I used to be a public school teacher.
I have taught in four different public schools in three different states.
I have taught in very affluent areas and lower income urban environments.
I have taught every grade from first through sixth. I’ve served as a specialist and been on the other side of the table, filling out the paperwork.
I still choose to send my children to public school.
I love my children’s teachers. I love the school they attend.
But our system is not just broken, it is shattered and slicing our children and our teachers with shards of its jagged remains. As a mother and an educator I have a responsibility to say so. Many of my friends cannot. They are still in the position to be fearful for their jobs. I no longer have that fear, so I can now speak freely.
Last year I sat in an IEP meeting for my son, just like I have done every year since he was two. This time was different.
This time we sat and looked at his IQ test results. They were very low.
Then we looked at his academic performance. That was also very low.
Then they told me they were taking his IEP away.
Because when “the ability matches the performance” the state acknowledges that there is nothing that they can do.
The teachers were not happy. I was not happy. We sat for a very long time looking for loopholes. There weren’t any.
On paper, he is a dumb kid with low test results.
The law says they think he is meeting his potential…by failing. It’s not worth spending the money to give him resources when he is already meeting his potential.
Did I mention he was only in kindergarten?
For the second time.
Did I also mention that this particular child has a history that includes adoption out of foster care, mental heath scares, and an extremely well-documented case of Sensory Processing Disorder and possible high-functioning Autism? Unfortunately, a “possible” diagnosis is not the same as an official diagnosis. So while 3 different psychiatrists said “maybe,” we had no “yes” to give the state.
Obviously our first choice as a team was not to take his IEP away. But we did not have a choice, because that is not the way the law is written.
The law is not written by educators.
His teachers simply rolled their eyes at the new lack of paperwork and continued to offer him every service they had been offering him before. They even added more.
That was because they are good teachers with common sense. They did not have to do that. Many schools would not have had the ability to offer services to a student who did not qualify, or would have been too scared of the consequences if they tried. We’re still fighting back and doing more paperwork and re-evaluations to this day. Eventually we’ll get that IEP back because we all know he needs it.
Those same teachers, the ones busting their humps every day to go above and beyond what they are required to do, are going to be evaluated on their ability to get my son to perform on grade level.
Even though the state just told me in our IEP meeting that they don’t believe that’s actually possible.
According to the flawed logic that makes him currently ineligible for academic services, by failing he’s already performing up to his potential. Except now he is a general education student. That means it’s going to be up to the teacher to get him to perform on grade level with zero help once he is taking standardized tests. And the teacher’s evaluation will be based on his performance.
Which is poor.
Apparently, that is fine with the state when they no longer want to pay for his services.
But not when they want to evaluate the “effectiveness” of their teachers.
I wish this was an isolated case that only applied to my son, but it isn’t.
It happens every day.
I taught a student who was in an almost identical situation.
I was just speaking to a friend who teaches in Nebraska. She was recently flabbergasted to find herself in the same spot with a low-performing student.
Eventually, maybe someone in authority will come to the conclusion that teacher effectiveness is not actually based on test scores.
For example, when I taught in Florida, my students (who were in a gifted program in a very affluent area) tended to score around the 98th percentile on their standardized tests.
When I moved to Pennsylvania, and taught briefly in a lower income urban environment, my students’ test scores were around the 40th percentile.
I was the same teacher, and I also I had more training and more experience by that point in my career. I did not magically become more than 50% less effective. All I did was change the environment in which I was teaching.
The students in the urban environment did not have the same access to daily science classes, state-of-the-art computer and science labs, and libraries. They had more real-world stressors like hunger and poverty complicating their school experience, and discipline was an issue for that entire school district. It should not have been a surprise that their test scores were lower.
Yet the test scores were the focus that led to the decision to restructure the entire district. They will be the reason that good teachers lose jobs they have held for years.
Teachers are frustrated. And so are parents.
The idea behind getting every child to perform on grade level with a common set of standards seems like an admirable solution, doesn’t it?
Until you try to put it into practice. It was my job to teach Common Core math for a brief period in an urban school. The “New Math” is a grade level higher than it used to be. So, what used to be considered 5th grade math is now 4th grade, etc. That means when it is introduced, the students basically skip an entire year. My students were already low-performing and had a lot of gaps that I needed to fill. Except I wasn’t allowed to fill them, because I had the superintendent and several teams of district professionals popping in unannounced to do random checks to make sure that we were meeting the “rigor” of Common Core. Review and basic skill building was not considered rigorous.
I was expected to teach 7th grade level math to 6th graders, many of whom did not know their multiplication facts or how to do long division. We had to turn in our lesson plans every week so that they could be sure that we were following the new procedures.
The first unit in our book was about ratios. On the pre-test the students had to figure out if certain fractions were greater than, less than, or equal to others. I had about 75 students. Less than ten of them could pass the 5th grade level pre-test. I spoke to the administration. I wanted permission to spend time filling in the gaps. I was told to just give them calculators because they are allowed to have calculators on the state test. A calculator will not help you if you do not understand the math you are trying to do with it. My students were still behind, and only getting increasingly frustrated as the units got harder. Enough is enough.
It is time to start consulting educators before we make decisions about education.
There are few professions where you are required to obtain a college degree, take multiple certification tests, and prove yourself through a residency program only to not be allowed to perform your job as you know best once you are in it. We trust our doctors to treat our ailments and our lawyers to try our cases. Our teachers are professionals, and it is time we started treating them as such.
To follow along with Binkies and Briefcases, be sure to like my Facebook page or follow along on Twitter.
UPDATE: You can read further details of our story here.
We are also the only profession where our governing board is made up of members of the community and not teachers! Some barely passed high school, much less graduated from college! How can they know what a teacher should do if they have never taught? Ridiculous!
Yup…and in our state the legislators are trying to keep teachers and relatives off school boards. http://www.kansas.com/news/local/article11374190.html
My teaching situation was a bit different. The last few years I taught 11th and 12th grade Honors and AP classes. Due to the fact my students have already passed the required standardized test and therefore they have no student gain scores to use in my teacher evaluation they have assigned me the student gain scores of the reading teacher. The reading teacher they assigned me is a first year teacher with the remedial reading students. I honestly don’t mind being evaluated. I taught for 17 years with half of that time in the middle school and the rest in high school. I however am totally against my evaluation being based on some other teacher’s gain scores.
so basically you are concerned only about yourself and not about the problems of the poor “first year teacher with remedial reading students?” You have a job teaching bright high achieving kids who probably have no disciplinary problems and she has a roomful of underachieving probably disruptive kids all day every day and you only care about yourself? You must be a peach to work with.
Wait…why is it fair for her to be evaluated off another teachers scores? That seems a bit crooked to say the least…
It happens a lot. My entire school was judged solely on the math and E LA scores- everyone from the librarian to the art teachers. We knew the scores were abyssmal, as are our graduation rates. 1/3 of the students are sp.ed., 1/3 are ELL, and all are free lunch bc of poverty. Most days I have only half the kids on my roster sitting in front of me. No matter how much and ret by s smart I teach them, my scores are awful bc I am judged on societies failures.
Wow, Deborah, way to jump to an assumption about a woman you know nothing about. Did you suddenly become God? You have no right to judge another person. I’m going to turn your words around on you because you’re making judgements makes you appear like a ‘B.’ That makes me wonder what kinda “peach” you are to work with. You have no idea what Deanna has or hasn’t done or thought in regards to the first year teacher.
Go on calling me names if it makes you feel better. No I have no idea what your friend Deanna did or did not do for the first year year teacher. Why don’t you enlighten me?
Titinky, My point was not related to whether or not she wanted her score to be tied to another teacher’s score. My comment was about her seeming lack of consideration for the first year teacher she has to work with. If you will reread my comment you might be able to comprehend that but I doubt it. Education in this country is in a bad state and has been so for several decades.
You are busting her hump because she doesn’t want her bonus pay to be decided by someone she has no control over? Are you an idiot?
Titinky, my point was not related to whether or not she wanted her bonus pay to be decided by someone she has no control over. My comment was about her seemingly selfish lack of consideration for the first year teacher she has to work with. If you will reread my comment you might be able to comprehend that but I doubt it. Education in this country is in a bad state and has been so for several decades.
Where did she say she did not care about the first-year teacher or the remedial students? Why do you assume the AP and Honors students are well behaved and the remedial students are disruptive? But those facts are beside the point. If Deanna is not in a position where she is officially supervising her less experienced colleague, then it is wrong for her evaluation to be based on the other teacher’s performance.
She and the other teacher are both in it together. Some acknowledgement of that would have gone a long way in convincing me of her concern for the other teacher who is in a far worse situation than she is. As to AP vs remedial classes, give me a break you all know they are apples and oranges when it comes to behavior with the remedial teacher almost invariably getting mostly rotten apples.
So, Im guessing Deborah is not a teacher. This kind of value-added evaluation system would not be tolerated in any other profession, except maybe waitressing where you have to share tips. Most teachers are, by nature, caring and nurturing and not very good at standing up for themselves. I am retiring after 34 years, even though I have at least another 6 good years left in me, because I am tired of what “they” have done to education. I am a specialist, and I, too, would be on the road to evaluation for kids I do not teach, regardless of the age and experience of that teacher. I plan to join committees who are focused on educating parents on how to opt their kids out of this ridiculous testing nightmare. At my school, kindergarteners are in the middle of taking NINE tests in a row, all on the computer. They cry, they spin their chairs, they hit whatever key will allow them to continue on…and how NICE of the testing company to provide a little drawing program in between tests to “relax” the children. It is child abuse. If anyone believes that Reformers have their kids’ best interests in mind, I have a few choice quotes from Bill Gates on what a wonderful investment opportunity this all is.
Deborah , why do you assume Deanna actually works with the 1st yr teacher? She doesn’t have the same students , and therefore probably isn’t in the classroom with them. She may not even have mtgs with her. The only thing they definitely have in common is the rating they are given based solely on the first year teacher’s performance .
wow – you go directly to the throat! I don’t think that your nasty judgmental comment is on topic. So, let me restate: Each teacher should be evaluated on their own merit and not by an arbitrary assignment. Does the cook at McDonalds get evaluated by what the cashier does?
Wow??????????
I am homeschooling my kids now because of our broken education system. I was so tired of fighting to keep them from failing my dyslexic son because he couldn’t score well on the EOG. It is sad what is happening in schools today. It is sad for our teachers and students.
do k12 its realy good for education and my friends there homeschooled hes 9 and he cant spell ocean
Well you can’t spell and sound uneducated so please don’t take this lady’s advice.
