Reply to "Teacher of the Year" quits over Common Core tests

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]The benchmark testing and constant, mostly useless meetings to discuss the data are mandated by the school district. These meetings and constant testing are driving me crazy as a teacher.

We have data OUT THE WAHOO about how kids are or aren't meeting the standards. What we don't have are meetings about how to change teaching or better yet, change the curriculum (the materials we are using to teach the students). What we also don't have are offers to hire more teachers to help teach these kids who are behind. We don't have offers of money to pay teachers more to stay after school and teach kids individually. We don't have money to offer targeted summer school or weekend classes. And we don't have offers to group students by ability level in classes for instruction (it's ok to take "small groups" by ability level but you still have to run a 4 ring circus to do this.)

And we don't have license to teach a below grade child, at a below grade level. We are still supposed to be exposing the child who is in 4th grade but reading at a K/pre primer level, to fourth grade reading concepts and skills, while simultaneously (magically, by osmosis?) teaching him how to decode words.

There's really nothing wring with the Common Core standards. But it is going to cost schools more to actually teach kids to meet these standards. And they will really need to give up their fancy-schmancy curricula, and let teachers actually teach (which includes direct instruction, and drill and practice in the younger grades) If they want to see kids learn to master the foundational skills. [/quote]

I don't know who you are, but they need to have you on Capitol Hill to testify about the effects of the rigid top down management we have been suffering with (that helps virtually no student).  [b]You nailed it. [/b]  Some people will say that this is all a problem with the local administration, but the people in the trenches have watched all of the history unfold.  Some of the people who say that teachers are whining would do well to listen and not close their eyes and dismiss these comments.  Lots of local money was put toward the federal mandates.   Meanwhile there has been no money for the "real teaching".  I have been in teaching long enough to remember the days when there was summer school for kids who were behind.  FCPS took that out about 7 years ago. It was such a shock---we had a whole lot of kids enrolled and summer school was a very vibrant program for those kids.  I also remember the money that was paid to teachers to stay after school to help students.  That is no longer there.  I remember when they actually trusted teachers to buy materials that would work for them and their own teaching styles.  That has been gone for a LONG time.  Oversight sucks money.  There are more and more people being paid to sit in offices and fewer and fewer on the front lines (as evidenced by the higher and higher class sizes).  TOTALLY ridiculous.  Stop buying mandated technology, tests, "staff development" and just hire more teachers!!  The real teaching and learning occurs in the classroom, not in publishing houses or offices.  Give the front line what they need to succeed instead of taking it all away and then punishing them for not doing what needs to be done![/quote]

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