I asked a question about the value of online learning, and this teacher responded somewhat off-topic. But what he says raises an interesting question. Are public officials and their cascade of programs making it impossible for teachers to teach? Are they destroying the last vestiges of professional autonomy? Do they talk “respect” but act top-down? Why won’t they let teachers teach? What do they expect to accomplish by their constant interference?
This teacher wrote:
Well, as part of Reading First, all the K-3 classroom/reading/special education teachers and assistants in my school had to complete all the online modules in the New York State Reading Academy. Why, it worked so well that the following year New York State made us complete all the online modules of Voyager: Reading for Understanding. Of course, after studying a topic online we had opportunities to try things out with our students and then meet to reflect and discuss everything in study groups. Since then, we’ve made AYP every year and always managed to stay off the SINI list, so I guess you could say it was successful, but that was under NCLB where at least everything was clearly defined. Now, with APPR, CCSS, RTTT and waivers, everything seems to be about as clear as mud and we’re all sort of stumbling along trying to figure out just what it is that the powers that be actually do want. Consensus opinion is that there really isn’t much of a plan, that they’re winging it and making it up as they go along, and that seems to be validated by the constant updates and questionable quality of the materials and guidance offered by NYSED through the EngageNY website. When I was in the private sector, we called this “discovery based learning,” which meant just keep trying until you finally figure out what the boss wants. How well you can learn from any course, online or otherwise, would have to start with the quality of the course design.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As much as I value inquiry learning, there comes a time when the questions become purely rhetorical. Anyone who’s been paying attention and doesn’t have a stake in denying the truth should now be able to answer all of the above questions. Beyond this point on it becomes counter-productive to keep asking why, as if there could be any doubt left.
LikeLike
Exactly what I was thinking, Jon. We all finally see the writing on the wall, and have figured out that it is all about raiding the education system funding to make the rich businessmen/women richer. More testing and virtual learning so the testing and technology companies can rake in the dough. Dismantle education as we know it.
But now we begin to ask “what can we do about it?”. School will begin soon and we will all return to the classroom. We will be evaluated using VAM. We will spend our time implementing new CCSS. We will continue to teach our students. But really, what exactly can we do more than that? I for one will continue to look to our leaders for guidance. Don’t know exactly what’s in store, but I’ve decided I’m in it for the long haul. Thanks Diane for all you do. I know you will continue to guide us.
LikeLike
Professional autonomy??? What’s that??? /sad face/
LikeLike
I have a worse story. In my school district first grade teachers are required to make sure every child in their class completes an online reading program, called Headsprout.
http://www.mimio.com/headsprout/index.html
This takes 90 minutes per child per week, for the on-level children. For these children this program works well and they enjoy it.
It is more like 30 minutes a day for those who are behind the others.
For the children who are behind, who need intensive small-group or one-on-one instruction in phonics, and enjoyable hands-on activities such as puzzles and games, it is a huge waste of time. They fall asleep when you set them in front of a computer for 30 minutes (as teachers are REQUIRED to do).
Then, at the end of the school year, if they can’t read, the teacher is blamed, when she had to waste huge amounts of her students’ time on this useless program. How can you have teacher accountability without teacher autonomy?
LikeLike
The comments about stumbling along not know what it is we are supposed to be doing and wasting our time creating lessons that just need thrown out when they add something else or tell us the focus has changed or the CCSS for math literacy must be in the lessons in social studies. The messages are so garbled by the time teachers get them no one knows what they are doing. This seems a perfect way to not only kill the motivation to teach but a way to demoralize teachers right before school starts and keep us off balance the entire year.
This way maybe we won’t have the time or energy left to stay on top of all the @#!@ policies and we won’t interfere as much making the goals of the states and DOE as they destroy public education that much easier.
Overloading teachers with enormous amounts of useless directions, changing things at the last minute and providing confusing and chaotic information annihilates the professional educators ability to be organized and prepared to teach. This sure sounds familiar: Forms of psychological torture used on POWs is sensory overload, lack of sleep, deprivation of human contact, misinformation, manipulating emotions and using fear to control prisoners, punishing fellow prisoners for your supposed transgression, constant changes in directions on tasks, giving then removing rewards and arbitrary punishment. About the only thing left is beating us.
LikeLike
In my business days we called it Double Jeopardy.
LikeLike
Only go to the engageny.org site if you want to laugh, cry or get angry. This site is propaganda coming from the charter school cheerleaders at NYSED. I tried to submit critical, but respectful comments/questions/emails and no response.
LikeLike