Admin treating testing-grade teachers like garbage
I am in my 4th year of teaching 4th grade planning to exit after this school year. I have thought long and hard about what was the nail in the coffin (low low pay, lack of respect from students/parents, utter lack of autonomy from admin/district, long hours, unpaid work expected of us, etc.) and ultimately I have decided it's the negativity from admin for me that's the last straw.
I work at a title I school that's under both federal and state review for low performance. There is a huge discrepancy in our school in treatment from admin towards primary (non-testing) grade teachers and upper (testing grade) teachers. Lower school teachers are constantly praised, never criticized, and RARELY observed. My friends who teach k-2 have said that admin hasn't been in their rooms at all this year. Meanwhile, they're in testing grade rooms almost daily, criticizing almost every little thing we do. If we slip up for ONE minute we're getting a nasty email about it immediately. If those critiques were balanced with genuine appreciation for how hard we DO work, I might be able to tolerate it, but no dice.
I finally lost it last night when the upper teachers were expected to stay after school to serve dinner food to families and watch the kids backstage during our holiday music concert. Principal sends a whole-staff email with PARAGRAPHS of thanks for the specials teachers who organized the event, saying what a beautiful event it was blah blah blah, and a one-line, completely disingenuous "thanks" for the teachers. I'm not saying don't thank the specials teachers, they definitely deserve appreciation as well, but it's already ludicrous to expect your classroom teachers to stay after hours to babysit and serve food -- to not at least give a genuine thank you is unacceptable. I just think it's mind-boggling that she can't even write a full sentence of thanks for teachers in a whole-staff email but, when we mess something up even slightly, we are getting an immediate, direct email of reprimand.
I know this might be an issue somewhat specific to my school, but I feel like this must be somewhat of a common phenomenon, no? Do anyone else's (elementary) admin treat primary/specials teachers like angels who can do no wrong and treat testing grade teachers like sh*t?