New way of firing experienced teachers..."redefinition"

[madfloridian]

I am not sure how many districts are using this tactic, but I have read several instances of it going on. They simply change the "definition" of a teaching position, let the present teacher go, and hire a new one in their place.

Redefined out of teaching

Like many others caught up in the so-called Race To The Top, she is an experienced teacher with National Board Certification. She wasn't fired for cause or for poor evaluations. Rather, a letter in the mail notified her simply, that she had been "honorably discharged." She fell victim to the latest trick being used by CEO Huberman and the board to circumvent and ultimately destroy its collective bargaining contract with the CTU. It's called redefinition.

Instead of actually firing teachers, the board does an end run around the contract by simply closing out or redefining their positions. This enables them, or the school principal, to replace veteran or tenured teachers with younger, lower-paid, often non-certified teachers, or teachers teaching out of their field. Lately it's been used to satisfy the district's contractual agreement with Teach For America. In this case, a new principal was most likely pressured by superiors to "clean house" and pick their own staff.

For this award winning teacher, it means being torn away from her students and from the profession she loves so dearly and to which she has committed her life and her talents. It also means being unemployed in the middle of this great recession, with a family to support and loss of medical care.

"Honorably discharged"? Seems like it was not such a good idea to hold the National Board Certification...comes with a higher price tag for the district. How very sad.

Here is more about the "redefinition" happening in Chicago, Arne's home turf. Wonder if that technique will follow him nationally as did his snarky attitude toward teachers?

Filed Away?

On July 21, Mike Quigley got word that he was being laid off from the south-side public high school where he'd been teaching science for the last eight years.

"My principal called me—it sounded like she was reading from a script," says Quigley (no relation to the congressman of the same name). "She told me my job was being terminated for budget reasons."

What happened to Quigley was possibly a breach of contract—but it wasn't unusual. Over the summer the Chicago Public Schools laid off 1,300 teachers. CEO Ron Huberman explained that the Chicago Teachers Union wouldn't help him out of a budget crisis by giving back the 4 percent raise it had negotiated, so he'd had no choice but to take draconian measures.

In summary the teachers got their raises, teachers laid off because larger classes made them unnecessary did get their jobs back. But not those under "redefinition".

..."These justifications all had in one thing in common: they weren't covered by the union contract. This meant they suited Huberman and the Board of Education, which on June 15 passed a resolution giving him the power to circumvent the rights the CTU had negotiated for tenured teachers and give teachers the boot in the name of "cost savings measures implemented to address financial exigencies."

Redefined out of a job.

And out of the pay that goes with experience and tenure.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. An old trick

And the reason teachers should always be certified in more than one area.

[madfloridian]

4. Actually in our area teachers on CC would be reassigned, not fired.

.

[MedicalAdmin]

60. Happened to me years ago.

It's the main reason that I never returned to teaching. I'm not busting my hump to develop an award winning program that kids and parents love and that both the district holds up in it's recruiting literature as a sterling example of the good work they do while simultaniously "redefining" the team that made it possible.

A few facts. In teaching, there is often only a few weeks time during the year when hiring happens. You get notice that you will be hired or not hired for the next year usually sometime in the spring. If you are not hired then that gives you time to find and secure another job, often far, far away so you and your family are faced with the prospect of moving expenses and EVERYONE getting a new job.

In my case I was notified that I was going to be rehired so I never looked for work and I was notified that my job was "reclassified" 1 day before school started (too late to find work locally) and that, no, I couldn't apply for the "new" position because it had already been filled. A snotty principal told me that had I wanted that job, then I should have applied for it. I almost strangled the man - and in hindsight, I should have. I replied that had I known I needed to get a job I would have been looking. He just smiled and said, "gee, that's too bad. Security will accompany you to your room to pick up your stuff. Please don't take too long."

Parenthetical comment: I have never met a principal that I would pee on even if they were on fire.

I left teaching, one of my partners managed to muddle through another 2 years to retirement, and the best of us (literally the best teacher I had ever worked with) just walked out and was hired by another district within a day. As for me, I was the youngest but the one with the highest levels of education and certifications, and I knew that the rest of my career could be spent sucking an administrators dick (figuratively speaking ... I hope) or having a target painted on my back and never knowing when I would have to find another job or moving every few years and absorbing that cost with my meager salary.

