The rumors are just everywhere.  It reminds me of The Stalin Epigram by the Russian poet Osip Mandelstam that goes like this:

Our lives no longer feel the ground under them/At ten paces you can’t hear our words.

Yes, we are talking quietly in the hallways these days. Whispers. Under the breath information being passed. Trust is completely gone. Fear, distrust, uncertainty seems to be the rule right now. People pass knowing looks in the hallways but say nothing. It seems as if the walls have ears (a line that makes me think of the walls actually having ears plastered on).

The problem is in the lack of transparency.  IMPACT is laid out for us but then we hear things, bit by bit. One rumor has the principal of one very well off Northwest school telling his staff that he has been instructed not to give 4s – that it is impossible to get a four on your evaluation.  Rumors fly of layoffs at other schools – 4 hear, 6 there – nothing certain.  Then there are the articles slowing making their way into the news – at least on the Wire – the Post’s online blog.  Things seem to be seeping towards the surface, like toxins in the soil.  In a piece on today’s wire, Rhee Cutbacks Neither Mismanagement Nor Malice, there is a letter from a former central office employee states:

It was stated that any teacher who has been in the classroom more than five years had to be ineffective and needed to be replaced. Instructions were given that evaluations must not be higher than “needs improvement” regardless of performance. It was stated that the intent was to build a case for dismissal. Anyone refusing to adhere to these commands in carrying out the evaluation process met with harsh consequences.

This lines up quite nicely with the quote from the NW principal.  Our own principal has been so vague that a job as a congressperson wouldn’t be out of character.  Many of us are feeling more than a little screwed.

Any rumors out there you’d care to share? Anything anyone is hearing?  Without transparency we are left with this.  What a sad state of affairs.