This letter arrived from:
Douglas McGuirk
English Teacher
Dumont High School Dumont, NJ
My Testimony about the AchieveNJ Act:
The AchieveNJ Act is certainly doing its part to make a convoluted mess out of the art of teaching our children.
In this testimony, I will address the most readily apparent of its many problems: data collection, Student Growth Objectives, Student Growth Percentiles, PARCC tests, and the new observation system. The AchieveNJ Act, and all of its affiliated changes, is simultaneously stretching the education profession in two different directions, most likely to the point of snapping it in half. I am no longer certain about what my job description is these days; am I a teacher, one who attempts to engage students and help them understand subject matter and their world, or am I a data collector, one who keeps statistics on all manner of measurables in a theoretical attempt to improve the process of teaching in which I am often not engaged because I am busy collecting the data?
AchieveNJ seems to operate on the fallacious principle that there is an infinite amount of time. During my day, this humble English teacher will collect data, analyze data, send students out for standardized tests, be observed by an administrator, and, somewhere in and among all of that, plan lessons, grade papers, and teach students. When do all of these things happen? How do they get done? How do I prioritize if each of these items is now considered crucial?
Most days only allow for one to two hours of time not spent in front of a class. Allow me to recount a personal story of how I spent two weeks in October of 2013. Every moment I worked, excluding those during which I was contractually obligated to actually teach students, was spent doing something related to my Student Growth Objectives (SGOs). I had previously administered a benchmark assessment or pre-test (no staff member in my school is sure about what terminology to use, so we have alternately used both, to the point that the students are not sure whether they are being benchmarked, or pre-tested, or, to put in plainly, harassed into doing something they do not wish to do), so I had a stack of essays that needed scoring. To start work on my SGO, I graded the essays according to the soon-to-be obsolete NJ Holistic Scoring rubric. Then I created and organized a spreadsheet to sort and organize my data. Then I entered all of the scores into the spreadsheet. Then I read through all the emails sent by district administrators about how to create my SGO. Following that, I formally wrote my SGO and submitted it to my supervisor.
The next day, the SGO was rejected, and my supervisor told me that all SGOs had been done incorrectly and that our staff would need training. We held a department meeting to review SGO policies. We then held an after school training session to discuss the writing of SGOs. I attended both of these. After two weeks of writing and rewriting my SGO, complete with all of the Core Curriculum Content Standards pasted from the web site, I finally had an acceptable SGO. I managed to accomplish absolutely no lesson planning during this period of time. I graded no papers. I am a veteran teacher with nine years in the profession. I understand how to manage my workload, overcome setbacks, and complete my responsibilities. In short, I am a professional who maintains a diligent work ethic.
But nothing could prepare me for the amount of time I had just spent on a new part of my job that basically exists so that I can continue to prove that I should be entitled to do the other parts of my job. After I completed my SGO, my principal told our staff to make sure we save all of the data, paperwork, and student work relating to our SGO, just in case people from the State want to review the integrity of the data. Seriously? This is the most egregious assumption that there is an infinite amount of time.
When will State reviewers go back and reread mountains upon mountains of SGO data to make sure that my essay scores (which suffer from an inherent subjectivity anyway) are accurate? The real goal of the SGO process seems to be to take teachers so far out of their comfort zones, and so far from working directly with students, that they may begin to question what kind of work they are doing anyway. Wouldn’t this time spent collecting mountains of dust-collecting data be better spent planning more interesting lessons? Offering students more feedback on work they understand and view as necessary? Researching content to make myself more knowledgable and helpful to my students? I guess not.
I have to teach my students the content needed to improve on the SGO so I can keep my job, which apparently consists of collecting even more SGO data. Just in case the SGO process is not intimidating and distracting enough, many of us (myself included) now have the threat of Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs) looming as well. The fact that these SGPs only apply to certain disciplines is inequitable and unfair to begin with, but that does not even address the fact that the correlation between my SGP score and my actual effectiveness is non-existent. Every article that I have read on this issue shows that the data produced by SGPs is statistically insignificant in its ability to determine my actual teaching effectiveness. I might as well determine a sizable portion of my evaluation by rolling dice or, to draw upon history, releasing doves and watching which way they fly. I have no control over how hard the students will work on these tests. I have no control over how thoroughly they will prepare.
From what I have read, these PARCC tests do not even have any actual effect on student grades or promotion. They are only used to evaluate me. In that case, allow me to hand-select the students who will be used to determine my effectiveness. Or better yet, the most fair thing to do would be to allow me to take the test myself, so at least I can have complete control over my own evaluation. Beyond just potentially affecting me in a random (and possibly absurd) way, the PARCC tests further reinforce the current contradictory nature of education rhetoric. What do policymakers want for our children? I consistently hear, from the mouths of our politicians, that our students are falling behind (falling behind whom?) in their critical thinking skills. (May we at least ask, how are these critical thinking skills measured? By bubble tests?) If that is the case, then shouldn’t we, as professionals, seek to introduce more critical thinking tasks, like project-based learning, into our curricula? Aren’t multiple choice standardized tests anathema to critical thinking tasks? Why is anyone promoting them, then? Where is the emphasis? Do we want students to legitimately be able to assess and evaluate on their own? Or do we want illogical measures to make sure that our teachers are, well, doing what exactly? If (some) teachers’ jobs are contingent on whether or not they achieve a high SGP score, then those teachers will, for the sake of their own self-preservation, certainly spend a great deal of time and energy trying to prepare students for those very tests, even though they cannot do the one thing that will ensure satisfactory scores, which is make the students put forth their best effort.
No students dislike learning. But many dislike education, because education consists of misguided and needlessly enervating tasks like standardized tests. Instead of spending this time engaged in critical thinking, students will be responding to questions that will be used to make sure their teachers are doing their jobs. Ironically enough, teachers will again be doing less of their jobs, as I assume we will be called upon increasingly to babysit computer labs full of children clicking vapidly through PARCC assessments. (As a side note, I am sure international test production companies like Pearson stand to profit from this arrangement immeasurably, probably at the expense of my own paycheck, most of which would have been spent in the local New Jersey economy.)
The final issue I will address in the AchieveNJ Act is the inconsistent new observation system. For starters, the public school districts across the state use two different evaluation systems: Danielson or McRel. If we are striving for consistency, why can we not agree on a single, unified observation system, so that all teachers are theoretically evaluated in the same fashion? Still, even if we achieved such uniformity, all observations would continue to suffer from the same inherent bias as the grades on students’ essays: each observer (or teacher, as is the case with the essays) has a different viewpoint (yes, even using a rubric). The administrators who serve as observers in my school have wildly varying interpretations about what constitutes an effective lesson. Even worse, some administrators are offering critiques to teachers about “how the lesson should have been conducted,” and providing less than satisfactory ratings to teachers who choose to do something in a different way.