I decided to get out. I miss the kids and the relationships with parents and other teachers, but I will never put myself or my family through that kind of economic hardship again. Ever.

[Supersedeas]

74. and that's where the real damage is done...when experienced teachers don't

return to teaching

[Radical Activist]

2. It's almost impressive how you can take anything bad that happens in any school

and find away of tying it to Duncan and Obama. No matter how tenuous the connection. If a teacher stubs their toe I bet you could find a way to blame Duncan.

Your second story was from this year so it was well after Duncan's time as head of Chicago schools ended. How could it "follow him" from Chicago when this happened after he left? Blaming it on him is a stretch.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. And it's really impressive how some here still don't get it.

Is it because of a severe case of cognitive dissonance? Intellectual dishonesty? The dots have been connected over and over. Only a blind man would not see them by now.

[Radical Activist]

7. When I see a series of far-fetched arguments,

including the kind of slight of hand tactics I usually see in conspiracy theory literature, it makes me tend to discount most of what that poster claims on the topic. And since I know someone is likely to cry that they're being insulted, as usual, I'm pointing out that this is a criticism of the argument, not a person.
Conspiracy theorists claim sinister connections between facts and events when in fact no relevant connection exists. This post, as usual, uses that tactic by claiming that something will "follow" Duncan from Chicago even though the article describes events that happened after Duncan was head of Chicago schools. How could the practice follow Duncan when no evidence is presented that he was responsible? As usual, it's an attempt to show that all evil things which happen in education are somehow tied to the maniacal Duncan and Obama. This is a misleading logical fallacy, regardless of the fact that some posters are eager to accept it.

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. You think Duncan is the only one?

Again. Pay attention. Madfloridian has consistently tied all of these 'reformers' to these destructive policies. So has hannah.

This is no conspiracy theory and how insulting you would characterize it as such.

[Radical Activist]

9. You didn't respond to the weakness in the post

which I pointed out. You can claim it's an insult, but if so, it's only because my critique of the tactic being used is accurate.

[Hannah Bell]

32. there is no weakness in the post; you're just spinning.

[Radical Activist]

34. lol

[Hannah Bell]

36. lol

[Radical Activist]

37. You know what they say about imitation.

:hippie:

[Hannah Bell]

38. ,

[Jakes Progress]

41. Yep. Sometimes it is used to show up the bullshit.

You dumped a little. She handed it back to you.

But you go ahead and support ronald reagan's education plan. You go ahead and cheer newt gingrich's idea of what should happen to our children.

For you it seems personality trumps policy, celebrity trumps principle.

Mad's post is an example of telling truth to power. You post is an example of sticking your finger to the wind and going with the flow. Enjoy your breezy ride.

[chervilant]

52. Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!

Thank you for a rather erudite moment of levity. Still laughing over here.

(and Radical has joined my growing list of ignored members of this blog...)

[chervilant]

49. hmm...

Poor wee Radical, let's look at your abrasive, condescending and erroneous assertion analytically, shall we?

First of all, Huberman was appointed CEO by the same insular group that chose Duncan. Furthermore, Duncan has publicly extended his support of Huberman. (BTW, I fully expect the caca to hit the fan over Huberman's self-confessed sexual orientation, rather than his regrettable lack of experience in public education.)

Second, madfloridian has posted clear--and multiple--threads about Arne Duncan's agenda (and most educators recognize that "Race To The Top" is just another flowery phrase, like "No Child Left Behind"--unassailable, yet virtually meaningless). Duncan has spearheaded a relentless assault on 'bad teachers' and 'villainous unions' in his push to 'rescue' public education--as though these two elements of public education are the raison d'etre for the critical deterioration of the entire system of education--and madfloridian is courageously exposing the politics of Duncan's deleterious agenda.

Third, this has NEVER been about a conspiracy, since Duncan's agenda has been clearly articulated from its inception. And, one only needs a reasonable ability to comprehend what one is witnessing to recognize Duncan's 'hidden' agenda (I do use that term sarcastically...). If you read carefully what madfloridian wrote, you'll realize that the strategies Duncan used in Chicago are the same strategies he has linked to the potential awarding of significant sums of federal monies. Meet his 'requirements' and receive funding--how cool is that?! (Again, sarcasm...) Did Duncan use 'redefinition' as one of his strategies to get rid of 'bad teachers' when he was CEO of Chicago schools, and will we see this strategy replicated throughout the nation? hmm... Is the Pope Catholic?

