Winston Brooks is about to shake up RGHS.
I have in my hand a document entitled;
A Framework of Possibilities.It was handed out to APS Board of Education at their meeting about the restructuring of Rio Grande High School and Ernie Pyle Middle School.
As a stand alone document, it is difficult to make great sense of.
It looks to me like the teachers union and the administration
have been working together for some time to provide a framework for restructuring schools whose restructuring has been mandated by their ongoing "failure" to meet NCLB standards.
What I find most disturbing is that, I cannot find the words
"student discipline" anywhere in the document.
It is almost like no one in the leadership of the APS is aware of the impact of chronically disruptive students, on the learning process of other students. Either that, or they just don't want to talk about it on the record.
I can understand why the leadership of the APS wants to soft
play a problem that falls more reasonably in their lap, than on
the laps of teachers.
I cannot understand why the Albuquerque Federation of Teachers is reticent to document a problem that makes teachers look incompetent,
and doesn't move that problem onto the table of those who have the power, resources and the responsibility to deal with it.
2 comments:
I cannot understand why the Albuquerque Federation of Teachers has one paying member left!
The same thing is being presented at onsite developement/staff/faculty meetings.restructuring and NCLB compliance is always stressed, but never student discipline nor absenteeism.
Many instructors have tried to push the issues of discipline and absenteeism onto the table for discussion but it always "that's not what we're here for" or "that's a topic for another time" (which never comes).
The Union promised to take this on with administrators, but it appears it is another hollow promise from said union.
By the way,
(and this can be proven by 1-2 phone calls to the regional and national union offices) many people do not know that this union in ABQ answers to no one. They are fully "autonomous" from all the other authorities or inspectors or QA in the National Union. If you have a complaint or problem, they troubleshoot and solve it themselves (just like APS' fraud and waste hotline, I suppose). There is no one above Ellen Bernstein to make your complaint, and if she decides your view is useless, it dies there, and there;s nothing you can do about it.
Buyer beware! You pay the union some $600+ per year and they use a little of that money to buy the union name! They are not large, they are not powerful, they are not innovative, they are not courageous, they do not fight for an individual, they do a bunch of weak trainings for novice teachers, they don't really care to act on your concerns.
Buyer beware!
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