The biggest source of all of this uncertainty and inconsistency has been the use of technology. Some of our administrators have said that we are to use technology in every single lesson, no exceptions. Others have been more lax about this requirement. I make this point to further illuminate the backwards nature of many these evaluative changes. If we must use technology, then technology is the starting point for each and every lesson. Previously, student learning was my starting point. What tools will help my students learn? Am I there to teach them or to show off the latest and greatest tech toys in my classroom? Are observers looking for critical thinking? Are they looking at my rapport with students? Or are they there to make sure that I go through the motions (according to one person’s rubric of what constitutes effective teaching) of reaching all of my supposed requirements? The inherent subjectivity of trying to quantify the unquantifiable is of course the same issue with which I wrestle when trying to score the essays that will make up my SGO. We all now must worship at the altar of data, even though, at best, the data is fickle and, at worst, it is fraudulent.
In the end I am not quite sure how to proceed under the AchieveNJ system. To paraphrase Plato, a single part of one’s soul cannot be engaged in two contradictory actions at the same time. So the only thing I can do is to default back to the ways in which I have always taught. I will try to help my students learn. I will try to reinforce material that I think is of value. I will provide as many insights from my own experiences as I can. I will focus on the human side of teaching and learning, my AchieveNJ ratings be damned. If this system says that an intelligent and dedicated individual like me is not fit to teach the students of New Jersey, then it is even more broken than my testimony could ever hope to convey.
“No students dislike learning. But many dislike education, because education consists of misguided and needlessly enervating tasks like standardized tests.”
Another possibility for quip of the year!
TAGO!
Years ago, I was managing a big editorial team. We had weekly status meetings, and through the week, I would do “management by walking around.” I would periodically stroll around and visit with my staff, getting updates, assisting them with issues, etc. I kept notes in a journal and a spreadsheet of expenses and had a big calendar on my desk. And, of course, my door was always open.
Then I discovered Microsoft Project. It promised to keep track of everything, every resource required and allocated, every action taken, every penny spent, in enormous detail, and it would identify bottlenecks on the critical path to project completion via a Gantt chart. It would enable me to see the future clearly. I enthusiastically entered EVERYTHING INTO IT and carried my fancy charts into those status meetings. Other managers developed immediate chart envy, for my charts were like Greek temples.
And three weeks later, I found that I was spending most of my time entering crap into the software and precious little time doing anything else.
That software was what is known as an “atomic flyswatter.”
And that’s what the data and accountability systems now being foisted on K-12 educators across the country are: atomic flyswatters. Toxic and time-wasting, curriculum narrowing and distorting, depersonalizing atomic flyswatters.
I dumped the software and went back to my old, saner ways. Of course, I had to make up for the damage that had been done by the lost time and lost connection with my staff.
Every once in a while, now, I hear about some great new software for facilitating creative or analytical thinking. But I have on my desk, already, the greatest piece of technology ever created for facilitating both: it’s called the pencil.
Thank you for this, Mr. McGuirk. Well said!
Great letter Douglas detailing the rigor of the teaching profession, and how much absurdity all in the name of reform gets in the way. One thing you didn’t mention is how much we are expected to do without the benefit of a “staff” helping us. Teachers do not have clerks, secretaries, assistants or helpers of any kind, yet we are expected to handle a boat-load of details, make it all come together magically, and….oh, by the way, do all of this and expect next to nothing in return except the privilege of keeping our jobs.
We are not only seeing a privatization of our public school system at tax-payer expense, but the destruction of profession into a subservient, submissive robot-like entity. It’s so sad…
Thank you for sharing your story.
Thank you for putting into words what I felt last year as a high school math teacher in Ohio. Unfortunately, it is the same sad story here, and I am hopeful that we see a turn around in this terrible situation in which we find ourselves.
A lucid and powerful description of how completely our profession has been degraded by non-educators and worse. This needs to be spread far and wide and, if possible, published in a national publication. An important essay.
agreed!
You are exactly correct and we are going through something very similar here in IL (and in just about every other state, I’m sure). CCSS, PARRC, Danielson…Both of our Danielson reps seemed very against CCSS, yet we are asked to please both. I almost feel like it is a very planned attack…oh wait it is. If only they had waited about 3 years, teachers were going to be retiring in record number anyway..the baby boom retirement group.
It seemed like ‘they’ decided to attack with everything at once so we wouldn’t know what to get angry about, we wouldn’t be able to mobilize behind one cohesive idea, we wouldn’t be able to get the public to back us. The one thing they didn’t seem to count on is our love of our children, both our own and our students. We will defend them from these idiotic and conflicting programs, even if it adds just one more thing to our now seemingly endless days of planning.
“I will try to help my students learn. I will try to reinforce material that I think is of value. I will provide as many insights from my own experiences as I can. I will focus on the human side of teaching and learning.”
YES!
This is certainly what goes on in the wonderful schools of the elites who push all of this CCRAP on the hoi polloi.
Assuming that supervisors are all master teachers, who, after years of experience in the classroom, have now been elevated to supervising and evaluating classroom teachers based on all of this experience and k expertise…assuming THAT, why aren’t these supervisors advocating for teachers and rebelling against the despicable practices described by Mr. McGuirk? What? Wait a minute. You mean most supervisors are useless, untalented bureaucrats who hate teaching, hate kids and couldn’t wait to get out of the classroom in order to get a bigger paycheck? Oh, I see now. That explains it.
This is why politicians and high administrators hire Teach for Americas. They do what they are told because they don’t know how to teach and don’t know what quality education is. They don’t mind doing test prep and testing because that is all they know how to do. Real teachers get in trouble because they want to do their job. Why don’t the just go all the way and have the kids come in every day for test prep lessons and then standardized testing, all done on a computer. A lot cheaper that way. Which of course is what the corporatizers want. In a few years our colleges will be a mess because the students will know how to test but will have no education
Unfortunately you have hit the ball out of the park, Real teachers don’t fit in the world of wall street anymore, thinking is forbidden.
Teach for America students are beginners in the field, just like any first time teacher. It is not fair to single out this program, young people coming into the profession all have to meet student teaching requirements. It is a disingenuous remark and seems like a personal issue. New teachers putting effort into the tasks their bosses present them is hardly a reason to resent them.
The number one difficulty our profession has repeatedly raised as an issue is: keeping beginners in the field for the five (5) years it generally takes for a teacher to reach a level of ease with the profession.
People who working against the profession talk about teachers who should leave because they can’t cut it. But we all have co-workers we hate to see leave! The testing culture is going to push out those who don’t see themselves doing that for a career.
Teach for America students find the current education problems just as off-putting as any other young teacher might and they leave in greater numbers. The program attracts idealist persons who have studied for other professions. They will find it easier to consider another field beyond education. This is what makes them slightly different. Traditionally a *large* percentage of persons who go into the teaching profession leave.
Of those who stay- It is not unfair to point out that we have a percentage of teachers who stay because they do not have the wherewithal to get up and go. But these are a small number and might well be good teachers who are just beat down by the system we have developed of Minimal Teacher Support – Maximum Teacher Responsibility.
