The CPS principals revolt: A single spark can start a prairie fire
A SMALLTALK SALUTE goes out to Blaine Principal Troy LaRaviere for standing up and speaking truth to power. His May 9th letter in the Sun-Times, "Under Emanuel, principals have no voice", has sparked a firestorm and has Rahm and CEO Byrd-Bennett, once again running for cover.
It's not often you hear a CPS principal tipping his hat to democratic and pro-teacher educators, John Dewey and Linda Darling-Hammond, two names that strike fear into the heart of the CPS bureaucracy.
The world’s highest-performing school systems are built on the ideas of American education professionals ranging from John Dewey to Linda Darling-Hammond, ideas that recognize school improvement is not an individual race, but a team sport. Yet, our own elected officials have been ignoring those ideas in favor of teacher-bashing, privatized choice, fly-by-night fast-track teacher licensing and over-reliance on testing — ideas that have not improved schooling in any nation that has tried them.LaRaviere said Monday that the way CPS treats its principals “is doing a disservice to our students. . . . Our rights are less of an issue than the rights of our students to get a quality education. That is what drives us. That’s why we got into this.”
Also on Monday, at least three other principals echoed LaRaviere’s criticism of the mayor'sMike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: The CPS principals revolt: A single spark can start a prairie fire: