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Class Struggle
By Jay Mathews

The real reason a whistleblowing teacher was transferred

My nominee for most effective whistleblower in the D.C. school system, Erich Martel, has finally gone too far in the eyes of some school administrators.

Four years ago I wrote about a clumsy attempt to take his Advanced Placement U.S. history classes away from him after he exposed officials giving diplomas to ineligible students throughout the system. In March Martel offended again by creating anti-cheating materials — such as two versions of the same test with the pages in different order — that his principal complained were “creating an expectation that students will cheat.”

The principal, Peter Cahall of Wilson High School in Northwest Washington, told me then he was not trying to stifle Martel, just urging him to consider another perspective. That apparently meant the perspective of a school on the other side of town. In June, as my colleague Bill Turque has reported, instructional superintendent John Davis told Martel he was being involuntarily transferred to the Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School in Northeast because of his “significant educational philosophy differences” with Cahall.

I've never heard that one before. The new D.C. teachers' contract says involuntary transfers can be made after consultation with the teacher for any reason except one: It cannot be done to discipline him. And D.C. schools assistant press secretary Fred Lewis was quick to say, “Mr. Martel was not transferred for disciplinary reasons."

Despite what the school system says, it looks to me like adminstrators' taking revenge on an irritating employee. Martel, a member of the Washington Teachers’ Union executive committee, is famous for exposing official misconduct and inattention. In the spring he told D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee that Cahall had allowed students with failing grades and many unexcused absences to take a senior trip to the Bahamas while school was in session, a charge still being investigated.

Is the transfer the best use of his talents? He has been teaching for 41 years, 25 of them at Wilson. Many students praise his AP classes. Phelps, on the other hand, is a revived version of an old school, just beginnng AP. So far Martel hasn't been given an AP class. He says he has always taught regular history as well as AP and is fine with his new classes. To me the transfer limits the impact he can have on students.

Davis acknowledged that the dispute over Martel’s using different versions of the same test to frustrate cheating was one reason he was transferred. Another was his campaign against requiring teachers to cater to students’ different learning styles.

I think Cahall is wrong in both cases. Anti-cheating measures didn’t injure my youthful self-image. Much research indicates that appealing to different learning styles has no effect.

The third issue that led to the transfer, Davis said, was Martel’s opposition to enrolling students in AP even if they don’t want to. There I am on Cahall’s side. We don’t let students decide if they are going to learn to read. These days a taste of a college level course in high school is nearly as important.

Martel says AP benefits only the students willing to prepare consistently for each class. But I have seen AP teachers successfully motivate slackers with praise and persistence. I agree with Martel, however, that his reasoned disagreement with Cahall on AP is no cause for a transfer.