Why does no one acknowledge how overworked teachers are?

[Anonymous]

I am a 10-month employee at a community college. I get paid for 10 months and health insurance premiums are deducted for 10 months but I get 12 months of coverage.

Fwiw, faculty at my college are leaving and the ones who remain are frustrated by the additional duties that are being added to pir plates each semester (no additional compensation). More administrative work, more meetings, more required professional development, in addition to teaching, service, scholarship. I can only imagine how much harder it is for k-12 teachers. You have my support.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread would have been better served by saying "I need to complain about how overworked I feel" and then go and do so. But it is phrased as "I need YOU to understand how overworked I feel" and trust me, we know you feel overworked. Partly because many of us also feel overworked.

I'm the OP. I couldn't phrase it that way because I am not a teacher. I am just a school parent that is embarrassed by many other parents who are pretty obnoxious and condescending to teachers and helping administrators to drive teachers from the profession. I see some of the best teachers, who my children have enjoyed having, leaving the profession because of how abusive a significantly large subset of parents behave. And I have a ton of friends who are teachers and listening to their grievances, upsets me.

ok, then direct your ire at specific people, who you say are parents. You just sound whiny when you say that "no one" acknowledges something, when there are pages and pages of people figuring out how to thank teachers.

You sound sanctimonious and awful, and unnecessarily fuel the parent v. teacher fighting. Stop it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread would have been better served by saying "I need to complain about how overworked I feel" and then go and do so. But it is phrased as "I need YOU to understand how overworked I feel" and trust me, we know you feel overworked. Partly because many of us also feel overworked.

I'm the OP. I couldn't phrase it that way because I am not a teacher. I am just a school parent that is embarrassed by many other parents who are pretty obnoxious and condescending to teachers and helping administrators to drive teachers from the profession. I see some of the best teachers, who my children have enjoyed having, leaving the profession because of how abusive a significantly large subset of parents behave. And I have a ton of friends who are teachers and listening to their grievances, upsets me.

ok, then direct your ire at specific people, who you say are parents. You just sound whiny when you say that "no one" acknowledges something, when there are pages and pages of people figuring out how to thank teachers.

You sound sanctimonious and awful, and unnecessarily fuel the parent v. teacher fighting. Stop it.

I bet this PP is exactly one of the parents OP was talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread would have been better served by saying "I need to complain about how overworked I feel" and then go and do so. But it is phrased as "I need YOU to understand how overworked I feel" and trust me, we know you feel overworked. Partly because many of us also feel overworked.

I'm the OP. I couldn't phrase it that way because I am not a teacher. I am just a school parent that is embarrassed by many other parents who are pretty obnoxious and condescending to teachers and helping administrators to drive teachers from the profession. I see some of the best teachers, who my children have enjoyed having, leaving the profession because of how abusive a significantly large subset of parents behave. And I have a ton of friends who are teachers and listening to their grievances, upsets me.

ok, then direct your ire at specific people, who you say are parents. You just sound whiny when you say that "no one" acknowledges something, when there are pages and pages of people figuring out how to thank teachers.

You sound sanctimonious and awful, and unnecessarily fuel the parent v. teacher fighting. Stop it.

I bet this PP is exactly one of the parents OP was talking about.

I agree that most teachers are burning out but also agree that fighting is only prolonging the issue. The only thing that will make the issue go away is solving the systemic issues, which no individual parent can do alone

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread would have been better served by saying "I need to complain about how overworked I feel" and then go and do so. But it is phrased as "I need YOU to understand how overworked I feel" and trust me, we know you feel overworked. Partly because many of us also feel overworked.

I'm the OP. I couldn't phrase it that way because I am not a teacher. I am just a school parent that is embarrassed by many other parents who are pretty obnoxious and condescending to teachers and helping administrators to drive teachers from the profession. I see some of the best teachers, who my children have enjoyed having, leaving the profession because of how abusive a significantly large subset of parents behave. And I have a ton of friends who are teachers and listening to their grievances, upsets me.

ok, then direct your ire at specific people, who you say are parents. You just sound whiny when you say that "no one" acknowledges something, when there are pages and pages of people figuring out how to thank teachers.

