It’s Teacher Appreciation Week!
Orange County Public Schools is showing its 'love' with free coupons, passes to lesser known attractions and a prize competition. This is a nice gesture, especially if you are among the few to win one of the donated prizes.
Teachers certainly appreciate any love sent their way, considering the current atmosphere where teachers are often the ones who are blamed for everything perceived to be wrong with public education. But the truth is that teachers should be appreciated every week, every day for their self-less, and often undervalued work.
OCPS could really step it up and demonstrate true appreciation for its teachers by giving them what they really want:
RESPECT Teachers are professionals and educational experts and they expect and deserve respect. A district that respects its teachers listens to them, values their ideas and opinions, and support bottom-up adoption of policies rather than making dictatorial and unilateral decisions. Teachers should have a voice and seat at any table where policy decisions about the profession are decided, whether it be at a local, state or national level. Demonstrating respect is demonstrating appreciation.Teachers certainly appreciate any love sent their way, considering the current atmosphere where teachers are often the ones who are blamed for everything perceived to be wrong with public education. But the truth is that teachers should be appreciated every week, every day for their self-less, and often undervalued work.
OCPS could really step it up and demonstrate true appreciation for its teachers by giving them what they really want:
COMPETITIVE SALARY Teachers recently learned that OCPS believes that salaries should be comparable with other Florida districts and state salaries. In justifying the $78,022.67 retirement buy-out bonus that was recently awarded to Superintendent Jenkins, the board made this statement: "After a review of superintendent salaries, it is recommended, in lieu of renegotiating her contract, that the School Board purchase four additional years of her retirement."
A review of the average Florida District salaries and average state salaries shows that OCPS teachers earn well below the average teacher salary and deserve a substantial salary increase. Salary increases would be a true expression of appreciation since OCPS teachers are grossly underpaid as compared to both other Florida large urban districts, and even districts along the I-4 corridor.
TRUST AND HONESTY Teachers want to feel that the District trusts that they will do what is in the best interest of every student, because that it what the vast majority of teachers do every day. I can think of no other profession in which the experts are monitored and micro-managed like they are fledgling interns.
Teachers deserve honesty from their employer. Yet OCPS continually manipulates data, misstates policies or state mandates, or otherwise is untruthful to employees.
I spoke at a school board meeting earlier this year to decry the fact that OCPS teacher salaries were very low in comparison with the teachers' salaries in other Florida school districts. Instead of promising to increase teacher pay, the District came back with a shocking misrepresentation of data that wrongfully purported to show that Orange County teacher salaries were actually higher than they are. All 8 elected OCPS school board members appeared to accept these manipulated numbers as legitimate.
Likewise, the District responded to my school board statement about the ridiculously low number of OCPS classroom teachers earning a highly effective grade (2.4% compared to the statewide average of 37.5%), with a less than honest response.
Regarding teacher evaluations, the truth is that the District ordered that the teachers' scores be intentionally lowered. School-based administrators across the district told teachers that they were directed to give less 'innovating' and 'applying' scores and more 'developing' and 'beginning' scores. This is undeniable and it is the primary reason for OCPS classroom teachers' low evaluation scores.
Still, instead of apologizing or admitting the truth, the District combined the classroom teachers' evaluation scores with the instructional personnel evaluation scores to say that the scores were "really" 4.7%. Not only is this an insult to teachers' intelligence, but it changes nothing. That manipulated OCPS 'highly effective' score still ranks teachers in very the bottom among all state districts.
Still, instead of apologizing or admitting the truth, the District combined the classroom teachers' evaluation scores with the instructional personnel evaluation scores to say that the scores were "really" 4.7%. Not only is this an insult to teachers' intelligence, but it changes nothing. That manipulated OCPS 'highly effective' score still ranks teachers in very the bottom among all state districts.
Such actions are not only another slap on teachers' already bruised faces, but they widen the trust divide that exists between teachers and administrators. Honesty should be an essential element of an employee - employer relationship. OCPS could show some love and appreciation by being honest, and taking responsibility for actions that have been detrimental to teachers.
FAIR WORKING CONDITIONS Teachers who are appreciated and respected are treated fairly in the workplace. OCPS teachers are continually fighting to preserve their contracted planning time, to have their mandated tasks reduced to a reasonable workload, to have student discipline policies enforced, to have their due process protected, and to have the contract followed.
In a May 2015 article, the Shanker Institute reported: "Teachers’ views of their working conditions are strong predictors of whether or not they stay in a school."
Show teachers some love by treating them fairly!
SUPPORT Districts that value and appreciate teachers provide quality mentorship programs and a strong support system to help them grow and become professional leaders.
Teachers want and need high quality professional development and training. They expect to be paid at their hourly rate of pay for enrolling in and completing any training held past their contracted workweek that is essential to changes in their job performance.
