A TEACHER STORY: WHY I’M LEAVING PUBLIC EDUCATION

[proud2BlibKansan]

I’ve had a radical change of heart recently. Those who worked with me in my previous position as an Instructional Coach (helping teachers to improve instruction and overcome difficulties with high-needs students) must be shocked by the links I am posting online. They might say that now that I’m back in the classroom, I don’t want to practice what I preached. They’d be at least partly right.

Wasn’t I the one reassuring other teachers that Colorado’s new teacher evaluations, based 50% on student test scores, was exactly what was needed to bring credibility and respect back into the teaching profession? Wasn’t I the one who said, “Merit pay? Bring it on! I’ll be makin’ the big bucks!” Yep, that was me. It was frustrating to work with some teachers who didn’t seem to care about their huge responsibility for educating our youth. Reforming tenure and paying teachers based on their efforts made sense to me, at least in theory.

I tried to reassure the teachers I worked with that they were great teachers who had nothing to worry about, and ignored the nagging voice in the back of my head that said it wasn’t so simple –like what about Special Education teachers? I’d worked with one who had a huge case-load of kids, including Jose, a boy with autism who struggled socially and academically but was a gifted artist. I had offered to help Jose’s teacher administer the CSAP (Colorado’s standardized test) because she had so many students that required special accommodations.

I was asked to read the questions aloud to Jose, and stop if he became agitated. The previous year, Jose had felt so bad about not knowing the answers that he had gouged his fingernails into his arm. This year, they felt he had made great academic progress, and his improved scores would make the school look good. After a few minutes, I could see that Jose was getting upset. I suggested we take a break. He vehemently shook his head, determined to “be good”. When his tears began to flow, I insisted that we stop. Why were we torturing this young man, when, as a student with an Individualized Education Plan, we knew exactly what his levels of proficiency were? Still, I reasoned that it was necessary to assess all students, because we wanted No Child Left Behind.

more . . . http://unitedoptout.com/uncategorized/a-teacher-story-why-im-leaving-public-education/

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. What an excellent article. Thanks. Non-educators are destroying schools

and teachers. Teachers have become the target of the disaster created by non-educators trying to turn schools into those nasty institutions called corporations.

I found these 2 paragraphs interesting:


After my formal evaluation, my principal noted that, while my pedagogy (he pronounced it “pegoggy”) was perfect, I had serious classroom management issues. Hadn’t I noticed that while the two students were debating in one group, the other group had already finished and were drawing a fish on the giant sticky note I’d provided for their brainstorming session? (Actually, I thought to myself, it was a dolphin, the subject of the short story they’d read.) “Chris would never do that in another class,” the principal told me. “He doesn’t respect you.”

“Wouldn’t do what?” I asked, “Draw a fish?” I was instructed, for the first time in more than a decade of teaching, to write a performance improvement plan, and observe another teacher. I resisted the urge to remind this man that I had taught successfully for four years in inner-city Pittsburgh while he was still in high school. Instead, I tried to see his point of view – shouldn’t all teachers strive for continual improvement? Still, I felt threatened. Teachers all over the country are being systematically intimidated by top-down, authoritarian rule designed to ensure compliance.

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. That part struck me as well

Especially the fish part.

Principals never know the kids or understand why they do what they do as well as the teachers do.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

14. You're right, but principals are also under the gun while non-educators

adapt schools to a corporate model, which does not work.

[Igel]

20. I've seen similar kinds of things.

Problem is, the administrators give hints that they know what's going on.

They're under the gun, too. The administrators have administrators "administering them" straight up to the top ranks in the school district.

Above them are the state administrators and the federal administrators, telling the schools what they have to do if they want to avoid problems that would get the school administrators fired.

So this year we have two big pushes. I won't say what they are, but we're all supposed to adopt this year's panaceas, guaranteed to correct all the ills that last year's panaceas failed to alter. Of course, they're all the same ills.

Lots of things are silly.

Things like having many standardized tests say they're not measures of student achievement but of teacher effectiveness. (How the hell can you give a test to a student to measure what he's been taught without measuring what he's learned?)

[jody]

2. I truly understand. It's tiring, depressing, and dangerous to one's career to dream about what

could be but encounter resistance and anger for each attempt.

I offer to the author and all who read this thread a poem that my grandchildren had written with calligraphy on parchment hanging over my desk as I type this post to a kindred souls:

IF..... by Rudyard Kipling

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man {Woman}, my son {daughter}!

