Has much changed at JPA?

It has been a long time since I have posted anything on the blog.  For a while things were quiet, and that led me to believe that things might be improving.  Alas that may not be the case, as sources suggest that things are as bad as ever.  Do you have information on how things are going at JPA these days?  We all know that JPA cultivates a culture of fear.  We have been in your situation.  If you want to share your story, your anonymity will be respected.

Parent Comment -- Can anyone help?

Here it is. I took out the names the parent provided so that they won't face repercussions from Steve.

Dear sir/ Madame,
My name is X and my daughter Y is a student at Jay Pritzer Academy. I’m writing this post in the hope that there is someone who can help me with some troubles I’m experiencing at the moment.
When we received our daughter test result they only told us that she didn’t pass the test (the result on 13 June 2016) which is strange to me because normally she was one of the best students in her class at Z school. After receiving these results I have tried on several occasions to reach someone who could explain to me why she didn’t pass the test. The only reply I received was that she didn’t pass, without further explanation. I’m writing to you as a worried father and hope that there is someone who can explain it further. If there is someone willing to help me, please contact me at: abc@gmail.com
Or my phone number 012abcdef
Yours sincerely,
X

I'm not surprised by this note. Steve, Naomi, and Jeanette make unilateral and arbitrary decisions about student aptitude or success all the time, whether its test scores, ACT scores, college entrance, whatever. JPA continues to break my heart as I get messages like this even when I check the blog only twice or three times a year. I can't do anything for this parent.

GUEST POST from March 23, 2016

As usual, my apologies for not posting sooner. The writers of this post would like to inform the readers that although written in one voice, it was co-written by two former JPA employees.

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My experience at Jay Pritzker Academy reaffirmed my beliefs about education: a successful educational model is one in which the voices of teachers and students are valued, heard, trusted, and empowered. It is one in which a dynamic relationship exists between administration and staff, where concerns are addressed collaboratively, and decisions are reasonable and transparent. It was in the absence of these things that I discovered their worth. 

The problems with JPA's treatment of its employees, both foreign and Khmer, is an issue already enumerated at length in this blog, so I won't be redundant. While unbelievable to me prior to my employment at the school, I can now attest to these allegations as being accurate. Despite the stress and difficulties staff endure under Steve's leadership, some of them – at least, the foreign staff – have the luxury of being adults from a culture where free speech is upheld as a constitutional right, where we won't necessarily face governmental retaliation for protesting. We drive around with bumper stickers that say "question authority." Such behavior can and has cost people their lives in Cambodia. In disturbing parallel with this dark humanitarian plight, JPA, too, tolerates nothing outside of absolute obedience, or a student will be expelled. 

During my year at JPA, it was clear that the school founders and administration prided themselves on that culture of obedience, and that my students were blind with a fear that caused them to put a lookout on guard in every class so that they could shush each other and straighten up into a posture of military-style "attention" each time Steve approached the classroom. Worse, it is a fear that insisted they refrain from voicing their earnest opinions. Such an environment stymies the development and identity formation of the young learner, producing an only marginally effective educational environment. It was almost surreal, though in retrospect unsurprising, to witness some of the events that transpired in my year at JPA. The head of school is a model by which students can measure the dangers of authoritarianism. This reality only reinforces the fearful silence the students and their families have suffered through over the past 40+ years at the hands of their government's dictatorial regimes. Steve and the Pritzker’s methods are seemingly benevolent, but quietly and repeatedly damaging. The most insidious act I witnessed in the year I taught at JPA was the expulsion of our top student for attempting to voice his honest concerns about JPA admin. Steve later threatened to get this student's full-ride scholarship at an American university revoked. If you are inspired by JPA's mission to help students obtain access to Western education, don't be fooled. This was their first ever student to earn this mark of success, and Steve attempted to squelch this golden opportunity. Unfathomable.

The school stands behind a mission that believes education will improve the host country. How will this occur with the suppression of critical pedagogy? Students who grow up to be great doctors and engineers may do so in an attempt to improve infrastructure and public health, but it will do little to uproot the antiquated and deep-seated personal and political fear ideologies that persist in the culture today. If we do not encourage students to express and shape their opinions, how can we expect that they will learn to shape their country? How can we expect them to stand up against a dictatorial government and become its new leaders? To support such an educational model continues the tradition of teaching the populous to remain fearful and silent. These are the same tools of oppression and can create future oppressors if alternate models are not actively explored or espoused.

I am sad to say that I was unable to find a way to speak up about these issues during my time at JPA. Productive discourse was difficult to engage in – or impossible, as in some cases it resulted in employee termination. I was told partway through the year that my employment was contingent upon keeping my opinions to myself. I did so. Sadly, though perhaps fittingly, I joined my students in their voiceless, disempowered predicament. Of course, I can know nothing of the true hardships my students and their families have suffered through over the years, though I left with an undying appreciation for how indomitable the human spirit can be – these bright children seemed to always exude a near endless attitude of kindness and gratitude – even for the privileged and unimaginably wealthy foreigners who, though they came and talked down to them and their families, still offered the best education they could have ever imagined. My colleagues and I knew better of course, and my silence has long condoned the subjugating practices of the school founders and administration. I regret that I could not find a way to have done more.  

Guest Post from May 2015

I think it's been over a year since I've updated. Sorry! So busy with teaching at a school that hasn't threatened to fire me for three years. Speaking of which, this post is from a teacher who is already long gone, but they sent it to me in May of 2015. Posted as is.

