A co-worker of mine, who is also a former teacher, sent me THIS LINK. It's a somewhat recent article from the New York Times about the future of the No Child Left Behind law. It's a very telling article. If you have children in public education, work in public education, or care about the fate of public education, you will find this article interesting and frustrating. And you should probably be very scared.
The following letter is written in response to that article. No, it's not a letter that I plan on mailing— just a pseudo letter that allows me to vent.
Dear Mr. President & U.S. Legislators:
Have you no children?!? Have you no heart?!? No brains?!?
Wait. I'd better start over.....
Dear Mr. President & U.S. Legislators:
I have read recent information regarding the future of the No Child Left Behind law. The information I have read has given me cause to worry. The following excerpt from the New York Times article gives me the heebie jeebies:
"... Congressional rewriting of the federal law later this year to toughen requirements on topics like teacher quality and academic standards and to intensify its focus on helping failing schools. The law’s testing requirements may evolve but will certainly not disappear. And the federal role in education policy, once a state and local matter, is likely to grow."
I would like to address where I think this law falls short.
Teacher quality and academic standards are being assessed by tests, portfolios, twice-a-year principal observations, and other similar techniques. Just four years ago I completed my degree in elementary and special education. In order to be considered a "highly qualified" teacher you decided (indirectly) to have me pay a couple hundred dollars and take a four hour test. I was tested on all major academic topics from U.S. history to geometry. I'm smart enough, I did well on the test and received some official-looking certificate that is now filed away in a location I couldn't remember if my life depended on it. I accepted my first teaching job as a highly qualified teacher. And I thought I was. I had the diploma, test scores and certificate, and portfolio of college projects to prove it.
I hated my first year of teaching. Hated, hated, hated it. I worked at a good school, had a great principal, had a great team of teachers to work with, and had the most adorable students. I hated teaching that year. Time that should have been spent coming up with and creating memorable learning experiences for my students was spent writing out lesson plans on the official lesson plan observation sheets, gathering data after data to prove my students were improving, organizing YET ANOTHER portfolio, having unnecessary formal meetings with my principal so we could sign a form saying we met, attending numerous trainings before and after school, and writing (or should I say b.s.ing) goals and proof of achievement each term. Oh, yes. And then there was that ESL program that I spent four hours a week attending, and many more hours working on pointless projects... all for the sake of meeting the new requirements of being a highly qualified teacher. I DID NOT sign up for this. Silly me, thinking that I was hired to teach content curriculum to children. My naivety led to a complete oversight of the biggest portion of my job, jumping through hoops!
Year 2 and 3 of teaching were similar to the first year, and only slightly less hectic due to the small amount of teaching experience under my belt. If the goal of making sure that I was highly qualified and a "quality" teacher was to help schools and students improve, I give that goal a failing grade! I helped no one. I became really, really good at taking tests (because I had to pay even more money and take TWO standardized tests after my 3rd year), creating well organized portfolios, and acting really on the ball during my many meetings and classes. My test scores, diploma, and many certificates meant nothing to me at the end of my third year of teaching. I felt like a failure. I had spent all of my time meeting my requirements to be highly qualified, that I hadn't been able to improve on my classroom management, teaching strategies, curriculum planning, and parent relationships- to name a few crucial and neglected skill sets essential to teaching. I could not shake the feeling that I was static in my skills as a teacher but improving in my skills daily as a bureaucratic butt-kisser, and hoop jumper.
My whole life I have wanted to be a teacher. That is all I ever wanted to play with my friends as a child. I, of course, got to play the role of the teacher. I have the most vivid memories of my own grade school experience. I remember just how my classrooms were set up, what they looked like, smelled like, and sounded like. I can remember phrases, verbatim, that my teachers said in teaching lessons. I loved my teachers. I loved school. I loved learning. I fear that my teaching experience fell short of creating those same types of memories for students I had. We had fun, we did fun things, I cared for them, they cared for me, but there was always a overarching pressure to PROVE and SUCCEED that I couldn't shake, and the students couldn't shake it either. Children in 3rd and 4th grade should be having anxiety over their birthday parties, soccer games, and ballet performances if they're going to have anxiety. NOT over their end of level test scores, and hours required to practice for those tests! They are kids for crying out loud! Let them be kids and let them learn like kids!! We are doing a huge disservice to the upcoming generation by teaching them to be great test takers, fact memorizers (which doesn't last after the test, by the way), number crunchers, intense (not intent) listeners, and stressed students. These are not factors that contribute to learning.
Do YOUR homework. Talk to teachers. Talk to students. Talk to parents. Talk to the people in the trenches- they know. Visit a classroom for one week, one day, one hour, and you'll see that this approach to reforming education will only get us right back where we started- failing schools and failing students.
Sincerely,
A burnt-out, former teacher who would like very much to go back teaching someday
11 comments:
I hate the emphasis of NCLB on standardized tests. HATE it.
