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Thursday, January 21, 2016

The vast ‘uncounted underground’ of teachers in America - The Washington Post

The vast ‘uncounted underground’ of teachers in America - The Washington Post:

The vast ‘uncounted underground’ of teachers in America

In 2011, Anne O’Brien of the Learning First Alliance attended the annual conference of the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards and found herself “dismayed” to hear teachers express frustrations about their profession. She wrote in part:
For example, in the Q & A following [then Education Secretary Arne] Duncan’s speech, one NBCT pointed out that her school had been selected for a merit pay program funded by Race to the Top. Aside from the fact that the day before Dan Pink had reviewed research on motivation that suggested the underlying theory of action for such programs is flawed, this particular teacher – and her colleagues, according to her – found the process by which it was adopted quite demoralizing. It seemed to them like outsiders coming in to fix things, without considering the expertise that existed in the school.
Her experience was part of a theme I heard in other sessions: Policymakers often preface comments against teachers with, “We’re not talking about the good teachers.” The mood at the conference: “You’re not talking with us, either.”… A theme that came up a number of times was fear.
Teachers (and principals) are afraid to talk to the press. They are afraid to talk to policymakers and to take a stand against policies that they think are unfair, because they are afraid of losing their jobs and of other backlash. They are afraid to blog, again fearing retribution from either their district or colleagues. These are some of America’s premier teachers – and this is the climate they describe. It is not a climate that a professional should face.
Since then, a growing number of educators have raised their voices to protest education reform policies that they believe have been harming students and public schools.  For example, an organization called the Badass Teachers Association was created and says it has thousands of members — educators with big voices. And many are leaving with their feet; teaching shortages have worsened in a number of states in recent years with no sign of let-up.  A new report says California’s teaching shortage could easily get worse if necessary steps aren’t taken to stem it.
Yet the frustration and fear to speak out among many working teachers persists. Here’s a post about the “uncounted underground of teachers” by Chris Guerrieri, a teacher in Jacksonville, Fla., who writes the Education Matters blog and who gave me permission to republish it. “The uncounted underground of teachers” is a phrase that was part of a story in the Florida Times-Union, as Guerrieri’s post explains.

By Chris Guerrieri
The Florida Times-Union recently ran an article about a first-grade teacher that the author of the piece referred to as part of an “uncounted underground of teachers.” The teacher, Carol Inmon, like others, had retired early after feeling micromanaged into teaching a curriculum she felt was inappropriate.
Are you part of this uncounted underground? You just might be, if:
You question the curriculum you’re forced to teach (that, in and of itself is a The vast ‘uncounted underground’ of teachers in America - The Washington Post: