Dear Mike,

Just for the record, our position on charter schools has not changed. Ten years ago and today we think the local school board should grant the charter. In Virginia local school divisions, for the most part, pay the lion’s share of the costs for schools. It has always been our positions that the decision to grant the charter should rest with those who are going to pay to run the schools.

We worked on the charter bill here, and we think it is a good one. We continue to support charter schools.

I was a bit bothered by the context the pay the piper quote – it was only in reference to who grants the charter.

Thanks for spelling my name right.

I enjoy your missives,
Robley S. Jones
VEA

1) How Many Teachers Do We Need?
2) School Districts to File Class Action Suit Against Indiana State Teachers Association
3) Contract Hits
4) Last Week’s Intercepts
5) Quotes of the Week

Attendance is largely based on location, says National Education Association’s Michael McPherson. NEA’s convention, which typically draws 10,000 delegates plus 5,000 of their associates and family members, was held this summer in San Diego and will be in New Orleans the next. The locations are chosen 6 to 10 years in advance. Like the Global Cold Chain Alliance, NEA tried to make cutbacks members wouldn’t notice. The association encouraged more laptop usage rather than renting computers and cut back on catering by buying in bulk from Costco on location. It reduced signage and carpeting and rented fewer lamps, desks, and garbage bins for the convention floor. Staff members were also asked to book flights months in advance.

Trying to keep the cutbacks hidden from delegates is important, particularly the misinformed ones that asked for a boycott of Costco.

Tierney explains:

The lead author, Timothy Hallett, a sociologist at Indiana University, spent two years studying the institutional politics at an elementary school in a Midwestern city. During that time, Dr. Hallett videotaped formal meetings among a group of teachers (one representative of the teachers from each grade level) who convened regularly to discuss problems and policies.

The teachers would occasionally start to deviate from the official agenda and discuss their feelings about the administrators, particularly the principal, who was disliked for her style and her effort to impose more “accountability” on the teachers.

The researchers learned that in this formal setting the teachers were informally evaluating the principal and establishing her reputation.

As teachers mocked the principal and complained about her being “stifling” and “hyper,” the atmosphere got more poisonous. The principal felt that her authority was being undermined by gossip and retaliated against teachers she suspected (correctly) of criticizing her. Teachers and administrators fled the school, and the students’ test scores declined.

“The gossip did serve to reinforce the teachers’ group solidarity, but in this case it was also a form of warfare that brought everyone down,” Dr. Hallett says. “It was reminiscent of the old saying that gossip is a three-pronged tongue: it can hurt the speaker and the listener, as well as the target.”

On his blog, Tierney asks for comments from readers: “Does any of this sound familiar? Have you seen gossip used as a weapon in your office?”

Tierney is interested in hearing about the effects of the type of office gossip you might expect in any workplace, but he might not consider the unique characteristics of an elementary school. So I’ll ask here: Is there anything about a school atmosphere that develops a specific type of gossip and gossip management? Are the researchers’ findings typical of all workplaces or specific to the “institutional politics” of schools?