Ann Marie Corgill had taught in Alabama for 21 years
(Newser) – A longtime Alabama educator who's won Teacher of the Year honors resigned this week when her "frustration boiled over" with bureaucracy. Informed that she lacked the state qualifications to teach grade five, Ann Marie Corgill resigned from Birmingham City Schools, NPR reports. "After 21 years of teaching in grades 1-6, I have no answers as to why this is a problem now, so instead of paying more fees, taking more tests and proving once again that I am qualified to teach, I am resigning," she wrote. Corgill, who was 2014-2015 Alabama Teacher of the Year and a 2015 National Teacher of the Year finalist, had begun teaching fifth grade at Oliver Elementary when a state education administrator called and said she lacked the certification to continue, AL.com reports.
This despite Corgill's National Board Certification to teach students between ages 7 and 12, which usually covers fifth grade. "When an inquiry was made, the department reported that her current teaching certificate covers primary grades through Grade 3," says the Alabama Department of Education in a statement. "This does not carry with it a requirement for resignation." As a Title I school, Oliver Elementary receives federal dollars because many of its students are from low-income families; so it requires that all teachers be "highly qualified," a standard Corgill apparently didn't meet,
AL.com reports. "When the news came that I was not considered highly qualified, my frustration boiled over," Corgill says. "...[I] will continue to give my life to the profession. Every child I teach and learn from is a part of me. I love them and work to give them my best."
http://www.newser.com/story/215379/teacher-of-the-year-quits-when-told-shes-unqualified.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=earthlink&utm_campaign=rss_topnews
I would hope that the parents of her students, current and past, won't take this laying down.
I wonder who they maneuvered her out of the way for.
Bingo.
That's what I was thinking. 'How dare she take up someone else's slot, even though she didn't even know it!'
They actually bumped her to clear up two positions.. the lower level grade she was qualified to teach (when they told her they needed her to teach fifth grade), and then the fifth grade position when they said she wasn't qualified to teach it.
Chances are they got the other two teachers at lower salaries than what she was making and fewer benefits, considering the length of time she has been teaching.
And the quality of the teaching in our country slips down just a tiny fraction more on the world scale.
Just an attempt on the part of the American bureaucracy trying to justify its salary and adding to the dumbing down of America.
It's part of the replacement of human relationships with machinery and gizmos. All good things are threatened by that trend. People are irrelevant, you know.
I know. HAL told me...
Just know that I tend at times to use metaphor and analogy, due to a background in poetry writing. So "machines" may not be literal in my usage all the time. But so-called human institutions often behave precisely like machines -- in that the churn out cold, mechanical "decisions" which don't take human considerations to heart. Machines, of course, don't have hearts. And neither do many of our institutions. Cold, mechanical. Steely ... they are.
Machines, of course, don't have hearts. And neither do many of our institutions.
Or people, in the poetic sense.
I don't care if she quit but I'd like to see the Feds stop giving them money.
Ever the ray of sunshine...
If the feds stop giving them money they give up any control over the school system; and they are never, ever, going to do that.
Where the school systems are concerned the states and the feds are in an eternal tug-of-war as to who has the greater control, and as long as federal money... even one dollar of it... is accepted by the states, the feds are on the top.
There is a very strong role for the federal government (though not strong enough) in the education of our children. Without it we'd have nothing but one school teaching one math theory as correct, while another teaches it is not. Locals (unless they have a private school) would be teaching that evolution is false. I WANT the federal government to have an even much stronger role and much more power in our nation's public schools and will vote for candidates that agree with that and against those that don't. We need much more uniformity of teaching and only the Federal government can bring that about and enforce it. It is ridiculous and unfair to the the students that children in one neighborhood have complete computer labs and the very best of teachers, while children poorer neighborhoods do not. ALL children, no matter where they live in America, must be given an exactly equal chance to succeed no matter where they live and the exact tools and strength of teaching to do so. The Department of Education must be brought up even to the equal of the Department of Defense, because well educated citizens are more important then another aircraft carrier group.
The federal government should have no role in education.
I've repeatedly asked Perrie to help me solve this problem, but not heard back from her. I just keep
getting individual notifications of every post following mine in any of these threads -- even though I set my settings not to receive these messages. Am I alone here?
J Martin,
I don't understand what you mean. Are you getting to many notifications or just not the right ones.
Hi Perrie -
I changed ALL of my settings, asking for no notifications. The machine says I should not be getting any notifications. But I get an email every time someone posts after me in threads like this one.
Eventually, I may have to drop out of the forum, as I don't really want these in my email box.
Why is this national news ?
Seriously.
How many bureaucratic snafus are there in every walk of life nowadays ? Many many many, to say the least. It is the byproduct of complexity.
All this story does is give the anti-government malcontents some running room.
Nothing but snafus. Everywhere. It's the air we breathe.
I am tired tired tired of the anti-government whining on this site. It is almost all we see. Well, except for the anti-Muslim whining.
You have the option not to look at the articles or the comments, John. Exercise that option for those of us who are tired tired tired of your endless complaints about what others post.
If you left, you wouldn't have to see any of our vile discourse...
Who died and left you in control of what is considered national news, John?
Once and for all, could you please codify what qualifies as news? We can then disseminate it to all the news outlets in the nation. It could be an important learning moment for them.
I imagine that she could have updated her certification with relative ease rather than resign, but she chose to quit rather than update her license.
Her choice - she made her self a victim (probably a martyr in her mind) rather than meet established requirements
instead of paying more fees, taking more tests and proving once again that I am qualified to teach, I am
Perhaps, Robert, she just decided she was tired of the crap and again, perhaps she didn't have the money or the time to spend on the certification right now. Not having walked in her shoes, I wouldn't know.
I do know the school should have known her certification record before transferring her.
Then I hope she enjoys her new career, whatever it may be
And she should have known what she was licensed to teach and brought it up when the change was contemplated - if the school wanted her in that position they likely would have paid fees/course costs to make it happen.
Personal responsibility is at play here - she made a choice to move on, good for her.