The thing that gets me about the situation is that teachers hate NCLB (with good reason) but the union also opposes the elimination of tenure in favor of merit-pay.
So, what do we need to do to fix it?
One of the most bothersome things to me it that they are focusing on improving the standardized tests, rather than improving childrens' educational experiences. If a fourth grade child has second grade math skills and over the course of the year develops third grade math skills has he still not been educated even though he may have failed the 4th grade end of level tests?
Also, I ran into my neighbor today at the store who works for the school district and whose paycheck is dependant upon "No Child Left Behind" grant money. She was bragging about how much she loves her job, her assistant, lap top and cell phone that the district supplies. And the kicker, her favoite part is that she can grocery shop and run errands between meetings with teachers. I fail to see how her job is improving education.
As someone who works on education policy for a congressman I appreciate your post.
Just a little push back. :) Not to say I don't agree with your post. We both grew up in the same district, with the same educational experience. So I echo all that you said about what an education should be.
But now I teach in one of the poorest, most dangerous, and most failing systems in the country, where much of NCLB IS REALLY needed. Our kids have been failing for a long time. And SOMETHING has to be done. It isn't the perfect solution. And kids shouldn't be taught to pass tests. And it is absolutely exhausting as a teacher to be held to these standards. But if you look at NCLB from the perspective of a failing Urban district, better solutions are hard to come by. Not to say this is the best, but we have to have some measure that is consistent. My kids are not on the same level as kids from Davis County. Granted, schools can't make up for that on their own. For a succeeding suburban district, NCLB is frustrating, as it is for all of us. But as someone who has only worked in Title One schoos, I think it's a step in the right direction.
Meg...as a child of a current public school educator...don't get me started! Everything is wrong with the system these days!
It seems like I remember you saying you support merit-based pay (or maybe I'm wrong. It was quite a night). What do you think would be a better solution? If it helps frame your answer, I didn't support NCLB b/c of the way it grew the federal government (even if it was framed as a GOP cause), along with many of the problems you mentioned that are created or exacerbated by that growth. I also, however, don't buy the argument, which seems to come from the unions, that tests are wholly unable to measure even a substantial portion of what a student learns. Sure, the union might win the humanistic argument about the value of a holistic education, but only in the abstract. It seems this is often a disingenuous argument aimed at not having firm standards.
That was eye-opening. It fuels my fire against the government and all their ways of intervening in our lives. They think we are incapable of doing anything ourselves (they know so much more than we do), so they jump in and ruin everything.
I really liked this post. You should send it to someone, or something. I guess I wish that people like you could make a difference. But the government doesn't listen.
Well Said Megan.
I do think there needs to be a framework, as your friend stated, especially in our lower income schools...but I do think what the pressure does to our GOOD teachers is ridiculous.
And, being someone who witnessed your teaching gift...I truly hope you come back. You actually "get" it and have your heart in the right place. Really...those test scores and grades all even out when teachers lead with their heart, as you did. I would want you to teach my daughter/son...and I couldn't care less about what their CRT score ended up being.
I hope you come back to teaching someday because I am positive that you were a fantastic teacher.
From what I read in the article and in your letter, it seems like Washington has really missed the boat on education. It is more than just what happens in the classroom and how students perform on tests. There needs to be involvement from the parents and the STUDENT! It isn't the job of the teacher to force the student to do their homework after school, that is the responsibility of the parent. A student also needs to take personal responsibility and complete the work that has been assigned. I wish I understood that concept earlier than I did. Teaching is such an important job and we can't expect the teachers to do it completely alone, with legislation "breathing" down their backs.
Amen, sister. I don't get why our leaders can't go to Japan or some other country where the youth academically outperform ours and see what they are doing. I guarantee you they don't have insane standards and students actually want to learn, and the parents are involved at home.
Although I'm the product of an excellent 1980s public education, all the hoops scared me when I got into teaching so I went the private school route. The pay is much less, but at least I could be creative and focus on content.
While I'm at it, when I interviewed public school teachers for positions in our history department, it was mind-boggling to look at their very cumbersome lesson plans. The standards were all very well-documented, but it was hard to figure out how the lesson would be taught and what students would actually learn. There has got to be a better way...
I had no idea that you were under so much stress when you were teaching DQ. But, let me tell you that I thought that you were wonderful, the best teacher she had had since Kindergarten and we never thought that you did not give us the attention that we needed, in fact I thought that you went way above and beyond what my child needed all the time and we knew that you loved her. I too wish that you could go back to teaching, you are truly a gifted teacher but not at the cost of your sanity. Anytime the government gets involved in things it is to their detriment. Maybe things will change, but I doubt it, but I hope that you will never give up the dream of making such a difference in other kids lives, you made a difference in our lives!!! Thank you!
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