Once again, shift the blame to the teacher to make the system look good. More and more BS.

The only thing that is shocking about this story for me is that anyone would be shocked that the the blame is being deflected onto the teacher here.

There were a lot of posts under the "Maryland school rankings the politicians wont mention" post last week that discuss the problems with teacher retention, acquisition and removal. Stories like this only highlight those issues. Always scapegoat the adult. Continue to absolve the children for their behavior because of social, racial or econonic marginalization and injustices.

Those of us in many of these schools deal with confrontational students every day (sometimes all day). We are batted around by them verbally and threatened physically while administrators pay lip service to inaction and ineptitude. Or North Ave types send their intellectual and verbal diarrhea about how things could be done better but dont ever show up.

Oh...and mention she was on a PIP too. That helps. Believe me, each and every one of us in this system has, at one time or another, needed help with behavioral interventions.

And coming from a disgraced administrator who claimed the teacher used "trigger" words. No wonder Baltimore City cannot keep teachers. We make pariahs out of the bottom rung and ask the teachers why they arent doing more?!?

I cannot believe this (ex) principal of RFL is not backing her former staff. What lesson are we sending? Right is right until you have to cover your back!

How about: tell the truth, under oath; that's what needs to happen; not backing staff...

So, there's no way a teacher can ever be under-trained and overwhelmed and do bad things? I don't know anything about this particular teacher or school so I have no opinion on what's being said. I'm wondering if other people commenting have any real information or if they are just giving platitudes.

Over ten years and five schools and who knows how many teachers there have been at least a couple times when I've felt like saying "If you hate kids, perhaps teaching is a bad career choice." Certainly there has been no physical violence and these schools, teachers, and kids have not been typical of BCPSS (our experiences have been heavy on magnet programs). With all those qualifications I've seen examples of actions that have not been conducive to good attitudes - such as collective punishment when just a few kids are acting out and calling out kids in front of the whole class and bring them to tears.

My point isn't to say that there are a lot of bad teachers out there - quite the opposite. There are a surprising number of excellent teachers, given the general reputation of BCPSS in attracting and retaining teachers. There are also a lot of good teachers and only a few poor teachers. There are some though.

Courts are supposed to work by having people hear evidence and decide what happened fairly. Certainly this doesn't always happen, but how about not deciding it's a travesty before the case is even over?

Your argument is solid, parent. As teachers we're quick to come out and defend one another because we've all been in a situation like this at one point. I don't know enough about the current situation to make a judgment call. What I find interesting as that this angle on the story was not presented when the incident happened... that raises my suspicion immediately. Teachers and administrators are supposed document instances like these immediately after the occurrence. Admins should also get student witness statements, and all statements from all parties are supposed to be as close to verbatim as possible. All of the sudden these new facts are presented? Why wasn't this documentation available earlier? This is the root of my personal speculation.

I myself was in a situation with a student once that (due to lying administration) was escalated to levels well beyond what actually happened. That being said, I survived and still teach... And *that* being said I have had the blame shifted on to me by administration many times after. I can't speak on this specific instance in detail, but I can speak for teachers as a whole. We are dumped on, we are given the blame, and we are expected to martyr ourselves in order to preserve the "innocence" of children who have acted out inappropriately. I wonder if this incident have happened at all if this city didn't breed a culture that accepts physical violence as a plausible solution to any and all problems?

Brandon, I wonder what your reaction would have been one year ago had the "system" or had the students come out immediately and said, "The teacher deserved it. She started it." Do you think you'd be standing behind the "documentation" then? I don't at all presume an answer, I just pose the question because I think the situation may be viewed in a different light 1 year later.

Moreover, it wasn't the role of the system to justify a student/teacher assault, regardless of which way it played out. The bottom line is that it shouldn't have happened, the argument shouldn't have been who should we blame now that it has. Until we can prevent it from occurring in the first place (be it because the system hires/lets stay on too many ineffective teachers or the students act-out inappropriately or a combination of both), we're not really serving to provide effective public education.

I, as you have, agree with A Parent (particularly now as a law student). In a juvenile proceeding, we're looking to do what's best for the child, not provide criminalization. Thus, I would hope to all hope that the student's attorney is presenting every possible flaw and every circumstance that led up to the fight. Only in that way will a juvenile court judge have the information necessary to make the appropriate recuperative ruling. Finally, stealing 100% from better lawyers than I'll ever be, I'll end with the purpose of providing the new "evidence" to the juvenile court: "Do justice; love mercy; walk humbly. Everything else is window dressing."