Kind words. We’re all doing our best. There is no reason we should compare one child to another, one parent to another, especially if it is to belittle someone. Education is a gradual process, and when we are progressing at our own individual level, we are receiving an effective education. If a 6th grader who struggles to read finishes the last page of a picture book, the achievement is monumental and should be celebrated! It doesn’t matter if that child’s best friend is reading at college levels, for each child has individual needs. If Gabriel’s situation warrants success and celebration for her family by switching to K12, then good for her! Rude words will never do anything to better the world.
Excellent response! I’ve always said that if you plant two identical trees in your yard and treat them exactly the same, they usually don’t grow at the same rate and do not blossom at the same time. The same is true with children. I don’t think I blossomed until after college when I started teaching and I could relate to the students.
Other than when they get out into the work world they WILL be compared with others and the top person normally gets the job. We are constantly compared to others and the need to compete is the corner stone of a meritocracy.
While I tend to agree with you, your reply is bullying and mean. Please can we just ignore the ugliness?
My child is still trying to finish HS and it is not because we the mom and dad are not educated. Our oldest completed college in 2005. Our children are vastly different though. I am thrilled my one child is determined to finish despite all the things that have defeated him.
Pam this is a little off subject but I think your child who is determined to finish despite the difficulty shows character and a never say die attitude that a lot of people don’t have and it will serve them well in the future, nice parenting they don’t learn that on their own
Interesting article. I’ll admit, I thought it was going to be one of those “dime a dozen” lame articles where a teacher gets on her soap box about how her summer break really isn’t a summer break etc. which catches viral popularity.
Thanks for addressing and making people aware of “real” issues. I can’t empathize with you (teachers), but having married one, I grow frustrated with you. The system needs to be fixed.
As long as the laws about education and teacher evaluations are being made by people who have no education background… the system will never be fixed.
As a retired teacher, I say that that is the problem. If educators were allowed to make the decisions and if people would realize that education is not a business with the children being put on an assembly line, then progress could be made. Oh yes, and if legislators would put the money where their mouth is, then there could be smaller class sizes and students could get the help they need.
Excellent analysis! And very interesting to read this from the perspective of someone who has been both teacher — and parent of an IEP student. Thank you for sharing this info!
As a special educator I am curious as to what regulations were cited. The decision to continue/discontinue services is an IEP team decision. If the child is performing in an area at very low level he should continue services. If there is some other reason then he will qualify for a 504 plan. Did the school not offer that? If a student is performing at a level lower than his typical peers he can and should remain on an IEP. Good luck.
Yes he does have a 504 now. It’s important to note that some options vary by state. For example, during his first year of schooling we lived in Maryland and he continued to qualify for an IEP under “other health impaired” because of being diagnosed as having failure to thrive as an infant. In Pennsylvania they would not let us do that. We moved from one state to another, and then he no longer qualified because PA did not recognize failure to thrive as an “other health impairment” as Maryland had. He could not qualify under any other category. When performance matches ability and the IQ is not low enough to be considered a mental handicap, he is out of luck. That is the unfortunate reality.
As a school psychologist in PA, I am curious as well. Needing speech therapy would indicate to me eligibility for an IEP under speech and language impairment at least. And if he is performing below grade level standards, the case for other categories could be made as well.
Best of luck,
When intelligence is low and performance is low in every subject, a child does not qualify as learning disabled because the definition of a learning disability is that there is a discrepancy between the ability and the performance. In his case there is no discrepancy.
I’m a school psychologist in CA for the public school system and I’m totally confused at your experience. Speech/Language Impairment is an eligibility classifcation and not an adjunt service like Occupational Therapy. It makes no sense why he would get speech through a 504 as these plans are for classroom accomodations and not services. Finally the law changed that specific learning disability is not limited to the discrepancy model-but also cognitive variability and lack of response to intervention. You can also request an IEE, independent educational evaluation if you disagree with the results. You do not have to agree to exiting from special education and instead can file for due process. During this process stay put is in place and your child will continue to have an IEP. Finally, special education cannot meet the needs of all students and the general education should have programs such as Response to Intevention (RTI) to help your child. Good luck!!!
The categories to qualify for an IEP under IDEA are: autism, deaf/blind, deafness, hearing impaired, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury, visual impairment including blindness, and other health impairment. In plain English, his scores no longer meet any of the requirements for “impairment” by definition in any area, so they gave him a 504 instead. (He used to meet them when he needed occupational therapy for things like self-feeding. Because then he was impaired. He isn’t anymore. During his first year of kindergarten he continued to qualify under “other health impaired” because of a loophole that had little to do with any of his current issues, he’d been diagnosed with failure to thrive as an infant. We moved to a new state and that classification no longer presented as an option.) His IQ scores are not low enough for mental retardation. Nor does he have an official Autism diagnosis, despite multiple outside tests. Nor does having low test scores across the board and a low IQ qualify as a specific learning disability. On paper, the only thing we can prove right now is that he is a child with lower than average intelligence. As much as I truly hate to keep using this word, the easiest way to explain it is this: dumb is not a disability.
I am actually very satisfied with the interventions that his team have in place. They are the same ones that were in place when he did have an IEP. In PA we have what are refer to as tiered interventions. He receives Tier 3 interventions. At this point in his school career, I’m not overly worried about his paperwork, which is really only a technicality to us right now because he has a strong team of advocates and already receives everything he would be getting if/when we get the IEP back in place. As I said, this meeting was last year, so it is possible that there have been updates in legislation since. But you are correct and I’m sorry that I may have over-simplified the original post. He also shows no variability in subject areas and has proven capable of growth. So he just does not qualify. He is in the process of being re-evaluated. We will probably get it back in place- he has an advocate at school working very hard on it for him- but even if we don’t, the point of this post was more so that I am concerned with teachers being treated with the professional respect and courtesy they deserve.
But if you hop over to my Facebook page, you can see that this experience is not unique to my son. Other teachers have commented on my post about students they’ve taught who had similar experiences and hundreds of parents and educators have shared this post and their own experiences within the past few days.
The discrepancy model for special education services was done away with based on federal guidelines in Texas several years ago. Sometimes it takes a great diagnostician to give multiple subtests to find an area to qualify a student for services. I was blessed with one who always kept me apprised of how the testing was going and let me prepare alternate ways to serve a student’s needs. On the few occasions that a student was being dismissed from special education services, we went straight into a 504 meeting using the same staff for the new meeting to create a new educational plan. I am retired now, but there are still many excellent educators who go the extra mile for students. It is a shame that we no longer get the support needed, and that it all comes down to numbers.
What Stephanie says is true in PA. I retired last year after teaching for 36 years. What is going on in this state is ridiculous. I just couldn’t take the emphasis on testing anymore. I didn’t want to teach to the test. I taught math. If my children weren’t grown I would have pulled them out of public school.
Thank you Megan. I was having the same thoughts but had not stated it yet. There is something amiss if this student still qualifies for something, yet is not given an IEP.
I assure you, nothing is amiss. He doesn’t currently qualify. Maybe he will after being re-evaulated. Maybe he won’t. Perhaps this article explains it better than I am by saying, “Only certain classifications of disability are eligible for an IEP, and students who do not meet those classifications but still require some assistance to be able to participate fully in school would be candidates for a 504 plan.” http://specialchildren.about.com/od/504s/f/504faq2.htm
It’s important to note that some options vary by state. For example, during his first year of schooling we lived in Maryland and he continued to qualify for an IEP under “other health impaired” because of being diagnosed as having failure to thrive as an infant. In Pennsylvania they would not let us do that. We moved from one state to another, and then he no longer qualified because, seeing that he was now a fully functioning elementary school student, Pennsylvania did not recognize his failure to thrive in infancy as an “other health impairment” as Maryland had. He does not qualify under any other option.
This will be the last time I reply to questions or comments regarding the IEP situation. That really is not the intended focus of this post and without knowing my son or his situation no one on the internet is going to be able to offer any insight that his teachers, parents, therapists, and advocates are not already keenly aware of.
What State has this law that takes away an IEP from a student who has low intelligence and performance in every subject? It does not make any sense.
I quit working for the schools last year out of frustration (over the special education eligibility process, central office disconnect, and some issues with one administrator). I was part of eligibility teams at several schools within the local school division. Federal law allows for local LEAs (school districts/divisions) to make their own definition of Specific Learning Disability as long as they fall within loose guidelines. Some school districts use response to intervention (RTI). Others use discrepancy models, which means the student must score a certain number of points lower in an academic area (reading, writing, math) than their overall IQ. The number of points varies by districts with some requiring 15 points, some 20 points, and some even higher. Using the 15 point model, a student with an average IQ of 100 would have to score 85 or below in a subject area to qualify. Most districts also would require a discrepancy in a processing area. To make it more confusing, some districts allow the use of subscale scores and other districts strictly use the full scale number. Still more confusing, some districts have adopted a strength and weaknesses model which requires an score in the average range or higher (85 or above) and a weakness. A child could qualify in one district and not qualify in a neighboring district following a move.
In all methods, but the RTI, there is a group of students who score in the low average range in all areas. Scores are not low enough for an Intellectual Disability (formally Mental Retardation), but they do not qualify because they do not have a discrepancy nor do they have a pattern of strengths and weaknesses. These children fall through the cracks. The theory is that special education is not going to help these children, because they are doing what they are capable of doing. For those of us who believe that the IQ score is only part of the picture, it is frustrating. Personally, I could no longer sit across from parents and teachers who only wanted the best for the child and have to feed them a line that I did not believe.
There was a time (and it sounds like it’s that time again) where there had to be a “split” in scores to qualify for many services. As a teacher, it was frustrating. Just like everything in education, it seems like we are forced into going full circle, The problem is that we have already tried it, and it didn’t work.
West Virginia also requires a discrepancy between intelligence and ability in order to be eligible for extra services. Those students who have no discrepancy fall through the cracks of the program. I teach math with a special educator, and in one class with 30 students, we have ten special education students with IEPs. Four of them are labeled Mentally Impaired because of extremely low IQ, but they are not placed into a pull-out math class. They are in our class and we are forced to TRY to teach them 8th grade material when they can only read on a first grade level and their math scores are pre-kindergarten level. Of the other twenty students in the class, 12 of them are highly advanced and should be placed in an above level class of their own–in order to give them their greatest potential for growth. But my partner and I are expected to teach 8th grade curriculum (most of which used to be 9th grade curriculum) to everybody in this difficult class. We are told to be sure to differentiate our instruction so that all levels of ability are addressed and all learning styles are used. Because we are only human, what we are able to accomplish after all this has no tinge of success about it. I long for the days when I truly believed I was a good teacher. I’m not so sure anymore–and never have I worked harder for it.
