I couldn't bring myself to read about Rhee in today's Post magazine...

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Logic doesn't require us to name names. The policy is OBVIOUSLY all about jobs. If it were about the best interests of students? It wouldn't exist in the first place.

You ignore the effect of the marginalization of teacher's rights on the overall education system. We expect a lot from our teachers. The challenges of teaching in DCPS should be obvious to anyone. But, in addition to all of those, you want to add job insecurity? This is probably fine for the Teach for America folks doing their two-year tours, but it's unlikely to contribute to recruiting and retaining those with long-term commitments. How many teachers want to put up with the existing problems while constantly having their futures held hostage to the whim of a single principal?

There are a couple of broken records here who are always quick with a quote and blame for the union. They are very slow, however, when asked for specific examples to support their arguments.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Logic doesn't require us to name names. The policy is OBVIOUSLY all about jobs. If it were about the best interests of students? It wouldn't exist in the first place.

You ignore the effect of the marginalization of teacher's rights on the overall education system. We expect a lot from our teachers. The challenges of teaching in DCPS should be obvious to anyone. But, in addition to all of those, you want to add job insecurity? This is probably fine for the Teach for America folks doing their two-year tours, but it's unlikely to contribute to recruiting and retaining those with long-term commitments. How many teachers want to put up with the existing problems while constantly having their futures held hostage to the whim of a single principal?

There are a couple of broken records here who are always quick with a quote and blame for the union. They are very slow, however, when asked for specific examples to support their arguments.

Right on.

[Anonymous]

Why has the DCPS teachers' union not put Rhee's proposal: two track system---tenure w/ lower pay or non-tenure and significantly higher pay--to a vote of its membership?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why has the DCPS teachers' union not put Rhee's proposal: two track system---tenure w/ lower pay or non-tenure and significantly higher pay--to a vote of its membership?

Because it was a terrible idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has the DCPS teachers' union not put Rhee's proposal: two track system---tenure w/ lower pay or non-tenure and significantly higher pay--to a vote of its membership?

Because it was a terrible idea.

Then wouldn't it just be voted down?

[Anonymous]

It is not a terrible idea. One of the great casualties of the women's liberation movement was the public school system. Once women were no longer limited to being nurses, teachers and social workers, the available labor pool diminished considerably. My mother, a public school teacher (and a very good one) for over thirty years, did not encourage me or my peers to go into teaching---since she thought the combination of low pay and continuous certification procedures imposed by the education bureaucracy were total BS. Teachers are still compensated today as if it were 50 years ago and the teaching profession was comprised solely of single women living with their parents or married women teaching to supplement their husbands' much larger salaries.

Try out the two track system and see if it actually works in attracting back people (mostly women) who would like to teach but find the current payscale unreasonable compared to what they can make elsewhere.

What are the unions so scared of?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rhee squints and cocks her head at her aide, who sits across from the chancellor at one of her regular SchoolStat meetings, where top managers update the boss on their progress. The aide is reporting the fact that white parents who are eager to send their kids to a nearby D.C. elementary school -- a school where one-quarter of the children are white -- are demonstrating zero interest in an equally convenient school whose population is only 7 percent white.

"Is it because there are not white kids in the other classrooms?" Rhee asks.

"Yes," the aide replies.

"Wow."

Interesting that Rhee put her own children in a school far more than 7% white. I wondering what she is 'wowing' at?

Ew, touche!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I find the most interesting is the posters here being able to imagine, and not want to face, the challenges of being one the only whites in a class, but the same thoughtfulness isn't extended to AA parents that face the same challenge. I've seen several threads where people basically told them to get over it or diversity is more than just a skin color. Very interesting indeed.

Insightful comment! Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why has the DCPS teachers' union not put Rhee's proposal: two track system---tenure w/ lower pay or non-tenure and significantly higher pay--to a vote of its membership?

Because it was a terrible idea.

Then wouldn't it just be voted down?

ITA. If it's such a terrible idea? Then the union has nothing to worry about...does it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I find the most interesting is the posters here being able to imagine, and not want to face, the challenges of being one the only whites in a class, but the same thoughtfulness isn't extended to AA parents that face the same challenge. I've seen several threads where people basically told them to get over it or diversity is more than just a skin color. Very interesting indeed.