The same things are happening in Tennessee. I too am a high school English teacher whose job revolves around standardized tests and data collection. I too am “babysitting” students who sit in computer labs clicking away. I am not allowed to help students with these tests, so I’m not really teaching on these days. Although I try to review the tests once students have taken them, we are all too bored and worn out by that point. There is no time to teach a full novel anymore, and even reading short stories feels like a guilty pleasure. Mostly, my students read “excerpts.” I wish that I had more time to plan interesting lessons, but most of my planning time is now spent in mandatory meetings. A large part of these meetings involve test schedules and scores.
Ironically, test scores seems to be rising now that students are entering their answers on computers. Why? They sit right next to each other and can easily share answers! I can’t control my students’ eyeballs.
I am horrified by what I read here. It is a prime example of what the publisher Rob Kall of Oped News (where I write) describes as the top-down model of administration in a profession which should be bottom-up. It is the practitioner (yes, I always use that word to describe a ‘teacher’ ) who knows what is needed for the each emergent learner to succeed. Years of education in psychology and methodology prepare the gifted educator to enter the practice… (yes, I use that word to replace ‘classroom!)
Then, a bureaucracy takes over the profession and mandates anti-learning practices instead of allowing the professional to use best practice, as years of experience has demonstrated!. It is insane, except if one considers how much money flows into the coffers of the tech companies and publishers who create the junk curricula.
Daniel T. Willingham’s makes that point in “Measured Approach or Magical Elixir? how to Tell Good Science from Bad,” where he points out that” The field of education is awash in conflicting goals, research “wars,” and profiteers.” He offers this comparison to the practice of medicine:
“Suppose you’re a doctor. You go through medical school and residency, learning the most up-to-date techniques and treatments. Then you go into family practice, and you’re an awesome doctor. But science doesn’t stand still once you’ve finished your training. You were up to date the year you graduated, but researchers keep discovering new things. how can you possibly keep up with the latest developments when, according to Pubmed.gov, more than 900,000 articles are published in medical journals each year? Medicine has solved this problem for practitioners by publishing annual summaries of research that boil down the findings to recommendations for changes in practice. Physicians can buy summary volumes that let them know whether there is substantial scientific evidence indicating that they ought to change their treatment of a particular condition. in other words, the profession does not expect that practitioners will keep up with the research literature themselves. That job goes to a small set of people who can devote the time needed to it.
“In education, there are no federal or state laws protecting consumers from bad educational practices. And education researchers have never united as a field to agree on methods or curricula or practices that have sound scientific backing. That makes it very difficult for the non-expert simply to look to a panel of experts for the state of the art in education research. There are no universally acknowledged experts. Every parent, administrator, and teacher is on his or her own.” http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/fall2012/Willingham.pdf
I wrote my own essay “Magic Elixir” for Oped, where I said: “a magic elixir had been purchased by the business people that now ran the NYC Board of Education and “whole-language’ — all the rage in California, — had come to the largest school system in the nation, forcing the experience practitioner-teachers to abandon tried-and -true lessons and methods — or else! Skills books and teacher materials filled the storerooms and shelves; once millions of dollars were spent, we practitioners have no choice… and of course, will be blamed when Johnny cannot read — or think well enough to work at any complex task. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Magic-Elixir-No-Evidence-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-130312-433.html
I taught English for the last eight years of my teaching career; It was pure accident (another story for another time) that I wrote the entire 7th grade curriculum and spent my classroom time facilitating learning, and my prep time– preparing lessons or reading student writing and meeting with staff or parents. My authentic lessons enabled my students to PRACTICE critical thinking skills, (i.e. to analyze and compare, to predict, to synthesize) … and thus, to write.
All skills are powers that can only be acquired by AUTHENTIC practice; these skills include critical thinking and writing, so I, the classroom practitioner ensured that the kids genuinely practiced thinking — by talking in class, and then hanging words on thoughts ON PAPER! I had no technology beyond an overhead projector for certain lessons, and a tv where I showed the films that we would use to compare the scenes used to develop the characters and the plot, to the book’s version. (i.e. “The Scarlet Pimpernel” & “the Yearling” * were two I used.) I chose what I knew, and loved, and the weekly ‘reader’s letters’ that they wrote to me was my assessment tool… and these letters brought the attention of the national standards researchers.
*The LRDC at the Univ. of Pittsburgh who were the research teams studying the cohorts for the national standards research ( was a cohort) purchased “The Yearling” curricula, to show to staff developers around the nation, as an example of a teacher-created unit that met the Principles of Learning.
Bottom Line?
I was eradicated and my curricula disappeared in NYC, along with me, harassed out so testing and bogus core curricula could replace real learning.
This is the process, and from what I read everywhere, it is unstoppable!
Monied interests control the media, the legislature, the school systems.
End of story!
I wonder how many MEAN pills the DEFORMERS take daily? Well, there is also GREED in those pills, too!
Interesting talk on this subject:
Reblogged this on Kmareka.com and commented:
Powerful testimony for how teaching is being taken over by data-mining and teachers are being given many conflicting priorities to deal with.
I would want you to teach my children.
I had the same experience with SGO’s in NJ last Fall except mine was rejected 4 or 5 times. As a high school Art Teacher there was no such thing as an example of a stellar SGO for Art and absolutely no one had any answers – including the former history teacher hired by the state to roll out this program! (He told an audience of Art Teachers at our state convention last September that he hoped WE would provide those examples this year! ) Our only training was a 30 minute talk by another very young former teacher from Delaware sent to us by the state who told us how many mistakes she made on her SGO last year and served only to confuse us further!
Fast forward to this week. Since I work in a Title 1 school, we have the added joy of dealing with RAC (yup – those education “experts” who received their training from Eli Broad’s non accredited “school” and regularly enlighten us with their expertise! ).
They showed up last week to review our SGO’s and rejected many of them – MINE included! I’m told I need to add a “scoring plan”. I have absolutely no idea what this means. I guess the rubric I submitted for a portfolio review was not adequate. My big question is why they chose to show up now in the 11th hour. Where the h— were they last October when we were trying to figure this all out! ?
Thankfully I have enough years in to retire! This is pushing me right out the door which is basically what the deformers are hoping for!
So what is the consequence for not having an approved SGO?
Why would this nonsense push you out the door?
Let them try to get rid of you first. Wont happen.
They are mostly full of empty threats.
This will represent 15% of my final critique and my increment (no huge loss) would be withheld. The stress level this is causing all of us is just obscene. After 2 years of poor final observations, I lose tenure! So yes they really can get rid of me – exactly what Chris Christie is hoping and planning on! It makes no difference how well I teach, how excited my students are about the Arts, what their artwork looks like as long as I have all the proper paperwork and data aligned.
Sounds like the NJEA sold its members out just like here in NY
“Sounds like the NJEA sold its members out just like here in NY.”
Actually what you are saying is unfair, if not untrue.
First off: The NJEA cannot, by law, lobby for change directly with the NJ BOE members who must enact policies set forth by the Department of Education and its appointed commissioner. The state BOE members (who are also appointed by the governor) only listen to individuals, not organizations. We should be glad that organizations, like corporations, have no power here. The NJEA has sponsored events where teachers, parents, and other concerned citizens can offer personal testimony on the ills of the state policies, and the organization continues to encourage these letters. We had one such event on March 5 where binders of testimony were collected and compiled by the NJEA. This was an effective act, as we have been hearing from various state BOE members that the words of individuals are encouraging them to amend the policies.