This is the result of a district that is trying to meet the needs of their students through inclusion, a popular notion with some parents of children with special needs and administrators who want to spend as little as they can on special ed. This takes me back to the days before special ed. was mandated and kids with low IQs would be forced to sit in classes far above their understanding. This is a case of the least restrictive environment being the most restrictive environment. A child with a low IQ is not going to learn at the same rate as his normal peers no matter how much you teach to his learning style. IEPs are supposed to prioritize the time spent in educating children with disabilities. Their priorities are not going to always be the same as what their peers’.. Districts around me have tried inclusion to the degree you have described and have pulled the children with severe disabilities out of that setting. I have taught those children for 15 years and cannot believe a school would attempt to mix those needing academics with those needing a functional curriculum all day long. It is ridiculous.
I was wondering a few things about the IEP as well. In the past, we looked at the discrepancy between IQ and achievement, but that was the old way of qualifing a student exactly because of the reasons stated above. Now we use RtI. Did he respond to research-based interventions? If not, and it’s documented, he qualifies. That is it. IQ is one measure. Maybe your son did not qualify under the category of specific learning disability, but he could qualify under Other Health Impaired due to the other conditions mentioned. Depending on his IQ, he could have even qualified under intellectually disabled. Finally, special education teachers can ALWAYS use professional judgement to qualify a student. Seems as though your special educator needs a bit more training on the law. There are checklists for each disability type you should go through at the meeting to determine if he qualifies under any of them. If he meets the criteria, he qualifies. Diagnosis from a doctor is one criteria for certain disabilities also. Please familiarize yourself with the laws better and also your special ed team.
I am a special education teacher in Texas, and yes, Stephanie’s experience is accurate. A somewhat same rule holds in Texas. If it’s not a specific learning disability and there is no confirmed OHI, then a child will not qualify for inclusion. They may qualify for a 504, but not inclusion services. Because we are a title I school, we have tier 2 and 3 intervention, but it’s a sad situation. Yes, I’m swamped, but when I’m in the classroom, I make every effort to work with every child that needs it. It’s very difficult, though.
As a retired teacher, who spends a lot of time subbing at the schools, I am horrified at the way children are “rushed” through units that should take a few weeks to master. I shudder at the thought of the tests they take. Tests avgerage about one a month. It is a new system of teaching to the test. Please let us go back to teaching to the students ability!!
“It is time to start consulting educators before we make decisions about education.” … and parents!
The problem is that a lot of those who have the control (school board members/legislators/business people) have children & went to school and thus they consider themselves to be experts capable of being the final word on education policy. I have a car and yet I wouldn’t consider myself an expert mechanic who could walk into the local garage and tell every employee how to do their job properly. This is not to say that I don’t have some experience working with cars and know what repairs have been made to my car by myself & others. This allows me to contribute to the discussion about what is best/reasonable but ultimately I’d defer to the expertise of those who went through formal training. Yes, this may mean that I run into a “bad” mechanic, but I don’t then discount ALL mechanics. Currently, this same logic isn’t being applied to the teaching profession as “bad” teacher experiences are the basis for public dialogue and why many see themselves as more than qualified to advise. Unfortunately, I can’t walk into a policy makers office and say, “I have the equivalent of a Doctorate in relevant education, 4 levels of additional certification, and almost a decade of experience in the profession. Your parents got lucky one night and so they had you. You in turn experienced the system as a student & perhaps a parent, so lets discuss who should be allowed to make these decisions.”
Your Last few lines are brilliant and dead on.
Very well said, Becky!!
Unfortunately, between politics, ideology, greed, and plain old selfishness, we have come to the place where qualifications such as Becky describes automatically DISqualify her for a seat at any table on educational policy. It’s like being chosen for a jury: any actual knowledge of the subject to be tried (I bought a house, I helped build the steps to the deck, my dad worked in that industry or one related to it…) or, heaven forbid, *legal* knowledge, is an automatic dismissal. By the same token, it seems that any actual teaching experience or pedagogical education is the kiss of death in these discussions.
Ignorance is applauded as “common sense” and the latest shiny thing (Race to the Top, No Child Left Behind, etc.) is seen as the Holy Grail, the magic bullet that will “fix” a broken system. But the system isn’t BROKEN — it’s STARVED.
No one would try to run a car without oil or gasoline and expect it to “make do.” And yet, we try to run our schools without money or resources — the “oil and gasoline” of education.
This young woman is the daughter of a former colleague of mine, and if she is half the teacher her Mom was, she’s among the best. I taught for 8 years in a Catholic high school and 10 years in a public one. The Catholic school had very limited resources but somehow managed to turn out wonderful young people who were prepared for college and post high school life. We had our share of academic and disciplinary issues but somehow most kids saw the light and stepped up to the plate. Teachers were trusted to teach their classes the best way they saw fit, and nobody breathed down their necks about any specific methods or tests. Result? Happy teachers who loved their jobs even though their pay was lower than it would have been in public schools. Public schools, however, try to force teachers into molds where they all teach the same way and are held responsible for their students’ test scores, even though those same teachers have no control over who is in their classes or whether or not those methods are effective. Result? Increasingly frustrated teachers and students who are ill prepared for life. I made considerably more in public school, but was far happier in Catholic school. Go figure!!
I am a product of public and catholic school education. Jan you have hit it on the head. I had a high quality education in catholic school with limited budgets.
I am now a teacher in public school and I want to pull my hair out. I teach 4th grade but I have more than half my class at pre-k to 1st grade level in reading and math. HOWEVER, I am expected and graded on pulling these students and their peers through TCAP at grade level. Through all the tests that have been done this year, only 1 student is considered on grade level.
I haven’t found a way to do that yet and this is my first year in this state. Yes, we have RTI2 but when majority of my students are tier 3 the tasks becomes impossible.
I am being forced into a mold that I have never fit in. Shoot I still don’t color within the lines in life.
One thing that drives me nuts is that my students can hardly read but I can’t read tests to them. I thought we were supposed to be testing on their level of understanding of the subjects and NOT their ability to read.
“The Catholic school had very limited resources but somehow managed to turn out wonderful young people who were prepared for college and post high school life.”
In my area Catholic high schools have entrance exams So it is easy to produces wonderful young people when get to choose what students you educate. Maybe yours was less selective.
I have worked in the Catholic schools for 15 years, after teaching in a public school 2.5 years. It’s no better in our archdiocese. There’s such a predominance on getting our test scores up that we spend 2 of our inservice days inputting & analyzing data. We test in March over the entire years’ curriculum, so that parents can have the results in the end-of-year report cards (now THERE’S solid pedagogy). We’re a school that the archdiocese hasn’t labeled specifically as “failing”, but when the mucky-mucks come to visit & talk to your faculty uninvited repeatedly, you don’t have to be labeled.
Our math scores are low, and fall in 5th grade. I taught 5th grade math for years, and was always told I was doing a brilliant job. Yet, whenever the talk of test scores came around, all eyes were glued on me, as if to say, “Why aren’t you doing enough?”
When they come to me not knowing their mult facts, long division, fraction or decimal concepts – how can I move on? It’s not like in social studies – if you fail the test on China, that won’t stop you from acing the test on Mexico. But, if you don’t understand mult/div concepts, fractions & decimals will be hard to impossible to do beyond rote memorization.
We have a curriculum guideline, but no curriculum map. That’s usually done by the system and given to all the teachers to follow. We were told this year that we were to create our own, including the activities, links, etc. That’s not my job. My job is to interpret & implement curriculum that I’m given. Why is it not the mucky-mucks’ job to do this? Because “we are not a school system, we are a system of schools.” School’s have autonomy still to create their own calendar & purchase their own books. But, not when it comes to how the cafeteria is run, or what to pay us (which changed to “performance based”, not experience/years of service based, but is all about what each parish can pay), and the standardized test taken & when. We just had 5 snow days, 2 delays & 1 early dismissal in 2 weeks – we still test next week, right on schedule.
They want us to teach common core, but that curriculum guide doesn’t match up anymore. Neither do our texts. But the test is common core. How can you win a war without the ammunition?
The frustration I’ve also had with the discrepancy model is unbelievable. But, we don’t have the resources to give kids pull-out services, small-groups, etc, that public schools do. We do the best we can, and it’s evident in primary grades. But, middle school is a different thing – I’m worried about some of my students when they get to 5th grade (which is lumped in with MS b/c they switch classes 8 times a day like them, and are taught by some MS teachers). It will eat them alive b/c they’re not mature enough yet.
Catholic schools are feeling the pressure to conform, too.
One of the interesting side bars to this situation is that students are losing respect for their teachers because the teachers can not teach them what they need to learn. Add to this the dependence on electronic devices, allowed in almost every classroom, and we are raising a generation which does not respect their elders or those in authority, and totally ignores direction and discipline by having earphones on constantly.
As a result, most of the conscientious and dedicated teachers are being forced out of the profession which they love and forced to retrain for a new career.
As a college lecturer, I see this type of behavior every semester. The negative attitude is out of this world and frankly I blame the parents. They are the ones who need to teach their children how to behave and respect everyone.
Give me a break, Keith. When was the last time you were in the classroom? My students respect me just fine and no, they don’t sit in my class with headphones in except when they are working on their own with permission. Do you honestly think we allow that? I do allow the usage of devices in my room since I teach IT and they are tools of our trade. When they are out on tech jobs they take photos and text them back to me, text me with questions (even when I’m out of school at a training or home sick), and text each other when they aren’t going to be in for the day as they should do as professionals.
Otherwise we interact throughout the day and do just fine. I’m blessed to be in a position where I don’t have to teach to a state test. My students are prepping for professional tests (A+, MTA, Network+) but I don’t teach “to” those, either. I base my units on them but teach beyond them because they need to know more than just an ocean wide but a puddle deep.
I am proud of the job I do, but more proud of the kids I teach because they are amazing. This year so far five are fully A+ Certified out of 11 who are working on it and the rest will be by the end of the year. Such good kids.
teechur,
It is wonderful that you work in a situation where students respect you. I work in a fourth grade classroom in a low income area. Rarely are we, the teachers and para-educators, respected by most students. Students do not know how to settle down and stick to a task as they could in the past. I’m not asking for hours of focus just 20 minutes of focused reading or writing work.