@ Brandon
I don't think these are new allegations - you can look at a story from 4/11/08 here that basically covers the issue of teacher training that is being brought out in court now.

Thanks parent, I'm definitely behind on this story. I'll stick with my final point about teacher's being forced to take the blame almost constantly.

Bill, we could discuss the semantics of this all day. I'm not into placing this in an if/when situation. What it boils down to, for me, is experience. During my tenure in this system I've had students plow into my personal space and threaten to inflict physical pain. It takes years of instilled patience and calm to walk away from that situation the right way. I'm not advocating taking a swing on a student, but put that experience under your belt for more than the TFA pre-law school mandatory 2 years before we talk about it.

I respond to documentation. If I read several statements from students, teachers, and reliable administrators (in this case the administrator in question has a reputation far proceeding her name) I would have to question the teacher, yes. I say so, again, out of experience. Documentation has both saved and hurt me many times, but in both cases it was done swiftly and accurately.

I think this reflects back directly on the other hot topic over here, teacher recruitment/retention. As I said before, while retention is terrible, recruitment is out of control. They cast out the net and pull in anybody and everybody to be teachers in Baltimore. Then they "train" them for a few weeks about caring and having high expectations while never actually addressing that being a teacher in this city is about so much more than just teaching math or science.
These brand new teachers are then dumped in ridiculous situations, often with little administrative assistance and even fewer strategies for dealing with the number one problem of a first year teacher--discipline.
Then, everyone is outraged when something like this occurs. Frankly, I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

Thanks, Brandon. Can you clarify, "[B]ut put that experience under your belt for more than the TFA pre-law mandatory 2 years before we talk about it"? I'm not sure what that means.

We're categorizing ineffective teachers as people who don't handle violent situations appropriately. New teachers to BCPSS are not informed that being cursed at, threatened, or assaulted is part of the job. Teachers in BCPSS are never trained to deal with these situations. What's even worse is that students who act inappropriately or violently never learn from their mistakes because they are allowed to continually repeat them. All I know is that all this allowed violence leads to more violence and less learning. I wish more non BCPSS employees would visit some of these schools and see the terrible things that are taking place.

If Ms. Berry was using "trigger" words and trying to incite a reaction from her students, I think she far surpassed her goal.

Bill

What I'm saying is pretty clear. Doing 2 years with TFA and moving on doesn't qualify a person to really understand teaching. You title yourself as "a law student" not as a teacher, or even an ex-teacher, yet on a regular basis you drown this blog with an inflated sense of expertise in the education field. The fact is, Bill, you don't know what it's like in the real Baltimore classroom... you've taken one too many drinks from the cool-aid, my friend. TFA doesn't promote good teachers, it promotes a great stepping stone for law students and business executives. Come back down to the classroom, and I'll read your posts without a level of skepticism, until then... your words don't hold water (to use a lawyer's term).

Brandon:

Your broad brush strokes about TFA and, I assume, other alt. teaching programs don't do your normally thoughtful posts justice. I believe that TFA teachers have:

1) Better results than traditionally trained teachers on average
2) A better 1st year retention rate than traditionally trained teachers

While I am not sure about the 5 year and 10 year track record stats, I am now in my 17th year of my 2 year commitment, having spent the past 15 in BCPSS classrooms. Am I the exception? No.

Poor teachers come from all over. People who choose teaching who should be working at Target come from all over. Teachers who do a few years and then move on come from all over. And every child deserves a high quality teacher, every year, in every classroom. Recruiting from university programs, TFA, RTP, RTC or the FBI is no guarantee of quality, or that special something that makes someone a great teacher. What I have seen in TFA teachers regardless of how long they stay is a passion for making things better, a passion for doing something to change the world - if in a single classroom (thanks Emily!), a team (okay, Emily you do that too), a school, a school system (Michele and Laura), a bank, a foundation, or what ever. Yes, some use TFA as a resume builder but let's be honest, there are far easier ways to do that as anyone who, as you have said, has spent any time in a classroom.

As for the beating, this is a failure of so many - parents, kids, teachers, administrators, system folk, and so on. To put a teacher in a classroom who pushes buttons and who is known to do so seems like a bad idea. Not dealing with consistently disruptive kids in any meaningful way (and no, I don't mean just suspending them because if that worked all kids who have been suspended once would be angels). seems like a failure. Not creating a culture where kids and adults begin to see each other as co-members of a community, where they set norms together, where they set consequences together, where they work towards goals together, where each members voice is valued is a failure. I don't blame the teacher. I do however ask that we all check our own culpability and remember that one of the two people in that fight was an adult.

