9486 in the collection
Principals feeling pressure to get A's putting pressure on parents, teachers to give them
Here's another example of the stupidity of corporate-politico school reformers--anybody could warn them of the toxicity of making evaluations "high stakes."
Reader Comment: These school surveys are a huge problem. They should NOT be factored into the schools grade because they create mistrust and dishonesty. Students, teachers and parents use these survey to cowardly air out all of their hot personal garbage that probably has NOTHING to do with the school and does way more damage than good. You can't make everyone happy and run a tight ship at the same time.
Reader Comment: Billionaireberg strong arms people to get his way. . . . The principals are only following his lead.
Reader Comment: You bet it's a toxic atmosphere- an atmosphere that has been carefully cultivated for the past 8 years. Four more years of deliberate machinations and the schools will be an educational Love Canal. Teachers, students and inept, dull-witted automaton principals have been set upon each other by the Toxic Team at the DOE. In every school it's every man for himself. At DOE headquarters, they sit back, rubbing their hands together, moving ever closer to their goal: giving OUR tax money to their cronies to open McSchools who will pretend to make it all go away. Intelligent people are disgusted.
Mary/Marie Prendergast, Graduate of Leadership Academy, in News Before-- New York Sun, Dec. 22, 2006
The principal of an empowerment school in Brooklyn "failed in her role as principal" when teachers at the school helped students cheat on science labs required for the Regents exams, according to a report released by Department of Education investigators yesterday.
The principal, Marie Prendergast, of the High School for Youth and Community Development, is a graduate of Mayor Bloomberg's Leadership Academy, a fast-track intensive training program for principals. The school is one of the small schools in the New Century High Schools Initiative, a program touted by Chancellor Joel Klein that partners schools with private community groups and requires that schools have at least 80% of students pass all of the Regents exams.
by Rachel Monahan
These principals may be the real grade-grubbers.
Across the city, principals are under investigation for pressuring parents, students or teachers into giving them good reviews on the secret surveys that gauge school satisfaction.
Just a month after the Daily News obtained a recording of a Brooklyn principal threatening teachers for giving her shoddy reviews, another tape has emerged of a principal instructing teachers on the importance of giving high marks.
"If you give us low grades and that attacks our progress report grade, the school's going to close," Principal Mary Prendergast of the High School for Youth and Community Development says in a matter-of-fact tone.
She also notes that she considers the survey to be "stupid, quite frankly," and tells her teacher to "politically be smart."
"We live in a toxic political environment in the Department of Education," she explains. "I'm not putting this in a memo because these are the kind of things that can be misinterpreted."
Prendergast isn't alone. Yolanda Ramirez, principal of Public School 38 in Brooklyn, was caught on tape last year berating her teachers for giving her lousy reviews.
And education officials confirm they are investigating other cases of principals giving instructions on the surveys, which account for 10% of the A-to-F grades given to schools and are used to determine bonuses.
Contacted by The News, Prendergast acknowledges she's looking to improve her new small school's scores and that the threat of closure is a real one her teachers are generally aware of. But, she said, she wasn't trying to pressure her underlings.
"How does a principal advocate for doing the best we can without making it look like we're skewing the results?" she asked.
Education Department officials said they don't think there's "widespread" pressure on the surveys, noting 24% of teachers last year said they didn't "trust the principal at his or her word."
"We will not tolerate any attempt to manipulate survey results," said Danny Kanner, an Education Department spokesman, before bashing teachers for making the recordings.
But at PS 34 in Queens, a current and a former teacher charged their principal freaked out after they gave her poor reviews two years back, then tried to convince them that better reviews would mean a bigger bonus. Principal Pauline Shakespeare denied the charge through a secretary.
At PS 345 in Brooklyn, teachers charged the principal tried to scare them with the prospect of closure - but backed off after the school's report card grade rose. Principal Wanda Holt denied the allegations before hanging up on The News.
— Rachel Monahan
New York Daily News
2010-05-05
http://tinyurl.com/2ce97pb
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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