Manipulating the feelings of dedicated, type A teachers who DO have the student's best interest at heart.
Pros
Definitely student-centered, the students are the winners here. The organization is always being "watched" so this fish-bowl effect causes people to be at their best behavior. Students reap the benefits of the teacher's hard work.
Cons
I will never forget this particular staff conference where EVERYONE in the room was crying. Yes, the speaker's story was moving, but it was one more effort by leadership to tug at the emotions of hard working teachers. I say this because it's a constant. Each time there is something going on with the numbers, leadership uses an emotional appeal to get teachers to take on more students, or add something else to their plate. This is in essence manipulating the feelings of these people, who are hired based on their ability to commit, and give their 200% (I actually hired many of them). These are all type A personalities, and they deeply love kids. They see themselves as agents of change in a child's life. These are GOOD people. They do have the student's best interest at heart and they sacrifice their personal lives so these kids have someone to help them. It's not fair though, that the organization manipulates their feelings to work harder and harder. I call it emotional slavery, because these teachers are made to feel guilty if they do not take on the extra students, or do the extra stuff.....those who do are also put on a pedestal and set as the "examples" for the rest to see. If the teacher says "I can't" then they are immediately labeled as being non-cooperative (which of course, affects their evaluation). Teachers are under constant pressure to do xyz, which is great for the student, but teachers are overwhelmed and eventually this will impact their ability to do their best for students. Everyone is on annual contract, so there is no job security. Everyone is afraid of losing their job. When they falter because of the unattainable demands, management is not always willing to provide the kind of support that will make a difference. Instead, they are quick to draw the gun. I speak as a former instructor at FLVS and as a current instructional leader. I bend over backwards to support my teachers and treat them like humans instead of robots. But this is hard to do, because upper leadership expects me to be ready with the scalpel. FLVS encourages and expects everyone to grow as professionals and be thought leaders, this is awesome, but teachers have to time to process anything they have learned. They are expected to run with it. There is no down time, not even for me as their virtual principal. If a teacher wants to take a vacation (rightfully earned) s/he has to get "coverage" from a colleague. This means the person covering has to do double the work. Then the tables turn, and the teacher who just took a week off, has to do double work and cover for the next person....and so on. This creates a lose-lose situation for everyone in the team, because the person doing double the work to "cover" for someone else, then falls behind with their own work. It's useless to speak to leadership about this. They are set on not providing substitutes. Substitutes are there only for medical emergencies and maternity leave.
