incompetent teacher -- what can parents do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard she will be back in a week?

Perhaps, but if her condition is the reason behind student & parent complaints, she might be better off taking long term leave if she has saved sick leave, can use the sick bank, or has the disability insurance recommended by the Union. Finances are a horrible reason to have to return to work before you are well. And teaching is an activity that it is near impossible to do really well when you are ill. When I had an office job, I could drag myself in, close my door, and muddle through. Hard to do that as 150 eleven and twelve year olds cycle through with immediate, individual needs. Hopefully, she's getting good advice from Employee Assistance. If her condition is made worse by stress, the frustration at work might be exacerbating everything. And short term subs don't plan or grade, so either she's still working while she's out or a colleague has picked up her responsibilities. Not good for anyone. I'm very grateful to not be in anyone's shoes at Pyle right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS and Starr took way too long to take action on teachers that were physically abusing kids. So I can only imagine how they handle performance issues that are nowhere near as serious.

Wow - thats like getting a Catholic school education for free!

Not funny. Child abuse is never funny.

DP here / maybe not funny but accurate. MCPS has shown over and over that it does not act in the best interest of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Her condition has nothing to do with her prior performance. The real issue is much more muddied. Who knows when she'll be back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Her condition has nothing to do with her prior performance. The real issue is much more muddied. Who knows when she'll be back.

Lots of health problems and medications can cause confusion and irritability. Depression ruins many careers. A teacher I knew had porphyria and it looked like severe mental illness.

[Anonymous]

In that case why does it take three years to get the teacher out and a new teacher in instead of comings and goings and subs and no plan whatsoever?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In that case why does it take three years to get the teacher out and a new teacher in instead of comings and goings and subs and no plan whatsoever?

A chronic health issue can really complicate putting an employee on review or firing them. Not just for teaching or other unionized jobs. It happened when I worked for a State government. A coworker took medical leave for mental health whenever our supervisor made moves toward a PIP. The rest of us covered her caseload until she was better. Not surprisingly, she always got better soon after we tackled the toughest work. She was competent and well for another 2-3 months until the pressure built again. We knew she was really mentally ill and not faking. Part time work would have been great for her, but didn't get her any health insurance.

[Anonymous]

That's pretty clever but what if you already are on a PIP? Would a real or imagined injury or sickness halt that process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's pretty clever but what if you already are on a PIP? Would a real or imagined injury or sickness halt that process?

Medical leave can halt an improvement process because it's reliant on a set number of observations and corrective actions in specific time frame. If the teacher, CT, or admin is out for 2-3 weeks, that can't happen. My exH took an approved mental health leave for inpatient hospitalization during his. When he returned, they had to drop it because there was less than 60 school days to implement before the review board met. A slot opened at a new school the last week of the year, so he transferred. A much better fit.

[Anonymous]

That's interesting. In this case they say they've been documenting the teacher's performance for years though. So strange. If she's smart she'll do what your ex did, but that would mean staying out for much of the rest of the year somehow. And then doesn't transferring require some kind of reference?! That's how teachers end up getting passed around the system instead of losing their jobs. Obviously you need some protections in place for teachers, but at some point principals need to do what's right for their students. I guess if admin misses deadlines to document, and then you add in an employee taking medical leave on top of that, this could go on forever. It's a shame.

[Anonymous]

But if the teacher is out for 60 days, can't they just not keep her? Better to pass the trash to some program where she isn't actually responsible for kids.

[Anonymous]

Is that true? Anyone know? I hope that central people are making sure the principal knows what to do, because the kids deserve better. Has anyone gotten info from the community super on this process? A string of subs is no answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But if the teacher is out for 60 days, can't they just not keep her? Better to pass the trash to some program where she isn't actually responsible for kids.

Just because your position is released at end of 60 duty days absent, doesn't mean it will be filled with a new hire or a LTS good in that area. I went out for maternity leave. After being home a couple months, I realized my commute wouldn't work with that baby's severe reflux. I wanted to transfer before the school year ended, so I asked my principal to release my position rather than saving it. My LTS already had a commitment elsewhere and left on the 62nd day. The classes had a few different short term subs for the rest of the year. I was hired elsewhere on my 89th day of leave to start the new position in August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher.

Sorry, I don't know what you can do. Every school where I've worked has had incompetent teachers, each of whom was protected or retained for varying reasons. In fact, I haven't ever known a teacher to be fired.

Right now we have a Math teacher who has no background or degree in Math, and who tells students that, "I'm a coach, not a Math teacher." He shows them clips on youtube and Khan Academy in class (Algebra 2!), and the kids all know he doesn't know what he's doing. However, he has really beefed up the sport program, and the director loves him. Yes, the director knows he is incompetent: the Math Department showed him the average end of year assessment scores from all of the Algebra 2 classes, and this guy's kids were at the bottom. This year, some of the students he had last year have already been counseled out of Calculus because they don't have the Algebra base they need. And the "Math teacher"? He's not even pretending to spend time on learning how to do Math: he's now steamrolling through another sport program, and is actually holding meetings for the rest of staff to let us know the updates on the program. Yes, I am bitter.

I also once worked with a teacher who stopped giving back student tests/papers in October. When seniors went to complain, the director told them that he "knows Mr. X is really lazy, but he can't do anything about it." Mr. X's wife just happened to be BFFs with the director's wife. (and before you say that I don't know he stopped giving back student work at all, my own son was in his class, so I had access to the electronic database that displays grades...plus I was the guy's colleague).

So, the lesson is that incompetent teachers may very well flourish. I wish this were not the case.

Unbelievable. My DC has an LD and is told to "shut the f*ck up, "not ask any questions and has been treated much differnetly than other stidents on the team for the very same infractions (talking in the locker room). This is the second year in a row and it's getting much more belligerent. There is nothing I can do other than not give money.

[Anonymous]

He must want this to end. It's a huge hit to look totally inept and powerless. More globally, I think principals avoid firing protected classes of people out of fear, but playing it safe does nothing to help them when firings are warranted. All that does is piss off parents, hurt kids and kill their own reputation.

[Anonymous]

Wow. I'm in a Chicago suburban public school. Our principal has never had any problem getting rid of teachers who don't belong in the profession. First of all, they don't keep people who suck before they get tenure. But second, she has her ways of getting rid of tenured teachers. One way is adhering to the student growth law. In Illinois, a teacher's rating is tied to student growth scores. If a teacher is failing in other ways, bring on low growth and it takes about a year or a year and a half and that teacher is gone. If a school won't get rid of a "bad" teacher, there is only one problem. A lazy administrator, unwilling to do the documentation needed. Blame the admins. The union can only do so much if the admin is willing to do his or her job.