New Mexico: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley on the Trial of VAM

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1. Sad Teacher says:

   March 8, 2016 at 4:34 pm

   I remember when VAM debuted under the disguise to “help” educators. It did not take long for the deformers to learn how to use this useless tool against educators. VAM, endless hours of burn out paperwork associated with SLO’s and the new teacher evaluation system….added to the already hard job of being a good teacher……has made teaching an unmanageable profession . . . . . . . an abusive one.

   It is not okay how teachers are now treated. Anything that makes me feel like I presently feel here sitting at my desk is not okay, and I am thankful and blessed to soon put this abuse behind me. My heart breaks for the young, new teachers around me….who are struggling and as sad as I am.

   Teachers cannot control VAM and make students learn, just like it is not a dentist’s fault that patients eat sugary treats and get cavities. It is not the dentist’s fault because the cavity is there. Just like many students do not want to learn and nothing a teacher does can make them learn, the teacher is not to blame for the “cavity” of the bad test score. The teacher is the scapegoat, blamed for everything bad in society.

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   • ciedie aech says:

     March 9, 2016 at 1:04 pm

     Your comparison about how a dentist can’t be held responsible for society’s love-affair with sugar speaks volumes. Kids, especially those without much parental supervision, go home to the television, to the Internet, and to an endless chain of computer games — and their teachers are blamed for their lack of interest in literacy.

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2. Techteacher says:

   March 8, 2016 at 4:58 pm

   The new evaluation systems based on Danielson and Marzano are very abusive and time consuming. They neither help us teachers or our students yet they have us waste our time that we could use to actually work on making us better. Here in Washington we don’t have VAM yet but I’ve actually heard politicians say that they want it here and it is in the wording for our TPEP law so I’m sure it’s coming. I plan to retire at that time.

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3. 2old2teach says:

   March 8, 2016 at 7:43 pm

   Why aren’t all these other professionals jumping on the VAM model if it is so wonderful? The politicians who impose it all ought to be on a strict VAM model. Why shouldn’t they be held responsible for the the growth of all their constituents? Are all their poor and homeless people housed in decent affordable housing? Do they all have easily accessible to quality healthcare? Access to vocational training? Are the roads all pot hole free and structurally sound? Is public transportation available? Police and fire protection? Garbage disposal? Fair and equitable, fully funded public education system? Utilities? I know what is reasonable and necessary varies, but we obviously have plenty of lawmakers who do little for the bulk of their constituents. Perhaps if they were subjected to VAM, they would quit ignoring the objections to it from reputable professional organizations.

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   • Mamie Krupczak Allegretti says:

     March 10, 2016 at 6:16 am

     Absolutely.

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