Finally, when Mr. Obama casually remarked that teachers are "resistant to change" when "things aren't working," he rather condescendingly denigrated those of us who have consistently advocated for systemic support for an improved system of public education. His cavalier attitude about our concerns is reprehensible, and he certainly doesn't help promote a healthier system of public education by alienating the multitude of intrepid souls whose daily efforts to teach are grounded in our love for our nation's children.

[EFerrari]

27. Deprofessionalizing teaching is a global project and was discussed

on Amy's show earlier this month by Lois Weiner, an Ed professor:

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, you know, one of the—I’ve been, for several years now, looking deeply into these charter schools, and especially their tax forms. And one of the things that has struck me as I look at their various audited financial statements is that, generally speaking, the pay levels of the teachers in the charter schools are far lower than they are for normal public school teachers, but the pay of the executives—

KAREN LEWIS: Yeah.

LOIS WEINER: Yes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —of the charter schools is far higher—

KAREN LEWIS: Higher, yeah.

LOIS WEINER: Yes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —than it is for superintendents. So you’re, in essence, creating a much bigger wage gap in the schools through the charters—

LOIS WEINER: Yes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: —between management and the employees who actually cover the work.

LOIS WEINER: Yes.

JUAN GONZALEZ: I’m wondering what you found.

LOIS WEINER: Well, that’s part of the—you know, that’s part of the thinking here, that teaching really is not—does not have to be a skilled profession, because we’re not going to teach—we’re not going to educate kids to do anything more than work in Wal-Mart or the equivalent. They only need a seventh or an eighth grade education, at most a ninth grade education, and so we don’t need teachers who are more than, as Grover Whitehurst, a former Undersecretary of Education, said, "good enough." That’s all we need is teachers who are "good enough" to follow scripted curriculum and to teach to these standardized tests. And if you only need teachers who are good enough, you don’t have to pay them very much. And that’s the project. And regardless of the rhetoric, regardless of the intentions of some of the people who are supporting these reforms, people like the Education Trust, whose work I respect, I think it’s important that we look at something beyond the intentions and the rhetoric, and we really look at this project as being a project that’s global in its nature.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/3/educators_push_back_against_obamas_business

[Radical Activist]

30. And so every effort at reform must be part of the global conspiracy, right?

Yeah, that's the problem. That's a scare tactic. As I wrote the other day, there's an effort to defend seniority based pay and tenure by portraying all reform as an attack on unions and public education.

In this case, your generalization doesn't hold true. Many charters pay teachers better than public schools in the area and some are union. And some younger teachers are attracted to the merit-based pay system because the starting salary at public schools is so low.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/05/education/05charter.html?_r=2&hpw
Next Test: Value of $125,000-a-Year Teachers

They are members of an eight-teacher dream team, lured to an innovative charter school that will open in Washington Heights in September with salaries that would make most teachers drop their chalk and swoon; $125,000 is nearly twice as much as the average New York City public school teacher earns, and about two and a half times as much as the national average for teacher salaries. They also will be eligible for bonuses, based on schoolwide performance, of up to $25,000 in the second year.


http://www.ncpa.org/pub/ba285

Most established charter schools (46 are in their fourth year of operation) look at the traditional public school salary schedule and then set their salary schedules 5 percent higher. (Merit pay and pay for special skills raise the overall average to 6 percent higher.) One charter school operator summarized the policy toward teachers thus: "A teacher should be paid a professional salary, the market should determine that level, and we should be able to offer that salary to a teacher.

[EFerrari]

31. I hve no interest in arguing your straw men. Buenas. n/t

[Radical Activist]

35. Straw-man? I directly refuted the claim you just made.

First, by showing that your claim of charters lowering pay is factually inaccurate, and second by challenging the logical fallacy in supposing that's the goal of every reform effort. I'm not sure what you think straw-man means but I was responding to exactly what was argued by you and the OP.

[leveymg]

50. What you term "reform" is actually destruction of the modern system of

professional tenure and civil service protections which were real reforms when put in place in the 1930s and 1940s.

What you call "reform" is reversion to a pre-modern model of at-will employment of public employees.