[YvonneCa]

9. THAT is my favorite poem...

...in the whole world! Thank you for posting it here.

[boppers]

3. Another argument for charters, magnets, (etc.), in a way.

Standardized schools = standardized education.

Some folks want that. Some don't. Some can't handle the environment of one, or another, at all.

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Charters play the test game too

So do magnets.

As long as the school is funded by tax dollars, they have to test the kids.

[boppers]

22. I was thinking about the line-item approach to curricula.

Every sentence construction being taught exactly the same way in every class, every school.... ick. That's not teaching, that's... acting?

"Hi, I'm here to read lines for the role of a teacher, and pretend to do it in such as way as you will remember what I said!"

[proud2BlibKansan]

36. That's definitely a charter school thing

Sounds a lot like KIPP schools.

[boppers]

38. From the OP story, it sounds like it's spreading to public schools.

"The curriculum was completely scripted, requiring students to write using a specific format consisting of at least one simple, one compound and one complex sentence, one instance of multiple modifiers separated by a comma, one simile or metaphor, etc. The idea is to make evaluating writing, a very subjective task, more objective (read: easy for under-trained, low-paid standardized test scorers to evaluate). Apparently it doesn’t matter if everyone’s paragraph reads exactly the same."

[jody]

8. "Standardized schools = standardized education" or teaching to the lowest standard so all can

get a diploma certifying attendance for 12 years but little else.

No wonder we are concerned about Tiger Moms, we should be because China was an advanced culture when Europeans and Africans foraged and hunted to survive.

[MedicalAdmin]

44. 2 points.

First, I wasn't aware that Chinas cultural development predated Africas. I would love to see some details.

Second, the previous poster mentioned standard schools = standard education ( a supposition based on the fact that public schools are being forced to teach to the test.) but charter schools are also forced to take those tests so I fail to see the distinction based on that fact.

Perhaps some here are confusing elite private academies with our formerly excellent ( and now under attack, demoralized and being systematically dismantled before our eyes) public schools.

What do you think?

[liberalhistorian]

11. Many charters treat teachers

even worse, and they can get away with it, too. They are not the magic pill.

[RebelOne]

32. My daughter is a middle school teacher in a charter school

in South Florida, and she could not be happier. She was teaching in a public school in Miami and the kids were totally disrespectful. And her students in this charter school are a whole different breed.

[boppers]

39. I think charters are both good and evil, like typical public schooling systems.

The problem is assuming they are uniformly good, or evil (pubs or charters)!

Some thrive, some don't.

Just like their students.

I am becoming more and more convinced that teaching is like medicine:
You cannot put 30 women with stage 3 breast cancer in a room, and expect to always determine a "good" or "bad" doctor based on the outcome of those 30 women after one year.

OTOH, if all 30 die, every year, every time they see that one doctor, for multiple years.... it's time to stop blaming the disease.

[MedicalAdmin]

45. Did you just compare education to a disease state?

Perhaps if you explained a little more I would get the analogy.

[boppers]

48. If illiteracy is a disease, how effective is the doctor at treating a wide variety of patients?

Simpler?

[MedicalAdmin]

50. Yes.

You are saying that not all professionals are created equal. And just like one can get an idea of how good doctors are based on aggregate lOng term results, one must also base your decision on more than a snapshot of one patients experience with ones doctor.

How'd I do?

[boppers]

51. Yeah, it maps over somewhat well.

Of course, it's also kind of insane to compare a dermatologist and and oncologist, and declare the oncologist a worse doctor, because many, many, more of their patients seem to die....

(This is a complaint being raised by teachers who don't like comparisons being made of schools or even individuals, with incredibly different challenges).

[Sarah Ibarruri]

17. Charter schools are a disaster on wheels. The latest stats reflect that

The destruction of public schools was a plan devised by GOPers, with precisely that intention, and charters are part of that plan. Too bad others have added themselves to the list of the 'let's just finish off public schools' group.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

30. An overbroad and incorrrect condemnation of all charter schools

Charter school concept originated with educators and was strongly advocated as a way to address unique needs and provided creative environments.

Clearly the charter concept has also been used by those who wish to turn education into a commodity, something that is clearly the wrong direction.

I have no problem disparaging the corporate schools, but there are also charters that are fulfilling the original goals of the charter movement.

Lumping them together is inappropriate and incorrect

[proud2BlibKansan]

37. Those educators who conceived the concept of charter schools later pulled their support

Let's tell the whole story here.

Charters are also different in many cities. And only 17% nationwide have been successful.