The students are coming in thinking they can be rude, disrespectful, and obnoxious because that is how their parents act when they come in for student conferences. The first teacher of any child is the parent. Kids will act, swear, and have tantrums just like they do at home until they learn it doesn’t work. When schools are no longer able to send students home for poor behavior, the teacher is in an impossible situation.
We are expected to get every child up to state benchmarks to be considered successful. How is that done when we have 28 students in one classroom, nine of which are severe behavior problems and disrupt every lesson and activity. Is that fair to the remaining 17 kids? No but I don’t have a choice. The students who throw chairs and scream and cuss when asked to read quietly with me for five minutes talk all of my time and are not sent to the office or sent home like they should be due to new district behavior plans.
teechur, you have 11 students working at what must be a high school level to go for networking and A+ certifications. How about you try on my classroom for a year and I’ll run yours? Then you can be angry with someone for having a different opinion. What Keith said is true, many kids do abuse the use of technology. It just happens that your program is about the responsible use of tech. The students in your class actually want to be there. Lucky you.
I agree with most of this, and I am an educator so I speak from experience. Here’s my question- what if teachers teach to the ability or lower standards for students year after year? What if students graduate having never read a book or text that prepares them for college or a career? It sounds great to teach to students levels, but we also need to ensure that students do have access to content and curriculum that prepares them to be successful beyond 12th grade. Having rigor and adjusting math early so students are more prepared later on is not all bad. Yes, there needs to be a balance, but suggesting that rigor and grade level content are problems doesn’t make sense to me.
I don’t believe I was suggesting that rigor was necessarily a bad thing in itself. Only that we do need to recognize that ability levels differ and if you are going to require a teacher to teach something, then you also need to give him/her the professional freedom to meet the needs of the students in the room. We can’t continue to tie the hands and the legs of our teachers and expect them to mount impossible hurdles.
I couldn’t have said it better, myself, Stephanie.
I teach at a school for the blind which taught kids for years at their level… The result? We get kids of average intelligence taking prealgebra for the first time at 17. The teachers had totally underestimated their students’ abilities. We have changed our approach and now most of the kids who have been taught on the new approach are at or very close to grade level. Those who aren’t have cognitive issues and will probably should be life skills.
Yes we need to prepare the students, but we also have to look at what students are actually able to do based on what their brains are capable of doing. Many of the grade levels now are teaching subjects and lessons that are one to two years above where they should be. Fifteen years ago those lessons would have been in the grade or two grades above them. This is another problem that we have. People who are not educators are creating what we are suppose to teach. I teach Kindergarten. The first grade teachers in my building have told me that I teach what they use to teach half way through first grade. Yes, many of my students have risen to this occasion, but are we letting kids be kids? Those students who struggle, back fifteen years ago, wouldn’t have been considered “struggling” so much as they would have been on grade level with those standards back then.
Current educational practice relative to things like reading instruction are far more linked to a political agenda than they are to either long term educational research or the fact that some of these skills are developmental in nature and some kids will achieve them later while still being perfectly bright. One of the smartest young men I know did not read until he was nearly 11. The first book he read was Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Yet a year earlier he couldn’t have read an easy reader. All of the research back in the 20th century demonstrated that the average age at which kids would easily learn to read was something close to 6 and a half. Now we’ve got reading instruction beginning in kindergarten where some of the students may have only turned 5 the month before entering. It’s like asking every 7 month old out there to begin walking simply because there are some 7 month olds who do walk. Thank goodness that families still have home school and private school options. Curses on those private and parochial schools who have knuckled under to the pressure to switch to Common Core.
That was an amazing article. I wish there was something I could to help. That has got to be frustrating.
My mom was a public school teacher for 40 years and would have appreciated this post so very, very much. Thanks for writing, Stephanie.
I’m just curious, would you ever consider opting him out of the state standardized tests? Also, I must say that I LOVE talking to N on Wednesday nights. Even just the little 2 minute conversations brighten my day.
As a mom I say, “Absolutely.” Honestly, the purpose of the test is to collect data. I see no benefit to him taking them, other than to collect that data, and he’s already been tested a gazillion times so there is plenty of that to go around. Otherwise, his scores are only going to drag down the mean of his class, count against his teacher, and reflect negatively on him. While frustrating him immensely at the same time. What good is that doing him exactly? But if we just have all the low kids opt out, that’s not entirely fair either, is it?
Thank you for this. You just gave me the best reason I have seen to opt out my child next year. He has a trauma history and an IEP because of behavioral concerns. But he tests well and learns, although his grades don’t reflect this. I’m a retired teacher as well, and remember when two days of brief testing gave teachers more information than the weeks of testing now.
I work in a school that is full of loving, dedicated teachers and other staff. The students are generally happy and know that their school is a safe place and that the adults who work there are people they can turn to for help. They respect the adults in general and we have very few genuine discipline issues compared to the district I worked in before. Yet, we have been given a “D” by the state, based heavily on test scores. It’s clear to me that test scores and levels of poverty match up neatly every where you go in this country. Why do our political leaders ignore this very important fact? I can only conclude that it is because there are they are beholden to special interests who want to see public education undermined so that they can swoop in and profit from its destruction.
Rob- you hit the nail on the head. This craziness has nothing to do with improving schools. It is a way to profit immensely from the tests and creation of products to go with new curricula. It is a way to dismantle teacher unions and get vouchers through in all states. It is a way to segregate schools again because those who can afford private school can go and those in poor communities get the scraps. It is a way to control and automate public education. All of this is exactly the opposite of how the best countries in education do things– Finland and Singapore– no standardized tests, autonomy and respect for teachers. Teachers are respected as professionals like doctors and lawyers are here. They are given time to collaborate and do what is best for students. We used to have that until greedy companies and politicians discovered the untapped lucrative field of education and schools. This is their new gold mine! Politicians get funding for their campaigns so long as they write legislation to keep the tests going. Check out ALEC if you don’t believe me. The Koch brothers et al have taken over our government (now a oligarchy rather than a representative democracy) and our education. You may think I sound extreme, but I am not– for years I was a middle of the road republican. I have also taught in public schools for over 22 years. I have watched as Americans have been increasingly busy trying to stay afloat while their voice has been taken away. It is time to stand together and take our country back, and our education system back, and support policies for the good of all and not those who own the banks and multi- billion dollar corporations. No politician should get funding for their elections by supporting Pearson or any other testing and curricula provider! We are losing amazing teachers every day and few want to even step into the job because of how we treat teachers. Aren’t our children our most valued asset? Why are we not investing in their future? Why have we let greed and politics taint their future? Why have we fallen for the stories that American schools were failing so we needed this reform? Did the reform work? I think to answer to that is a big NO. Give teachers back the schools and we will right the ship! Trust us and we will create a system we all can be proud of and one that will help every child succeed… Because all children deserve a great education– one that nurtures their intellectual abilities and fosters excitement for learning.
Bravo! You are exactly right!
I there was a “like” button for your comment my friend!
This is so precise. Thank you. Please spread this message to as many people as possible. We need to fight back!
Amen and Hallelujah! This mommy/teacher agrees wholeheartedly!
First, very good article. Public education terrifies me. I have one kid through it, 5 in it, and one yet to enter. I’m a divorced mom working full time so home school is not an option and being single with 6 kids, neither is private school. It’s just sheer luck that I have very bright kids and so have not had issues (in fact, was once begged to let my daughter make up the testing she was sick for because “we really need her scores.” Thanks for the candid honesty on the situation). I just wanted to comment on your but about no other profession…. I am an RN. I have a college degree and multiple certifications. My job is dictated to me by insurance companies and law makers who saw fit to hobble me with affordable care act. And obstetricians who want women to have babies on their own schedule rather than the baby’s. I know the state of teaching in America is in a pretty rough place these days. But please know, teachers are not alone.
Yes, I imagine that nurses are the one other profession who can relate. 🙂
Rather telling that both professions are predominantly held by women…
The IQ discrepancy method is no longer considered a valid and reliable source for determining eligibility and learning disability. I’m surprised that many districts are still using it.
The fact is that many are.
You misspelled “ailments”.
Thanks. I fixed it. That’s why I taught math and science. 🙂
What I strongly believe is that politicians and government have absolutely no business telling educators how to do their job! Would lawyers, doctors,or any other profession tolerate it? No! We have advanced degrees , experience , and the heart for what we do. Tell the government to stay out of what they do not understand!
Unfortunately the medical profession is tolerating it. I am a primary care provider and have watched the decline. Medicine is now a business and how we practice and take care of our patients is dictated by people who have zero experience. It’s heartbreaking to see the similarities in the struggles in our professions and to see it turn so many of us away who truly want to help.
For fifty years the one constant predictor of academic success is economic status. More kids than ever are living below the poverty line. If we don’t fix that, we will continue to see the test scores that the politicians are so upset about and continue to blame the teaching profession.
Thank you for your thoughts.
When I taught math, I was told not to help the “no color” students, because they had no chance to pass the test. That’s why the school labeled the “no color.” I was appalled and ignored my department head. I worked hard with ALL my students. When the all mighty test results were released, my “no color” students had raised their scores by a higher percentage than any of my othe students, one of these students with “no chance of passing,” actually passed. I use to love teaching, but, I couldn’t take the pressure of teaching the way they insisted. Last June, after 26 years of teaching, I retired.
My heart breaks for you and your son. I have THREE kindergartners this year that this is happening to, and I thought we were the only ones. After being the “squeaky wheel” for over 100 days now, I feel hopeless. The district will not even give me a part-time para for these babies. I have never felt so frustrated in my entire life. What is happening is criminal. It is wrong. Thank you for writing such a powerful article.
You don’t have to feel bad for my son. He’s one of the lucky ones who is in a school that is student-centered and is willing to continue to meet his needs whether or not he has the official paperwork. I know that not all students are so fortunate. That’s why I wrote this post. I hope that you find support for your class in some way, be it through community volunteers or some other creative solution. I feel confident you will, but I know how frustrating it is.
I taught in public school and I had children who attended them, in addition to my experiences as a student. I’ll take all manner of bets from all comers that my opinion will not be supported, but I’ll put it out there. Over the years, I’ve seen one major change that is the cornerstone to all of this discontent. Administrators are doing overbearing things because parents all think their children are in the 10% for intelligence and, if they aren’t, there is some condition they have to excuse that (no offense intended to parents of children who have actual learning disabilities). So, teachers/schools are not able to help the students become successful (and happy); they must be exceptional, or “I’ll find out who’s responsible.” So, we spend an enormous amount on standardized tests, studies, and more administrators to manage these projects, rather than into the classroom – you know, that place where learning is supposed to be taking place. Politicians talk about putting more money into education, yippy, let’s elect that one; then they throw it in the wrong place. And parents need to have a reality check – participation trophy, my a** – that’s not what builds self-esteem!