The NJEA can and does, however, lobby for changes within the legislature and the education bills that are under consideration. The tide is indeed turning in NJ–albeit a little late for these horrible policies–but there are legislators who are finally listening. What the legislature was careless in passing under the first four years of Christie, the state DOE and its board were just as careless in implementing. During Christie’s first term, he had the allies in the legislature to move these horrible bills. With the latest election, we now have people in Trenton who are ready to fight him. They have already begun.
Secondly, the NJEA did stop many of the horrible details in the original proposal of this legislation, and the organization continues to fight for amendments. What Christie and his legislative cronies wanted was far, far worse. That said, NJEA has made official statements asking for a delay and review of the PARCC assessment. There are also bills in the works to support this. The war cannot be won with only a few battles–it is a process. The legislature and the BOE had no idea what they were getting into when they hastily passed and implemented these policies. We are still in an experimental state. It is up to the education experts to give the feedback necessary to improve them, and the NJEA is leading the way to prevent these policies from harming its members and our public schools in the long run. This is an ever-changing landscape–it is up to us to influence changes for the better.
Thirdly, it is probably not correct to compare what happened in NY to what is happening in NJ. Unfortunately, NJ looks to NY for precedent and also to help frame the paths in which to travel on these issues by learning from the mistakes of our neighbor state. In NJ we are well aware of what atrocities exist in other states, and like so many other public education advocacy organizations, the NJEA is fighting to prevent the dismantling of our public system on behalf of its members and our communities.
If I sound like I’m advocating for the NJEA, I am. I am a member, and members make up the NJEA. I am critical of the organization when I feel I need to be, and I ask questions of my leaders when I need to ask them. If I do not, I am part of the problem. People seem to forget that our unions are democratic institutions subject to laws of governance, and the membership is the organization. Don’t like your leaders? Change them. Get involved, but without getting our butts in gear, we have no real voice.
On a personal note: I am devastated for the teachers in NYC who have been led to accept policies that have reduced them to a mathematical equation and have put many of the veteran staff in substitute positions. They were wronged by their leadership, but it is up to the members to make certain they won’t get fooled again. There are no easy answers, but transparency is of the utmost importance. If members were led astray by a faction of the AFT, I cannot speak for them. The NJEA is not AFT. And before anyone plays the “corruption in the NEA” card, the state and local organizations have a lot more power in their states than the national ones do simply because of the autonomy of states in education policy. The national union ends up being a farce–therefore, the argument “anything publicly supported by Dennis Van Roekel is harming NJ teachers” is moot here. The state and locals are where it’s at. Let’s keep the focus on this when framing the arguments for or against the statement above as the NJEA, a state organization, was mentioned by name.
At some point soon, we (teachers) are going to have to say enough all ready. I am there now. Let’s just stop it, refuse to administer the tests, refuse to collect data. I am ready for a nation wide strike.
From Dumont to High Point, Eastside to Mainland, Shabazz to Timber Creek………..Mr.McGuirk speaks for many, many, many of us…………how could we ever have allowed things to get this far this fast?………………A train wreck of schools, students and teachers……..
“how could we ever have allowed things to get this far this fast?”
That’s easy to answer – the “powerful” NJEA is a paper tiger !
And today’s teachers are a meek and timid bunch.
They won’t demand that NJEA lead an attack on politicians who are out to privatize public education by first denigrating and then destroying it.
What ever happened to the pickets and strikes of the 70s?
I guess they went the way of the war protests ?
They were frightened out of existence?
http://teachersdontsuck.blogspot.com/
http://wsautter.com/
See my post above. It’s far easier to simply blame an organization than to actually learn what’s really going on every single day within it.
Here’s a friendly question for you, Walt: When was the last time you served on your local’s Legislative Action Team? If you haven’t, then at the very least, attend a meeting at the county level. You will know what’s really going on with the NJEA and the actions the organization is taking on behalf of its membership regarding these policies. You can also check the website.
I’ve been teaching 25+ years and SGO’s and Danielson have made this my most difficult yet…including the years my house burned down, lost a parent, and got divorced.
There is no greater misunderstanding of the teaching profession and what constitutes good teaching and learning than the recent teacher reform movement that has taken over the country. All of this has been perpetrated by politicians, who know that public education, while the cornerstone of a democracy, is the easiest target to launch an attack against because of its enormous financial responsibility for the nation. Also spurred by the wealthiest citizens of the nation who have donated millions of their dollars to create charter schools and perhaps alleviate some of their guilt about being the 1% ers, this movement has done more damage to both teachers and students than can ever be imagined. I have seen excellent teachers walk away from the profession because they know in their hearts and brains that the direction of this movement on test scores, SGOs & SGPs is dead wrong; more fledging first-graders sit with bowed heads over non-fiction reading passages that they not only cannot understand but are uninterested in, math sheets that purportedly increase their critical thinking skills but seem to complicate the simplest mathematical processes with graphs, charts, and bonding- all in the name of reform.
The teachers’ union bowed to this pressure and sold out its membership- not unexpected in an age where unions are demonized and blamed for every financial mismanagement of cities in the country.
We need more people, more teachers, and perhaps most importantly, more outraged students speaking up every chance they can against the ruination of the most important profession in the world and the most significant contributor to an enlightened and humanistic democracy, public education.
Thank you Mr. McGuirck for inspiring me to think! A good quality of an excellent educator!
Rose DePoto nailed the truth. A concerted effort was made to end public education by removing the veteran, experienced, professional teacher and thus, to silence the voice of the educator who knows best practice and what learning looks like.
In no real profession is the practitioner so abused. It is a plan, to ensure that the revolving door is kept spinning, and teachers who do enter become so disillusioned that 80% leave within a few years. it means that they keep the budget low, paying the novice a pittance compared to what it would cost to pay a teacher who is vested in benefits and pension. Screw the kids.
An ignorant population that buys the lies the politicians disseminate, is exactly what they desire…. democracy depends on shared knowledge says E.D Hirsch and the intention is to limit the knowledge base of our citizens… it is working!
Click to access hirsch.pdf
You got it right, Rose.
But WE NEED THE TEACHER’S UNIONS.
THAT is the sticking point.
Until the PRESENT union leaders, step up to the public and admit to the corruption that permitted the very legal representatives that teachers had, to look the other way, then the crux of the assault on public education will never be known. I has been hidden in plain site for two decades, but I was there AT THE TOP of my profession and I have all the evidence of the complicity… but no one with the authority and voice, no one who speaks out in the media about the collapse of public education is WILLING TO SPEAK THE Truth about how a hundred thousand veteran teachers could be thrown our of their careers.
Thus, they are still using the process to keep the schools filled with novice teachers, who leave in a few years.