If I had only 17% success in my classroom, I'd lose my job.

[boppers]

40. Would you?

Central Falls was what, before firing?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

41. Some did, some did not and actually success rates is the subject of raging debate which resembles

the Brady Bunch versus the NRA...

The real issue for me is which charters schools are true to the original educator based concepts and not business to profit off the education of children.

Given that some of them are still true to the concept AND performing well in their niche, I am not willing to destroy them all, preferring instead a review of them individually.

[prairierose]

4. Thanks for bringing this here. And Sarah, every time I hear some idiot spouting off...

about how schools should be "run like a business", I want to punch them. Education is not a business and there are very good reasons that it can not be run like a business. Students are not "customers". This idea dramatically changes the relationship between teacher and student by itself.

But even more importantly are all of the people who have never set foot in a classroom who are given the authority to tell teachers, experienced teachers who to do their job. And all of the people at so many levels who are using teachers as scapegoats for the planned destruction of public schools. The 30 years of defunding has take a toll on physical plants of schools, as well as on teachers who have struggled to continue teaching with fewer materials every year.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. The Blueberry Story

A business leader learns his lesson.
by Jamie Robert Vollmer

http://www.bridges4kids.org/Inspiration/Vollmer1-03.html

[QED]

16. That is a very powerful metaphor

Thank you for sharing.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. You're very welcome

[boppers]

24. Bookmarking.

Great metaphor.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. I love love love that story

So true.

[liberalhistorian]

7. Yet more reasons why I'm so glad I didn't follow

in the footsteps of my now-retired teacher parents, like everyone thought I'd do. No fucking thank you. I grew up watching what they went through every day and night and the toll it took on them and our family, as well as the total lack of appreciation and monetary reward, and there was no fucking way I was going to deal with that. And this was in the 70's and 80's!! They dedicated their lives wholeheartedly to their students and their profession and got shit for it in the end. Most of their pensions goes to pay my father's nursing home bill and his pension is less than it should be because he had to retire ten years earlier than normal due to the early onset of his dementia.

So all those decades of work and now my mother struggles to get by, while having to hear on a nearly daily basis the hateful scapegoating of teachers and the attempts to take away even basic rights and protections, including tenure, and to hear the ranting of the average joe against tenure and the like when he has no fucking clue what he's even talking about or what it's like to be in the classroom, he's just parroting the RW talking points the media so gladly puts forth for them. And they both started teaching before unions and tenure and they know what it was like for teachers then, how bad it was. The thought of younger teachers having to go back to that makes her physically ill (my dad doesn't know anything anymore, which is probably a blessing at this point).

I've been told I have a "gift" for teaching, by principals and admins at the local school where I sub when needed (since I have a college degree, I can sub and am actually sought after to do so) and that I should consider trying to get a certificate. But there is NO WAY I will do any such thing, and certainly not nowadays. Not with this shit going on. It infuriates me beyond words to see this shit happening and every time some numbskull rants about teachers and unions and tenure and how they're living high off the hog on the taxpayer's dime and doing nothing for it, etc., etc., I think of all the decades my parents worked so hard and how now my mom is lucky to have enough money for food every fucking month after the nursing home is paid, while those who did nothing of value for society, such as Wall Street and corporate fucks, rake in their goddamn millions and rant about teachers and public workers. Fuck them all, especially for what they're doing to public education, and doing knowingly.

I'm particularly incensed that even too many Democrats are falling for the RW bullshit when it comes to public education and teachers. Unbelievably infuriated.

[terip64]

12. I just got my Masters in Teaching from Michigan State and I have no job in site.

I had a pretty decent job in MI as an ESL teacher but I moved to the Chicago area for my husband's job and am not having any luck finding anything here. I can't even get on any sub lists so far. I think I have to wake up and realize that I need to change professions. I am not feeling very smart right now. Sucks, because I am a good teacher.

[HopeHoops]

13. Please don't leave. The future of the country depends on people like you - and my wife.

Teaching sucks. It's one of the roughest jobs on the planet. There are only a select few who can do it well. You have a gift and you need to use it. There's no such thing as an "easy" teaching position. My heart is with you.

[ingac70]

15. Merit pay=

having to give blow jobs to get anywhere.

[Ishoutandscream2]

18. June, 2014, and I have my years for retirement

I'm done. Unfortunately, my wife is not eligible for retirement until 2023.

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. I've been eligible for 5 years

I always said I would go as soon as I could. But I can't afford to pay for the health insurance. So I'm staying until I can get the max retirement benefit. If I waited till I could get Medicare I'd probably go crazy.