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While I worked at JPA, I was constantly terrified of being fired.  I refused to say anything against the school to anyone other than my closest friends and family because I was worried that things would get back to the head of school, Steve McCambridge.  Siem Reap is a very small town, and everyone knows each other. As such, it's necessary to watch what you say when you are out in public.  I was regularly worried that if I said something negative and it made its way back to the admin they would fire me.  In fact, that is exactly what happened to one teacher, who voiced her displeasure near the end of the year and was ratted out, then fired.  As such, I felt it was necessary to always watch what I said everywhere except for in my own home.  The school monitored your emails on the computers and would use that information against you.  There were times there were cameras in the classrooms, unbeknownst to teachers, and this also resulted in people being fired. As if that wasn't bad enough, they didn't only spy on staff, they spied on the students too. I write this, because for those of you who are considering working at JPA, even if you speak with people who are currently employed there, in all likelihood, you will only get positive reviews of the school, because those people will also be afraid of losing their final pay if they are leaving (there were staff who had their pay/return airline tickets threatened because they complained about being fired) or their jobs for next year.  

JPA tends to hire relatively new teachers, or teachers who are new to the international circuit.  They do this, I can only assume, so that those teachers are unaware of how poorly they are being treated.  I am currently employed at a school with an amazing head of school and I want those of you working at JPA or thinking about it to know that the way the admin treats you is unreasonable.  Though there will always be issues at any school you work at, be it staff or admin, students or location, the admin in this situation (despite the campus, the students, its mission and Siem Reap being amazing) is about as bad as they come. They cultivate a culture of fear. If you decide to work at JPA, go in knowing that you will have to keep your head down and your mouth shut.  The leadership, to the highest levels, is disinterested in hearing anything you have to say.  This was clearly evidenced by the fact that the Pritzkers were written many letters last year outlining the serious ethical issues at the school with Steve in leadership, yet he remains as the head of school.   While the school does amazing things for the students, there is no recourse for you as a teacher if you are fired out of your contract or their refuse to pay you.  As Steve once said "there are no unions in Cambodia, so stop your whining".  

Four Kids Get Kicked Out

Steve, Jeanette, and Naomi. Still playing god with the billionaires' money.

Four students from the middle school have been asked not to return. Two of them for being too "low," and two of them for being too "silly." Students must "earn" and "deserve" their spot at JPA, right? They have to show that they are "worth" the investment, according to no standard in particular.

They have had almost no turnover this year. They hire expats who don't seem to care if kids get kicked out, or maybe they've bought into Steve's logic that some kids don't "deserve" to be at JPA.

Glad I'm not there, but still suffering the guilt of leaving.

Christmas Pink Slips

It's near the end of the year, which means it's "JPA BONUS TIME" from Steve McCambridge and Jeanette Dibella!

Waiting on the final count for teachers who have been fired or have quit before mid-year.

I've been contemplating giving up the blog but have decided to keep it. Even if it's just updating twice a year about how many teachers leave or get fired. I'm here for good, Steve. Happy New Year!

I'd also like to know how many teachers at the school are actually qualified to teach their grade level and subject area. How many teacher who stay or leave are actually teachers? Is recruitment turning into "anyone with a degree" and "wants to live in Cambodia"?

Particularly interested in Anya Clingman and Ryan Ahlers, two of the three teachers who were interviewed about how much they love their jobs at JPA. They glow when talking about their students, as is to be expected. When talking about the school's administration or about teaching feedback, they seem cautious with their words. Care to comment? I'll post your comments as is.

If teachers want to write in with good stories about their students, JPAprobs is up for that too. It's Christmas after all!

Call for New Admins on the Blog

As a working teacher, it's not the easiest thing to continue checking this blog and keeping up. Also, to be honest, it's not easy to sign on and read nasty comments. The blog is updated by teachers who quit the school or are fired more recently, but I personally am a few generations out, as I have been very open about on the blog.

Instead of calling for more posts or stories, I'm calling for more admins. People who will help post and run the blog. They can write their own experiences or moderate comments. I will not stop you from writing whatever you'd like, as long as your goal is like mine: To bring about change at JPA for the better, which first and foremost means the removal of Steve McCambridge as head of school. I'd like to include Jeanette Dibella in the mix, but first things first.

Send me a PM. I'd love to work with you.

Oh, here are a few comments you may have missed from more recent teachers, 2014, that wrote comments on previous posts.

I'm a former employee of JPA and I'm not keen on sharing my story as it may be used against me in the future. Skeptical readers, I can attest to most of this information. Request transparency from the people interviewing you. Verify the information presented in the blog. Request to see numbers for staff turnover. Take any vague responses or refusal to share information as the first. And remember that the face of JPA is a dogsbody just carrying orders. Good luck. You will need it. 

I am one of the teachers that left after only 5 months - In 15 years of teaching I have never experienced anything like JPA, everything in this blog is correct. I wasted thousands of dollars setting myself up in Cambodia only to exist in a perpetual state of fear of being fired for not teaching a model that was never explained. Most importantly Steve McCambridge definitely demonstrated sociopathic tendencies to the detriment of the amazing beautiful students whom I wish I had the strength to stay for. One model of teaching does not fit all and never will although anyone with actual teaching experience would consider this common sense. Do not even consider working at JPA until they have hired administrators with prior international educational experience - and actual teaching qualifications.