THAT is the truth and the reality that no on(other than the teacher abuse activists who blog heroically on the web, are willing to discuss.
http://www.perdaily.com/2013/10/why-does-utla-continue-to-support-lausds-violation-of-california-teacher-dismissal-process.html
Mr. McGuirk-Your letter speaks volumes to those of us who teach in subjects with not only SGO’s but with SGP’s as well. I am stunned and repulsed by the idea that I am to control my students’ learning as well as my students’ performance on a test which no one has yet to clearly explain to me. I teach with differentiated lessons to differentiated students to perform on a standardized tests.
If all the testing is to be on a computer, should we then be teaching all of our lessons on the computer? Hell, why don’t we just devise our lessons, upload them, then PARCC test? This idea of connecting students’ scores to tenure and effectiveness is appalling. Think about it, how many HS juniors take the SAT’s more than once because he/she had a bad test? Should we have our students, who do not pass with highly proficient standards, sit for a retest?
At what point do we hold the parents responsible for not providing the basics, like housing, breakfast, and safety? Does their effectiveness as parents get factored into our effectiveness as teachers? (See how ridiculous this system gets?)
I also agree with the opportunity to take the test. Let’s have the people “at the top” take it first. The policy makers, the different levels of administrators, and the lot, then connect the results to their “effectiveness”.
It is time we really pursued a class action suit or some type of our own educational reform movement. We, the practitioners, the professionals, the teachers, need to take back education.
When guys like David Coleman, Bill Gates, and the different publishing companies are making decisions on what constitutes quality education, curricula and teaching it is time for parents and teachers to stand united against the “Wal-Mart” big box education policies.
It time for us to create our own movement and take back our profession. It is unfair and unjust for others to decide our fate.
“Trying to beak”? How about “Has broken!”
The keep saying they want the “best and the brightest”.
Let’s face it !
The way things are today, any young person starting a career who goes into teaching can’t be that bright !!
http://teachersdontsuck.blogspot.com/
http://wsautter.com/
Thank you so much for putting how I feel into words. All of these changes have made me so discouraged from doing the job I have loved for 24 years. Everyday I feel overwhelmed with the amount of data collection we need to provide and concerned about my SGOs since you never know the progress my special ed students will make. Not to mention my SGO is held to the same standards as gen. Ed teachers. If the economy was better and I had another degree I would consider leaving teaching. I miss the love of teaching cause the life has been sucked out of me. Time to go analyze my data and write my progress reports.
Excellent, well written essay. I just retired after 25 years of teaching. It is sad to see the direction education is going. Good teachers are being drained and creativity has no room in all of these assessments. I hope your essay starts a wave of protest and enlightenment.
So glad I retired in 2007 after 34 years of teaching HS English! This data collection is an education killer. The kids get shortchanged and the teacher gets burned out. When all the conscientious teachers leave, they can get robots in to teach the kids. All this to be maligned as lazy by our governor and to have him short-change the state’s contributions to the pensions (after we continue to contribute more). His friends get big pensions; teachers be damned.
This sounds like the life of every teacher since RTTT!
As a student who is actually interested in the state of her own education, I want to say that standardized testing is bothersome and not indicative of everything that I learn; people way more intelligent than I am received lower scores on the PSAT, for example. I want to say that the cumbersome restrictions on how to teach applied to my teachers makes me hesitant to follow that career path. As a student of Mr. McGuirk personally (I was extremely surprised to see a link to this letter on a blog that I follow) I want to say that he is the greatest teacher that I’ve ever had despite his not being able to focus on the students as much as he’d like. I wonder how much more I would’ve been able to learn if he wasn’t distracted by the SGO, SGP, and (most annoying of all) the PARCC.
We are destroying our schools, our students and our teachers! Your article was well written and right on target. We are if freeing from the same thing here in MD. All assessment and no actual teaching/learning.
This was spot on, although I want to add another evaluation system that NJ is using. At my K-8 district, the Kim Marshall evaluation system is being used. In a nutshell, this system requires that each teacher be observed ten times, for at least 10 minutes, in the course of the year. During the observation, the administrator is using a 60-point checklist, with ratings of 4-0 for each point. They don’t have to hit all of the 6 domains of 10 statements during the 10 minutes. Teachers are requested to self-evaluate, and submit, their own rating from the six domains at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year (we are being asked to do our end of the year self-evaluations now, even though some of our teachers have only been observed 3, 4, or 5 times). No one has been observed 10 times, and the 10 minute thing is much longer for teachers under the microscope by the admins. This whole evaluation system is threatening and ridiculous, making no one happy and everyone a basket of nerves. On top of that, when you add the insanity of SGOs, etc.—Well, every teacher in my school is worn-weary and exhausted. It is all so sad. I have been teaching for 31 years, and this is the worst school climate I have experienced. 😦
Thank you for saying it like it is , well done!
I have to believe that collectivly we can beat the money machine that is driving the reform. DO NOT BUY INTO the CULTURE of FEAR that they are promoting. Stand up and push back.
“The absurdity of the suggestion is directly proportional to the distance from the bedside.” – that maybe a Murphy’s Law of Nursing but I see it being absolutely relevant here. Just change bedside to classroom and there you go!
I’m a nurse, not a teacher, but I feel your pain. It makes you think that all these jokers who come up with these things haven’t the foggiest clue of what you do on a daily basis. Just so someone can cay “We’re doing something” or so someone can tick off a box on their checklist. Bureaucracy will be the death of us.
And it makes dedicated professionals very bitter. It makes them resent their profession. It makes them resign and quit in disgust. And who suffers the most from all this?
As a retired teacher, I not only sympathize with my fellow faculty members–I stand by them to give them support against the direction in which education is going in this country.
This article is a great testimony on how we need to fix many things in our education system. I have a friend who teaches math and she has a child in her class that has some issues and refuses to do anything and she gone to the administration and nothing has been done to help the student or the teacher. That’s a problem. Then you have a secretary that tries to make a substitute look bad when he/she is doing what they are told. There has to be someone you can go to if needed. And it not right to punish the good teachers who care and are doing an amazing job. I can truly say I think I had a handful of good teacher I truly enjoyed and who I felt had my best interest at heart. We need to bust our children up not tear then down. If I could help every child in this world I would. Also I have another friend who picked a preschool because she knew that her little one would be loved. Now that is a great reason to pick a school.
From a whiner to the whiners who are not in education and complain they are paying our salaries….I say we shut down all public education, have them send their children to private schools at the cost of anywhere from $10,000-$50,000 per year, per child, then see how fast they want us back! They also forget that we pay into the same tax base as they do and in addition have money deducted from our paychecks towards our pensions which, by the way, in the state of NJ, was stolen and never replaced. I am furious that I may never see even the so-called “measly” contributions I’ve made over the last 16 years! Oh by the way, the majority of those complainers, who make six figures, which the majority of teachers will never see, could have chosen to been “spoiled” by becoming teachers. I wonder why they didn’t choose such an “easy profession”? OK, enough of my whining…I better attend to the paperwork to prove I’m effective.
Thank you for the time, effort, and dedication that went into this testimony; well done. There remains so much more to be said in this important discussion.
