A teacher offers this advice to other teachers:
“Okay, the reality of the situation is a once slow suffocation. The people in power want public education to wither and limp along on life support. This will help further marginalize minorities and low-income families, so the power base has little to no competition politically, economically, or socially. Public education in the USA enabled a post-WWII country to prosper and reach heights that were unimaginable just a decade earlier. If one follows the money trail in public education he or she will find that faltering school systems are locked into contracts with educational corporations that force them to adhere to and use antiquated educational programming that lobbying and politicians signed onto.
“The solution: do what’s right regardless of what the board of ed, the superintendent, or your principal says. As a public educator I have to make this decision on a daily basis. This also means I need to keep my own data on student growth, so I can defend my practices and live the life I believe was intended for me.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Absolutely! I measure kids for diagnostic purposes to share with those involved. It’s my hope that appropriate methods will be applied from this information and that the kids feel good about their individual improvements over the course of the year.
Gandhi would applaud your resistance . Stay strong.
Agreed, … But in Hillsborough County, Florida… under the Gates EET evaluation system, you, along with your beautiful ideas and ideals, … would be crushed…
Well then be crushed and move on to bigger and better things! Tis better than selling out your soul/beliefs/spirit.
It amazes me, when I do consultations for professional development workshops in school districts, I notice that the biggest problem is that there is a HUGE disconnect between what school district administrators want and what the teachers say need in order to provide quality instruction. I have learned that before I provide any type of workshop, I need to speak to the teachers and really tailor the information around their needs. After all, they are the ones who are in the trenches (sometimes Literally!).
Some places the only way to survive is to join the “cult”. Micromanagement at its finest.
“Some places the only way to survive is to join the “cult”.”
And end up in Jonestown! Dead anyway!
We cannot be turn coats because of repressive, stupid educational policies. We have to do what is right for our students…NOT what the DEFORMERS tell us to do and then intimidate. When intimidation and threats are used, we KNOW THE SITUATION IS WORSE THAN BAD!
I whole heartedly agree. Most of the “rules” are not rules in the first place. A good example is letter grades which force teachers to rank and sort kids, not take them from where they are. Grade levels are irrelevant.
In the classroom just teach the way the kids learn best. Teaching to the test is a completely different mind set than real learning. Teach to the kids background knowledge and then expand. Learning is personal. Remember things like human growth and development that states that kids don’t all blossom the same. They should be proud of their successes.
Remember, teachers have control of the classroom. Show your real improvement and when the testing police come by. bluff. 🙂
The real problem is urban cities lack the tax base to support urban public schools. So the federal government and state government wants to claim urban public schools are failing because students are failing state tests. There goal is to replace it urban public schools with charter schools because they know that urban parents will allow them to do it. Suburban parents would be demanding to see the actual test scored not the so called grade given by the state. Suburban parents would stand outside in all kinds of weather to protect their public schools while urban parents would send their children to charter schools based on the long hours, field trips, people told them to do it and what the school is giving them, free computer, free internet, free nooks, and money the school claims they will put in a bank for the students college education. Well mind you never once did I mention the parents are doing it for academic reasons. I am tired hearing about the achievement gap. Poverty has nothing to do with learning. The government is using low income and poverty as excuses to farther convince blacks and Hispanics they can not achieve academically and urban schools are failures. Well if that is the case urban parents are failures too. There are five main problems that can be solved quickly. First, we need to return pray to public schools. The absence of God brings chaos. There is chaos in public schools especially with these new evaluations. Second, urban parents need to nurture their children, discipline them, send them to school to learn and prepared, feed them breakfast and stop depending on the schools to feed them, make sure they study every night, pray with m and take them to church. Third, Pres Obama and Arne Duncan needs to use higher order thinking and realize that testing does not measure intellect or what the students are learning. Testing in this country is just another way corporations are getting rich. Project based learning is the best indicator to what students are learning. Four, why is Bill Gates interfering in education. Is it because he can design all the software for all of the companies that will be selling their products to schools. Companies and individuals claiming they have new research on how students should learn and how teachers should teach need to stay out of education and let teachers teach. Teachers are in the classrooms not you. Plus I would like to know how many years some of these people taught and where. I would like to see you come into and teach in some of these notorious urban schools using Charlotte Danielson framework, matter of fact I would like to see her teach using her framework in some of these urban schools. A lot of these people have these ideas but they have not used in so called failing scores schools. Lastly, teachers in suburban and city schools need to stand together, the federal and state governments are trying to close urban public schools using test scores, they will be using property taxes eventually to close suburban public schools. If they come for urban public schools in the morning they will be coming for suburban public schools that night. Remember the real issue in this country that brags about freedom is the breaking and eliminating the unions in America. Teachers have strong unions that protect our jobs.