I’ll simply add another (though perhaps more rare possibility). I teach 6th grade. A current student who had an IEP and was in a resource class for math and language arts, but reg. ed for science and social studies. I teach LA and SS. Even with modifications and meeting all of his accommodations, he was failing. I don’t want to beat up on him with all the details of his classroom behaviors that seem to prevent him from completing tasks because my point is that at his annual (or tri? -I wasn’t the gen ed teacher present) last fall, his mother insisted on removing him from SpEd. She could not be talked out of it. We teachers are still essentially trying to provide support for him, but again, his test scores should not effect my livelihood. It’s not fair.
This is so true and I hope that this will circulate and make a difference. Teachers have such little authority over the emphasis on high stakes testing and its devastating outcomes. One low test score on one testing day can pull your whole student population’s averages down and make you accountable on paper for things you really have very, little control over. Testing is really an ineffective way to assess some students because of a number of factors, but the big publishers of these tests have deep connections. One year according to your test scores, you can be a fabulous teacher, but the next year, your next scores (same teaching methods and teaching same standards) you can look like a failure. Did I mention that I teach in a state that has reduced funds per student, no raise for four years, and our health care was changed without a vote from BCBS to Aetna? The people making these decisions do so for one reason and it’s usually not for the benefit of our children!
Completely agree with you. It’s so sad what has happened to our education system. The gaps are only getting wider and wider. I witnessed children who could not read or write getting pushed into the next grade every year. The teachers and counsellors saying year after year the children would catch up, but they never did. When parents asked to hold them back each year, the school would not allow it because that would look bad on them and their evaluations.
I’m not a teacher but I am a parent volunteer and I led groups of girls. I watched the dynamics and the school environment change before my eyes from when my first child started school to my 4th. We became so frustrated that our children were being used as guinea pigs and were only seen as dollar signs, we started homeschooling this year.
So many parents don’t have a single clue what CCS and PARCC are all about. Even the parents who are involved with their children. They don’t the extent or the harm that is being done. Some have bought the hype that testing is the only way to know if our children are learning.
It’s all sad and disturbing what is being done in public education. Pray without ceasing and fight the good fight! Our children need us to fight!!
Stephanie, thanks for your words, and many thoughtful responses. While all of my teaching has been in Pennsylvania, I have been in public schools (about 8 1/2 years), private school (5 years), homeschool (4 years), and tutoring throughout. I have a son currently in public school, with a 504 plan in place as Sensory processing disorder does not qualify him for an IEP (and achievement is on or above grade level in most areas).. so fortunate to have excellent teachers in our district but so not looking forward to next year for him as that will be his first PSSA. I am glad to be out of the public schools, as there is so much more to an education and making life long learners than test scores. I especially silly see that in the school where I am current teaching. We meet the students where they are, work with them, and try to help them learn to love learning!
As long as our public schools are run by politicians, from the President, to the Congress, state legislatures, school boards, administration, etc., they will be about POLITICS and not EDUCATION.
You are right on – too bad the ones making the decisions don’t have a clue! It’s time they left it up to the professionals!
As one with both a BS and an MA in Education, I am a teacher’s advocate. However, after teaching remedial education in a community college for the past 15 years, I can understand the mindset of the ‘reform now’ group in regards to education. Seventy to seventy five percent of the students who graduate from our local high school, many with honors, are funneled into our program because they lack the most fundamental basic skills. In math most cannot do long division without a calculator. They cannot add, subtract, multiply, divide or order simple fractions. Using decimals is worse, and the ability to see the connections between fractions and decimals is a huge problem. In language skills, they cannot write or even identify a simple sentence. Writing a 5 sentence coherent paragraph is a chore for many, and a good percentage of these students cannot identify a main idea in a junior high level paragraph. The list goes on. Are these students unteachable? Absolutely not! Many of them become successful students and graduate and thrive in very rigorous fields of study. The truth is that our current k-12 system has failed these students. Our recent attempts at reform have only made things worse and have forced our best and most experienced teachers into retirement. Something has to change before it is too late.
I couldn’t agree more. I had to battle my district almost every year for a decade, so that my very smart, ADHD, LD kid received the education she needed. I had to make sure she wasn’t penalized in her strong areas bc she was “an IEP kid” and secure appropriate services for her in her deficit areas. I was VERY involved learning everything I could about our district, special education and public education in general. In the high school she graduated, 2/3 of kids had a 90%+ honor roll average, taking AP’s, etc. Yet some of my peers’ kids from the same high school, who got into some very good colleges with those honor roll grades (and SAT scores) were not well prepared for college i.e., struggling to write papers. I sent my other child to a private, college prep high school (no state tests) and she opted to not take AP’s but was in honors classes. She received an EXCELLENT foundation for college in terms of reading, writing, math and critical thinking skill. In the meantime, implementation of RtI has been a joke. The district has retrofitted AIS services into RtI tiers, no real change in rates of improvement, which RtI, if executed properly, should do. Problems all around!!!!
Yet all I hear from most teachers is that it is someone else’s fault. When we have more than one teacher in a system who assigns students grades for lining the football and baseball fields instead of their math prowess, when we have teachers who sit on the computer or their cell phones after assigning one problem in an entire block period, when we have people with history degrees teaching trig, when we have teachers who are too cool to be the adults in a classroom, we have a systemic problem. We have a problem with lazy ineffective teachers who give the rest of us bad names and force the need for accountability. Yes need. We need some way to ensure our kids are being served. We need reform from the top down.
Bingo! I’m a high school teacher and the despairing amount of students who can’t read or perform basic math functions is a constant challenge. However, the pressure of administrators to “pass kids on” to increase the graduation rate and the backlash when a student receives a failing grade is horrendous. I fully believe that if a student doesn’t master grade level skills, then they shouldn’t be passed along point-blank-period. Instead, students are granted “recovery packets”(that they usually don’t complete themselves) which don’t highlight the SKILLS they need to advance and succeed in the next grade. The education system fails our children by not allowing students to see that it is important to acquire skills and not just perform on test day.
I’m a former teacher with kids now starting school, too. (I taught high school though.) I completely agree with your frustrations here. There are definitely some aspects that are broken and making things more difficult for teachers. I’m amazed and thankful for the many wonderful teachers who create magic in the classroom anyway.
If you don’t mind what is his IQ?
We need an education system designed by educators to actually teach our children (not just test). We need an education system that isn’t forced to change completely ever two or three years. We need to improve starting pay. We need more money for classrooms and classroom supplies so teachers aren’t paying out of pocket. We need a means to reward those teachers who continue to perform above an beyond, year after years without tying it to student performance because student performance is not always in the hands of the teacher (see article above). We need a means of providing more up to date classrooms for poor districts so they can compete on a more equal level with more affluent districts. We need a means of getting parents more involved in their child’s education and I don’t mean for them to come to the school only to complain about how the school is “failing” their little darling who never bothers to turn in homework, often refuses to do classwork, and never studies for tests.
The law no longer requires the deficit model for special education eligibility for students with a specific learning disability. Additionally, since he’s not 9 yet, doesn’t your state have developmental disability 6-8? With all the other diagnoses you mention he should qualify under either DD6-8 or Other Health Impairment if he doesn’t qualify under specific learning disability. There is a flaw in your states law if they say he doesn’t qualify for services. Sorry that that is what I focused on here, but I’m a special education teacher and get frustrated when I hear situations like yours. Under the Response to Intervention aspect, if he’s not responding to the supports he had, they should be providing even more supports.
Clearly, you need a lawyer. An IEP CANNOT be taken away just because performance and IQ match, unless your child ONLY qualified under SLD. You have noted that your child is diagnosed with conditions which put him in other categories of qualification. Therefore, either someone in your sped admin is reading things wrong or they are intentionally cutting back on sped population using parental ignorance of IDEA law as leverage…. probably because of statistical penalties from idiotic regulations that are not constitutional nor aligned to IDEA. You have a lawsuit.
I am a special ed teacher, and a parent of a young man who has multiple disabilities, and due to proper, adequate IEP coverage is now taking remedial college classes and working part-time. You truly need a lawyer, because you’ve been hoodwinked.
That’s exactly what did happen. He has no official diagnosis. So he just doesn’t qualify, as frustrating as it is. That’s the way it works.
The diagnosis for children possibly on the spectrum but not yet with a true autism diagnosis is PDD NOS. All you need is a pediatrician letter stating it (and preferably using IDEA language) Qualifies for IEP under OHI at the very least.
Teachers are not the only profession to have their hands tied by beaurocracy. I work for a government conservation agency, and we have many of the same woes. Performance measures are tied to implementing some new initiative that is adopted in year one, and not adequately funded in subsequent years. I cannot do the research necessary when I have no budget to hire technicians. I believe the common denominator – legislators creating simplistic solutions for complex problems with little to no background understanding – affects all professions ruled by elected officials.
In 1999, I was invited to speak at a White House briefing on technology use in education. The speaker introducing me asked all of the teachers in the room to raise their hands; I raised my hand and so did one other woman. His point was that policy makers often pass laws affecting people without taking the time to get input from multiple voices. There was quite a crowd there but only two teachers. I am sad to see that not much has changed.
As a second-career educator, I shake my head at the lack of real world solutions offered by ‘leadership’ in our education system. As I neared the end of my teacher preparation program in 2012, having done several practicums in public schools and actively participating in the state education association, I made a choice and did my student teaching in a Catholic high school. I’m in my first year at at Title I Catholic middle school. I’m fortunate that the specialists from our public school system assigned to our students are consummate professionals. Many of my students cannot work at the pace a public school would require in order to fill all the squares, ‘teach’ all the content (chapters). I miss the camaraderie of friends and colleagues in public schools, but I am so thankful for the freedom I have to reach all of my students and make a difference in every life. I doubt I would have that ability in public schools.
Why are so many of you telling Stephanie she is wrong, her son should qualify? It sounds to me like she knows what the state regulations are. In NJ there needs to be a two year gap. You can get certain services, like speech or occupational therapy, and not qualify for any other services. I only read a handful of the comments and telling Stephanie essentially that she is wrong seems condescending to me and doesn’t make her feel any better about her situation. And no, I don’t think she needs me to defend her, but those comments were making me angry so, just my two cents.
