Marquette Elementary school is slated for turnaround this year by the Chicago Board of Education. A "turnaround" is when an entire school staff is fired. This means teachers, teachers aides, cafeteria workers, and janitors. In Chicago, these schools are turned over to the Academy for Urban School Leadership, a private non-profit financed by venture capitalists and formerly run by current Chicago Public Schools Chief Administrative Officer Tim Cawley.
From CTUnet.com:
This is a school where staff,
... arrived early and left late. [Teachers and PSRPs] used their own money to help their students be successful in class [and] visited students’ homes to help build better relationships with students, parents and the community.
Eighth-grade teacher Jackie Ward explained to the Southwest News Herald:
Just five years ago we were considered a rising star school. We have been sabotaged. We have had three different principals in the last three years.
Marquette teacher pleads her case for the press at a December 14th press conference.
This alleged sabotage was first reported in The Chicago Union Teacher. Teachers felt they were set up for the turnaround long before the Board's announcement.
The following story was originally published in the December 2010/ January 2011 edition of Chicago Union Teacher:
It is a traumatic experience for a school staff to find out that they are on the Chicago Public Schools’ (CPS) “Turnaround” list. Last year, schools that found themselves on the list (Bradwell, Curtis, Deneen, Phillips, and Marshall) had about one month to organize campaigns to defend their schools before the Chicago Board of Education (BOE) could rubber-stamp their fates. Unfortunately, none of these schools were removed from the list. At Marquette School, many on the staff feel that they have already been given warning and launched their campaign in late October.
When the staff sat down for one of their first meetings of the school year in early, the newly-installed principal, Wendy Oleksy dropped a bomb on the staff. She told them that if the test scores at the school did not increase, which would keep the school on probation, the school was next in line to be restructured. According to teacher Nancy Serrano, Oleksy relayed the message from Area 11 Chief Area Officer Janie Ortega telling staff that with all of the programs that have come and gone at the school, the school has changed everything but the teachers, and the teachers would be next to go. This was the first indication that the new principal at the school would handle matters with a heavy hand.
“[Oleksy] tells the staff to forget what’s going on outside because we need to focus on the test scores to get off probation, said Serrano, “I believe we need to develop curricula that addresses the needs of our students and are relevant to the community,” explained Serrano, who also noted that the traditional bilingual education program was dismantled by the new administration early in the year, but later brought back under a different model.
Oleksy began her tenure as principal this year under Area 11 Chief Area Officer (CAO) Janie Ortega, who herself is at the center of controversy after sending an e-mail to her principals where she implied a local mandate for them to “E3” (see note) two teachers per year.
“It’s like we’re being set up for failure,” said Serrano.
Ortega made herself a regular presence at the school, dropping by classes for impromptu walk-throughs. One teacher at the school says that Ortega has stopped by her classroom at least once a week. “[Ortega] didn’t talk to me after the first walk-though. The day after, [Principal Oleksy] relayed a message from Ortega. She said that her problems with my class were that posters were crooked and I had bad handwriting,” recounted the teacher, who asked to have her name withheld.
Marquette teachers fighting back at December 14th Board of Education meeting.
This year, teachers are required to make “Key Learning Targets” (KLT) which are benchmarks that are monitored by computerized tests given every five weeks. Teachers have complained that the tests are laden with inaccuracies. Teachers are required to use the “FOSS” and “Trailblazers” pacing guides for curriculum, but have complained that both series are also flawed. One of the problems is that there is no alignment between the pacing guides and the KLT tests.
The use of the guides is monitored during walk-throughs by the Principal and the CAO. One teacher explained “When we brought up the problems with the KLTs and the pacing guides, the principal told us that it was a ‘work in progress,’ we are concerned because we know we’re being evaluated on these KLT tests.”
Teachers have reported that school morale is at an all-time low. The constant disruptions of walk-through and the inevitable brow-beatings after the observations have made the school a difficult place to work. Many feel that they are being set up for failure so the CAO can make a case for “Turnaround.”
Veteran Marquette teacher Bob Schuberth defends his school at the KOCO press conference on January 4th, 2012. His testimony begins at 12:19.
The issues with the new principal and CAO were brought to the attention of the Union during a teacher evaluation meeting coordinated by the Quest Center held at Marquette Elementary on October 19th. Although the meeting brought teachers from throughout the city, the specific issues at Marquette came to the forefront.
Note -“E-3”: “E-3” is shorthand for the remediation process for tenured teachers rated “unsatisfactory” by the principal. If, in the opinion of the principal, the teacher is still rated “unsatisfactory” by her estimation at the end of the process, the tenured teacher can be fired. E-3 is the name of the form the principal uses to begin the process.
For a full description of the process, consult the CPS/CTU Contract, pages 94-95.