[JackDragna]

71. "Many" pay better? In what area are we talking? Just New York?

There's nothing in that article to suggest it's true nationally. Your second article discusses charter schools in Arizona. Which "generalizations" are untrue, again?

[leveymg]

48. Your critique assumes there's no connection between redefinition and Duncan. You are wrong.

He has ownership over this issue. Redefinition of teaching positions is part of the policy of de-unionization of instructional staff put in place during his period he headed the school system. fyi: Duncan was CEO of Chic. Public Schools - June 26, 2001 – January 21, 2009. See p. 5 of the 2008 Revised Chicago Schools for Non-union teachers and staff:

GOOGLE DOCS
Revised Compensation Plan for Non-Represented Employees of the ...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View
of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) describes the compensation plan of the CPS for ... contract for any period of time. Employment with CPS is at-will. .... the redefinition or reclassification of the position and designated an ...
www.cps-humanresources.org/Employee/.../CPSComNonRep.pdf - Similar

[LWolf]

14. You're right.

Selectively blind, perhaps?

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. I'm so done

My ignore list just gets longer and longer.

[madfloridian]

17. It is really troubling...

when I can't see half the posts in a thread about education.

The climate has been set, teachers are the target, and nothing any of us says matters.

It's not to late to change things, but it has to come from the top down this time.

[MedicalAdmin]

61. I don't use the ignore list.

Sun Tsu said, to know your enemy is to conquer your enemy.

Of course I've been on this board less time so I suppose that the annoyance factor for all y'all is higher.

[proud2BlibKansan]

64. Well. I don't really consider most DUers to be enemies.

:shrug:

But I understand what you're saying.

[callous taoboy]

55. Believe me, I've wrangled with my share of the blind here.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Because Duncan's plans to corporatize education are being implemented everywhere

His "Race to the Top" grants (which are national prizes so every single school district in the country is impacted) very definitely have ramifications such as letting ALL teachers get fired to "shake up" the system. Madfloridian, proudkansan, Hannah and others have been relentless about documenting what's happening.

This latest OP is more of the same. Corporations WANT to get rid of older (cough - more expensive health care), more experienced (cough - higher salaried) teachers because it's good for the bottom line. Arne Duncan does this under cover of going for the "best" teachers even though that definition isn't anything near being established because of so many other factors that impact who is marked as "best" and who is not (lots of factors that have been named ad nauseum like poverty, parental involvement, school district $$ etc.)

The cascading effect of the PR campaign initiated by Duncan and Obama against our current system is absolutely still part and parcel of the same policies that were part of Chicago when Duncan (and Obama - who didn't have his own children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools while he lived here). To deny the impact of Duncan and Obama on education policies and their ramifications is... well, a stretch imho.

[EFerrari]

19. It's a global movement. Duncan is just the face of it in the United States. n/t

[callous taoboy]

56. Well, I see the hecklers upstream don't have a come-back for you.

[riderinthestorm]

57. I'm probably on ignore.

Which is fine by me.... frankly I'd wear that with a bit of pride in this case.

:hi:

[callous taoboy]

58. My ignore list grows each time I click on a teacher thread.

Unless you have actually taught within the last 10 years a person cannot truly grasp the situation teachers are in now.

[MedicalAdmin]

62. I haven't taught in the past 10 years.

But I get it. I saw the writing on the wall when I left teaching and things have not changed. How could they? The system under which teachers labor and student get used a political pawn by administrators and "reformers" hasn't changed.

Reform for reforms sake is a fools game.

[callous taoboy]

65. You did get it. I often feel like the one-legged man in the ass-kicking contest. n/t

[chervilant]

23. hmm...

I wonder if you blame your shoddy comprehension skills on some teacher from your childhood...

[maryf]

3. K&Rnt

[Dappleganger]

5. Big fucking K&R

[madrchsod]

10. this is what is happening where my wife works...

changing job titles to eliminate union members , creating new jobs that are company jobs,and hiring subs.

getting rid of the public service unions is the goal of the neo-liberals and their allies on the right.

when the unions have to fight both the republicans and democrats what fucking chance do they have.

[madfloridian]

12. Also notice if they are hiring teachers through TFA or New Teacher Project..

and there are several other new ones which charge districts to recruit teachers.

It's a big farce.

