How important is the teacher in a top public district?

[Anonymous]

Personally, I feel like the individual teacher is super important. But on the other hand maybe I need to trust in our district that everyone says is great. So far we have been 1 in 4 for good to great teachers. 2 were duds (one was crazy and the other was extremely lazy and dismissive). Is this good enough?

[Anonymous]

Your children have to learn to get along with all kinds of people in life (classmates, teammates, roommates, colleagues, teachers, supervisors, etc.). Is life better/easier if you have a good-fit teacher? Absolutely but learning how to get along with everybody is a great skill to have

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your children have to learn to get along with all kinds of people in life (classmates, teammates, roommates, colleagues, teachers, supervisors, etc.). Is life better/easier if you have a good-fit teacher? Absolutely but learning how to get along with everybody is a great skill to have

I don't mean good fit, I mean objectively bad in different ways. Like screaming at kids and making threats, taking away recess for whole class punishment, not teaching reading or having kids do any work off screens, showing Disney movies and unrelated lego youtube videos during learning blocks.

[Anonymous]

So OP, you are talking elementary teaching?

[Anonymous]

Teachers matter a lot. Every school will have good teachers and bad teachers. Every child can click with different teachers. It does matter, but the reality is that kids will have so many teachers over the years that your child is bound to have a great teacher, a bad teacher, a teacher they click with, etc, at some point.

It’s really hard to try to beat the system and ensure your kid has the best teacher. Both our kids had fabulous teachers at one point who ended up being out half the year for medical issues. They have had the same teacher with completely different experiences- 1 struggled and hated the teacher, the other loved and was inspired by the same teacher.

[Anonymous]

Also- your kid will likely have a new or newish teacher at some point. That teacher is hard to judge, because they are so new and need time to learn. They will potentially end up being a great teacher, but your kid ends up being their training wheels.

[Anonymous]

People call a school district "good" when it has good test scores and all the kids speak English. But in these kinds of districts the parents tend to provide all the acceleration, enrichment, and other supplements that make kids score well on exams. The teachers range from sh** to great but none of them have as much influence over academic achievement as the parents do. I would even go so far as to say that teachers in "good" districts get lazy and complacent because they know the kids get academic instruction outside of school.

[Anonymous]

A LOT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People call a school district "good" when it has good test scores and all the kids speak English. But in these kinds of districts the parents tend to provide all the acceleration, enrichment, and other supplements that make kids score well on exams. The teachers range from sh** to great but none of them have as much influence over academic achievement as the parents do. I would even go so far as to say that teachers in "good" districts get lazy and complacent because they know the kids get academic instruction outside of school.

I mostly agree with the above.

W pyramids are good because of all the outside school supplements - at home, at a tutoring center, with a tutor or whatever.

Outside supplementing also is a large part of iwhy HHI correlates with educational attainment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I feel like the individual teacher is super important. But on the other hand maybe I need to trust in our district that everyone says is great. So far we have been 1 in 4 for good to great teachers. 2 were duds (one was crazy and the other was extremely lazy and dismissive). Is this good enough?

What did you base your diagnosis of “crazy” on? And the other one lazy? How did you verify this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your children have to learn to get along with all kinds of people in life (classmates, teammates, roommates, colleagues, teachers, supervisors, etc.). Is life better/easier if you have a good-fit teacher? Absolutely but learning how to get along with everybody is a great skill to have

I don't mean good fit, I mean objectively bad in different ways. Like screaming at kids and making threats, taking away recess for whole class punishment, not teaching reading or having kids do any work off screens, showing Disney movies and unrelated lego youtube videos during learning blocks.

Sounds like in the backwoods of some southern state. If that is accurate then you’re mistaken to think you’re in a good school system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So OP, you are talking elementary teaching?

No. My kid is in high school which is why this is so alarming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally, I feel like the individual teacher is super important. But on the other hand maybe I need to trust in our district that everyone says is great. So far we have been 1 in 4 for good to great teachers. 2 were duds (one was crazy and the other was extremely lazy and dismissive). Is this good enough?

What did you base your diagnosis of “crazy” on? And the other one lazy? How did you verify this?

I didn't use crazy as a diagnosis but as a descriptor. Threatening kids and screaming at them, yes I think that is crazy for adults working with elementary kids. Lazy because nothing comes home, work in class in started and the unit is never finished, teacher doesn't have sense of where kids are in subjects, teacher just doesn't DO anything, confirmed by other parents too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People call a school district "good" when it has good test scores and all the kids speak English. But in these kinds of districts the parents tend to provide all the acceleration, enrichment, and other supplements that make kids score well on exams. The teachers range from sh** to great but none of them have as much influence over academic achievement as the parents do. I would even go so far as to say that teachers in "good" districts get lazy and complacent because they know the kids get academic instruction outside of school.

I mostly agree with the above.

W pyramids are good because of all the outside school supplements - at home, at a tutoring center, with a tutor or whatever.

Outside supplementing also is a large part of iwhy HHI correlates with educational attainment.

So does school even matter then? I should just supplement outside of school and assume school is for socialization? What kind of socialization is another question, I guess. But supplementing everything doesn't seem to leave a lot of time for DD's interests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People call a school district "good" when it has good test scores and all the kids speak English. But in these kinds of districts the parents tend to provide all the acceleration, enrichment, and other supplements that make kids score well on exams. The teachers range from sh** to great but none of them have as much influence over academic achievement as the parents do. I would even go so far as to say that teachers in "good" districts get lazy and complacent because they know the kids get academic instruction outside of school.

Everyone in my district works and most of them full-time and in office. Where is everyone getting the time and energy and sanity to basically homeschool the entire K-6 curriculum at home when you have 2-3 kids in different grades?