Ask yourself this--what do you do when your own kids fail classes? Do you talk to them? Get them extra help? Take away some electronic device? Well, if you happen to be assistant principal of the school they attend, you have other options. You can simply change their grades. After all, you have the super-duper master password to the school computer. Who's gonna question you? Some teacher who you can fire after two ineffective ratings?
The only real flaw about this line of thinking is you can get caught, which is never good. But it's not that bad either. You get fined 7,000 bucks and get reassigned. Of course this is inconvenient, because you can't change your kids' grades anymore. You're out seven grand and looking at paying tutors. You can't bully the teachers in your school to tutor them and you've obviously failed at bullying them into passing the kids for no reason already.
But at least you aren't a teacher. Can you imagine the stink Campbell Brown would raise if you'd been a teacher and done that? It would surely be all over the tabloids instead of just Chalkbeat NY. Hopefully your neighbors don't read that anyway.
If you were a teacher you'd surely be facing 3020a dismissal charges for this. Thank goodness the Tweedies haven't changed since Bloomberg and are still slapping administrators on the wrist. When they see a school in trouble, they pick someone like you to run it. That's how much they care about schools in trouble. Undoubtedly that's why they were able to close so many schools in the first place.
But it's not your fault. Where the hell are you supposed to find time to look after your own kids when there are so many others running around? I mean, it's not like your kids are running around starting fires, stealing lunch money, and beating up other children, as far as you know. As far as you know, the only problem your kids have is that they're failing a few classes. And you took care of that, didn't you?
You are an instructional leader, setting a tone for your underlings. In this day and time, the important thing is grades. If grades are no good, they come and close your school. Haven't you set an example for assistant principals, teachers and students by dealing with poor grades? Why on earth can't those under you simply follow your example? You saw an issue and found a solution. If only they'd watch and emulate what you did, there would be no target on the school.
But no. Some rat bastard turned you in. Now your school has a one-way ticket to Palookaville and you're out seven thousand bucks that could've been the down payment on that red BMW X3. The reason that school is failing is because it's full of wimps who just aren't willing to do what it takes to turn it around.
But you are not gonna be discouraged by this. As soon as the DOE sends you to another school, you'll move your kids into it, set a no-nonsense tone for the rest of the staff, get rid of the first troublemaker teacher who opens a fat mouth to you, and get the job done.
Leadership!
Merry Christmas to All!
3 hours ago