Just a few afterthoughts:
1 – We need to keep in mind that Teaching is an Art; dependent on such variables as talent, knowledge, creativity, experience, style, devotion, and much more. – – (enough said).
2 – The administrative/supervisory function in education is inherently flawed. There are many, many, wonderful teachers who made the decision to leave the classroom and move “upward” for various reasons both altruistic and otherwise. Likewise there are way too many individuals who could not “cut it” as teachers, and “moved up” by various means, who have no right being anywhere near, never mind judging, talented teachers. – – (more than enough said).
Your letter has lifted my spirits by putting into very clear words the malaise that has been spreading throughout what was once one of the best states for education in the USA. Of course, my delight in the pellucid clarity of your prose also reminds me of why I am suffering so much. We have become statisticians. A teacher should not be worrying about test scores but about the quality of thinking students are evincing in the classroom. And supervisors should not be taking their teachers to task for being different in their methods from some preconceived cookie-cutter model of delivery. I am a the type of veteran Mr. McGuirk speaks of, who has been laboring faithfully in the vineyard since 1986 only to be told that I am now somehow less than “effective” (the new buzz word) because I am not looking like every other teacher. What happened to an individual’s individual dynamism? How are we to teach students to be self-reliant when teachers are not expected to be self-reliant? How are we to teach critical thinking when we ourselves are not thinking critically but pretending to be enjoying our new “guide on the side” status? Certainly, we can be “guides” part of the time, but where is the space reserved for a much older word called “expertise”? We are teachers, not just because we have mastered an art of delivery, but because we have mastered a certain discipline and are most to be trusted to convey that discipline correctly to others. Certain concepts simply cannot be expected to be drawn forth from students. We cannot expect them to come to class already in firm grasp of what Shakespeare is saying without working with them on understanding what Shakespeare is saying. We are there, not to read for them, of course, but to do our best to show them the beauty of his work. We are there because we claim through our own education credentials that we possess the knowledge sufficient to show others how to come to an appreciation and understanding of a certain discipline we consider necessary to a student’s development. Granted, a teacher well versed in content but without method can be ineffective, but far worse is that teacher who is well versed in method but lacking in content. Are we to prefer the perfect delivery of pabulum to the less-than-perfect delivery of gems? In fact, my experience has shown that greatest of teachers are those whose passion for their subject matter compels them (almost beyond their choice) to impart that passion to others. We have heard for decades about motivating students. The best way to motivate is to be in love with your own material. While not all those who love their subject are adept at delivery, of course, the vast majority of the valued veterans we see in education today are those who effectively deliver their material with great passion. It is this that keeps them teaching. It is this that keeps me teaching. Many times I have been asked if it is boring to teach the same things year after year. My answer is this: first, the material is not the same from year to year; I am growing in my understanding of it all the time, and so it is constantly being updated. Second, I am teaching this material to new children every year. The material is new, always, to them. And for them I continue to go to work. Just get out of my way, and let me do my job.
Amen.
This is how it really is people…. so sad because our children are going to suffer – not maybe, they will. Teachers need to teach – not collect data, interpret, redo according to “standards” set by people not (nor in most cases have never) in a classroom teaching. We do all that without the paperwork – it’s part of TEACHING!!!! If we are so incompetent how do we have all those professionals today! The last few years, since all this has been “implemented” – kids are graduating not able to read, tell time (unless it’s digital of course) make change or THINK! That is not because we are “bad” teachers, it’s because we can not teach – we have “jump through” bureaucratic hoops to “prove” we are worthy & capable of doing our jobs. Hummmm… I thought the past “products” (our precious students) had proved that!
Another system being used in NJ is Stronge. It also has strenuous observation and data collection procedures.
To whom was the testimony given?
Then go read the NJ Star Ledger today (3/30) on NJ.com which touts the Common Core from Tom Kean – a political hack. NOT an educator. Spend a day or two in a classroom before writing an op Ed.
Tom Kean-head of the 9/11 commission. Need a whitewash? Call in the local rube who served as our governor from 81-89.
I am not a teacher or ever was one. What is happening to the children and the future of the world. If I was a young women, thinking of a teaching profession, I would change my thinking immediately. When moving into a community, the first thing you examine are the schools and how exceptional is their school system. This is very frightening. Thank God I don’t have children and grandchildren in the school system at this time They were well educated in a system that cared about the children…
I spent thirty-two years of my life in the classrooms of NJ schools. I like to believe that I was an effective educator. I was influenced by observing others who had mastered the job of teaching. Text books, lab manuals, computer programs had their place in my classroom, but they were never the reason why my students learned. I worked hard, and my students knew that my expectations for student work – and work ethic – were matched by my efforts to review and comment on their work. Mutual trust and respect combined with a teacher/student work ethic allowed my students to learn biology.
My most memorable workshop was on the topic of authentic assessment. As a result of this experience, I took a very simple lab experience, which had instructions for doing each step, and altered it into a completely open-ended problem. My students were given a very simple problem to solve: How does sugar affect the metabolic activity of yeast? I gave them a fact sheet on yeast and metabolism since it was the very beginning of the school year. I then gave them time for writing down their own thoughts on solving this problem; then, I gave them time to brainstorm with their lab partners. My lab was filled with materials and glassware and measuring devices for them to use but there was no protocol provided to them. Each lab group of two had to solve this problem on its own. The double lab period was filled with inquiry. I was there to guide them, if needed. The next day each group reported on how they solved this problem. The result was that for the first time ever in their educational career my students understood the value of the scientific method. Because my students were tenth graders, they had been given the steps of the scientific method in a minimum of three or four other science classes, yet very few had internalized the process. This lesson, in my opinion, gave my students an excellent learning opportunity filled with critical thinking. My students were engaged, and they left my room still talking about the experience. That does not happen when they are asked to fill in bubbles to test what they have learned.
I have been retired for five years, and I still miss my classroom and my students and our interaction. However, I know that I would not survive in this current learning environment. My sympathy goes out to the willing individuals who have entered the teaching profession only to be strangled by this mess.
Someone posted a comment about supervisors. When I first started teaching, supervisors were master teachers. Newbies learned invaluable lessons from them. Somewhere that all changed as many administrators decided that teachers could not have a friend in court. Instead, as the older supervisors retired, many were replaced with individuals whose job it was to keep the administration aware of any slight mishap a teacher might make in the process of learning. All trust was destroyed. And good education took a terrible hit.
I watched teaching become a true profession during the time I spent in NJ public schools. The best and brightest were choosing to become educators and our classrooms were filled with excitement. Not all classrooms, but a majority. And then those who know very little about what makes kids learn got involved, and now we have this mess.
I’ve noticed over the past few years a systemic denigrating of teachers and the teaching profession. I believe it’s a studied and conscious attempt to break teacher unions, then privatize schools, as so many prisons have been privatized. Our children will be trained to be good little consumers and never, ever to question the powers-that-be or consider that this may not be the best of all possible worlds. Assign “1984” and “Brave New World,” for openers, then go on from there–if kids can still read.