[msanthrope]

13. Why didn't the union give back the 4%? From what you cite,

had the union given the 4%, many jobs could have been saved.

Instead, the additional funds scoured up from federal and state resources went not to fund saving jobs---but funding the raise.



"CEO Ron Huberman explained that the Chicago Teachers Union wouldn't help him out of a budget crisis by giving back the 4 percent raise it had negotiated, so he'd had no choice but to take draconian measures.

Before the summer was over, though, Huberman came up with better news—the teachers could keep their raises. Additional state and federal funds had been located, and between those funds and Huberman's cuts, the budget was balanced. What's more, it wouldn't be necessary to put as many as 37 students in every classroom, which was something CPS had threatened. The teachers laid off because larger classes made them expendable could keep their jobs after all.

But all the other fired teachers, maybe as many as 1,000 of them, stayed fired."

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/honorably-terminated-teachers-chicago-public-schools-cps-jobs-hiring-bureaucracy/Content?oid=2457699

It sounds like the union made a choice, and so did Huberman.

[TheMadMonk]

29. And when the next negotiating round comes around?

Hubberman first sets the wage budget 5% lower and then declares either everyone takes a cut or the lowest performing 5% get the axe.

"Won't happen." you say? I say "Bullshit!"

Exactly the same game has been playing out in virtually every core industry across the nation for decades. "Tough times and heavy competition" give manufacturers the excuse to "downsize and streamline" their workforce. "Tough times and heavy competition" give them the excuse to negotiate for less renumeration. Tough times and heavy competition in the labour pool mean that people do what they must to survive and local authorities/polititians to allow almost anything which keeps some jobs in the area.

AND IN WHAT 30+ FUCKING YEARS, no one appears to have noticed (certainly hasn't hammered on) the simple easily observable fact that the first foreign made product hits the docks at pretty much the same moment that the gates close for the last time on the local factory. Nary a blip in supply to the ever voracious consumer. But a bloody great uptick in profits, and a matching downtick in local jobs.

They had you/us suckered from the get go. Always ready to settle for salvaging what we can, we let them screw maximum profit for minimum return out of us on the home front while they geared up to dump ALL domestic production and SEAMLESSLY phase in foreign. Not once and not just in manufacturing, but tens of thousands of times and in any industry where a relatively expensive local worker could be replaced by one costing a fraction of the price, in a location without a lot of pesky regulation of any kind.

What can't be done with offshoring, is accomplished with imported labour wherever possible.

Those with the money have no intention of leaving anything of value behind in America. Nothing about what happened, happend because market forces forced corporate decisions, but because corporate decisions were made to use market forces to force ours. To offer people the trappings of wealth for a bargain basement price. Middle America only had to screw the nation at large out of tens of millions of jobs over a few decades and then as the cracks began to show, they took to screwing each other by buying into hyperinflationary products. Dot Com, the recent specualative housing bubble.

At the big end of town absolute dollar amounts mean nothing, dollars are just marks on pieces of paper and ones and zeros in computers. They weather the rough times by making sure they come out the other side holding onto the greatest possible proportion of tangible assets. One almost certain outcome of any collapsing bubble is that a lot of realestate "escheats back to the state". In this case the corporate states who hold the notes and get to sell the same chunks of land all over again.

[Hannah Bell]

33. I wish you'd make this an OP: "Nothing that happend happened because market forces forced

corporate decisions, but because corporate decisions were made to use market forces to force ours."

"At the big end of town absolute dollar amounts mean nothing, dollars are just marks on pieces of paper and ones and zeros in computers. They weather the rough times by making sure they come out the other side holding onto the greatest possible proportion of tangible assets. One almost certain outcome of any collapsing bubble is that a lot of realestate "escheats back to the state". In this case the corporate states who hold the notes and get to sell the same chunks of land all over again."

+100

[WinkyDink]

67. Ah, yes. The UNION must go back on its NEGOTIATED contract. Such extortion would solve EVERYTHING.

[madfloridian]

15. Be sure to read the rest of the article at the 2nd link....the DNH list

that is said not to exist but does.

