Educational Leadership???

[AaronJasper]

I am working in a school right now where the pricipal received an on line PHD and she has not spent any time as a classroom teacher: she was employed as a substance abuse coordinator or counselor. The shame is that this scenario is playing out in many of the urban schools in our country. Is this the type of leadership that our troubled schools need? Since I hear so many people complaining about urban education I just felt the need to share this troubling story with you guys. I would like to hear your thoughts on this... and please don't hold back.

[skyland guide]

its not what you know , but who you know , sounds like she did "no time as a teacher "and is appointed to her postion , because of who she knows , who,s the victim here , the kids and the staff , i also work in goverment and i can,t begin to tell you the level of fruststion thst i feel , I am at the end of my career, and really woried for My Kids .things need to chsnge in this country .

[Nymphmeister]

I think it should be a prerequisite that anyone in an upper level supervisory position like hers should have at least 5 years or more of teaching experience so they understand what it's like on both sides and have an actual clue about what's going on.

I learned how make drinks in bartending school, but the real "education" came when I actually got behind a bar and learned all the stuff they cannot teach you in school.

Don't all judges have to have some backround as a lawyer first? Seems like kinda the same thing to me.

[Brookie]

I think it's representative of a few things: Lack of real qualifications, our collective apathy as a society to be willing to right this and similar situations, the dumbing down of this country and acceptance of the least common denominator. The also sheds a little light on the scope of how overbearing and resistant to change our schools have become. They're like little bureaucracies that don't like to be told they need to make some changes.

You can almost understand if someone with less authority made it past the board of ed., but this is a full fledged administrator!

But what the hell do I know? I paint stripes on cars for a living and fish in my free time

[mcarl]

Aaron,

Your frustrations are valid and real. I don't think it'll change any time soon either no matter who gets elected to office next month. It's not just education either. I've seen it in all levels of the medical field too. My father recently retired from the phone company after 40 years. Many of his upper managers were college educated but never serviced a phone or spliced a wire let alone climb a telephone pole. It's the nature of our society and general business/corporation mentality. I'm a little jaded in my thinking though. In my own experience as an inner-city paramedic I've seen a lot of inexperienced providers move up the management ladder b/c they couldn't hack the grunt work. Nursing is the same too. My wife works in a Level 1 Trauma Center as a nurse and has seen nurses who couldn't handle the E.D leave only to return with several " degrees " and become managers only to really screw things up !! Our nation is DUMBING DOWN in all areas and at all levels. My only suggestion would be-if and when you find someone who is a manager/etc.. and can still do the " grunt work ""--embrace them and work with them as hard as you can b/c they are the special ones..There's not many left..Again, it's my own opinion and I readily admit that I have a jaded view--too many years working violent streets and seeing society at it's worst day-after-day.

[beadhead]

Aaron, I think this has a lot to do with the union your in bro! I'm a union guy, but the teachers union is one of the reasons our state can't balance it's books. Oh it's not the only reason thats for sure! But our state needs to look at how many twp's could be combined into educational blocks. Then there would be less, high ranking positions and the ones that are in place would ( should )go to the best canidates when the cards fall. New Jersey politics are a joke. I feel bad for kids in some of the cities, the politions use the education system give thier homies jobs, and it's the kids that pay! Sad.

[wwelz]

I have spent thirty years in the union movement. Every time there is a failure of leadership on the management side the default position of policy makers and politicians is to blame the union. . I strongly believe that the vast majority of the teachers want to provide a quality learning experience for their students. Teachers know how to fix our broken educational system. The problem is administrators, policy makers , politicians and taxpayers fail to listen . I have had the experience of turning around failed human service programs by listening to the workers and utilitizing their power to force bureaucrats to engage in a power sharing process by which the ideas of the workers are heard by management and implemented. My union has saved the state of Conn millions of dollars in workers comp claims by engaging the workers in a meaningful conversation about safety. As fly Fishermen and women we know that quality gear costs more but performs better and last longer but as taxpayers we fail to compensate teachers adequately for the work they perform and oftentimes do not give them the tools to do their job. The first target in budget cuts is always teachers salaries and programs like music , language ,art and sports.

[Dr. BlueDun]

I spent 42 years of my life as a teacher of Chemistry and an adjunct professor at a local College. My signature "Doc" came from the Doctorate in Physical Chemistry I earned. I also am still embroiled with a Union---NYSUT---the only thing I have seen the union accomplish besides a welfare fund is alienate the taxpayers successfully over a 35 year history of involvement. The unions consistently "hide" the dregs of the teaching profession within complicated 3120A hearings and red tape. I have seen a staff member ( I still cannot call her a teacher) who underwent 4 of these hearings ( five years) only to get a better deal to retire than the rest of the staff. The unions are the basic cause of the degradation of the school systems and continue to push these "degrees." An administrator who has never seen the inside of a classroom cannot begin to understand the educational processes, even yet be called upon to evaluate the staff's performance let alone work to correct deficiencies. Fortunately I am 18 years retired and have only stepped in to teach Calculus on a part time basis at a local college. (not during fishing season however)

[Adam]

Unions breed mediocrity.

Now there are plenty of darts to through in other directions...but on the whole...unions have lost their way.

Happy to pay teachers. No issue with that. I would like to see teachers rewarded for their hardwork and those that underperform or who are just showing up to work shown the door....

[AaronJasper]

The way that I do see it from my five years of experience are that the teachers who are outspoken and fight for their rights and call a spade a spade ARE the ones who work hard, like myself. The ones that don't do shit are the ones who are quiet and keep to themselves just don't want to be found out. They are the ones doing nothing and want to keep it that way. Also, I have figured it out that the only way to advance in teaching is to do a crappy job. The worse job you do the better position and more authority you have.

I saw one teacher, who was dreadfully bad and had horrible test scores and by bad I mean less than 38 percent passed each year. You know what, she is the literacy coach of a school. She is in charge of the reading instruction for an entire K-8 school. This person only has 3 years teaching experience in ONE upper grade. She has no masters in reading or anything to do with the subject. This is only one small example of many.