Ps. Check these sites for numbers:
1) http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE2DD1339F934A35752C0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

2) http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper161.html

3) http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:6sKtWw9ZseIJ:credo.stanford.edu/downloads/tfa.pdf+Teach+For+America:+an+Evaluation+of+Teacher+Differences+and+Student+Outcomes+CREDO,+2001&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

Read and enjoy.

That's a broad brushing of the TFA program. It's the 3+ year retention rates that matter Bill. We talk about quality teacher retention in Baltimore, the majority of TFA and BCTR people that began teaching the same year I did have long since left. You talk about 1st year retention? All TFA requires is 2 years, of course more people stick out their 1st year... it's a small road to have to walk down.

Your post, once again, reeks of area office jargon Bill. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree

IO-
While I agree with you on the point that the incident was the failure of all involved, and that TFA teachers are generally good educators, I take exception with the fact you claim to be the norm as opposed to the exception.

Bill posted in a comment on another thread that, of his cohort of 95-ish, 25-30% are still teaching. Using 30%, that leaves about 29 teachers still in classrooms. Of those 25-30%, Bill asserts that 5-6 are in their original placement schools. The rest are at charters, magnets, transformational...whatever one calls them. Now, we generally know that original placement schools are WAY more challenging than the other schools. So, of 95 to begin with, 5-6 are in the toughest, most challenging to staff schools. The rest are in schools that are NOT considered hard to staff. Hardly the norm.

So, it seems as though the mission of TFA (and to a great extent BCTR) has been perverted by a sort of occupational opportunist. Yes, the TFA and BCTR people who stay are working in a hard to staff district on a systemic level, but most of the successful ones-defined I suppose as those who are still working in the city, are NOT in the most challenging schools. Elevating outcomes in that type of learning environment is a lot easier than at the zoned, comprehensive, neighborhood schools-high or middle.

I read the articles you linked to. The first gives TFA a mixed bag. One of the things I took from the NYT article is an overall sense of community detachment. They come from random places to teach in random cities or rural areas. Yes, outcomes increase in the short term, but do they sustain? One quote from the end of the article was telling:

"If you're a T.F.A. teacher, you don't have to worry about staying, about pension, about red tape, about getting the ideal job in the ideal school -- you don't have to worry about getting out of the South Bronx. You don't have to learn the system. If you're in T.F.A., you can just teach."

I think the challenge henceforth is to attract people who want to stay beyond their commitment, become invested in the community, and in numbers that ARE the norm. And not the exception.

@David Oritz -

It seems like you're saying that teachers that move into "charters, magnets, transformational" are somehow copping-out and avoiding the hard work of the "zoned, comprehensive, neighborhood schools-high or middle". Does that mean finding a way to get a kid out of the same school (by going to charter, magnet or transformational) is also a cop-out? Because I'm not sure that any amount of involvement on my part or high test scores on my kids part was going to turn around a failing school. That fact that we stay in BCPSS seems like a pretty big commitment to me. I think the same thing can be said of teachers. If you can find a school with in BCPSS that values you and treats you well and makes your job a joy - take it! Maybe this school will be so successful in recruiting teachers that the zoned, comprehensive, neighborhood schools will have to change their work environments so that they can find teachers. From my point of view happy teachers are better for my kids.

Maybe my perspective is off since I'm not in the schools on a daily basis. I have however spent the last ten years in the system - that's probably more time than the average BCPSS teacher.

Parent-

By no means am I suggesting that teachers who move into alternative-type schools (by any name) are copping-out. I am simply stating that those from alternative certification programs are brought into the city under auspices of being brought into the most needy of environments and those that tend to stay move into the more "functional" schools. Good for them for sure. Teaching is teaching. We need great ones everywhere in the city and beyond. Im just suggesting the mission has become a little twisted.

And no, its not a cop-out to have kids leave the dysfunctional environments. I encourage my students who are thinking of leaving my school (comprehensive and not so functional) to do so. A better learning community is something that even my hardest efforts in my singular classroom cannot replicate.