Be careful if your assumptions – medicine is in a the very same state right now.
I have only been teaching for 4 years and I already feel like maybe I should look into another profession. I am starting to feel like I wasted my time in college. What was the point of all of my learning and training (I even obtained a Master’s degree) if I’m only going to be told how to do my job and that what I’m doing now is wrong or not good enough. Teachers get blamed for just about everything wrong in education. We are an underpaid, underappreciated scapegoat. As prisons continue to fill up to beyond capacity, no one blames the police or the legal system for crimes being committed. We blame the prisoners themselves, sometimes look into past and present family life, or even decide society, as a whole, has failed them. As the nation’s obesity rate rises and our health seems to be plunging, we don’t blame doctors and the health care system for not don’t enough or for inadequate preventative care. We blame the patients themselves, family upbringing, and even restaurants. Yet, when students perform poorly or we see the US rank in education compared to other countries, we look at teachers first. (I am in no way saying our health care professionals or our police officers are at fault for anything. I am just merely making a comparison.) I teach kindergarten and I love my kids. I think about leaving the profession but then I worry that my position will just be filled by a warm body reading a script and I worry about my kinder babies to come. But I fear it won’t be long before I can no longer accept being treated like I can’t be trusted to do my job. And I have a family at home who don’t deserve to get whatever I have left to give after a long stressful overwhelming day. Good luck to all my fellow educators and I guess all we can do is keep trying to do what’s best for our students and be a voice for them.
We give the EOG’s here in North Carolina of course. The purpose is still beyond me. I taught mostly K-5 (but not 4th) for 35 plus years. They were supposed to be The Test to see if children should be sent on to the next grade, repeat, or go to summer school. Not once see a child repeat due to poor test grades. Once or twice they had to go to summer school, but not one time did anyone ever fail summer school. Then they ran out of $$ so no more summer school. Thus, the tests continued to see if the teachers were doing their jobs so we began teaching to the test, although “officially” we didn’t teach to the tests. Then along came Common Core and I threw up my hands. I just thanked God I was retiring. Amen.
This exactly why education should be privatized. Government has no place in education!
What about returning to an age where education is the privilege of “gentlemen’s sons” appeals to you? Are you a member of some gentry who will retain the privilege of education when it’s out of reach for everyone else? Do you like the idea of a population even more ignorant and gullible than it is today? Our founding fathers knew that education was key to continuation of a working democratic republic. That is even more true today. Education is the key to getting out of poverty, to innovation, to the critical examination of competing ideas on something more than the presenter’s looks or invocations of God.
What we have right now needs work. Lots of work. Work that needs to be undertaken by people who understand education and teaching. And it needs to be done on the kind of scale that government is designed to provide.
Privatize education and too many people will be left outside the doors when their only crime was not being born into the “right” families.
I agree Jennifer! Privatizing education only puts more “profits” on the heads of children. ALL children deserve a quality education.
Russ–What do you think the goal of the testing and No Child Left Behind was? It was to privatize schools (the Bush brothers were big on that). And guess what? Studies have shown that private schools do no better than public in performance. And how would you make sure that lower income students could go to school if everything was privatized?
Part of the problem with schools now comes from people like Bill Gates who think that schools should be run like businesses and have clear results like test scores. They don’t understand that a standardized test score doesn’t show much of anything beyond how a child performed on a test on that day. Education doesn’t work that way. I think the goal should be seeing if the kids are making progress each year in their classes (for example, doing a pre-test at the beginning of the year in each subject….and not a standardized test, mind you, and then a post-test at the end of the year). That would give a clearer picture on how students are progressing and what they are learning.
Privatizing won’t focus on the student’s needs. It will focus on earning money. Period.
This is so incredibly true. I have been teaching for only a few years. This has been one of the most condescending and demeaning careers I have ever known. I’m going to give it one more try before I throw in the towel. The sad this is that I really love teaching. I have also invested tens of thousands of dollars into this career. I teach art. I have been treated like a babysitter, have reached just about all of my students, but that didn’t matter because apparently I’m supposed to be kissing someone’s ass…because THAT my friends, is how you are supposed to get ahead. I’m incapable of ass kissing. As I said, I teach art, but what I’m REALLY teaching is higher order thinking skills, critical thinking skills, problem solving skills, and creativity, all which is needed in life. As far as the beauteous standardized tests, art will help that process too. I’m an awesome test taker because of my art skills and studio habits. None of that seems to matter. And the administration, they can do what ever they want-even lie on teacher evaluations-they’re never questioned.
I can’t put into words how disappointed I am with our public education system.
Also an art teacher. Not only the above, but with all of the testing, and getting the kids set up to pass them, they are pulled out of my classes in order to have academic interventions. So, the class they are happy and successful in is now taken away from them. To study. For a test.
And when they get burned out on school and start failing academic classes they get pulled from their elective classes for grade recovery. Because (no offense, I’m a parent too) parents can’t pick them up late from school or drop them off early to recover. Frustrating all around.
To top it off, there are two classes that I won’t name because I like my job, that our district is pushing. This leaves less openings for true fine arts or kinesthetic electives. One is supposed to be a college-prep class (remember I teach junior high) but the kids basically watch videos all the time. Another is a career and technology class that the district requires the kids to take. It basically takes the place of what the counselors are supposed to do to get the kids scheduled for high school but can’t because they are so focused on scheduling for our school wide test days I guess.
School sucks right now. Not just for the kids but for the teachers who actually care about the kids too.
Preach! I live this daily and keep hoping the masses will wake up soon. :[ I also hope for parents to better prepare their children in the first 3-5 critical years of their lives. It’s a perfect Storm trying to teach a moving target to kids who don’t know what it means to be a learner. Sigh.
We Also need to stop electing people on school boards and people in higher education decision making positions who have never even stepped foot in a classroom!!!!
I have taught at a public high school for nearly 20 years. I have taught students that have low ability and do not qualify for an IEP. I know of the student type the writer is referring to. And I have sat in on a few IEP meetings where a student was being removed from services due to not qualifying anymore even though the student was performing lower than his/her peers but was not low enough to qualify based on that alone.
“There is no other profession where you are required to obtain a college degree, take multiple certification tests, and prove yourself through a residency program only to not be allowed to perform your job as you know best once you are in it. ”
Try medicine. You are required to get a college degree, a graduate degree, and residency (minimum of 7 years AFTER undergrad). You have to pass board certification exams (at least every 10 years). Hours of continuing medical education each year. $200k in student loans. Then, after getting into this select crowd, you get treated like anyone else in a “service” profession. When I call someone on their smoking, drinking, drug-seeking, obesity, poor choices, or anything else that they don’t want to talk about, then I risk getting a poor patient satisfaction score. Then some administrator, likely with a masters degree, or an old fart of a doctor that hasn’t had to practice in the current environment, puts up a bullseye graph and asks what is wrong with us. Wrong with us. The problem is, they don’t want the best medical care. They want the best scores. Because they CANNOT understand clinical realities, only comparing one number to another.
So, you can forget about teachers being singled out. I have a news flash. The problem is that the inmates are running the insane asylum.
And the shocking thing is, we let them do it.
Medicine takes far more education and training (and the academic aspect is far more difficult and competitive), and, at the risk of riling some folks in education, typically tougher work schedules. (I am in higher ed and work long hours, but I can do lots of grading/planning/etc from home.) Of course there is more of a financial reward for the effort for a physician.
There is a certain similarity though. Physicians are also increasingly being pushed to do things against their medical opinions, administrators pushing unnecessary tests to avoid legal exposure, general high malpractice insurance rates, performance measures with little basis in reality, etc.
I totally agree – it’s time educators are consulted about educational decisions. When legislators decide education decisions, there are a lot of unintended consequences.
For your son’s academic needs, I would highly recommend a program called Leaning Rx.
I just want to point out that doctors and lawyers are hired by individuals. Teachers are not hired by their customers (students) so they are held to a different standard. If a doctor does poorly, his/her patient can go to another doctor. If a teacher does poorly, students can’t just go to another teacher. That being said, I agree with everything else in your article….Sometimes statistics and tests mean nothing. A doctor can have a high mortality rate for his patients in surgery; it might mean he is a bad doctor or perhaps it means he takes on patients that were terminal and was giving them a fighting chance. That is how I feel sometimes about special education teachers. They are taking on the cases the rest of us shy away from and their successes are not the same as ours but sometimes they are phenomenal.
“If a teacher does poorly, students can’t just go to another teacher.”
No, but they CAN go to another school. And, for both public & private, that’s how schools close.
Our public school system has something called “magnet programs,” where parents can choose to send their child to a school that specializes in certain programs – math/science/technology, the arts, medical, etc. Parents have to apply &, in some instances students have to interview or perform, and wait to get accepted. It’s very time consuming, but highly competitive. According to the system, it was a way in integrating schools without using race (which Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional).
There are several problems with this model. The biggest is – not all schools are magnet schools. So who goes to those schools? The students in the area “left over” after the “talent” has been drawn away to schools with more to offer in terms of content (interest to the student= better performance), teachers (you have to have specialized teachers for specialized classes), & $/student (there’s gov’t incentive to become a magnet school, & they pay extra for it). Those schools historically have poor test scores. It sets up those schools to fail.
My son’s home school was one of those schools. And, I knew there was no way he was going there, but we went to the open house anyway. It was leaky, bulletin boards were faded & falling down, and the principal all but begged the parents in attendance to send their kids there. It was so sad, especially since 20 years earlier, it was a strong school, graduating well-educated students. It closed the following year, and some of the people I follow on social media had gone there and sang it’s praises.
Another problem with a magnet system is that some parents can’t go to the showcase of schools (where the schools have booths & essentially compete against each other for students), or fill out the forms b/c they’re working or don’t have the language skills. So, they are stuck going to the home school in their regional cluster. If they’re lucky, it’s also a magnet school. But, they’ll be in the general education population, not the magnet population. We were told at one open house that the advanced program/magnet students didn’t even switch classes at the same time as the gen ed students. They said, “they don’t mix.” Isn’t that just segregation within a school?
SMH
I hear your frustration, rightfully so however your profession is not the only one that suffers with governmental laws determining potential function, skill level. I am an occupational therapist and struggle daily with the governmental and institutional regulations. I was required to obtain a Master’s degree, take national board testing, and complete 6 months of residency without pay.
