoke with more than a dozen current and former Atlanta educators. The documents and the interviews describe a culture that punishes employees who report wrongdoing and rewards those who keep silent. Some whistle-blowers end up under scrutiny themselves. Others are subjected to questions about their mental health. Some lose their jobs.

<snip>

LITTLE PROTECTION

In Atlanta, as in other Georgia school districts, teachers have little job security. Even those with tenure work under year-to-year contracts, and they have no collective bargaining rights. Younger teachers, in particular, say that if they run afoul of administrators, they risk being “non-renewed.”

This is why teachers are protective of unions and tenure. This is the kind of thing that can happen in a place with little protection. Saying "less job security" would lead to "less complacency" is total nonsense and show a lack of knowledge of school culture in general.

[Hannah Bell]

1. kr. this must be why georgia's schools are so great, right? teachers have no job security,

districts can fire them whenever -- so their students must be fantastic.

lol.

[Starry Messenger]

2. All you have to do is fudge the test sheets.

Your students will be even better! Just get rid of the troublemakers who try to uncover your little scheme and you're an education miracle!

[Hannah Bell]

4. yay for smart teachers like those! students can learn from them!

how to succeed in the new dog eat dog america!

[Starry Messenger]

5. Georgia to start grading teachers on "value" added

http://www.reading.org/General/Publications/blog/BlogSinglePost/10-12-20/Georgia_to_start_grading_teachers_on_value_added.aspx

Posted by:

Monday, December 20, 2010

Should parents know how well their children’s teachers score on effectiveness scales?

Using its federal Race to the Top grant, Georgia will start grading teachers in part on how much “value” they have added to a student’s learning, based on progress reflected in test scores.

“For teacher effectiveness measure, 50% will be based on the academic growth of students,” said Erin Hames, chief of staff at the Georgia Department of Education and the coordinator of the state’s Race to the Top efforts. But while parents will be able get the average teacher effectiveness scores for a school, they will not be privy to individual job ratings, says Hames.

Read more in this opinion piece by Maureen Downey in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution online.

What did people think was going to happen? You tie teacher-pay to test scores, teachers know they are against a hopeless system. It's just going to encourage cheating, and pit teacher against teacher.

[Hannah Bell]

6. that's the plan.

[msanthrope]

3. Ryan Abbott's a pretty interesting figure.

He should get himself a good lawyer, as I suspect he's going to be a prime figure in the lawsuit Evans filed against the Atlanta Public Schools.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QK2gmXBo4QYJ:www.dailyreportonline.com/Editorial/News/singleEdit.asp%3Findividual_SQL%3D1%252F21%252F2011%254037254+atlanta+public+schools+union+evans+cheating&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Are these teachers unionized? If so, has the union said which side they are supporting?

If what Abbott says is true, Evans should be fired immediately

[Hannah Bell]

18. georgia is a right to work state. no collective bargaining, short-term contracts,

teachers can be fired essentially at will.

you don't have to belong to a union to teach in georgia; you don't have to pay dues.

that's why their students are so excellent, don't you know.

head & tails above those unionized states.

[LooseWilly]

7. kickage.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. k n r

[maryf]

9. Solidarity!

keep educating! It's not just the kids who need it. K&R

[Starry Messenger]

10. lol! So true.

Thank you Mary, solidarity. :D

[maryf]

11. My pleasure

morning kick for you! :kick:

[Obamanaut]

12. Is "targeted" still a word we can use with all the letters, that doesn't need

asterisks replacing some of the letters, as in "ta****ed"?

[Starry Messenger]

13. ??

I'm unclear.

[Obamanaut]

14. 'Targeted' and 'cross hairs' recently became inflammatory words. But

if they are disguised by using * to replace letters, they should still be usable and/or less inflammatory, right?

[Starry Messenger]

15. I must have missed that episode.

Was this on DU? Is it in the rules? I quoted a news article...

[Obamanaut]

16. No, it is not in the rules. But some folks will put asterisks in words rather

than all the letters in order to be less offensive (I guess.) Examples could be the 'n' word, using asterisk/letter combination. My argument agains this has always been if the reader sees such a thing, that reader knows what the writer means and if were to be offensive normally, it would still be so. Either use the whole word, or avoid it.

Other examples I've seen are G*d, D*mn, f**k, and so on.

So, no, there is no such rule, but with the seeming all-consuming quest for PC, one never knows when a word will be deemed offensive. Personally, words written on a page are not offensive to me, unless they are directed at someone. They could be to some, but not to me.

[Starry Messenger]

17. Well, "targeted" is a common everyday word.

No one has said anything about it so far, so I guess we're all good here.

[maryf]

19. My hairs are cross reading this...

;) evening kick too!