A May 2015 article by the Shanker Institute reported, "Teachers who work in supportive contexts stay in the classroom longer, and improve at faster rates, than their peers in less-supportive environments.
Teachers feel appreciated when they are lifted up and supported, not when they are beaten down!
AN END TO THE MEAN-SPIRITED ACTIONS Teachers who feel as though they are constantly under attack by their their own employer will leave their school, district or the profession. I can think of dozens of mean-spirited actions I have experienced, witnessed or been informed about throughout my career at OCPS. They include: teachers being denied workers' compensation; teachers being punitively moved from subject area or from school to school; teachers facing discrimination because of age or health; teachers being kept in classrooms with unsafe air quality or mold; teachers being denied constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of association; teachers being publicly yelled at; teachers having papers thrown at them by district personnel; teachers being denied due process in 'investigations'; and teachers being given many more hours of unpaid mandated work than fits in their contracted workweek.
One of the latest examples of a mean-spirited action is extremely disturbing. When the Orange CTA won an arbitration awarding back-pay to deserving teachers, the District actually lobbied the Florida legislators to pass a bill so that they would not have to pay them. It is incredible that our tax dollars meant for instruction of Orange students, are being wasted to pay an OCPS lobbyist to take money out of the pockets of dedicated teachers. This lobbyist should have focused his attention to lobbying for a larger education budget, ending the testing madness, providing recess, restoring teachers' retirement benefits and other critical pubic education issues! OCPS should lobby on behalf of Orange students and not to cheat career teachers out of the meager salaries they have earned.
Thanks to the District's lobbying efforts, this despicable bill, SB 1356, passed. Instead of paying the award, the District filed an emergency action in Court not to pay the teachers. In court on May 2, 2016, a high-priced contract attorney argued on behalf of OCPS that the new legislation should now deprive 38 career teachers out of their rightful earnings. OCPS has likely spent more on lobbying and litigation costs than it would have spent if it had just paid the teachers their wages. Actions like this do not go unnoticed.
Teachers are not being shown appreciation, when they are regarded as disposable, replaceable labor units rather than as valued employees.
REFORM THE EVALUATION SYSTEM TO MAKE IT CONSISTENT AND FAIR While state law mandates a merit pay system, it does not mandate that it should be a mean-spirited system or a poke in the eye to teachers. The OCPS evaluation system has become both. It is inconsistent, subjective and unfair. It demoralizes teachers, impugns student instruction, and is a major reason for that OCPS teachers are leaving the district or profession. It has enriched contractors like Marzano's Learning Sciences International to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, taking taking funds away from salaries and resources.
After testifying at a school board meeting concerning our unjust evaluation system, board members expressed that the evaluation system needed to be reviewed. The District's response was that deliberate practice scores were responsible for lower grade. (See this post, More Soundbites, No Soultions.)
The District's excuse that the deliberate practice growth element of the evaluation score is the reason that only 256 teachers received highly effective scores is absurd and unconvincing. We all know that even without a deliberate practice score being added to the instructional practice score, thousands of OCPS teachers should have received highly effective scores based on classroom observations. That is, if the evaluating administrators had not been directed to give lower scores.
If the District truly wants to reform the system they will start giving fair classroom observations.
In April the District proposed raising the 'innovating' score on Deliberate Practice to +.5 from +.4. Ah, but wait for it. That came with the suggestion of changing a 'beginning' score from -.1 to -.3 and a 'not using' from -.2 to -.5. Another way to eliminate teachers who as administrators said, "are not a good fit."
It is amazing that the same District that mandated the inflation of students' grades, supports deflating teachers' evaluation scores. It appears that OCPS wants to stick it to teachers in their evaluation scores to save money in this merit pay system. This speaks to how much OCPS truly appreciates and respects its teachers. I would say, not so much.
LET TEACHERS TEACH OCPS imposed common planning, common curriculum, common lessons, common methods, common data collection, and common assessments. The contract states:
NPR reported in March 2015, ". . . the shrinking classroom autonomy is now the biggest dissatisfaction of math teachers nationally."
Of course, it is not just math teachers who mourn the loss of autonomy. No teacher wants to be a robot. Show some appreciation for teachers by restoring autonomy and stopping the testing madness so teachers can teach and students can learn!
Teacher appreciation should extend for more than just a week in the year. It should be an embedded and ongoing element at OCPS in in our community.
In a May 2015 article, the Shanker Institute reported: "Teachers’ views of their working conditions are strong predictors of whether or not they stay in a school."
Show teachers some love by treating them fairly!
SUPPORT Districts that value and appreciate teachers provide quality mentorship programs and a strong support system to help them grow and become professional leaders.
Teachers want and need high quality professional development and training. They expect to be paid at their hourly rate of pay for enrolling in and completing any training held past their contracted workweek that is essential to changes in their job performance.
