Thompson: @TheChalkface Is A Must-Read [Last Call For JT@TWIE!]
[Editor's note: After something like 8 years as a contributor here, John Thompson (@drjohnthompson) is taking his talents to Diane Ravitch's blog. This is his last post, officially. For an archive go here. You can read his latest post here. Many many thanks for your prolific writing, teacher-based insights, and willingness to work with those with whom you don't necessarily agree. It's been an inspiration.]
Washington D.C. teacher/blogger Dr. Shaun Johnson has restarted @ The Chalkface, this time offering nuggets of school reality. Johnson, who left academia for the kindergarten classroom in Ward Eight, may not have the time to teach school and write the detailed and thoughtful posts that he used to publish, but he provides frequent reality checks.
Johnson's observations are especially timely as D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson spins the attrition rate for her district's teachers and principals. As the Washington Post's Michael Alison Chandler reports, in Kaya Henderson Addresses Teacher and Principal Turnover in Annual Event, Henderson claims a new fellowship program "teaches leaders ... how to support, develop and retain a staff." And, "'If every year you are replacing a third of your staff, something is wrong,' she said. 'We look at that, we have conversations. . . . Or if they are not the right leader for DCPS, they move on.'”
Before non-educators lend credence to Henderson's claims about her district's leadership and the effectiveness of their top-down "teacher quality" campaign, they should follow Johnson's brief and timely observations on how they are implemented in schools.
Not surprisingly, the first post of the school year began with a discussion of the anxiety caused by the IMPACT teacher evaluation program. It was followed by an observation about how the district's observers create a "audit culture" in public schools. Johnson explains:
Whenever we have our walk throughs, and being in a “failing” school they are frequent, the onus is always on the teacher. What are YOU doing to improve achievement? But the audit never goes the other way. Do I ever get a chance to check off a list of things I need, in return asking what YOU ALL are doing? What are you doing to get that paycheck?
Output-driven reformers would have to actually teach in a high-challenge school before they could This Week In Education: Thompson: @TheChalkface Is A Must-Read [Last Call For JT@TWIE!]: