The Lucy Calkins/Teachers College plan....Weed 'em out

Leonie Haimson had a great post on her listserv that in many ways says it all about what has been going on for the past 5 years in NYC schools. Here is a section of the article that shows that if you don't go along as a teacher you get "weeded out." We've seen so many of these stories come along while the UFT remains blind, deaf and dumb. You can read the entire article at Norm's Notes.

Lucy and crew whack those weeds!

Leonie says:
Teachers College and its Reading and Writing Project, headed by Lucy Calkins, is one of the providers offered by some of the SSO’s. According to the principal’s guide, empowerment schools can separately contract out with this program, and the Community LSO (run by Marcia Lyles) and the ICO LSO (run by Judith Chin) will offer it at an additional price to schools who sign up with them. Here is an oped from the NY Sun by one parent who also runs an-arts program for children, about her experiences attending a Reading and Writing Project training session for literacy coaches.
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=53350&v=2021767711
Coach Class

BY BARBARA FEINBERG OP-ED NY Sun
April 27, 2007
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/53350

While trying to grasp all the involved steps that a coach has to implement, an audience member asked a question that seemed to be on everyone's lips: "How do you keep your methods from feeling offensive to teachers?"

The instructor replied by admitting that often teachers did tend to feel offended, and that it was a "perennial problem." But she quickly went on to say, "It's important for principals to tell their teachers that they have to comply; to say, ‘This is the culture of our school now; this is what we do.'" She went on to add a somewhat ominous comment, "a lot of teachers get weeded out," suggesting that those who don't conform are forced out. Although in what way this enforced expulsion occurs was left disturbingly vague.