[Ishoutandscream2]

33. Yeah, I'll still be "young"

A tad under 53, but I don't care. I'll work part time at Starbucks or even sub-teach. Tired of the added responsibilities year after year. It's not the kids, and not necessarily the parents. It's just the almost unexpected expectations that have been placed on educators.

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. It's being blamed for every damn thing that drives me nuts

The stress that comes from that is nearly unbearable at times.

[Ishoutandscream2]

34. By the way, love your sig line

[Curmudgeoness]

19. This story is heartbreaking.

I trained as a teacher. That is what my degree is in. I do not teach. But this woman was obviously an incredible, caring teacher. She would have always done a good job with her students. And to see what she was up against just overwhelms me.

They make all these teachers, who are trained PROFESSIONALS, feel as if they are interns throughout there whole career. Why they require so much education and testing before you can teach is beyond me when they refuse to allow them to use the education they have. They tell them every detail of what they have to do....there is a time they will think they can put minimum wage workers in the teacher's seat.

Yep, no child left behind.

[PA Democrat]

21. Boy, can I identify with this article.

My daughter's IEP stated that she was to be exempted from our state's standardized testing. She has autism and based upon her academic performance and anxiety issues, we (the IEP team) decided she should be exempt.

One year the school guidance counselor decided that my daughter should take the test despite what her IEP stated. As I would have predicted, she became very frustrated and broke down crying in the middle of the test. She was still upset about it when she came home from school but did not understand what the test was only that she was "too dumb" to do any of the math problems.

One of my daughter's teachers was outraged about the incident and called me to fill me in on what happened.

Before NCLB our school district had time built into the schedule for independent reading and kids were encouraged to choose reading material that interested them. That ended with NCLB and was replaced with practice tests.

Then there was the writing program that allowed no deviation from a set formula for writing paragraphs.

The last several years the district has cancelled classes for the grades who are not participating is statewide assessments that year. Students who were not being tested sat in the school cafeteria for about 16 hours total spread out over 9 school days while the test were being given in classrooms.

I could go on, but as a teacher you've probably seen/ heard it all.

The obsession with testing and teaching to the test is ruining public education in my opinion.

[blaze]

23. Teaching has been taken over by the test takers.

That's my simple take on all this.

It's another follow-the-money thing, isn't it?

It totally sucks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Amen

Follow the money. Straight to Wall Street and the charter school profiteers.

[Ilsa]

29. Testing a lot of these kids with severe disabilities

has been a waste of time. I know, because my oldest I'd very autistic. The standardized tests, even the accommodated ones, prove NOTHING about his or his teachers' abilities. It's the IEP that should be the tool to measure his progress, not some standardized tests.

[Bozita]

31. This is the most disheartening thing I've read in some time.

Yesterday, I watched Dan Rather's report on schools in Finland on HDNet.

The Finns got it right.

And we don't ... bigtime!

[seabeyond]

42. very interesting and not surprising, yet amazing. not being a teacher, or in the system

but involved in my kids education, i saw and knew and felt all this was obvious. i volunteered a lot. i would be in the backroom and a teacher would come in while i was working. i would talk to them about this. they would almost whisper, looking over shoulder to give me their honest opinion about all this.

[grntuscarora]

43. How do teachers feel

about parents opting their children out of the tests. I suspect every time a parent does that, a teacher is punished for it.

We're seriously thinking of opting our third grader out, but sure don't want any backlash to fall on her teachers for our decision.

[proud2BlibKansan]

47. I believe most teachers would silently cheer you on.

We really can't encourage parents to opt out. Currently, federal funding is tied to test scores and soon, our pay will be. So we can't help you to opt out.

On the other hand, I don't know any teacher who believes these tests are helping our kids. We also know that real change in education policy begins and ends with parents.

So go for it.

[ihavenobias]

46. K & R n/t

[PhoenixAbove]

49. Can America do anything right anymore?

I don't think so.

This is so infuriating to read. I wish MadFloridian would move to DU3. S/he always kept an update of the horrors that were going on in the public schools. K&R.

[cbrer]

52. YES WE CAN GODDAMIT

America, despite the lies, and greed, is still the greatest social experiment in the history of mankind. We, as a nation, need to get off our asses and eradicate this type of "educational" failure from our society.

All the tools are there. We just lack the will to get it done. You know, all the American badasses aren't just in the military.

First things first. We fix the federal government.