A May 2015 article by the Shanker Institute reported, "Teachers who work in supportive contexts stay in the classroom longer, and improve at faster rates, than their peers in less-supportive environments.
Teachers feel appreciated when they are lifted up and supported, not when they are beaten down!
AN END TO THE MEAN-SPIRITED ACTIONS Teachers who feel as though they are constantly under attack by their their own employer will leave their school, district or the profession. I can think of dozens of mean-spirited actions I have experienced, witnessed or been informed about throughout my career at OCPS. They include: teachers being denied workers' compensation; teachers being punitively moved from subject area or from school to school; teachers facing discrimination because of age or health; teachers being kept in classrooms with unsafe air quality or mold; teachers being denied constitutional rights, including freedom of speech and freedom of association; teachers being publicly yelled at; teachers having papers thrown at them by district personnel; teachers being denied due process in 'investigations'; and teachers being given many more hours of unpaid mandated work than fits in their contracted workweek.
One of the latest examples of a mean-spirited action is extremely disturbing. When the Orange CTA won an arbitration awarding back-pay to deserving teachers, the District actually lobbied the Florida legislators to pass a bill so that they would not have to pay them. It is incredible that our tax dollars meant for instruction of Orange students, are being wasted to pay an OCPS lobbyist to take money out of the pockets of dedicated teachers. This lobbyist should have focused his attention to lobbying for a larger education budget, ending the testing madness, providing recess, restoring teachers' retirement benefits and other critical pubic education issues! OCPS should lobby on behalf of Orange students and not to cheat career teachers out of the meager salaries they have earned.
Thanks to the District's lobbying efforts, this despicable bill, SB 1356, passed. Instead of paying the award, the District filed an emergency action in Court not to pay the teachers. In court on May 2, 2016, a high-priced contract attorney argued on behalf of OCPS that the new legislation should now deprive 38 career teachers out of their rightful earnings. OCPS has likely spent more on lobbying and litigation costs than it would have spent if it had just paid the teachers their wages. Actions like this do not go unnoticed.
Teachers are not being shown appreciation, when they are regarded as disposable, replaceable labor units rather than as valued employees.
REFORM THE EVALUATION SYSTEM TO MAKE IT CONSISTENT AND FAIR While state law mandates a merit pay system, it does not mandate that it should be a mean-spirited system or a poke in the eye to teachers. The OCPS evaluation system has become both. It is inconsistent, subjective and unfair. It demoralizes teachers, impugns student instruction, and is a major reason for that OCPS teachers are leaving the district or profession. It has enriched contractors like Marzano's Learning Sciences International to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, taking taking funds away from salaries and resources.
After testifying at a school board meeting concerning our unjust evaluation system, board members expressed that the evaluation system needed to be reviewed. The District's response was that deliberate practice scores were responsible for lower grade. (See this post, More Soundbites, No Soultions.)
The District's excuse that the deliberate practice growth element of the evaluation score is the reason that only 256 teachers received highly effective scores is absurd and unconvincing. We all know that even without a deliberate practice score being added to the instructional practice score, thousands of OCPS teachers should have received highly effective scores based on classroom observations. That is, if the evaluating administrators had not been directed to give lower scores.
If the District truly wants to reform the system they will start giving fair classroom observations.
In April the District proposed raising the 'innovating' score on Deliberate Practice to +.5 from +.4. Ah, but wait for it. That came with the suggestion of changing a 'beginning' score from -.1 to -.3 and a 'not using' from -.2 to -.5. Another way to eliminate teachers who as administrators said, "are not a good fit."
It is amazing that the same District that mandated the inflation of students' grades, supports deflating teachers' evaluation scores. It appears that OCPS wants to stick it to teachers in their evaluation scores to save money in this merit pay system. This speaks to how much OCPS truly appreciates and respects its teachers. I would say, not so much.
LET TEACHERS TEACH OCPS imposed common planning, common curriculum, common lessons, common methods, common data collection, and common assessments. The contract states:
Article VII Teacher Rights and ResponsibilitiesTeachers should have autonomy to be creative, innovative and to think outside the box. Autonomy should be returned to teachers so that they can restore joy to the classroom, adopt lessons to suit their individual students and increase achievement.
A. Teachers shall have freedom in the implementation of the adopted curriculum, including the right to select materials and engage in classroom discussions as they relate to the subject matter being taught and the level of the student. The administrator has the right and obligation to question, consult, and direct whenever necessary.
NPR reported in March 2015, ". . . the shrinking classroom autonomy is now the biggest dissatisfaction of math teachers nationally."
Of course, it is not just math teachers who mourn the loss of autonomy. No teacher wants to be a robot. Show some appreciation for teachers by restoring autonomy and stopping the testing madness so teachers can teach and students can learn!
Teacher appreciation should extend for more than just a week in the year. It should be an embedded and ongoing element at OCPS in in our community.
This is spot on!
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