Saturday, August 07, 2010

"U" Principal


The principal knows he is in charge of a "C" school and there is little he can do to improve it.
He has some rough kids in the school, kids he inherited when all the nearby schools were closed. He knows he should retire. He is more than old enough and has the years. His problem is that he has no life outside of the school.

The principal is worried. He has to make it look like he is doing something to improve the school. The principal decides the best way to do this is to start "U" rating teachers. He starts with the ones who won't kiss his bottom and jump when he says jump. He continues on to the ones who balked when he asked them to sign a possibly incriminating piece of paper. He then starts lying and exaggerating what he has seen. He writes "U" observations on lessons he has no clue about. He "U" rates teachers based on these observations although the AP in charge of the department finds no fault with the teacher. He forces the AP who does not want to "U" rate a satisfactory teacher to leave.

The school will still be a "C" school, if it is lucky. It might even be a "D" one now that many of the good teachers and admins have been forced out. But, the principal will look good. He did Bloomberg and Klein's bidding. He gave out the "U's".

2 comments:

Chaz said...

How true, and t happens with increasing frequency in the last few years.

Anonymous said...

It will always be the teachers instead of the real problem.

When education became politicized, many student programs got cut--including vocational schools and evening schools.

Public schools don't get to "counsel out" students like charters can to insure passing test results. I say take your worst 10% and send them over to those charters boasting 100% of their students go to college. I am sure those students will appreciate the tight control that public schools are not allowed to use.

But the real U should go to the parents.