Teacher-Powered Schools Are Empowering

Give power to the teachers not to the tests

If you missed earlier episodes, the best way to binge-read Scrambling for Voice, Choice, and Agency is to use this Table of Contents link to previous posts.

Fear not: If you miss reading some episodes of this serial story, you can still pick up the action.

Episode 36……of 49 episodes

From: Chance
Decisions
To: Kerry sent - Gmail at 9:01 PM

Hi Kerry—

It was great getting together with you and getting caught up:
decision-making….Stan….your new role at your school….leadership….and democracy….

The three and a half hours flew by….

I have good news: Your superintendent and my superintendent have been talking. They really like what is happening at your school and the success of teacher-powered leadership.

I have a meeting scheduled with my principal and the superintendent. We are going to talk about instituting your decision-making model at my school.

If they approve of a new decision-making model, there will be quite a bit of work to do to get buy-in from the teachers ……or not….maybe everyone will say: At Last! I am going to finally have a voice!

Also:

I am getting the message that Stan and his punitive style of evaluating teachers may end up in my rear-view mirror…Wouldn’t it be great if Stan was something I would never have to deal with again?!???…

I’m not holding my breath….

I’ll believe it when it happens….
….but, my superintendent has made it clear that she does not approve of his small-minded tactics……

Chance

–—

From: Kerry
re: Decisions
To: Chance sent - Gmail 6:22 AM

Hi Chance—

Great news about Stan!! Even if they don’t move him to a new job, at least your superintendent is thinking about it.

Just remember: moving to a teacher-powered school is best done gradually and with care and attention…and the teachers who do not want to be on that particular school bus need to have a way to gracefully transfer to another school.

I have a meeting with my superintendent tomorrow…. Please let me know if I can bring any of this up with her…

Busy day ahead……Spring standardized testing is on the horizon, and we must plan for it.

Of course, we have no power to cancel state mandated high stakes testing, but we are working hard to figure out a way to administer the tests without upsetting and halting learning for the students. Our goal is to test with integrity and dignity……and not upset our connections with kids.

In some schools and districts, the teachers are treated as if they are always cheating……When that is the assumption, it is hard to not inflict that toxic energy on the kids and on everyone who touches the tests.

When you treat the tests as if they are packets of gold from Fort Knox that everyone intends to steal, then it is hard to treat everyone who handles them with confidence and trust.

I wish we could figure out how to shield ourselves from aggressive real estate agents and uninformed journalists & politicians who use the scores to make judgments about our teaching and the students’ learning.

Test scores are more of an indicator of socio-economic status than about student achievement and teacher competency.

When the scores of privileged students are used to rank and sort schools, it promotes social inequality and threatens democracy. It undermines social justice and prevents students from experiencing their full potential….

More later—

Kerry