In 2022, I resigned from an award-winning education career because I felt that my administration was forcing me to compromise both my moral integrity and my pedagogical training because they implemented a grading system that did not allow me to impact the grades of students who turned in assignments late, wrote with improper grammar or misspellings, and even those who cheated on tests! It got to the point where I was pressured to change the grades of students who turned in no work and failed so that they would pass.
I told the Superintendent, Eric Twadell, and the Principal, Troy Gobble, that this was not good for the students and I invited them to dialogue with my students. They refused. When I resigned, I spoke at the board of education meeting because my students all agreed with me whole-heartedly that even though this system was easy, they realized that it was not preparing them for college. I also publicly posted my letter on line, and I received scores of letters of support from teachers all over the country - many who had experienced my administration consulting with their schools to try an push the policies there too.
Failure to Fail, a Documentary
One former teacher contacted me about my story. She featured me in a documentary called Failure to Fail. It won numerous awards. You can see on Vimeo or view it here:
This is my resignation letter that I posted publicly on social media in 2022. This is what led to the rest of the documents below.
Student Reactions to the public criticism of Stevenson High School’s EBR grading policies.
This document contains full thoughts shared with me from students. Most of these were from students in 2022 when I publicly announced my resignation, but they continued to drip in over the last few years.
This is a full list of teacher reaction to my public posts. Most of these are from SHS teachers immediately after I shared my resignation letter in 2022. But this also contains reactions from teachers around the country - some of whom were forced to use the same policies because their schools hired SHS admin as consultants.
This is an ongoing list of data that supports my claim that SHS’s grading policies are leaving students unprepared for college and stressing them out while also leaving teachers feeling anomie.
The Trauma of Teaching Under the Politics of Protection
Explains how the administration’s concern for branding and consulting led them to ignore or sanitize real issues resulting in what CJ Pascoe calls “the politics of protection.” Teaching in this environment is a contradiction and gaslighting that results in trauma to both students and teachers.
Stevenson High School Failing Students
This is an open letter that I sent out on social media and directly to the District 125 Board of Education hoping to create at least a dialogue, but hopefully change. It is meant to summarize everything in a way that makes it understandable.
The Detrimental Effects of Educational Consulting on High School Students and Teachers
This is a detailed explanation of how the grading policy evolved and how it is tied up in the consulting that SHS admin do. Most people outside of SHS (and many inside of it), can’t believe it when they hear it. And the policy is so murky that people often give up on trying to understand it. This document attempts to thoroughly explain it and why it does not work.