I’m a young high school teacher now, and I have wanted to be a teacher since I was in the third grade. Absolutely nothing will deter me from fulfilling my dream of working with my kids every day for the rest of my life, not even these horrible new requirements. The only thing it will make me do is leave the country for an education system that actually respects its teachers (yes, it’s out there somewhere). No matter where I end up, I’m going to try my hardest to actually TEACH and let the testing come in second. They actually have the audacity to say that I’m not an “effective” educator if a statistically-proven non-nonsensical test says so? Tell that to my students and you will see just how they react in as much shock as I would.
GOP vandals financed by tax-shirking plutocrats are out to destroy our schools. Why people don’t get this and start voting accordingly, I don’t know. Either willful stupidity or a disregard for the importance of public education beyond providing a babysitting service. Neither fork of execution here affords one whit of hope about America’s [declining] future.
They don’t get it, because they watch entertainment news, and the only thing they hear about education is ‘those bad teachers .”
They don’t hear about because there dis a VAST conspiracy to end public education and the first step is to bamboozle the people, and control the media.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Learning-not-Teacher-evalu-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-111001-956.html
As a fellow educator and a veteran of 24 years, I too feel your pain. My colleagues and I now spend so much of our time in meeting after meeting filling out forms and spreadsheets and narratives and analyses. We are told to integrate technology into every lesson, differentiate for every type of learner, teach to the state benchmark tests, NJASK and upcoming PARCC tests. I spend hours of extra time in my classroom trying to wade through the additional paperwork, not to mention trying to write lesson plans and grade papers. When I was a little girl, I always dreamed of being a teacher. I never once imagined it would turn out like this.
As the author of this testimony, I would like to thank Dr. Ravitch for accepting my email out of the blue and posting this on her blog. I’d also like to say thank you to everyone who read and commented. It seems many of us (sadly) share quite a bit in common.
Back in January, the NJEA (my union) was accepting testimony about how the AchieveNJ Act was affecting its members and their students. I originally wrote this piece for that purpose and it became one of over a thousand letters the NJEA delivered to state legislators in early March. I was so proud of what I had done (a feeling that has been quite rare these days at work), that I wanted to share this with a larger audience. I’ve been very appreciative of the feedback and comments and would be happy to submit this for publication to an even larger audience if anyone can point me in the right direction.
Dumont, the district in which I work, has been and still is a great place to teach. It is a nice middle class community. The students are largely respectful and my colleagues (teachers and administrators alike) have generally been dedicated and talented people. Those facts make these policies even more disturbing. We New Jersey residents who care deeply about education have been aware of the terrible policies being perpetrated for decades in our inner cities (most recent example: the One Newark Plan), but now they are extending everywhere. It would seem that autonomy is not acceptable for any of us; we all must now be held accountable to Big Brother (or Big Data), who in turn is free to act according to his whims.
It often seems as if the job for which I originally signed a contract no longer exists. Every day I struggle with how to balance this new workload because my class periods (which are and should always be of prime importance) take away from the time I need to finish the paperwork. A sad state of affairs, indeed.
I cannot remain silent about the AchieveNJ Act because I believe that is equivalent to acquiescence. It is my sincere hope that, if enough of us teachers, parents, administrators, students, and community members feel the same way, then perhaps the great engine of democracy that is public schooling will not perish on a wrong-way track.
Dear Mr. McGuirk,
Thank you for your important letter about what is happening to teachers in New Jersey. It has had more than 30,000 viewers, which is remarkable. You struck a nerve.
Oh, thank you so much for your testimony. I have been so saddened by all of this, myself. I am a teacher with ten years in service, and I too have felt the dichotomy- being pulled in two opposing directions. I’ve been feeling like if I do address those two paths wholeheartedly, then I will no longer be able to teach. I went into the profession excited to teach elementary school children. Over the last three years or so, being an educator in New Jersey has been tough. This evaluation system, for me, is beginning to tip the scales in favor of becoming overwhelmed. I don’t have the SGP hanging over my head, but some of my colleagues do, and I just don’t see the justice there. I am especially dismayed that administrators can give a rating of unsatisfactory simply because an educator had a different approach than they would have liked to have seen. It shows that administrators don’t even know how to evaluate using this system! What if there are administrators that cannot set aside personal differences with teachers? What if there are administrators who will give better evaluation ratings to teachers who they associate with outside of work? I don’t enjoy work as I once did. In fact, I never called it “going to work” until this year. You are not alone, colleague. I think we all wonder if this will continue to get worse. I hate being this Debbie Downer type person too! I wish all the parents would opt out of the testing, and send a message that they want good, old fashioned teaching back in the classroom. Now I am rambling, so I will stop.
This is my english teacher and is by far the best teacher, for any subject, that I have ever had. He applies certain real world teaching styles into his lessons, and he is the one teacher whose class not only do I not mind attending, but that I actually want to attend. If these standardized tests are going to affect his teaching styles, then I will lose all interest and I will not comprehend the material the way I do now. Let teachers be teachers, students be students, and make these standardized tests obsolete as they very well should be.
Thank you for your letter. I had the privilege of observing a class last semester as part of a Teaching As a Profession class. Do you know what the teacher told me…don’t go into teaching. So sad coming from a person who loved teaching and has seen tremendous (and not for the good) change within the last couple of years. A young man went into the profession in 2012 (highschool math)…he finished out his year and left, disgruntled over what he was seeing, and will now be teaching English in China.
I feel for you teachers. Is this just NJ or are we seeing this nationwide?
Stephan, it is NATION WIDE and if you want to see how it works in Los Angeles… go to Perdaily.com, and read the brilliant posts of Lenny Isenberg who is chronicling the destruction of LAUSD.
It’s very simple- government officials who never were in education yell “reform!” some do-gooder Hollywood types make some charter school choice feel-good movies where moms and children win, “yeah!” , Fox and friends keep saying “American public education is failing and it’s the teachers and the unions fault!” (our governor calls us “thugs”), those Alec-backed reformers mandate new teacher evaluations, new text books and curriculum, and new state tests that gather all of the students personal info into data banks or clouds for future use (also they invest in all of this stuff) while cutting educational funding, next the students fail, the union gets busted, the real teachers quit, the parents complain and then they put their kids in private or charter schools (the government education reformers and friends have already invested in charters and privatized schools and Teach for America teachers) and the 1% gets richer and has more minions to work and shop at Walmart! God Bless America!
30 years of Public Education,
Mary Flath Cairns
Thought this was a great article. You have to do all this crap?
So eloquently stated. As a retired educator, counselor and supervisor, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to enter the field of education, today. It was such a rewarding profession. Teachers actually taught and weren’t engaged in superfluous data gathering and testing; which one could only guess where all this data is shared and for what it is used for. When I speak to my former colleagues, teachers, and administrators all essentially echoi the same feeling…they are overwhelmed. Such a sad commentary to what was once a fabulous profession to be part of. I admire Mr. McGuirik for sharing this testimony of the sad state of affairs our public schools are in, today. This needs to be read by President Obama, Governor Christie, and every member of the US and NJ Department of Education,
How about you teachers all over the state get togather and rebell..they want the info…they can hire someone special to do it.. No $$,…tough…Our kids are not getting taught by wasting their teachers time….& taxpayers money……
All I can say is “Bravo.” This is why teachers are going to leave in droves and it’s sad. When people finally catch on how their schools are running, it will be too late. However, the politicians and big businesses will have made their money through these profitable “teaching tools” like the for profit Charlotte Danielson evaluation and the corporate PARCC exams which I believe the former Commissioner of Education now works for.
