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B.C. offshore school stories spark heated discussion

November 30, 2012. 11:26 am • Section: B.C. Education Report, STAFF

I’m getting a lot of responses to my stories about Tianjin Maple Leaf International School (some of which Iwrote about in Friday’s newspaper). Here are excerpts from some of those emails (condensed but unedited)

A current Tianjin teacher:

The experience that teachers have had in the first few months at this facility under this particularadministration team has been discouraging and demoralizing. A number of them are in the process of packing and leaving. Two of them have been fired for infractions that would be only a have been areprimand under a collective agreement system in Canada. The rest at a recent staff meeting were told thatthey wanted to go they could resign today, but 100 days notice is required or a suggestion to revoke theircertificate for non-fulfilment of contract would be lodged with the B.C. Ministry of Education .

—-

A former Maple Leaf teacher (school name unspecified):

I can say that Maple Leaf was a school that demanded much more out of their teachers than any school I have ever worked at including schools in Canada. You will never find a school where ever single teacher hacomplete year plans and a complete daily lesson plans for every class taught. Did I ever feel pressured topass students? Of course I did. It was expected that I did everything possible to get my students to pass myclasses, including allowing for resubmitted assignments, extra help after school, and chances to retakeexaminations. This of course meant a lot of extra work on my part which some teachers would grumble andcomplain about but frankly it is a part of their job. Never once did I feel my grades where inaccurate and if

you had bothered to do some research you would have realized that teacher submitted grades must be witha certain percentage of the grades students score on provincial exams. This is a check and balance that canbe manipulated by school administrators. I left after four years looking for new adventures but would beha ppy to return again to Maple Leaf. I am quite disturbed that a ver y small number of people trying todiscredit a fine institution gets uncontested publicity in your paper. To undermine the quality of instructionand the integrity of the administration at  Maple Leaf based on these complaints with no further investigatio

is in my books just bad journalism.

—-

A former Tianjin teacher (the I refers to incomplete):

The push and indirect pressures on how to capture and recorded a student’s ability/skill/competency levelswere debated fiercely among the staff and administration constantly. There was always a push fromadministration to “capture” and “record” achievements nearer the end of the year after students had a full

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year of absorbing language skills. In their sympathies/motivation, the administration asked us to emphasizemarks at the tail end of the year, thus discounting any assessments made from the beginning and allowing

them greater opportunities in which to reach achievement.

Failure was almost non-existent – the concept of the I was to give students opportunities to make up work.However, in this system, the failing student would copy or even hand in someone else’s work that was alreareturned by the teacher at the end of the year. No work/effort on their part was done.

The motivations of some teachers were questionable – as there were students taking the Grade 12 exam whhad in confidence told me that their Grade 12 English teacher, gave them a template for an essay to writeand told them to memorize it for the exam.

Attendance was not tracked by the B.C. teachers in the years I was there.

All learning objectives were not met especially in the science department from the first two years when welacked equipment and materials to conduct science labs.

And overall living and working conditions were horrendous. The first year, there was no heating. The secon

year the buildings were heated to 19 degrees as measured by some teachers and students.

The bathrooms lacked toilet paper, warm water and soap.

Shared bathrooms by teachers and students.

Needless to say, there were serious academic and humanitarian issues. Some maybe beyond the scope of thB.C curriculum itself but from a human perspective, worth mentioning.

—

An English teacher at Dalian Maple Leaf International School wrote a long email criticizing me and sayingmy stories lack information. (The Dalian school is a sister school to Tianjin and is considered the flagship othe Maple Leaf Educational Systems company.) In particular, he took issue with quotes in Saturday’s storyfrom the teacher who complained about the Tianjin school to Education Minister Don McRae, saying she inot a B.C.-certified teacher, doesn’t work in the B.C. program and doesn’t teach any B.C. curriculum. As mstory noted, she was speaking on behalf of a group of teachers, most of whom didn’t want to be identified ffear of reprisals. (I am omitting her name here because she has also sent a rebuttal to this letter-writer and Iwant to stay focused on the issues.)

