No words needed on my part. This story and Justice say it all.
My only comment is that right now classes are being stacked so that some teachers have more difficult kids to teach than others. One of the and low level classes is now being given only the lowest level classes in the school. Her classes are full of repeaters, kids who should be juniors and seniors but have no math credits (and not too many in other subject areas either.) The AP is aways harrassing her. The newbies have much better kids in all or most of their classes. When a newbie took over for a teacher going on sabbatical last year, the AP removed all the trouble makers from that class. Guess where they went?
While I agree that incompetent teachers should be removed, test scores are not the way to go.
4 comments:
I have one absolutely hideous class this year. Bright enough kids, but they are nasty, manipulative, and downright mean. I have them because the young sycophant that also teaches in my subject area didn't want them again this year, and went crying (yes- literally) to the AP, who proceeded to dump them on me.
There's a class that I don't want next year- think that crying routine will work for me?
The Principals and APs have their orders....
Yes, 17, they dump the hardest cases on the most experienced veteran teachers who CAN handle those hardest cases because they always did. I don't recall going crying to anyone about any class ever. A number of my former students are violent criminals, but were successful in my class. There is an epidemic of youth worship occurring at the DOE. It certainly isn't about competence, it's just the devaluing of senior teachers because they're just too expensive; the other piece of it is that we have more than an idea of what comprises the intent and spirit of education. Klein and Bloomberg would like that body of knowledge, thought and action wiped out and replaced by the bought and sold canned version of "education". This version is no more than a parasitic corporatized parody of education. The DOE is no more than a contract mill posing as a functioning bureaucracy, which is an oxymoron in and of itself. Data collection, the new centerpiece, has absolutely nothing to do with actual education of children, last I checked. Absolutely no DOE money has found its way to my classroom other than the slightly increased "Teachers' Choice". All I read about is new measurement programs; the newest one measures the teachers. I guess ARIS was a worthwhile investment while I buy my own chalk and erasers.
Sounds right to me workshop model! How will they measure all the special education teachers , let alone the bilingual teachers who are expected to teach the english language in one year! I know that the testing cooridnator makes the kids fill in their names on the scan sheets if the wrong teachers name is on it. I think they are really tracking teachers. Sad state of affairs!
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