Teacher Appreciation by Judging Us By The Tests You Can't Get Right

Unless you don't follow news on education or have been in a coma you are aware of the epic failure in implementing the ISTEP test this year.

If you need to catch up, then check out the following: Duncan: We Should Keep Online Testing, But We Should Learn From ISTEP+ Failures, We Have Indiana’s Contract With The Company That Provides ISTEP+ Online, What Went Wrong With Indiana’s Online ISTEP+ Tests — And When, etc...

How does this play into the idea of teacher appreciation?  If it isn't obvious then you have to look a little deeper.

Direct from the IDOE:

The Office of Student Assessment manages multiple statewide assessments which provide measures of student knowledge and understanding and can be used to make informed decisions that help improve student achievement. Click on the assessment links below for more information about Indiana's statewide assessments. The ISTEP+ Program Manual contains policies and procedures for Indiana's assessment system. source

You don't get much "higher stakes" than the ISTEP.  Students are judged by the system and the direction of their educational future is considered predetermined.  Teachers are judged by the successes and failures based on their students' scores.  The entire nation has been lighting its torches and grabbing its pitchforks over the past decade in preparation of removing any weak link in the educational system.

However, when the weak link turns out to be the system of judgment itself, the consequences are much different.

Nobody is having their job threatened.  Nobody is calculating these disruptions into the students' successes.  Nobody cares about much more than the millions of data points that are not showing up on time.

If there is any hint that the weak link are a teachers then they must be removed for they are soiling the entire system of education in this country.  But when the weak link falls on a politician or bureaucrat (or a backroom deal they made) then the excuses are accepted by the masses without question.

Really makes a person feel appreciated.

Teacher Appreciation Week Has Begun...so When Does The Appreciation Begin?

Don't take the title the wrong way.  My new district is absolutely fantastic.  The level of respect that I feel from my colleagues and administration is beyond anything I have ever experienced.  It is exactly the ingredient needed to make the bad days of any job tolerable.

Yet, it seems every time we hear a politician or bureaucrat talk about education they are pointing fingers at the "failing" teachers.  Their forked tongues deceive most, but many of us see right through the facade.  The rhetoric is always focused on the constructed problem of the failure of our education system and the partial solution is in removing bad teachers.  This implies that a significant number of teachers are so poor in their duties that they are dragging the entire educational system down.

Even if we accept their position that our system is underperforming, they are demonizing all teachers by providing vague accusations against the "minority of poor teachers."  Without specifics this leads to even more speculation by the populace.

Consider this analogy:  Imagine reading in the paper that a child was abducted from your community and all the police could confirm is that the perpetrator is a resident of your community.  Suddenly, you are suspicious of everyone around you.  Even though the statement is only an accusation without evidence and there are many hundreds of families living around you and only one perpetrator.

That is what has happened to all teachers.  An accusation has been made about "poor" teachers and all teachers are now looked upon with suspect.

You want to appreciate a teacher?  Try reserving judgment and looking at the whole picture.

Two week break isn't enough for some students

My district, like many in Indiana, is using a "balanced calendar."  Nothing is actually balanced or even changed all that much.  All that has happened is three weeks of the summer have been moved so that there is a two week fall break and a two week spring break.  Districts use this break in different ways.

This district is the first one that I have worked at that had a large population of students that could actually go on a spring break.  Many were heading to Florida for some part of the two weeks.  Yet that just wasn't enough time for many students.  Throughout the week leading up to spring break I noticed attendance dropping.  Some students even told me out right that they would not be there on Friday because they were leaving for Florida.

I asked one such student why they felt the need to leave early when they had two weeks for break (a first for the district).  The student just laughed and said no it wasn't enough.

I don't expect a very thoughtful answer from an adolescent on the subject of if they needed to miss school for vacation.  However, my real concern is the fact that the only reason these students take vacations that result in missing class is because their parents have given them the permission or opportunity.

All the pressure being put on teachers and districts to "improve" schools by bureaucrats and politicians who are put into power by voters, which includes parents, and we teachers have to take the blame for students failing to grasp concepts because they took an early break.

I see all the movements and rallys to bring attention to the deform movement, but I think it is about time we put attention on who it is that really has the ability to affect change in a child's education; the parents.

As a side note, I haven't been posting because I decided that with my break, since I could not go anywhere fancy, I would unplug.  So I utilized the internet as little as possible and just rested.  I hope everybody in the teaching profession has gotten some much needed rest.

Legislating the Value of Pi

In honor of Pi day, I believe we should all take a moment to remember just how wise our legislators can be when deciding policy.  If you are not aware of this story, then please follow the link below to learn how Indiana once thought to make Pi easier by making it a law that it equal 3.2.

And just because this happened over 100 years ago does not mean our elected officials are any wiser.

Legislating the Value of Pi - Scienticity: (emphasis is mine)
case of a state legislature in the US attempting to create by law a new value for pi was that of Indiana in 1897

...

The bill made it through three readings and votes in the House, and its first reading in the Senate. It was evidently seen as of economical benefit, since Indiana would save royalties on the patent, and the legislators proclaimed themselves unfit to comprehend the details of the bill anyway.

Hmm, what recent political moves seem to have very serious economic gains for politicians and/or the state (cough cough charters couch vouchers cough cough).

Now, go enjoy some Pi, er I mean pie.

Technology and Schools: A Double Edged Sword

I love technology.  I honestly believe that it is a positive improvement that districts continue to embrace the advances modern technology has provided.  However, every positive improvement brings some kind of drawback.

Most educators see the drawbacks in the form of students using smart phones to cheat or distract them from their work.  The internet is often seen as a source of potentially limitless knowledge yet cursed with much disinformation.  That, though, is not the purpose of my post.