To fully appreciate this post, you should probably take a quick look at the last post if you have not already. This is the continuation of a dialogue between myself and Jay Mathews, education writer at the Washington Post, about the school where I formerly taught, Columbia Heights Education Campus(CHEC). (I promise the next post in this blog will mark a return to the offensive silliness at which it most excels.) Jay Mathews: Thanks Peter. This makes some sense in isolation. You make a Read more [...]
Archive for the ‘Administrative Idiocy’ Category
Happy Back to School time to everybody. I’m sorry. Do you know what you need? A good read and some magnets. Last week Jay Mathews at the Washington Post ran a piece, not exactly about me, but using me as an example in order to propose an argument. It was called Maybe Schools Shouldn’t Work As Teams. The summary is that Mathews believes school principals should be like general managers of baseball teams. Principals should be able to get rid of people at will if they aren’t working out Read more [...]
If you are a regular or semi-regular reader of this blog, you know that, as a group, the administrative class at my school suffers from Diminished Interpersonal Capacity Syndrome or DICS. This is a terrible condition that causes people to relate to others as if they were not truly human and to treat them poorly for no good reason. The organization New Leaders for New Schools has been identified as a carrier of DICS. Beware. In celebration of the end of another year, and in the spirit of data Read more [...]
“Best beginning of a book ever” That’s what I wrote in the left-hand margin over 20 years ago when I first read these words: The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice. It’s from the second page of Saul Alinsky’s classic, hard-core progressive activism guide-book, Rules For Radicals (1971). Before Read more [...]
Are y’all about done with testing? I am. We just had two weeks of AP tests right on the heels of the High-Stakes State Tests for AYP and everything. We pulled out all the stops. Everything was up-ended. Learning was on holiday. But it smelled good. During the state tests we served bacon and eggs and waffles to everybody, every morning. There were prizes and pizza parties for coming in on time. Administrators dressed up in funny costumes and said silly things during announcements. Slogans and Read more [...]
I was tired. It was even more difficult than normal to perform the menial and tedious job-related chores I had brought home for a beautiful Saturday morning. But my wife and I went to a benefit auction and dinner on Saturday night, as planned. No problem. And after that we went to see our friend’s band at the Iota Club, as planned. It was in this unfortunate venue that the real trouble began. Knock-Knock Who’s there? Sal Sal who? Salmonella!! That’s right, folks. Salmonella. I recommend, Read more [...]
Dear Mr. Teachbad, I am being told to add in two weeks of remediation without changing the curriculum. I have tried to point out that adding in 2 weeks of work will result in losing 2 weeks of work from the end of the curriculum…I am being labeled a troublemaker for pointing out this nicety. Other teachers who have been included in this edict are telling me off. How could I possibly say that this is changing the curriculum? Am I mad? Crazedmummy Dear Crazed: I don’t get why the other teachers Read more [...]
Here’s why I ask. I don’t seem to have enough. Even though I haven’t even begun to analyze all the data I have, or even think about whether or not it is useful, I feel compelled to keep collecting more. Have you ever seen that show Hoarders? It’s a little like that. But we do it for the children. It’s not for us or making the school look good. This is for the kids. And making them look good. So that we look good. You feel me? That was me, in italics, trying to get into the heads of my admin in Read more [...]
OR…The Essense of a Teacher and How to Kill It If you are a reader of this blog, you know that my school is a little heavy-handed with the data and the telling of teachers what to put on their walls and the specificity with which all manner of things must be performed, recorded, and reported. This tends to drive teachers crazy and they quit….in droves. And we don’t have much to show for it aside from tanking test scores and a giant neon HELP WANTED sign we roll out of the basement and light Read more [...]
Data-Driven Dimentia…or Data: It Keeps Teachers Busy Take your pick. But these cats at my school really have to be stopped. As you may suspect, we here at my school are “data-driven”. That’s right. There is no substitute for data. And the best thing about it, from an administrator’s point of view, must be that you don’t have to worry about how long it takes teachers to collect the data or if it is really of any value in the first place. Just collect that data, tell everybody you are collecting Read more [...]
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