This petition comes as a response to a recent article in the Daily Oklahoman outlining the agreement between the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Oklahoma City Public School System (OKCPS) Administration that makes it easier to fire "ineffective" teachers. We believe that ALL employees of OKCPS should be held accountable for their product and/or services.

     For too long the Information Technology(IT) Department has been allowed to render inferior service and make arbitrary policies that negatively impact teaching and learning in the classroom. Too often, technicians come to repair a computer and leave behind trouble. Some technicians talk to and treat teachers like they are idiots. Teachers complain constantly about the substandard service and poor treatment, but no one is really listening. Many classrooms have broken computers with outdated software. Believe it or not there are desktop computers and teacher laptops that are still running Windows 2000.  Hundreds of thousands of Federal dollars are spent on the latest technology and it can sit in a warehouse for months before being deployed.

     It is an unacceptable work condition that someone making a policy decision that directly impacts classroom instruction has no understanding or training in pedagogy.  There should be some process in place to allow policy to be modified by the concerns and needs of the teachers who are the end users of all educational technology.   

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