You sound sanctimonious and awful, and unnecessarily fuel the parent v. teacher fighting. Stop it.

I bet this PP is exactly one of the parents OP was talking about.

And YOU are exactly what PPP was talking about, fueling the unnecessary fight between parents and teachers as groups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this thread would have been better served by saying "I need to complain about how overworked I feel" and then go and do so. But it is phrased as "I need YOU to understand how overworked I feel" and trust me, we know you feel overworked. Partly because many of us also feel overworked.

I'm the OP. I couldn't phrase it that way because I am not a teacher. I am just a school parent that is embarrassed by many other parents who are pretty obnoxious and condescending to teachers and helping administrators to drive teachers from the profession. I see some of the best teachers, who my children have enjoyed having, leaving the profession because of how abusive a significantly large subset of parents behave. And I have a ton of friends who are teachers and listening to their grievances, upsets me.

ok, then direct your ire at specific people, who you say are parents. You just sound whiny when you say that "no one" acknowledges something, when there are pages and pages of people figuring out how to thank teachers.

You sound sanctimonious and awful, and unnecessarily fuel the parent v. teacher fighting. Stop it.

I bet this PP is exactly one of the parents OP was talking about.

I agree that most teachers are burning out but also agree that fighting is only prolonging the issue. The only thing that will make the issue go away is solving the systemic issues, which no individual parent can do alone

Plus, parents merely saying "oh yeah you work hard, teachers! Thank you!" does about jack squat to actually improve the conditions of teachers who are overworked. The overwork seems to stem from administrative burdens, or testing, or whatever. Individual parents have no control over those decisions (except through the extremely marginal impact of voting for school boards).

[Anonymous]

Someone should start a Parent Teacher Alliance devoted to collaboratively identifying and solving for systemic issues such as meaningless paperwork, toxic adult (parent or teacher or administrative) behavior, bullying across the board, pointless meetings, the engagement of unnecessary high-cost consultancies, implementation of expensive and unused software and tech solutions. Then once the worst and most egregious issues are solved for, start to get more aspirational with goals

[Anonymous]

No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

[Anonymous]

ESOL students are tested the most. They take all of the above mentioned tests plus annual ESOL testing. No wonder most kids don’t care about doing well on tests by MS. They are tested non-stop since pre-k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

What I hear from you is I'm a northern VA parent and I want to talk about SOL scores and AAP....it's all that matters

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

We should have test to see if parents can effectively parent anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

How do private schools do it? They seem to do ok

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

Oh you naive little parent you. How quaint. Can you please explain why a child who doesn’t speak English should perform at the same level as the kid who receives outside tutoring so they can get “ahead.” Can you please explain how a teacher who doesn’t make decisions about the curriculum which script should be read or which video should be shown at which time can be held accountable for learning.

You are thinking from a child’s perspective. when you were in school the teacher seemed in charge so you think that is still the case. My friend, it is not. Teachers don’t have the much power or say despite your childhood memories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No Child Left Behind/Every Child Succeeds Act required school districts to jump through certain hoops each year involving high stakes state tests for students in grades and evaluating teachers in part based on student test score improvement.

Is there any evidence that requiring high stakes tests every year has actually improved student learning, though?

Because it's a LOT of testing. And causes a lot of disruption to the school day. We have the state tests, then the county benchmark tests. And kids with accommodations get their accommodations but not always at the same time as the classroom tests, so they sometimes miss some more instruction. Not just once a year, but many many times a year.

Is all this testing showing good results? Because if not, maybe we could get rid of all these mandatory tests and get rid of school report cards based on how well students perform on these tests.

(Except if we got rid of the school report cards, how would parents know where to buy a house?)

Or if the teachers can effectively teach the students? Testing holds schools accountable. Without them, parents will be kept further in the dark as to how much learning is really taking place relative to national standards. Whenever I hear educators rail against testing, what I really hear are educators who want to reduce oversight and transparency in their classrooms.

How do private schools do it? They seem to do ok

My child’s private school gives students an Iowa test each year.