This is very scary that there is so much secretiveness going on when things should be open to scrutiny.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/honorably-terminated-teachers-chicago-public-schools-cps-jobs-hiring-bureaucracy/Content?oid=2457699

[Swamp Rat]

18. k&r

[sonomak]

20. The most anti-educator Dept of Education ever

simple as that

[madfloridian]

22. Yes, it is as simple as that. It's deliberate and it's hurting us.

[Jakes Progress]

42. Even bill bennet

wouldn't have had the nerve to try this shit. As we implement ronald reagan's neocon dream for schools, we have been betrayed by our own.

[Diane R]

21. So teachers got a 4% pay raise and are surprised some teachers lost their jobs?

Teachers who got a 4% pay raise in this economy don't have a clue about the sacrifices many have made in the private sector. Perhaps if they had foregone their raises everyone would have kept their job.

[Jim Sagle]

24. But not likely. Meg Whitman, is that you?

[laughingliberal]

26. Yes. The proles should be grateful they have a job. Asking for fair compensation is unAmerican!

Just as soon as all the workers have adjusted their attitudes accordingly, the benevolent masters will consider hiring again.

[msanthrope]

39. When I noted this upthread, I got an answer straight from Das Kapital.

But you are correct....getting a raise in this economy served to keep jobs for the few, as oppposed to saving jobs for many.

[WinkyDink]

69. Ooooh, we're COMMIES! We should GO BACK TO RUSSIA!

[MedicalAdmin]

63. And all the dahkies is a sittin on the porch a singin a spirituals

And massah is lubbin every one a dem.




I thought your post needed a translation back to the original version.

[WinkyDink]

68. Yeah? Well, "the private sector" had their DECADES of LAUGHING at teachers' pay. SO, FT.

[rpannier]

73. Probably not. They'd have just found a different reason to get rid of people

It's what happens who you look to the corporate world for answers

[laughingliberal]

25. K&R for standing for teachers & public education. nt

[the redcoat]

28. It's almost funny how

Huberman has the massive cajones to blame the CTU for protecting teachers' salaries while he rakes in $230,000.

That's up from $204,000 in 2009. Inflation must really be a bitch on the Chicago school system to justify a raise of $26 grand.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/gyrobase/cps-cutbacks-budget-crisis-layoffs-ron-huberman/Content?oid=1604461&storyPage=1

[Hannah Bell]

40. it's hysterical. also hysterical how the media strokes out about the proles wages while

keeping mum about the salaries of their paid-off managment class.

[Starry Messenger]

72. And here people say the teacher's salaries were why people lost jobs.

:crazy: I must go, I've got the Bentley gassed up for a little drive to Muffy's place.

[dotymed]

43. I wonder

what his salary is? I bet it is more than a few Union teachers combined. How can we, as a nation, sit back and watch this shit happen? I do too.
We just "whine" and let the fuckers ruin the only life that we know we have......
Maybe the "baggers" have some things right. We should become a universally armed nation. It might be a little harder to screw someone with a gun strapped to their leg....

[nunyabidness]

44. So you`re advocating firearms as a negotiating tool?

[dotymed]

46. Actually,

I was being sarcastic (w/out the icon).

[Jefferson23]

45. Wow!! The agenda is crystal clear. n/t

[Fire1]

47. So much for "last hired first fired." n/t

[patty2828]

51. Back to the 70's

During the 70's many districts literally told job candidates that if they had a Master's degree they would be too expensive to hire. It sounds as though we are back there. The part that I find tuly astonishing is that this individual was an NBC teacher!!!!! Many states are begging for NBC's.
This Superintendent is nuts, but then again, so are the employees: They need better language in their bargaining contract. Hard to cover all bases when negotiating. Time to organize and get the Superintendent's job!

[chervilant]

53. Yeah...

Who knew my Master's (and my extensive vocabulary, and my exceptional grasp of math, and my high IQ) would become a deterrent to my being hired as a teacher?!

[madfloridian]

54. Then wasn't there a time period where they almost demanded a masters?

I remember a time like that but can't put a time period to it. I remember they were putting the pressure on. And now they are too expensive?

Advanced degrees and experience too costly now for the reformers...sad.

[WinkyDink]

70. Really? I was told in 1971 by a PA. h.s. that M. Ed's WERE sought.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

59. "Redifinintion", "Restructuring", "Trickle-Down" - Translation: Shafted.

[WinkyDink]

66. Example "re-definition"? I'd like to see how "English", "Social Studies", "Algebra" are re-defined.