I am limited by the services that can be provided despite the potential of the patient as I can only work with the patients to regain highest skill level within the past 6 months. I am not allowed, despite my knowledge, expertise, and experience, to improve a patient’s capability to full function. Such that if a patient recently required assistance to complete basic self care and capability to govern his house, had surgery which improved his cardiovascular status. This also therefore improved his potential for greater independence in his home and life, but therapy services can only, per governmental and insurances requirements, improve a patient’s quality of life to prior level of function…not full capacity!
Truly, I don’t agree at all with the limitations presented in my field nor in yours, however I request you keep your mind open to other occupational professionals who struggle with similar limitations that force dedicated staff to give personally without reimbursement or those who simply comply with the limitations and depend on natural healing for maximum progress.
Oh I’m so glad to have found this. I too, am a former teacher who has held her tongue for far too long. It’s scary (for me) putting myself out there, but I just last night posted a letter to my daughter’s (future) kindergarten teacher and am already trying really hard to to regret it. It’s gotten a lot of reads on Medium and has been RT’d on Twitter quite a bit, and I’ve received a few less-than-pleasant comments from former co-workers who are more…..complacent than I was as a teacher. Everything with the status quo of education right now makes me crazy, and I thought by writing about it I’d feel better, and I did initially, but like I said, now I’m wondering if it’s the right thing to do. I’m not sure I have the courage to do this!
Other than the skeptical IEP questions (above), have you had any pushback? Have you been nervous to put your thoughts out there?
I taught in the mid-70s. I was bumped by a tenured teacher wanting to return to teach after quitting, even though I was recommended by our department head to stay over that teacher, because I had done a better job. But, tenure is tenure. I left teaching to work in the water lab at TVA, then in a corporate position, and then went back in the classroom in 2009-2011. I teach 7th – 12th grade science and biology, and I was appalled at what has happened to our schools. The students are so disrespectful and undisciplined, even in the affluent areas. It is a sad situation. There seems to be little anyone is doing about the situation. The negative attitude towards education in this country is ludicrous. And, every year is seems another genius wants to sell their latest theory and use the kids as guinea pigs to see if it will work.
It is pretty evident what worked. Discipline and laying a foundation works. They act as though rote is a four letter word. We start teaching a preschool child to sing the ABC song, and the child has no more idea than the man in the moon what the ABC’s mean. But, it becomes ingrained and then a useful tool to use for more complex thinking later. Why we have decided this method of memorization, like for multiplication tables, is taboo I cannot understand. This trying to get children to think abstractly in kindergarten and the early elementary grades is so inane. These children should not even see a calculator until High School. It is no wonder they cannot balance an equation, because they are given crutches that artificially make them believe they are learning. They have no concept of what is going on. They are not functional.
There is also not enough time for recess in the elementary school to allow young children to problem solve by playing and interacting with other children in a free time situation. They develop social skills this way. Twenty to thirty minutes is not enough. By the time they get outside that huge building a good portion of that is used up. The institution is too structured. These are not robots, they need play and fresh air, and to be able to move about without a constant barrage of one thing after another in rapid succession to complete and turn in. Then homework should be kept to an absolute minimum. An occasional catch up assignment, maybe a long-term project, and studying for tests should account for homework.
Everything is done pretty much to please the student, often at the expense of the teacher, and boy don’t they know it. They play the system. And, God help you if you tick off a student who is “popular”, because they will scheme to get rid of a teacher who does not please them. When I subbed this was actually bragged about by the students in and English class I was covering in one of their writing assignments. They actually wrote how they did not like a particular teacher, and stated they were not going to behave for him. They know how to stick it to teachers.
Also, for self-preservation, you have colleagues who will go overboard so the students will like them even if it means throwing a fellow teacher under the bus so they will be popular with the students. This picking and choosing by students for whom they will cooperate, and for whom they will not, should not be tolerated. Teachers feel they have to defend themselves, but all those workshops and seminars you get sent to, that stuff may work for the rational student, but it does not work for mean-spirited, vengeful children.
I did much more enjoy the elementary students, but found the workload from a paper standpoint very unpleasant.
I don’t defend my choices in how I teach each student. I don’t get offended when I’m ridiculed for “wasting time” with class discussions and activities that develop empathy and motivation. I keep my eyes on my goal and that is to give each one of the 120 students in front of me, my very best. I will continue to stand on my students returning to say how much they miss me while they thank me for how and what I taught, as they master the next level of school. Their freshman year in high school was easier and successful because I was someone that had expectations for each of them, as individuals as well as students of academics. I make “being a learner” the first priority. When students find success in that mindset, the content follows. My students’ achievement is important, but their growth as individuals is paramount. Personally, I have learned to stop and take a breath. This is my life, too. If I can enjoy the moment that I’m standing in, I am modeling the behavior I want my students to take away for their lives. There will always be someone shaking their finger at you and telling you what to do. Respectfully, do what you know is right and do it the best that you can.
Amen!!! I used to teach 1st grade at Title 1 schools. I taught for 6 years. If you looked at my pre-test at the beginning of the year and my post-test at the end of the year, you could see the progress that happened in my class. That wasn’t good enough, though. Only the standardized tests counted and my kids were in the 40th percentile like yours. My principal started giving me hell because I wouldn’t teach to the test and the scores weren’t high enough, which reflected badly on him and the district.
I left teaching because I moved to Illinois (from Florida) to get married and start a family. While I miss the kids, I don’t miss “teaching” because it wasn’t about teaching anymore. It was about getting kids to perform well on 1 standardized test a year instead of looking at their overall progress in a year’s time. Now, nearly 6 years after leaving teaching, I don’t think I can ever go back unless something changes. (Heck, I didn’t renew my certificate because of how I feel.) I’m fed up at how teachers are treated as villains and schools are only there to test. Something needs to change and soon.
Thanks for an authentic review of what is happening to our “formerly LD” children. I taught for a number of years until I couldn’t take it any more. The stress of constantly being monitored over ridiculous stuff while requiring more and more meetings that took me away from planning and my classroom all the while expecting unrealistic results took its toll. I took a year off and then decided to not go back. I am fortunate that I could afford not to…my husband backed me wholeheartedly. I have a grown son who is learning impaired in oral and written language. It is scary to think what would have happened to him under today’s laws! As more and more parents and teachers fight back against the insanity, i have to hope that the pendulum is going to swing back.
I also hope the pendulum swings back, but in the meantime these children have lost a chunk of their education. It will be too late for some. There is always something new on the horizon, but because this testing and remediation are big moneymakers this isn’t going away so quickly. Not too long ago the big thing was Professional Learning Communities where teachers, administrators, students and community members all joined together to decide on school goals, classroom goals, etc. That was before our legislators decided teachers needed to be evaluated by test scores. What I would like to ask those legislators, “Do you feel that you are uneducated? After all, your teachers may have been inferior. Did having recess interfere with your education?” I’m sure many politicians learned quite a bit on the playground!
My suggestion to every parent I know is to OPT OUT. There are many sites which can help you go through the process of opting out for your state. Until more parents take a stand nothing will change.
I have twins, one with FAS (one – meaning that she has the facial features to prove that the birth mom drank alcohol during her pregnancy, causing permanent brain damage and an array of disabilities), and the other with FASD (lacking the facial features of FAS, but since she’s a twin, we know that she was also exposed). It is incredibly difficult to parent children with FASD. Then they make it challenging to get them the services they need in school. We’re fortunate to be in a very good school and to have started when an incredibly positive “can do” principal was running the school.
Stephanie, I wonder if you can get any information about whether your son’s birthmother drank during her pregnancy? Most parents can’t, so if the child doesn’t have the facial features of FAS, they are stuck going through multiple diagnoses of their kids’ issues and often not accessing the additional help in school their children need.
I agree that it is silly to think that my daughters can perform at “grade level” on standardized tests. Most “typical” students can’t make that grade! I just don’t worry about their grades and try to help them do the work they can handle on any given day in the hopes that they’ll achieve as best they can. And that our school district or my girls’ teachers should be condemned for not getting every child to reach the same high bar is quite ridiculous.
I hope that your son gets the support that he needs at school and that you don’t have to face the possibility of losing his IEP every year!
Thank you for sharing this perspective, Stephanie. My parents were both public school teachers and I taught special needs preschoolers in the public schools over a decade ago, but “the system” has changed immensely since then. I am actually on the other end as a mom – I have daughters who are performing above grade level. However, they are bored and being given assignments that are below their actual capability. I think a lot of it has to do with teachers being pressured to make sure children score well on the tests, so they spend most of their time focusing on the students who need extra help because they are not getting that extra help and support elsewhere. It is a vicious cycle in which NO student is really getting all their needs met. The teachers are doing the very best they can do with the support, resources, and rules they are given. Their hands are tied and everyone loses out in the end.
IDEA is a federal mandate it should not be different state to state. He should still qualify under Specific Learning Disability because he is in Tier 3 interventions and ( I am assuming) not catching up to peers. I am so happy that your school us doing what is best for your son, but they are incorrect in taking him off the IEP. SLD does not depend on IQ.
This is so well-written! I’m a teacher with 21+ years of teaching.
@Sherian Newberry I also teach in Texas and last year I spent countless amounts of time and energy trying to get help for one of my little girls. She missed ID (the new MR by a couple of points)- basically they told me there was no help we could get for her. She never totally mastered writing her 7 letter name and we worked on the letters and sounds in it for the whole year. The words of wisdom I received at years end were– don’t put in for testing at kindergarten– pass them on (place them) and let first grade recommend testing. The testing at kindergarten level still assumes that kindergarten in non- academic.
Just FYI, it’s not any different teaching college. It’s a general problem of labor: the institution will do poorly when managed by people who don’t intimately understand the processes and “products” that it produces. Education, for various reasons, is a sector dominated by so-called leaders who have either no idea what they’re talking about, or no expertise/experience whatsoever. Unlike many fields, most people *feel* like they should know, but that is false feeling.
I’ve been teaching middle school
For 23 years. Last year I started job interviews out of the profession. Every year I think more and more how it isn’t worth it- and I teach in an afuent school with high test scores. The demands are different here- pressure from parents for kids to only earn As, over enrolled classes, kids who have lost the U derstand ing of what it means to work hard. Too many preps, too many papers, not enough pay and I’m exhausted. If I could find another job to do that would replace this salary Id jump. It’s sad. I used to love teaching. Now I don’t want to go to work.
