We know about the people who are using “reform” as their stepping stone to fame and fortune.
We know about those who demand more testing, more standardization, more dehumanization.
We know about the policymakers and pundits who think that test scores are the object of education.
Nothing else matters to them.
What do we know about the administrators and teachers who look on their students as if they were their own?
When history judges what you did now, how will you answer?
In the end, ask yourself, whose side are you on?
This reader did:
Everything in my being is telling me this is all so wrong. I keep thinking of my own two grown children. They are bright and hard working and successful. They were lucky enough to have been educated before NCLB morphed our education system into something unrecognizable to those of us who understand what really great teaching looks like.
As an administrator I am required to observe and evaluate teachers at my school. I see great teaching on a regular basis. But I also see teachers who are scared because their jobs are tied to test results. So they fall back on teaching test taking skills and constantly focus on the test. Louisiana law now requires a teacher whose state student scores give her an ineffective rating to be fired, even if I rate her as an effective teacher through my observations and evaluations. How can teachers function with this hanging over their heads all year.
I try to tell them to relax and do what they know works. But how can they relax? Their classrooms are filled with students who are terrified of that same test. Some refuse to participate because they have had enough of the pressure. Our 4th and 8 th grade tests are high stakes, meaning if they don’t pass the test, they don’t pass the grade.
As I said, this all feels so wrong. But by law we are required to submit and subject teachers and students to this torture year after year. How do I reconcile all of this? It doesn’t really matter what I say or do because their value added (VAM) score comes from the state and student test scores, and it will determine if they have a job next year or not. My goal this year is to be their support system, their cheerleader, whatever they need. I will do my best to be in the classrooms, walk the halls, remove disruptive students, give recognition, anything, and everything.
Whenever I am not sure how to handle a situation with a teacher, student, or parent, I stop and ask myself it the situation were reversed, how would I want to be treated? Then I proceed. As I am struggling with all of this I ask myself, what would I want for my own children? Then I know what I need to do for these children. It feels like an uphill battle, but I can’t give up. I want to be on the right side when history judges our actions. I answer to the children.
A teacher responded to the administrator in the same thread:
Bless you for your compassion. We wish there were more of you, not in the schools, but in the legislature so that this nonsense could be stopped. Thank you anyway. We shall continue to do our best to remember these are human beings. I have already planned on what my wife and I must do should I be fired. When I started I was an excellent teacher because I could use my knowledge gained in 40 years of work in other fields and several advanced degrees. I knew as things stood then I would have a job as long as I did my job. This created an atmosphere where I could teach, innovate, and seek excellence in my students and myself. Because my job was secure, it paid enough to meet my needs, I could give more of myself and joyously teach. I was blessed with administrators like you. Now I am reminded every day that if test scores don’t rise we older “suddenly less effective” teachers will be gone. The evil tenure no longer protects us. I remember the kids that I am now inspiring to explore science and read about great inventions may be the generation that overthrows this mess. I may lose my career sooner than I had hoped, but I will not offend the dignity of my students. I teach Kindergarten through 5th graders, 160 kids a day, I regard them as my much younger siblings, I can’t turn them into a number.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope always to use my own judgment, regardless of what either side is saying. That is my greatest responsibility; everything else takes its place around that.
To me, the question “whose side are you on” implies that one must embrace one side or the other. I have more disagreements with the “reformers” than with their critics, but find neither side satisfactory, precisely because they are groups. I don’t claim to have exceptional insights; I just prefer to sort things out and to put them in my own way.
Yes, there are times when one must stand up against a serious problem or threat. I will speak up loud and clear against VAM, against Race to the Top, against the problems I see in CCSS, against the misuse of testing and the absurdly high status of test scores. I stay out of the charter question because I have nothing to say about it at this point. I support initiatives to prepare teachers better for the profession so that they will stay: for instance, education schools that emphasize liberal arts and that work closely with schools; teacher-internships, where novices assist in the classroom for an entire year; and professional development on works of literature, historical writings, mathematical problems, and more. I support strong curricula–not scripted curricula, not a national curriculum, but thoughtfully constructed outines of the works, ideas, and problems that students should encounter. I believe that students should read excellent literature in school and that we must not shy away from teaching it. Unlike many reformers, I believe strongly in “inputs”; students should have room to take in certain works and ideas, to mull them over, without churning out a product or showing an instant result.
I wrote about “thinking apart in education” here:
LikeLike
Sometimes the issues are so complex that there are no sides, or there are many sides.
Sometimes there are sides.
Sometimes one must take a stand.
We can all think of many examples.
When you see a man beating a child, you can’t be neutral.
When you see a clear injustice, you can’t be neutral.
To be silent in the face of injustice is to abet injustice.
LikeLike
I hope there are more administrators who will do all that they can to support the teachers of Louisiana. Unfortunately, they will not be like the one whose comments were used. I’ve met them.
LikeLike
Diane, your blog has fired me up this summer! To hell with the worksheets! I am going to try this year to do what’s best for my second-graders. At one point in my life I was designated as a teacher who followed developmentally appropriate practices and would have teachers come and observe me. I want to go back to my core beliefs about educating children. I used to have faith that my practices were best for children. Somewhere along the way I have lost confidence in this approach.
LikeLike
Take care to do it when they aren’t watching!
LikeLike
How refreshing to read what that administrator is feeling! I yearn for a caring, empathetic, human to be my principal!!! How refreshing it was to read that, for in poor performing districts, the administration could hardly be called supportive. In some poor performing districts, most administrators’s evaluations of teachers are really “gotcha” letters for the file, so the teacher could be U-rated.
We shouldnt have to skulk behind closed doors to teach like a normal ‘old school’ 🙂 teacher. If we are “insubordinate”, we lose our jobs, regardless of tenure.
Isn’t there a lawyer out there who could create a class action suit or something, representing all children, parents, teachers, administrators and everyone else in American society? This current education policy is abuse!!! How can we overturn NCLB & RTTT? Surely there must be a way!
Appealing to our legislators or our unions is not working, because, in my opinion, both parties and our union leaders are beholden to the powers that be. I believe there is collusion behind the scenes. Proverbs are springing to my mind, that I learned when I was a young student:
“You rub my back and I’ll rub yours.”
“Money is the root of all evil.”
LikeLike
I’ve decided to STOP trying to figure out who’s right and to just make the best of the hand we’ve been dealt. Here are a couple of ways I’d like to TRY to do that:
http://theorlandoblog.com/call-it-Florida
LikeLike