Here is part of the Dalian teacher’s email, which arrived at 4:30 pm Thursday:

I have been working with Maple Leaf for a few years and my dealings with administration in our programhave always been professional, and they have never pressured me to increase or inflate grades. I knowpressure comes from students, parents, and sometimes from non-BC staff for English grades to be higher, bat the end of the day, our students in the BC program are made accountable by the 40% provincial exammark in English/Communications 12, which is graded in BC by a group of experienced, trained, and non-Maple-Leaf-affiliated teachers. Furthermore, the accusation of inflating grades would typically refer toreport cards and transcripts; however, the middle school (where Ms. D. is/was an employee) doesn’t issuereport cards until December. If the accusations were made weeks/months ago, how was Ms. D. being

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influenced if the teachers never provided reports to students/parents? Likewise, if her immediate supervisorwere forcing her to “give inaccurate grades”, in what way did this happen? An ESL curriculum developed 

for middle school students would obviously be much different than a fully-integrated, BC certified course.

I’m curious, too, about the details relating to the school “harass[ing]” them and creating“an unsafe environment”. Some detail here would be helpful. Making such statementswithout specific evidence or detail allows readers to create any sort of myth they choose.

I know this rhetorical strategy is effective to sway the minds of your audience, but doesn’t it take away from your professional sense of integrity?

As to the inclusion and reference to the audio tape of the staff meeting, you include asingle, frustrated quote from Mr. Ryan Waurynchuk , the Tianjin high school principal.You say that it was “possibly the most interesting” piece in the puzzle you were trying toassemble. The thing I found interesting was the reality that the quote doesn’t show himbeing offensive, demeaning, or unprofessional. If Ms. D. wasn’t the one taping the staff meeting, don’t youthink you should tell readers who it was and explain why they don’t step forward to share their grievancespublicly? In contrast, it is extremely unprofessional to send a recording of a staff meeting to a newspaperwithout raising concerns in the proper and expected way first. If a BC teacher was taping this staff meeting

he/she would be stepping outside of profession expectations; teachers are expected to discuss problems and

bring issues to administrative bodies before taking them to the next level. . . .

I wonder what your motivation is in criticizing a BC-accredited program that is faithfully maintainingteaching standards in accordance with BC standards. The effect of your article could have ramifications forour students, who legitimately graduate with a BC Dogwood diploma; they could also negatively impact thehard-working teachers who plan to seek employment elsewhere in the future. My sincere hope is that future

articles are more balanced and more thoroughly researched than this current article and other related blogentries.

Ten hours later, he wrote again:

So far it doesn’t seem to me like you’re too interested in presenting another side of the issue whichcontradicts or challenges your current perspective. Three articles trashing the school and system, zerosupporting. If you saw the comments from last week’s article, you’ll see quite a lot of support and people whcontradict your complainants, including ex-students and teachers. I know that your newspaper has receivedmore one letter in support of the school and the graduates. You don’t name all your sources because they’reworried about repercussions, but what about possible repercussions for the good teachers who spend countless hours working to teach these wonderful students and prepare them for university abroad, and students who did, in fact, legitimately graduate from Maple Leaf and were successful university graduateswho contributed a great deal of money to the Canadian economy with their tuition dollars? Proust’s little

soundbite about the young, hardworking teachers relying on each other is meaningless within the rest of the

article. Maybe you don’t care. Maybe the almighty readership and the voice of disgruntled employees willwin the day. I get it. It’s just sad that in championing these voices, you can’t find the time to ask yourself if the collateral damage is worth it, or spend the time considering the possibility that even in your (I’d assumehappy) verification from these employees who are quick to discredit their former employers whether or not their words are true or representative.

You still haven’t acknowledged the misleading nature of the original complaints and their source being anESL teacher, and you’ve run the gamut to include complaints that are wide-ranging for the ML system.Again, I’d hope that you would provide a little bit of balance to all these accusations by acknowledging the

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support coming from these same schools. You get one side of the story, but haven’t done much to see theother side.

To clarify, I have received two emails from Dalian teachers defending Maple Leaf schools and my editorsreceived a third. I also received one email from a Tianjin teacher Dec. 1 defending the school but more thandozen suggesting the ministry needs to investigate.

Fighting discrimination: A Richmond teacher explains her missionNext B.C. Education Report post B.C.offshore school inspections described as ‘superficial’Previous B.C. Education Report postWe encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed tomaintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keepyour comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the “X” in theupper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visitour FAQ page for more information.

 

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