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August 07, 2006
Mike Antonucci does it again
Even more so than usual, this week's EIA Communiqué is a must-read:
"No one seems to know what anyone else is doing."
"Hundreds of thousands of dollars are thrown in the trash."
"I have heard bold, outright lies told to large audiences."
These are just a few of the sentiments expressed by employees of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Their remarks were part of a comprehensive communications audit commissioned by the union to analyze and evaluate its practices for conveying its message to members and the public.
AFT contracted with Cleverspin, a Chicago-based public relations design firm, to conduct the audit. Cleverspin has worked with AFT before, as the driving force behind the union's branding project, which standardized the design and use of AFT colors, logos and graphics.
Cleverspin began work on the communications audit in September 2005. Between November 2005 and January 2006, Cleverspin owner Kris Kemmerer conducted interviews with 103 AFT staffers at the union's national headquarters, following up in March and April 2006 with phone interviews of 57 state and local affiliate officers and staff.
Kemmerer presented an interim report to AFT President Ed McElroy in February, and updated the 174-page report in May. There is evidence that AFT is beginning to implement some of Cleverspin's recommendations.
Cleverspin assured interviewees that while their comments would be culled and quoted for the report, it would be done without attribution. EIA has obtained not only the updated interim report, but also audio files of those interviews – with the interviewees' names attached. After listening to 34 hours of candid conversations between Kemmerer and AFT employees of all ranks, EIA has determined that no purpose would be served in identifying the individuals by name. EIA will abide by Cleverspin's promise of anonymity and will quote staffers without attribution or identification.
Naturally, this snippet caught my eye:
Cleverspin conducted many staff interviews during January 2006, right after AFT launched its blog devoted to NCLB, called Let's Get It Right. The blog was generally welcomed by the education blogosphere, with many citing it as an example for NEA to follow. But maybe the blog, especially the much-lauded comments section, deserves a little closer scrutiny:
"This blog is an example, and [supervisor's name redacted] just happened to mention to somebody that he knows teachers, if we ever need teachers to comment on something, to invite comments and get somebody to respond. You know, here's something on teacher certification or teacher quality, can you write in as a teacher and say this, because obviously blogs are half true dialogue and half staged dialogue. We're controlling things, and trying to, to some degree…. This is a relatively open discussion, but we want to control what gets emphasized, and really where the discussion starts."
Look. Just like us, the union has an agenda, and site disclaimers notwithstanding, the AFT can and should be expected to use the blog to get its message out. But we at Edspresso certainly want to foster meaningful discussion (see this week's debate as an example). To that end, as the editor of this site I assure you I have never asked a third party to comment on my behalf, I have never refused to post a comment with which I disagreed, and I have never engaged in sock puppetry. And I never will.
I'd like to see the AFTies address this publicly (there's no mention of it just yet). Personally, I think how they run their comment threads is a pretty minor issue on their blog, but it can be indicative of whether they want to engage readers or lecture them.
Take some time and read the whole thing. I swear, it's the education equivalent of Harry Potter--once you start reading it, you won't be able to stop.
(No comment on this yet from Edwize or NYC Educator. I, for one, definitely look forward to hearing something from them on this fascinating Internet exclusive.)
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