Teachers in my district leaving mid year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

I'm on my phone and can't link it, but there was just an article in the Post about a charter school in AZ that's failing and had to bring in teachers from the Philippines because the pay is too low and the behavioral and academic needs of the kids are too high to attract American teachers. This area is mostly in a better situation, but yes, there are a bunch of kids who graduate who are functionally illiterate. Some of these kids missed 30-40 days of school per year before Covid and spent most of their class time sleeping, wandering the hallways, playing on their phones, or disrupting class. How do you expect a teacher to remediate that and teach the students who actually want to learn?

I don’t expect them to remediate that in a regular classroom. But I expect them to fail those students and keep them back a level. If they still can’t keep up (with the kids a year younger) then I would expect them to be placed in a special school that’s designed to handle severe learning disorders and/or behavioral issues.

Otherwise, we have this crazy situation where everyone thinks they need to go to college to prove that they’re literate so they can get a job at Walmart or an entry level office job that really shouldn’t need a college degree..

Those schools don’t exist. Exactly how high taxes are you willing to pay? Do you know how much every single one of those schools would cost to build and staff? It’s not realistic.

Every other country has those schools. They don’t keep kids who are 2+ years behind in the same grade just because. It really sounds insane. The money would work out. Do you know that some of those kids get a 1:1 aide?? What a waste of money. And now all the good teachers are leaving because they can’t stand it anymore, putting up with behavioral issues and having the stress of teaching so many levels in one classroom. If the law is a problem then the law needs to be changed. It’s not a written in stone thing. DCUM is full of lawyers and lobbyists. I’m sure that someone could get the ball rolling to change the law.

LOL. What the hell does this mean? “The money will work out” from WHERE.

Putting the high needs kids together means that we can staff those schools with trained people and we don’t need to have people trained for all sorts of specialized issues in every single school. That is definitely cheaper than having special IEPs and 1:1 aides and stopping classes all the time for disruptions. That’s not even considering the teachers leaving that we now need to figure out how to replace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What would make me want to stay?
Cut the meetings I am required to attend in half. That would give me an extra 1-2 hours time per week to get real work done.

Cap all classrooms at a max size of 20. K-2 need full time TA's.

When a kid arrives at school and is an extreme behavior issue but doesn't yet have an IEP, give the student support in the form of a 1:1 aide for a week. If he or she can't function without that aide after that in a calm way that doesn't disrupt the learning or safety of everyone else after that? The child needs to go to a self contained special ed room at that point.

When a teacher says there's a behavioral or emotional disability that interferes with safety or learning, believe her. Change the law that says parents must agree to an evaluation. Stop forcing districts to go through the legal due process system in order to evaluate such kids. Evaluate the child and then give the kid what she or he needs.

Legislators must be required to FUND any law they pass around education.

Wouldn't that be glorious. Schools giving kids what they need including 1:1 aides.

--parent of an autistic child who has been waiting for MONTHS for the school to provide the IEP dictated 1:1 'support person (dropped that it has to be an actual aide, but now just a random available adult)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would make me want to stay?
Cut the meetings I am required to attend in half. That would give me an extra 1-2 hours time per week to get real work done.

Cap all classrooms at a max size of 20. K-2 need full time TA's.

When a kid arrives at school and is an extreme behavior issue but doesn't yet have an IEP, give the student support in the form of a 1:1 aide for a week. If he or she can't function without that aide after that in a calm way that doesn't disrupt the learning or safety of everyone else after that? The child needs to go to a self contained special ed room at that point.

When a teacher says there's a behavioral or emotional disability that interferes with safety or learning, believe her. Change the law that says parents must agree to an evaluation. Stop forcing districts to go through the legal due process system in order to evaluate such kids. Evaluate the child and then give the kid what she or he needs.

Legislators must be required to FUND any law they pass around education.

Wouldn't that be glorious. Schools giving kids what they need including 1:1 aides.