Ask for another autism eval. It is very difficult to detect high-functioning AU in young children, but if it’s already suspected, that could explain the “low but not low enough to be ID” test scores. A Certified Autism Specialist should be able to catch it.
As a former middle school math teacher you pretty much summed up why I don’t want to teach anymore, because those who make the decisions of what is supposedly best for the students (kids) don’t seem to ever consult the educators who actually spend time with these students teaching them. Truly sad state of affairs and don’t think I will ever get it to be honest.
I’m confused. You are a teacher and you know public school system is not going to meet your child’s needs and you kep sending him there? Homeschooling is your only option. You know that. Instead of getting frustrated over the public school, the best use of that energy would be teaching your child at home and helping him reach his full potential. There is no excuse for a mother with teaching experience. Good luck.
is she allowed to go out and earn her living or is that too much for her to expect, according to you?
We actually tried homeschooling for a while, but it was definitely not the right choice for our family. Our son is adopted out of foster care and when he had to see me as both mom and teacher there were too many regressions in his attachment. It was not worth it for us and it was not a healthy choice for our family. I actually don’t think public school is failing him at all, I think we as a country are failing our public schools. I keep my children in public school because I love having an entire team of professionals to collaborate with, I have loved the years when he was able to get his occupational and speech therapy on site and I appreciate that there are school psychiatrists and guidance counselors on site when issues do arise. His teachers love him and go above and beyond to support him. The teachers, in turn, do not receive the same amount of support.
I’ve read many of the comments here and I agree with the vast majority. We are overworked, underpaid and almost none of the flaming bureaucratic hoops we are required to jump through make sense. So how do I deal with it? I focus on the 30 students I have in front if me and forget the rest. In my classroom, we treat each other with respect, we learn how to overcome difficult situations, we work hard, we don’t quit, and at the end of the year we are all better because of it. I pay no attention to EES, NCLB, RTTT, Common Core, etc. Sure, I play the game, but I don’t stress over it. And when all is said and done, if my students and I are doing the best we can and our best isn’t good enough, then let them find someone else to do my job.
I was also a teacher (10 years), now I’m a stay at home mom looking for a normal place to send my kids for an education. I saw the same things you did and I wish I knew how to start a riot about it!! What can we do??
There are a lot of STUPID adults in this world who don’t understand!
I want to see an end to the system of putting all children of the same age – from the mentally disabled to the genius – in the same room to be taught the same thing. Some of the kids struggle, while others are completely bored. One kid excels at math, but has trouble reading at the same level as his peers, so he falls behind in general. While most kids shuffle through as expected, I fail to see how anyone WINS. We need a tiered system where each classroom is full of kids who are at the same level for that subject. Anything else is an illogical mess.
I learned multiplication in 3rd and 4th grade – that was in the early 70’s. My children learned the same in 3rd and 4th grade – private school and in High School home school. I just sigh at this common core thing. I do not want to understand it – but, what I do understand is just terrible.
I am a teacher and a mother. I just want to say, Thank You! I really appreciate your voice????.
Thank you for speaking the truth. As a educator who is dealing with these same issues day in and day out, it is comforting to hear we are in this together. Most of us become teachers to impact the lives of children, and the system completely limits our ability to do this. We also then have to deal with pay cuts and freezes, adding more hours of professional development, fewer benefits and insurance; it goes on and on. It breaks my heart to have to drag the students through curriculum that doesn’t serve them. I work with high school students with Learning Disabilities, and they feel stupid and defeated almost daily. I am in awe of their spirit of determination to get up every day and come to learn. I have such respect for teachers and students, and I hope one day our voices will truly be heard!
Know what I’m sick and tired of? I’m sick and tired of people who have no idea what I do, telling me what to do, and then telling me whether I’m any good at it?
I am sorry but I did not have time to read all the comments on this article. I have some teaching experience but got out due to frustration with the system as well.
The system has to accommodate for the full range of students capabilities, not expect all students capable of As. The lowest standard should hope that students graduate from high school with the ability to find a job, and take care of themselves if they don’t have any major mental disabilities to contend with and hope that most students will come away from high school with the desire to go on to higher education.
The first problem with the system is the grading system. Why do we expect all students to be able to progress the same in reading, writing, math, etc. in each grade. It may take one student two years to accomplish an aspect of math that another student can obtain in 6 weeks. The poor students are punished for not learning it quick enough and the smart student is punished for learning it too fast.
Why can’t we set up a system where students progress at their own rate in each subject? NO GRADES (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.). Divide each subject into progressive learning concepts. Test the student before the concept and after. If they do not pass, allow them to take that concept over. If perchance some students have already mastered this concept with and A + score, let them move on to the next concept if they and their parents wish. These concepts need to be the same nation wide so that when a student transfers to another school, he does not have to repeat the concept over again.
Second problem, telling parents that public education is a right and not a privilege. If students continuously act out in class they should be sent home till they change their attitude or require the parents to discipline their child by attending the class with them until they change their attitude. Bad students should not be allowed to be the rest down. Maybe we need to set up free military academies for students who need more discipline in their lives. Or it could be, we just need more child psychologists to work with students who cause problems in the class room.
We also need to spend less money on paying wages to principles, and superintendents and more on teacher wages and changes to the way we teach in the class rooms.
Increase the hours students are in school, more study hall for homework, more hours on physical ed. Use volunteers to cover the extra time the students are in school.
Well I could say more.
Amen, sister! As a public school teacher for the last 20 years, I have seen much of what you’re talking about.
I spent three frustrating years in a High School that was characterized by violence, gangs, unruly students and unruly parents where everything that went wrong was the teacher’s fault. I now serve on the Board of Directors for a Charter School Applicant. Our intention is to restore honor to the teaching profession by treating hard-working teachers as PROFESSIONALS who will be backed up by Administrators and allowed to TEACH! I understand that it is a radical departure from the insanity that has become the hallmark of our PC (political Correct) LEA.
If you were in Florida now, with VAM, your 98% gifted grades would be a problem. They don’t make enough gains, so you are not even effective if you have a whole class of that. If you are lucky, you get effective. It is best to teach the middle kids-they make the most gains! It is so messed up here that scores are given on a bell curve-meaning you are automatically penalized if you work at a high performing school! It is totally CRAZY! Oh, and just to put an even more interesting perspective on it, our VAM formula is closely related to the formula used to predict the reproduction rate of cows! Imagine that-we are herding children to the educational slaughter!
This has happened in my school as well. If the child has a low IQ and no strengths academically they don’t qualify. All the data in the world does no good! It is so very frustrating. Also, frustrating is how a student qualifies in another state, moves to my state and is no longer considered to be a Special Education student. I’m pretty sure moving across state lines does not automatically make you NOT need Special Education services anymore! So very broken and frustrating!
Those that can, please homeschool your children. They will get a much better education. Many of these teachers take the state test multiple times before passing in order to be able to teach. Your child will not get any better of an education that the one that you can give him. Saying that failure is the max potential is a failure of the system. However it is not No Child Left Behind. It is No Child Succeeds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Most teachers do not like this new system and it highly disadvantages children. I know of several teachers with masters that have decided to homeschool their children and maybe then go back to private or public school later on after the kids have grown up a bit. We are not moving forward in education but instead are falling further and further behind compared to other countries. They start at a later age, longer lunches, real recess- the list goes on at how much better they are than us.
Wait…. the school system, which you admit is effed up, is not helping your special needs child and you are still sending him to public school??? WTF…your first job is to advocate for your child.
As I explained in this post, his teachers continued to offer him every service, although they certainly did not have to, according to the law. I have never felt that he was underserved in his public school, only that the current system was tying the hands of his teachers in terms of his paperwork. I am fully aware of how the system works and able to advocate for him, which I have done, as have his teachers. Since this post was written a year ago he has been re-evaluated and qualified for further services. Not only did he eventually have his IEP reinstated, he qualified for a support classroom. He is now where he belongs and receiving much better more intensive services than any private school in our area offers or myself as a homeschooler would have been able to give him. Public school is his best option, as it often is for many children with special needs. The purpose of this post is more to explain why teachers in public schools feel frustrated by a system that is in many ways not always allowing them to do their jobs.
Thank you for writing this. Also, be sure to read Sensational Kids by Lucy Jane Miller. She is a wealth of information on Sensory Kids. Best wishes with your sensory child. Early intervention will help him so much. My daughter was identified (with much pushing on my part) at age 3. She is now in middle school on high honor roll. Never give up the fight.
Thank you for writing this! I get so tired of “low pay” and “lack of professional development opportunities” being cited over and over as reasons for teacher frustration, when really, the lack of freedom to do what’s best for kids is what is driving so many of us away. I used to be a resource teacher trying to teach 25 low-income students “grade level standards” when really what they needed was basic math and reading skills. I’ll never forget my interview at the private school where I now work, when my future boss told me “Teachers here are in charge of Georgia students. You get to do what you feel is best for them and teach them where they are at.” It was like someone had handed me the moon.
Well, here in Volusia County, it looks like we (Teachers) are starting Monday with the “work to the rule”. That means we only do what can be done during our contractual time. No more working for free before, after school and on weekends. Teachers have continued the fine work they are doing, even with the working conditions and treatment from the board. Now it is time for us to stand up for the children and teachers! This is a quote from Thursday night’s bargaining: Mr. Dyer, school board attorney said to Andrew Spar, “If you can’t control YOUR PEOPLE, we’re not going to continue”. Since when did we NOT become the school boards people? Last I looked; I am a part of the Volusia County School system too. Mr. Dyer was not happy with the turnout and chanting that took place at Thursday night’s meeting. As a citizen of the United States and a teacher, I don’t know when I gave up my first amendment rights! By the way, another teacher asked for assistance earlier this week for help in finding our 5.3% raise from last year, which one of the school board members said we received. It is evident that no one has found it. The NJ reported that 300 people were at Thursday night’s meeting. We counted over 500! Lastly, some students called the school board to express their support for teachers. They were told they were not allowed to call or express their opinions! If the students don’t have a right to fight for what they think is right then what are we teaching them? What message is this sending to our youth who will someday be the responsible citizens that teachers are working so diligently to mold? Please support the teachers that work so hard and give up so much of their own time and money to educate your children. Call the school board at 386-255-6475 until they get the message that your children deserve respect and that teachers are valued. Also ask them how much they make, hours they work and benefits they receive. I think you would be appalled at what you find. They get all that plus many of them have another job/business. They don’t have to worry about having enough money to pay their bills, student loans, or even put food on their families table. Let alone, keep their work environment clean and be judged on how well other human beings preform on standardized tests!