Insightful comment! Thanks.

You're welcome! It's nice someone noticed and took the time to say thanks. Doesn't happen to often on here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I find the most interesting is the posters here being able to imagine, and not want to face, the challenges of being one the only whites in a class, but the same thoughtfulness isn't extended to AA parents that face the same challenge. I've seen several threads where people basically told them to get over it or diversity is more than just a skin color. Very interesting indeed.

Insightful comment! Thanks.

You're welcome! It's nice someone noticed and took the time to say thanks. Doesn't happen to often on here.

I'm curious as to which threads you are talking about. I can't think of any DC public school threads where there was any sentiment (even a plurality, much less a majority) that AA parents should "get over" diversity. Can you provide some examples of what you mean?

[Anonymous]

I recall a thread with this sentiment about a private school, Concord Hill.

I think the situation is more likely to occur in privates which are more likely to be white only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recall a thread with this sentiment about a private school, Concord Hill.

I think the situation is more likely to occur in privates which are more likely to be white only.

There's a lot of situations where this occurs. One situation that comes to mind (without going through the search engine) is a thread where the OP said she wouldn't send her child to Bethesda schools because her kid would be one of the few AA's. Another where an AA mom was considering Bethesda schools and someone pointed out that the school was too Asian. Another where a poster mentioned not moving to an area like Winchester because it is just too homogeneous. The Bethesda posters were attacked for not looking at other types of diversity, (how that helps being one of a few blacks, I don't know) and some went as far to say Bethesda is extremely diverse. I'll look for the exact threads though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"GUESS who is left to teach YOUR kids?????????"

Gosh, I guess I'm one of those left to teach your kids.

The requirements for becoming a licensed teacher in DC are annoying, and they do take time and cost money, but they are not insane, and did not keep me from becoming a licensed teacher. My previous course work from Berkeley and Harvard were considered when I applied for my license. I did not take any courses from UDC, although I did take one from GW, one from NOVA, and one online from University of Wisconsin. The rest I did at Trinity.

BTW, most of what is in the "new" Teaching and Learning Framework unveiled recently by Michelle Rhee was part of my teacher training at Trinity.

Also, the barriers for teachers to acquire additional certifications have been relaxed significantly over the past year. I know of several teachers who added second endorsements simply by taking/passing the PRAXIS in a different area.

When did you apply perchance? Of course previous coursework is considered, as in you must have a BA, but unlike Virginia (with its TERRIBLE ed system, not), OSSE refuses to transcript-read education classes taken over a career at different places, so unless you enter in through a teaching program at one of their approved certification mills (including Trinity, no offense, who I am guessing 'read' your transcript and then took DC's or your own money and then 'topped' you off) you would not be hired today. And if I am wrong, please explain to me why I have a BA, an MA, three hundred practicum hours, 3 Praxis exams with honors and a VA teaching license and can't get 'certified' through OSSE in the District? How did Michelle Rhee help to facilitate that process again? By the way, have a glorious non-DCPS teaching job. Sorry that I am not allowed to teach the public school kids in the state of my birth however....

Maybe because you come off as shrill and holier-than-thou. Or because you apparently never learned that run-on sentences are to be avoided?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Logic doesn't require us to name names. The policy is OBVIOUSLY all about jobs. If it were about the best interests of students? It wouldn't exist in the first place.

You ignore the effect of the marginalization of teacher's rights on the overall education system. We expect a lot from our teachers. The challenges of teaching in DCPS should be obvious to anyone. But, in addition to all of those, you want to add job insecurity? This is probably fine for the Teach for America folks doing their two-year tours, but it's unlikely to contribute to recruiting and retaining those with long-term commitments. How many teachers want to put up with the existing problems while constantly having their futures held hostage to the whim of a single principal?

There are a couple of broken records here who are always quick with a quote and blame for the union. They are very slow, however, when asked for specific examples to support their arguments.

The "overall education system" in DC hasn't been performing so well. No one denies that there are numerous problems, and that there is not one magic bullet solution. However, I'm reluctant to take any potential means of improving public education in the district off the table, especially over concerns for the "marginalization of teacher's rights." What about the marginalization of the students' rights?