--parent of an autistic child who has been waiting for MONTHS for the school to provide the IEP dictated 1:1 'support person (dropped that it has to be an actual aide, but now just a random available adult)

Hi parent, I am so sorry your child isn't getting the Aide he/she needs. Today I had to tell my superintendent that maybe they could get TA's if they paid more. He looked at me like he'd never considered that before. I was like OMG. Public education is a shit show and I don't see it getting better anytime, ever. I have a number of children with autism who function and learn just fine (on top of being wonderful little people) without an aide, and had one kid last year who was just fine with an aide. This year, he has no aide (we cannot find anyone at all to take the job). Thus why I suggested we might have to pay more. Schools need the funds to give children what they need. There's no way our current taxes fund schools anywhere close to where they need to be funded. It's a national disgrace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

I'm on my phone and can't link it, but there was just an article in the Post about a charter school in AZ that's failing and had to bring in teachers from the Philippines because the pay is too low and the behavioral and academic needs of the kids are too high to attract American teachers. This area is mostly in a better situation, but yes, there are a bunch of kids who graduate who are functionally illiterate. Some of these kids missed 30-40 days of school per year before Covid and spent most of their class time sleeping, wandering the hallways, playing on their phones, or disrupting class. How do you expect a teacher to remediate that and teach the students who actually want to learn?

I don’t expect them to remediate that in a regular classroom. But I expect them to fail those students and keep them back a level. If they still can’t keep up (with the kids a year younger) then I would expect them to be placed in a special school that’s designed to handle severe learning disorders and/or behavioral issues.

Otherwise, we have this crazy situation where everyone thinks they need to go to college to prove that they’re literate so they can get a job at Walmart or an entry level office job that really shouldn’t need a college degree..

Those schools don’t exist. Exactly how high taxes are you willing to pay? Do you know how much every single one of those schools would cost to build and staff? It’s not realistic.

Every other country has those schools. They don’t keep kids who are 2+ years behind in the same grade just because. It really sounds insane. The money would work out. Do you know that some of those kids get a 1:1 aide?? What a waste of money. And now all the good teachers are leaving because they can’t stand it anymore, putting up with behavioral issues and having the stress of teaching so many levels in one classroom. If the law is a problem then the law needs to be changed. It’s not a written in stone thing. DCUM is full of lawyers and lobbyists. I’m sure that someone could get the ball rolling to change the law.

LOL. What the hell does this mean? “The money will work out” from WHERE.

Putting the high needs kids together means that we can staff those schools with trained people and we don’t need to have people trained for all sorts of specialized issues in every single school. That is definitely cheaper than having special IEPs and 1:1 aides and stopping classes all the time for disruptions. That’s not even considering the teachers leaving that we now need to figure out how to replace.

ok, but that would require changes to decades of legal precedent. I mean, if that's what you're arguing for, and you think that laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act should be repealed, then ok. but I'm can't tell if you understand what you're actually arguing for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious if school districts can have teachers sign a contract that requires them to stay the entire school year as a way to avoid mid-year exodus?
Otherwise, the teacher will have to pay back benefits, relinquish sign-on bonuses, and other perks previously granted upon hiring.

It tends to work in other professions (at least in mine). I imagine the teachers union would have a tantrum and it would be a deterrent in recruiting, but if this was a normal standard in academics as a whole then the (even bigger ) problem of teachers leaving mid-year would be minimal.

Most districts already have this. It's considered bad form to leave mid-year and other districts will not hire teachers who do. That isn't making as much of an impact anymore, however, because teachers are leaving for other fields instead. We just lost a teacher last week to another career field and we're currently covering her classes since there is no replacement.

It's going to keep happening because teaching is TERRIBLE right now. As an example: I woke up at 6am on Saturday and worked for 10 hours. I only took breaks to drive my kid somewhere and to make dinner. I was up again at 6am today and I'll work through to the evening... probably another 8-10 hours. DCUM is my 5-minute break I give myself between stacks of papers. I can't keep this up. My last day off was September 10th (a Saturday). I've worked at least 7-8 hours every day since then and often much more.

I'm quitting at the end of the year. The only thing keeping me going is the fact I don't want to dump this work on my already too-busy coworkers.

what do you teach???

