Loss of Teacher Control Over a Teacher Initiated Idea/Program
The issue that motivated this post has seemingly been resolved. Yet,these were the thoughts I had at the time. I still believe in the central issue of the district administration supporting teachers instead of dictating what teachers can collaborate on and taking credit for their ideas. Hence, the post is here.
Collaboration is a key component of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). Introducing SnapGrades to the staff at my school and delivering training for a second middle school staff in our district is teacher collaboration at its best. Word of mouth among students, parents, school administration, and teachers has lead our district to find funding to pay for licenses to access this online gradebook for all middle school teachers in the district. While we have gained the program, we have lost teacher control in managing the program.
This is not the district trying to collaborate with their teaching staff; this is a control grab by the district. Taking control away from the teachers states quite clearly that the district office does not trust in their schools’ teaching staff. Instead of allowing teachers to collaborate with each other by introducing the use of an online gradebook and delivering the training to colleagues the district is just taking over. This negates one of the integral parts of why the use of an online gradebook has become so accepted by teachers in the district: teachers collaborating with one another. Now that the use of an online gradebook is going “district-wide,” the district sees fit to take control of the administration of the online gradebook and the training of staff. Stating as their reason, “Now that SnapGrades is going district wide (all junior high schools) it is the responsibility of the district technology department to supervise and support software use.” This is not software to be loaded and therefore does not need district Tech support. This is a online gradebook, in essence a website. The technological support is delivered by the website’s staff. That is why we pay license fees. The district technology department is not staffed with teachers. The staff of that district department has never used a gradebook. Therefore, they do not have the knowledge or expertise to deliver effective training in the setup or use of a gradebook’s administrative or individual teacher-gradebook.
The end of the dismissal email I received stated, “Thanks again for helping me help other schools move ahead with increased parent communication around student grades and homework!” I believe it is the district office’s duty to help the teachers collaborate within their PLC. It is not their duty to take an idea that has been shown to work, through teacher collaboration, and dismiss the teachers that brought it to their attention. By working to bring it to the level of success this has had the teachers that brought it this far should retain control. Not sharing trust in the teaching staff to support each other through collaboration is a dangerous precedent to set. Allowing the teachers to run with what they started will show that trust that is needed for a working relationship between district office and teaching staff. When a teacher has the next good idea they may not be so willing to share it with staff at other school or even their own fearing that the responsibility to support and breath life into their idea will be taken from them.
What we are left with is having the district IT department give their “training.” Then the teachers who will be running the administrative side of the website at the schools will get together and work amongst ourselves to train, brainstorm, and troubleshoot. The IT rep will be invited, of course. It would be much easier if we as teachers had the district’s support to develop our ideas/programs. What we have is a top down system where the district must show control over programs that recieve district money. The funds are appreciated, but the control taken by the district of these ideas/programs is not.