And I applaud your efforts to remain in the city. My girlfriend and I are thinking about buying a house in the city and we often come back to a discussion of future kids and schooling. Are we willing to make that commitment and leap for our children and keep them in city schools? Dr. Alonso gave a speech recently where he said that success of our system hinges on the engagement and use of our schools by middle-class families. I couldnt agree more.

I think the fundamental issue is this:
We can continue to build small-initiative, charter, magnet, and transformational schools and increase their enrollments, but we still will have large parts of our student population who will not be part of those schools, parents who are uninterested in dealing with their children and/or their education, and learning environments that are chaotic, unsafe,and full of transient, inexperienced teachers.

How do we address that population and those issues?

Brandon, primarily, and David:

I think there may have been some miscommunication in the posting here. IO provided the TFA round-up, and I'm just catching up to seeing the chain now. In any case, I'd like to respond.

Bottom line, I apologize. I feel your frustration about the 2 year issue. It's something that I think a lot of TFA alums struggle with. There's a part of me that continues to hold some level of guilt, but I know that where I am now is where I'm supposed to be to affect change on a policy/funding level. I absolutely admire my fellow alums and all other progressive teachers in the City who are working harder than most other employees in any other job out there.

Secondly, I apologize for pushing an us v. them framework. I really didn't mean to suggest it, and when I re-read what I wrote I cringed at times. Sometimes I write during class and don't re-read. That's when I find myself writing stupid, thoughtless opinions. Thus, I retract anything that led to a us v. them, TFA v. other teacher, issue.

Thirdly, I think ideally that I hope to advocate for all progressive teachers, regardless of tenure or reasons for entrance. The more I learn from this blog and other sites, the more I know that I need to keep learning and continue to be more willing to have an open mind. I ABSOLUTELY do not think I know the best answer or the right solution. I certainly have my experience, and they were shaped by my 2 years in the classroom, year and half in Dr. Alonso's office, work on the Mayor's campaign, and my time as a law student. That's all I've got to base it on, though, and that's why I appreciate this blog. Your experiences are clearly different, and I don't feel like I would ever be an effective advocate without learning from your perspectives. So, again, I genuinely apologize for any insinuations that I thought you were wrong or incorrect. We can definitely disagree, and in the process of disagreeing I think I learn more about why I believe what I do or why I should readjust my framework of an issue.

Finally, please understand that I sincerely, honestly appreciate your commitment to schools & kids. You're absolutely right, the TFA model is not sustainable in the long-run. It's a bridge-filler for now, and there needs to be dedicated persons like yourselves that make the systemic, foundational change possible everyday in the classroom. Without good teachers, most everything else is marginal.

The only thing I hope to impart is that my TFA experience changed my life. I can without a doubt say that urban education policy would not have been a central issue for me had I not joined the organization. Now that I have had that experience, I've tried to use the abilities I've acquired outside of the classroom to turn attention to educational inequality (that's the second prong of the TFA mission that less people talk about it - the whole concept of this side is to bring in people who wouldn't have been teachers otherwise so that, should they move to different industries, they'll be able to galvanize support for educational equity from many diverse perspectives). Maybe I would have been in law school before TFA (probably not, though), but I certainly wouldn't have had a job in the school system while enrolled in school and I wouldn't have spent hours focused on City Schools issues rather than school work and legal analysis stuff - this is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things, but it's anecdotal evidence that ed reform is possible outside of the classroom. I completely understand your frustrations with TFA, but I hope to influence your opinion just a bit to recognize the importance of bringing "other-than-education-experts'" eyes to the attention of the achievement gap (see: http://educationalequity.org/ as a more tangible example of this second prong). Activating and stimulating support from all sectors of society is necessary to bring the resources together that are necessary to improve schools. That's my opinion, though, and I don't in any way mean to suggest another opinion is less meritorious. Thanks for reading.

I attended Morgan with Ms.Berry, I totally believe the students. Ms.Berry has mental problems - seriously. Im surprised she obtained a teaching position. I think the school systems should do a better job doing back ground and psychological checks on their perspective teachers. If not situations like this is going to occur.

The new schools not only take quality teachers looking for a sane environment but the students as well. There will always be a need for the "zone school" heck, the new schools don't want those kids. In the meantime I'll be working for those kids that the other schools don't want or cast away (citywide).

This year I know of several TFA teachers (1st year) who passed on opportunities in zone schools to be in
"better" placements. If you're recruiting for a zone I have to imagine it's quite hard to find teachers willing to take on the challenge.