I teach AP and Honors English. It’s the grading. It’s always the grading. I have to teach writing, which means I have to leave feedback on essays. I get 46 minutes a day built into my schedule for grading and planning. One stack of essays is over 20 hours of grading alone.

I see the other comments about time management. I have to have access to time in order to manage it. There’s no way to make grading go faster without sacrificing feedback, which I can’t do. I know the solution (fewer classes and more work hours for grading), but I don’t have control over that.

Changing careers means reclaiming my weekends. That’s why one teacher quit last week. She didn’t want to do this anymore and so she found a job with more reasonable hours. I can’t fault her.

Well, thank you for actually grading. My kid receives zero writing feedback. This is going to come back & bite these kids in a big way when the are older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would make me want to stay?
Cut the meetings I am required to attend in half. That would give me an extra 1-2 hours time per week to get real work done.

Cap all classrooms at a max size of 20. K-2 need full time TA's.

When a kid arrives at school and is an extreme behavior issue but doesn't yet have an IEP, give the student support in the form of a 1:1 aide for a week. If he or she can't function without that aide after that in a calm way that doesn't disrupt the learning or safety of everyone else after that? The child needs to go to a self contained special ed room at that point.

When a teacher says there's a behavioral or emotional disability that interferes with safety or learning, believe her. Change the law that says parents must agree to an evaluation. Stop forcing districts to go through the legal due process system in order to evaluate such kids. Evaluate the child and then give the kid what she or he needs.

Legislators must be required to FUND any law they pass around education.

Wouldn't that be glorious. Schools giving kids what they need including 1:1 aides.

--parent of an autistic child who has been waiting for MONTHS for the school to provide the IEP dictated 1:1 'support person (dropped that it has to be an actual aide, but now just a random available adult)

Counties can't fill teacher positions, IA positions, or 1:1 positions-people don't want to deal with the stress and anxiety of working with constant behaviors all day. It's just the truth-the money just
isn't worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What would make me want to stay?
Cut the meetings I am required to attend in half. That would give me an extra 1-2 hours time per week to get real work done.

Cap all classrooms at a max size of 20. K-2 need full time TA's.

When a kid arrives at school and is an extreme behavior issue but doesn't yet have an IEP, give the student support in the form of a 1:1 aide for a week. If he or she can't function without that aide after that in a calm way that doesn't disrupt the learning or safety of everyone else after that? The child needs to go to a self contained special ed room at that point.

When a teacher says there's a behavioral or emotional disability that interferes with safety or learning, believe her. Change the law that says parents must agree to an evaluation. Stop forcing districts to go through the legal due process system in order to evaluate such kids. Evaluate the child and then give the kid what she or he needs.

Legislators must be required to FUND any law they pass around education.

Wouldn't that be glorious. Schools giving kids what they need including 1:1 aides.

--parent of an autistic child who has been waiting for MONTHS for the school to provide the IEP dictated 1:1 'support person (dropped that it has to be an actual aide, but now just a random available adult)

I’m a school psychologist and unfortunately no one wants to be a 1:1 aide anymore. It’s too bad for the kids. They do need it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

I'm on my phone and can't link it, but there was just an article in the Post about a charter school in AZ that's failing and had to bring in teachers from the Philippines because the pay is too low and the behavioral and academic needs of the kids are too high to attract American teachers. This area is mostly in a better situation, but yes, there are a bunch of kids who graduate who are functionally illiterate. Some of these kids missed 30-40 days of school per year before Covid and spent most of their class time sleeping, wandering the hallways, playing on their phones, or disrupting class. How do you expect a teacher to remediate that and teach the students who actually want to learn?

I don’t expect them to remediate that in a regular classroom. But I expect them to fail those students and keep them back a level. If they still can’t keep up (with the kids a year younger) then I would expect them to be placed in a special school that’s designed to handle severe learning disorders and/or behavioral issues.

Otherwise, we have this crazy situation where everyone thinks they need to go to college to prove that they’re literate so they can get a job at Walmart or an entry level office job that really shouldn’t need a college degree..

Those schools don’t exist. Exactly how high taxes are you willing to pay? Do you know how much every single one of those schools would cost to build and staff? It’s not realistic.

