New Haven teachers pact: message to Rhee?

Perhaps there was some basis of trust and mutual respect in order to get this done? Just sayin'...

One thing I hope Arne Duncan understands is that poor school districts have less resources. They usually have more behavioral problems in the classroom also. It's much harder to get academic progress in a poor district than in a rich one.

Gee while she was flying all around the country bashing teachers, and firing principals, New Haven was working, negotiating and ratifying a contract that could be a "national model" sanctioned by the Secretary for Education. That speaks volumns and in only 4 months.

Sounds like New Haven has a real leader, a professional, an educator, an expert on teaching and learning best practices, an evaluation that seems to be fair and acceptable to teachers and has the trust of all stakeholders. The leader is not on the cover of magazines but has gained instant fame in a positive manner. The leader is obviously an efficient manager of time. Negotiations took 4 months?

DC has an unqualified person called a chancellor, who disrepsects the work force, fires teacher and principals, mismanages the budget, clueless on teaching and learning, evaluates teachers differently(depending on the testing grade and/or subject),spends more time not working and out of town promoting a personal agenda. There is no trust from any stakeholder. She lies about successes. She is obviously an inefficient time manager. Contract negotiations: 3rd year and counting!

Since it only took 4 months for New Haven to settle a contract, they probably don't care as much about the kids as Her Chancellorship.

Individual teachers should be recognized for their performance. What's wrong with that?

"they probably don't care as much about the kids as Her Chancellorship."

Thanks, GoDoZo, for the good laugh.

I also enjoyed something the Chancellor said. It didn't make me laugh, but it had an uncharacteristic sheepish sound that gave me hope.

"If the folks in the school district feel like it's heading in the right direction," she said, "then I think it's a wonderful thing."

"Folks?" "Wonderful?" I'll have to check my compendium of Chancellor quotes, but I don't recall those words being part of the Rhee's usual vocabulary.

BTW, how is the private funding for Mrs. Rhee's incentive program coming along?
And, Bill, did she ever answer the 15 questions?

There will be no contract in DCPS with Rhee. She has destroyed all trust she ever had with teachers. Even her "new hires" have already seen through her vindictive tactics. What a shame. We could have been a model for the country had she listened to and partnered with here corps of teachers. All she was interested in doing was flushing the system out of what she thought were ineffective educators. Had she taken the time to get to know the people she was trying to lead, she might have found that we are a bright, educated, dedicated, competent, hard-working group of teachers who love our students, love teaching, want reform and are willing to make some concessions. What characterizes the system now is chaos and confusion, anxious teachers, unhappy parents and students in larger class sizes. It's the worst I've ever seen DCPS. Great job Michelle! For those of you who want to point to test scores, please examine the data closely. Test scores were already on the rise before Rhee came on board. Credit Clifford Janey, her predecessor. Fenty should have left him in place. He was qualified, knew what he was doing and respected his teachers something about which Michelle Rhee knows nothing.

Rhee: "If the folks in the district think it's heading in the right direction, then I think it's a wonderful thing."

Question: Since the majority of folks in this district think we're falling down a bottomless pit, does that mean you concede that you are a horrible thing?

UrbanDweller - about those new hires - they may be young and idealistic, but if they're also as smart as claimed, they can quickly see through the chancellor’s methods. Really, it doesn’t take high-order thinking to notice and analyze that the management-induced chaos going on around you is bad for students and teachers.

Perhaps the chancellor, as smart as she is, didn’t realize she’d lose the support of new teachers. Maybe she presumed that they’d bought into her vision of the hero teacher as much as she had and thus it didn’t occur to her that a negative reality could intrude upon that vision.

I know from my reading about Teach for America that some recruits who wash out assume it’s their fault – that they just weren’t cut out for the demanding task of teaching disadvantaged kids. I suspect that Rhee’s obviously poor handling of the RIF has made it abundantly clear to new hires that the problem isn’t them.
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Candycane says: “Since the majority of folks in this district think we're falling down a bottomless pit, does that mean you concede that you are a horrible thing?”

Thanks for another good laugh. Who would have thought there’d be so much humor to pull out of this mess?

Some excerpts from today’s New Haven Register article about their new union contract:

Randi Weingarten, President AFT:
“D.C. was about the mayor and chancellor trying to win, as opposed to helping kids do better. Here, you have everyone focused on student achievement.”

“[Mayor] DeStefano conceded Monday he had initially considered ‘shoving’ reform ‘down people’s throats,’ but adopted a more collaborative approach after watching progress stall in D.C.”

City Union President Cicarella: “We finally get to have some true input. The contract clearly calls for our participation, our input, our decision making. ... We’re with the kids; listen to us, we truly do have the expertise, and we can get this done.”

“The four-year contract was ratified earlier this month in a sweeping 842-39 vote.”
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Please note, Superintendent Reginald Mayo was on the panel where the other officials made the comments above, but the newspaper did not quote him. Perhaps he is the strong silent type.

Read the whole article at:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/10/27/news/new_haven/a1_--_reformforum_1027.txt

Yes, there is a message to Rhee and here it is:

If you want educational reform, don't forget to include the major stakeholders.

The mayor of New Haven decided to take the collaborative approach?

Well if everybody's watching DC, then Rhee's personal agenda of being nationally recognized will be fulfilled after all. She will be the expert across the United States pushing her new book: "The 7 Habits of Ineffective Leaders" or " The Complete Handbook When Faking Leadership"

Gee the big unions and their big Democratic allies agree that it is a great contract. How could Michelle fail to get the message? Here's some questions for you. How does such a contract improve Michelle Rhee's leverage? How does such a contract help the students? After 50 years of disaster what credibility do the unions have? How much credibility do they deserve?