Thank you for writing this eloquent letter. I must have read it five times so far. You seem to have struck a nerve with educators and, hopefully, this letter will be seen by more people of influence.
Sadly, I think the next year or two are going to be even worse for us. Once the PARCC happens next year the administrators will obsess over the data and find new ways for us to “micro-target” students, write reports attesting to improvements being made, and compile all this data in Excel spreadsheets. I never realized how useful that statistics class I took in college turned out to be!
I find it almost laughable that our SGO’s, which count for only 15% of our final evaluations, are treated like the most important aspect of our jobs.
It is my belief that things will not get better until the parents (especially the parents in affluent districts) get the message to Trenton that they have had enough. Hopefully this will happen soon, but I am not optimistic.
As the father of two middle school boys, I can tell you that I couldn’t care less about their NJ ASK scores, and if I didn’t have to keep them out of school for two weeks, I would have them skip that test.
Keep on fighting the good fight.
We all need to stand together! I am special Ed teacher, currently I teach two different classes. I need to create my own pp and guided reading sheets… The books we have are way to difficult for most of my students and I do not have any technology in my room except an ancient computer…. I used to love love love my job! I would walk down the halls with a big smile on my face, feeling thankful that I was a part of my school…. Now, I don’t even know what I feel… I am so tired and drained…. I work with LLD high school students and have numerous behaviors within the class- and do not get the backing from administrators…. They feel that as a sp Ed teacher it’s part of our responsibility to deal with it…. Lesson planning takes forever, as I prep for two totally different classes and this new system we need to utilize when writing them is insane! I have at least Five IEPs that need to be written, a day… SGO’s…. And daily duties…. Meetings….. So prep is only about 2 hours or less a week… Union does absolutely nothing and are all buddy buddy with the higher-ups…. This new common core if you actually read up on it- is not for the benefit of our students….. I could go on and on… We need as NJ teachers to band together and be the difference we want!!!! I hear daily complaining, but no one does a thing!!!! Teaching is about the kids, and as a teacher of behavioral, at risk and LLD students I am frustrated because they are frustrated… It should never be just about the test…..
HOLY CRAP – AMEN, you have been saying what we’ve all been thinking, talking about loosing sleep over, lamenting in the faculty lounges … this “system” is cracked. It is subjective at best. My 3 evaluators (CAMDEN, NJ) 1 principal, 1 vice, 1 state appointed all had VASTLY differing interpretations of what constitutes an effective lesson. Can I say that this system is being applied to EARLY CHILDHOOD? YEAH, it is. To my teaching of music to 3, 4 and 5 year old children. This system is not designed for early childhood. This system is not designed to “improve outcomes” either. Let’s face it, teachers, this system is designed to fail us, to fail our kids and to destroy our unions. I am 29 years old. I spend 5 years on my degree and I have been teaching for 5+ years now. I am legitimately considering a career change. Not because of the kids (I loooooove my kids) not because of the pay (it ain’t bad, canigetanamen?) but because of the constant undermining, the questioning, the evaluating the “you’re not doing good enough to even deserve this job” that this achievenj is pushing. Fluff this snit. So tired of pouring my heart into each and every child and still be examined and deemed “partially effective” ====== do you know what telling someone that they’re “partially effective” does to them? JUST THE PHRASE ALONE MAKES YOU THINK YOU’RE NOTHING. UGH. Dis.gust.ed.
It’s Tuesday evening and I, an elementary teacher, am feeling so overwhelmed. I have 22 years in education and have been passionate every day about the “job” I do. However, this year, I can barely keep up. I am going in so many directions at once that I don’t know where to turn first. When do I plan for lessons? That is the heart of education. There is no time in the day, anymore. I can only hope that this “scam” will soon be exposed for what it is – a money maker for testing companies and the beginning of the end of public education.
Thank you Diane for sharing .
I am currently a targeted teacher, 30 years. Sad, angry, and frustrated .
M.V.
It’s the media that let this happen two decades ago…. read my comment at this link
http://www.opednews.com/articles/How-Do-We-Democratize-Our-by-Thom-Hartmann-Corporate_Issues_Manipulation_Media-160330-617.html#comment590520
, as there are embedded links to what I am pasting below.”
The media has hidden the enormous conspiracy behind the demise of public education. I mean this is a scandal of enormous proportions.
http://www.perdaily.com/2011/01/lausd-et-al-a-national-scandal-of-enormous-proportions-by-susan-lee-schwartz-part-1.html
A hundred thousand teachers were removed from the schools when their civil rights evaporated… as the unions looked the other way, and the media sang a song of ‘bad teachers… and the rant that the EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX taught Duncan and clones.Educators were crushed
In an age when ‘human interest’ stories abound, no media has told the stories as abused veteran teachersby the tens of thousands disappeared from service
The lawlessness that removed our dedicated,experienced teacher-practioners can be discovered i this video when Teacher Lorna Stremcha, who just published “Bravery, Bullies and Blowhards”, testified in LAWLESS. If you have no heard of her, THAT IS MY POINT…and yours!
But no one heard about me, and I was famous. When you read my resume
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
you should know that I hired an attorney to fight allegations of a crime, and when my lawsuit made that disappear, they charged me with incompetence… because there i sent a shred of accountability for the liars an charlatans and psycho paths that have taken over our educational system.
And the media was complicit in the corruption that took out the of thousands of LAUSD teachers wereforced to retire on fabricated charges. Lenny Isenberg who wrote the chronicle of this corruption called the media , parasites. Lausd continues to target teachers,on fabricated charges, and the media is MUTE because ELI BROAD ones LA.
The media hid the assault on teacher ins thelarget school system in the nation, NYC, andthis happened. Now the charter schools are taking over, and the INSTITUTION that is public education.. is being privatized, as legislatures across the nation take over the schools, and th media is MUTE!
Want more info at the fraud of charter schools,scroll down on that link which takes you to the Diane Ravitch blog where I put “charter schools INTO THE SEARCH FIELD.,
Put Legislature or privatization into that field and be prepared to LEARN what no media is explaining”the take-over of our INSTITUTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, and read essays like this one:
A Growing Number of Politicians Want to Cut Funding for Liberal Arts Education
Can you picture America when there is no route to economic equality, because the masses of the people are ignorant and unskilled?
Or this one Education in Crisis: The Threat of Privatization Around the World..
Yes, Thomas… you got it right, an ignorant public is the victim of ‘mass deception.’ And the really scarey thing —look who is writing curriculum.
Totally agree with your opinion about how difficult Is to teach our students productively . As everybody knows time is gold, let give teachers time to teach.