Every other country has those schools. They don’t keep kids who are 2+ years behind in the same grade just because. It really sounds insane. The money would work out. Do you know that some of those kids get a 1:1 aide?? What a waste of money. And now all the good teachers are leaving because they can’t stand it anymore, putting up with behavioral issues and having the stress of teaching so many levels in one classroom. If the law is a problem then the law needs to be changed. It’s not a written in stone thing. DCUM is full of lawyers and lobbyists. I’m sure that someone could get the ball rolling to change the law.

LOL. What the hell does this mean? “The money will work out” from WHERE.

Putting the high needs kids together means that we can staff those schools with trained people and we don’t need to have people trained for all sorts of specialized issues in every single school. That is definitely cheaper than having special IEPs and 1:1 aides and stopping classes all the time for disruptions. That’s not even considering the teachers leaving that we now need to figure out how to replace.

ROFL. Do you know how little those aides are paid?

Building and staffing even ONE of these fictional schools you want is a multi, multimillion dollar process. No, the money will not “work out” — not even close — but hey, keep dreaming.

[Anonymous]

I was a 1:1 aide working with behaviorally challenged students for many years then I retired. I loved working with the kids, it was the rest of the bull that tipped the scales for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pp:

But when the prior teacher stops working weekend, threads are made about her in the FCPS forum on how her grades aren’t done in a timely manner.

If I want my job to be a 40 hour per week job, there would be zero grading done. My planning periods are enough time to plan, not grade. I can create and copy one lesson in an hour if I’m super fast. I have two preps on the block, so if I keep up with that I’m on track. The other 30 minutes is recording SPED data, IEPs/504s, contacting home, contacting absent kids, preparing work for kids who are going to be out, etc.

All grading is done outside of school hours. I am currently grading AP math tests. The average test takes 4-5 minutes to grade, and I have 92 students in that course this year. Best case scenario, that’s 6 hours of grading. Worst case, nearly 8. I also have algebra tests to grade. I try to stagger them so only one prep tests each week, but that’s 6-8 hours of work every weekend, and that’s if I never grade homework/class work/quizzes.

Tell me how to be more efficient. All multiple choice? Have kids grade each other’s work? Make assessments 5 questions instead of 20? I’m guessing you can see why that is all awful.

When I ask my department how to get better, they all admit to working weekends. I’m not unique.

How can it be better? Class sizes of 20 vs 32. Additional staff hired purely to tutor/catch up/assess absent kids so I don’t have to. 4 courses to teach instead of 5 so I have a period to grade. If I had 80 students and 2 hours a day to plan/grade, it would be amazing. Instead I have 150 and an hour. But the reality is that’s not going to happen, so more people are going to quit and 10 years from now math instruction will be on a computer and my only job will be to run around and answer questions, because that’s the only way I can support the 250 kids who will be on my roster.

PP this is unsustainable. You are burning out. Tell your supervisors all this. Cut back, yes make assessments 5 questions, ask for an assistant, refuse to do sub duties, don't do extras like preparing work for students who will be out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp:

But when the prior teacher stops working weekend, threads are made about her in the FCPS forum on how her grades aren’t done in a timely manner.

If I want my job to be a 40 hour per week job, there would be zero grading done. My planning periods are enough time to plan, not grade. I can create and copy one lesson in an hour if I’m super fast. I have two preps on the block, so if I keep up with that I’m on track. The other 30 minutes is recording SPED data, IEPs/504s, contacting home, contacting absent kids, preparing work for kids who are going to be out, etc.

All grading is done outside of school hours. I am currently grading AP math tests. The average test takes 4-5 minutes to grade, and I have 92 students in that course this year. Best case scenario, that’s 6 hours of grading. Worst case, nearly 8. I also have algebra tests to grade. I try to stagger them so only one prep tests each week, but that’s 6-8 hours of work every weekend, and that’s if I never grade homework/class work/quizzes.

Tell me how to be more efficient. All multiple choice? Have kids grade each other’s work? Make assessments 5 questions instead of 20? I’m guessing you can see why that is all awful.

When I ask my department how to get better, they all admit to working weekends. I’m not unique.

