incompetent teacher -- what can parents do?

[Anonymous]

Sorry for typos

[Anonymous]

If this teacher doesn't have a course for high school credit or one assessed by PARCC, there's not much likelihood of replacement this year.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher.

Sorry, I don't know what you can do. Every school where I've worked has had incompetent teachers, each of whom was protected or retained for varying reasons. In fact, I haven't ever known a teacher to be fired.

Right now we have a Math teacher who has no background or degree in Math, and who tells students that, "I'm a coach, not a Math teacher." He shows them clips on youtube and Khan Academy in class (Algebra 2!), and the kids all know he doesn't know what he's doing. However, he has really beefed up the sport program, and the director loves him. Yes, the director knows he is incompetent: the Math Department showed him the average end of year assessment scores from all of the Algebra 2 classes, and this guy's kids were at the bottom. This year, some of the students he had last year have already been counseled out of Calculus because they don't have the Algebra base they need. And the "Math teacher"? He's not even pretending to spend time on learning how to do Math: he's now steamrolling through another sport program, and is actually holding meetings for the rest of staff to let us know the updates on the program. Yes, I am bitter.

I also once worked with a teacher who stopped giving back student tests/papers in October. When seniors went to complain, the director told them that he "knows Mr. X is really lazy, but he can't do anything about it." Mr. X's wife just happened to be BFFs with the director's wife. (and before you say that I don't know he stopped giving back student work at all, my own son was in his class, so I had access to the electronic database that displays grades...plus I was the guy's colleague).

So, the lesson is that incompetent teachers may very well flourish. I wish this were not the case.

[Anonymous]

My ex was let go due to failure to make standard a third year in a row. It does happen. He now teaches for another local school system.

[Anonymous]

Figure out what your goal is. If your goal is to rid your school of a bad teacher, start documenting issues and bring them to the attention of his/her superiors.

If the goal is to get your kid through this class you either need to start refreshing your memory on this particular material and teach it to your child yourself. Or get a tutor. Or see if there is peer tutoring available at the school.

In my experience, an "incompetent" teacher for one child is another child's fave. A lot has to do with compatibility.

[Anonymous]

The wheels won't turn fast enough to benefit your kid. Document but complain above the principal. He can only do so much, so fast. And have your child see another teacher in the same department for help during lunch or after school etc. I am pretty sure I am in the same boat, same teacher. It helps to keep complaining left and right and up and down, from what I hear. The teacher is super incompetent,

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher. I've been at the same school for 10 years and have seen 3 teachers put on PAR and they did not meet standard and left the county. A few others were put on PAR and were able to meet standard. My principal usually can sniff out the ones who aren't up to snuff and start the process quickly. Of course the only one she chooses to ignore is on my team. We had a bad feeling at the interview and urged our principal not to hire them, but my principal didn't have many other options (involuntary transfer) and the teacher spoke a language that we sometimes need help with translation. But the teacher is a mess and pulls no weight on the team. Plus, more importantly does not have any positive instructional impact on students. Principal is apparently aware but has not taken any action thus far. I'm at my wits end.

[Anonymous]

Having just gone through an actual hellish experience with a teacher that was emotionally abusing and bullying children, please, please don't raise hell to the community superintendent, the Board of Ed and the Acting Superintendent over a teacher who is basically just incompetent. I understand that it is not ideal for your family to be going through this, but reserve avenues like the one I just mentioned for the extremely serious issues. Unless you have significant documentation over the course of an entire year with eyewitness testimony, group letters, and outrage out the wazoo from at least 15 to 20% of your grade's community (all of which we did), you're wasting administrators' time and making it harder for those of us with real engagements to be taken seriously.

I second the poster who said try to use it as a teachable moment – your kids will have incompetent professors in college and bosses down the road too.

[Anonymous]

The problem is that principals have limited authority. If you want change, you HAVE to go above them to increase the pace of the turnover. The principal will try to get rid of the incompetent teacher, but he has to document, put on PAR etc. It takes the school year to accomplish this. Community superintendents can hasten the pace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't vote for politicians of a political party that is beholden to teachers' unions.

AMEN

[Anonymous]

Just a related point--it's just as important to keep good teachers as it is to rid schools of bad ones. If you like your teacher, counselor, specialist, whatever, pass that along to the principal as well. Feedback really helps with retention and morale.

[Anonymous]

If the subject is math, then Kumon might be the answer.

We were able to get a child moved from a class based on having a documented disability -- were able to show that the specific issues the teacher had (heavy accent, poor grammar) were too much for a kid with auditory processing issues.

We were also able to have an abusive substitute removed from the system by threatening to go to the press -- He was disciplining kids by sending them out into the 'hallway' -- but unfortunately it was a cubicle so he was sending kids outside the cubicle (i.e. outdoors) in February, when it was snowing, without jackets on, for up to 45 minutes. The thing is, these days, kids will document everything, so there was actual video of the incidents.

Our kids also had video of the substitute making racist and sexist remarks in class, so even though he was an older retired teacher who was a favorite of the administration, they had no choice but to let him go.

[Anonymous]

portable, not cubicle.

[Anonymous]

Any update op? Did you stick with it?

[Anonymous]

If it's really that bad, I don't see why the OP doesn't just out the teacher here on a anonymous message board. Now *that* would be a squeaky wheel.

My daughter went through the same thing in 3rd grade with a terrible teacher who couldn't even speak in coherent sentences. We ended up having to hire a tutor (not cheap) 3 days a week to supplement. Again, everyone knew the teacher was incompetent but the Unions still defended her and nobody was allowed to switch classrooms.

After being a lifelong democrat, I now just grab one of those "apple" sheets the teacher unions hand out at the polling places. I vote the exact opposite of their recommendations. Makes choices easy knowing which candidates are in their pocket.