I have to say, I had a hard time just getting past the first paragraph:
Jean Bernstein rang a cowbell, her cue to quiet the sixth-graders at Roberto Clemente Middle School for a lesson on multiplying decimals. “You need to settle down,” she said.
Ugh. Cowbell? And people think I’m nuts when I talk about schools being dehumanizing.
Anyway, earlier in the week the Post threw a spotlight on Montgomery County’s Peer Assistance and Review process.
Peer review gives Maryland’s largest school system the power to dismiss under-performers. It gives struggling teachers a chance to rebuild skills. Of 66 Montgomery teachers in peer review in the 2008-09 school year, 10 are being dismissed and 21 have resigned or retired. Five will remain in review for a second year. The remaining 30 will successfully exit.
“We’ve changed the whole culture from ‘gotcha’ to support,” said Montgomery Superintendent Jerry D. Weast.
Peer review, which costs Montgomery schools $2 million a year, pairs a struggling teacher with a mentor. Those who improve return to the classroom. Those who do not go before a panel of 16 teachers and principals that amounts to an impartial court. It decides whether to recommend termination or a second year of monitoring. No one gets more than two years.
Two million dollars. A panel of 16 teachers and principals to dismiss 10 teachers in a system with 11,544 teachers. That’s a bit over $30,000 per teacher in the program.
Kind of takes your breath away, no?
There are 199 schools in MCPS. I guarantee that every parent can point to, at minimum, two or three thoroughly awful teachers in their child’s 12 year school career who continue to teach, year after year. (I’m thinking you, Miss Humiliates Kids math teacher.)
Several months ago I attended a PTA meeting at a middle school where I had no kids (yes I am a glutton for punishment. I wanted to hear the presentation on middle school reform.) The discussion turned to differentiation–the silver bullet now that they’re doing away with GT classes. Parents know–and even MCPS administrators will admit, off the record–that many teachers just can’t differentiate. Even with training. A parent at the meeting pressed the question, what did it take to dismiss a teacher? And the principal conceded that it takes three years.
I wonder, are parents and kids ever asked who is low achieving? I guess that’s what RateMyTeachers.com is for.
The thing about Ms. Z is that not only is she a terrible teacher, she is just plain rude. When a teacher insults you and makes rude, personal comments you are not motivated at all. Her assignments tend to not be very clear. Her help is limited.
Moo.
I fail to see how the use of a bell as an attention signal for a classroom is more “dehumanizing” than the various phrases or gestures that are also used for the purpose. Using an attention signal rather than shouting at the kids is good classroom management. Would you have objected if the bell had been described as a handbell? a desktop bell?
The process described for dismissing teachers seems fairly reasonable. Expensive, but not as expensive as the cumbersome processes that NY and LA have, and better than having no process for dismissal. The mere existence of a functioning dismissal process probably weeds out a number of teachers without having to be formally invoked.
To each his own. For me it’s the image of “the herd.”