How can it be better? Class sizes of 20 vs 32. Additional staff hired purely to tutor/catch up/assess absent kids so I don’t have to. 4 courses to teach instead of 5 so I have a period to grade. If I had 80 students and 2 hours a day to plan/grade, it would be amazing. Instead I have 150 and an hour. But the reality is that’s not going to happen, so more people are going to quit and 10 years from now math instruction will be on a computer and my only job will be to run around and answer questions, because that’s the only way I can support the 250 kids who will be on my roster.

PP this is unsustainable. You are burning out. Tell your supervisors all this. Cut back, yes make assessments 5 questions, ask for an assistant, refuse to do sub duties, don't do extras like preparing work for students who will be out.

I’m a DP and a teacher. Yes, the PP is burning out. Most of us are. Well, the teachers who actually grade and plan are. Unfortunately, the Math teacher above can’t limit tests to just 5 questions because that isn’t going to be an accurate enough assessment of skills. She also can’t ask for an assistant because there are none. Teachers don’t get assistants, nor is there anyone who wants to make even less than we do to do similar work. We can’t refuse sub duties because “other duties as assigned” is written into most contracts. We’re also required to prepare work for students who are out. (I GROAN when I hear a student is going to be on a sports trip for a week and needs individual work. That can take me an hour or more to prep.)

The PP has the solutions listen above, but they won’t happen either. So we are burning out and quitting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

I'm on my phone and can't link it, but there was just an article in the Post about a charter school in AZ that's failing and had to bring in teachers from the Philippines because the pay is too low and the behavioral and academic needs of the kids are too high to attract American teachers. This area is mostly in a better situation, but yes, there are a bunch of kids who graduate who are functionally illiterate. Some of these kids missed 30-40 days of school per year before Covid and spent most of their class time sleeping, wandering the hallways, playing on their phones, or disrupting class. How do you expect a teacher to remediate that and teach the students who actually want to learn?

I don’t expect them to remediate that in a regular classroom. But I expect them to fail those students and keep them back a level. If they still can’t keep up (with the kids a year younger) then I would expect them to be placed in a special school that’s designed to handle severe learning disorders and/or behavioral issues.

Otherwise, we have this crazy situation where everyone thinks they need to go to college to prove that they’re literate so they can get a job at Walmart or an entry level office job that really shouldn’t need a college degree..

Those schools don’t exist. Exactly how high taxes are you willing to pay? Do you know how much every single one of those schools would cost to build and staff? It’s not realistic.

Every other country has those schools. They don’t keep kids who are 2+ years behind in the same grade just because. It really sounds insane. The money would work out. Do you know that some of those kids get a 1:1 aide?? What a waste of money. And now all the good teachers are leaving because they can’t stand it anymore, putting up with behavioral issues and having the stress of teaching so many levels in one classroom. If the law is a problem then the law needs to be changed. It’s not a written in stone thing. DCUM is full of lawyers and lobbyists. I’m sure that someone could get the ball rolling to change the law.

LOL. What the hell does this mean? “The money will work out” from WHERE.

Putting the high needs kids together means that we can staff those schools with trained people and we don’t need to have people trained for all sorts of specialized issues in every single school. That is definitely cheaper than having special IEPs and 1:1 aides and stopping classes all the time for disruptions. That’s not even considering the teachers leaving that we now need to figure out how to replace.

ROFL. Do you know how little those aides are paid?

Building and staffing even ONE of these fictional schools you want is a multi, multimillion dollar process. No, the money will not “work out” — not even close — but hey, keep dreaming.

Call me a pessimist, but I think this has a good chance of becoming a “separate but equal” situation. I know you have good intentions, but chances are high that such schools would become understaffed and underfunded. The average politician largely doesn’t care about special needs kids and won’t put in the extra effort needed to support such a school.

Also, special needs kids might want to be around normal kids too. Are you going to segregate them against their will?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The most passionate teacher I know of (15 year veteran, won national awards) just left to stay at home. Her husband makes a lot of money and they just didn’t need her paltry income with all the stress that comes with it. She was an AP teacher and was routinely getting kids who couldn’t read or write in high school. And discipline problems that derailed her class constantly. She used to be able to kick kids out of her class.

Are you serious that kids in high school can’t read or write? That seems like a pretty big problem, and it also seems outrageous given how much all the teachers here are claiming to spend on testing and grading. Surely we could figure it out before high school.

I'm on my phone and can't link it, but there was just an article in the Post about a charter school in AZ that's failing and had to bring in teachers from the Philippines because the pay is too low and the behavioral and academic needs of the kids are too high to attract American teachers. This area is mostly in a better situation, but yes, there are a bunch of kids who graduate who are functionally illiterate. Some of these kids missed 30-40 days of school per year before Covid and spent most of their class time sleeping, wandering the hallways, playing on their phones, or disrupting class. How do you expect a teacher to remediate that and teach the students who actually want to learn?

I don’t expect them to remediate that in a regular classroom. But I expect them to fail those students and keep them back a level. If they still can’t keep up (with the kids a year younger) then I would expect them to be placed in a special school that’s designed to handle severe learning disorders and/or behavioral issues.

Otherwise, we have this crazy situation where everyone thinks they need to go to college to prove that they’re literate so they can get a job at Walmart or an entry level office job that really shouldn’t need a college degree..

Those schools don’t exist. Exactly how high taxes are you willing to pay? Do you know how much every single one of those schools would cost to build and staff? It’s not realistic.

Every other country has those schools. They don’t keep kids who are 2+ years behind in the same grade just because. It really sounds insane. The money would work out. Do you know that some of those kids get a 1:1 aide?? What a waste of money. And now all the good teachers are leaving because they can’t stand it anymore, putting up with behavioral issues and having the stress of teaching so many levels in one classroom. If the law is a problem then the law needs to be changed. It’s not a written in stone thing. DCUM is full of lawyers and lobbyists. I’m sure that someone could get the ball rolling to change the law.

LOL. What the hell does this mean? “The money will work out” from WHERE.

Putting the high needs kids together means that we can staff those schools with trained people and we don’t need to have people trained for all sorts of specialized issues in every single school. That is definitely cheaper than having special IEPs and 1:1 aides and stopping classes all the time for disruptions. That’s not even considering the teachers leaving that we now need to figure out how to replace.

ROFL. Do you know how little those aides are paid?

Building and staffing even ONE of these fictional schools you want is a multi, multimillion dollar process. No, the money will not “work out” — not even close — but hey, keep dreaming.

+1. The school in the article was “all the high needs kids put together”. Teachers are expected to not only handle the behavior side but also get these students to pass reading and math assessments for the princely amount of $39,000 per year. No wonder they can’t hire anyone. I hate to say it but it’s too late for most of the students at that school. I hope there’s a follow up article in five years’ time that proves me wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

All grading is done outside of school hours. I am currently grading AP math tests. The average test takes 4-5 minutes to grade, and I have 92 students in that course this year. Best case scenario, that’s 6 hours of grading. Worst case, nearly 8. I also have algebra tests to grade. I try to stagger them so only one prep tests each week, but that’s 6-8 hours of work every weekend, and that’s if I never grade homework/class work/quizzes.

Tell me how to be more efficient. All multiple choice? Have kids grade each other’s work? Make assessments 5 questions instead of 20? I’m guessing you can see why that is all awful.

A significant part of the AP Math tests are multiple choice tests, right? So yes, I would make your tests primarily multiple choice. Then have 2 constructed response items that will only take a minute to grade, instead of 4 minutes. That should cut grading time to 1-2 hours instead of 6-8 hours.

Or do 4 constructed response questions in class, and tell the students that you will only grade 1, but they don't know which 1 (it will be random). Have students grade each others responses. Then you collect them and spot check them, and score 1 question as a grade.

Is this the best assessment and instruction possible? Absolutely not. But you don't have to do the best with your volunteer hours. You have to just do the minimum.

[Anonymous]

My school lost a veteran special ed teacher due to burnout. She’s gone to work for a company that sells special education materials. On FB, she seems much happier. Her resignation is devastating to her department. The RTSE can’t find a replacement so there are daily subs and a lot of coverage.