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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I left in October and already posted on this thread. 
For me the pandemic exacerbated problems that already existed in public education. I got in teaching because I love working with kids. Not because I love learning targets, useless data, and giving mandated assessments that don’t actually explain who the child is as a learner.

It’s been a slowly creeping evolution. However when all the kids returned this fall (I went back in December of 2020) I realized that there was nothing left of the job I loved.

Also, as an extra burden I taught sped. And the gulf between what we promised parents and what we actually had the supplies and resources to provide is huge. So I felt like I was daily left with 2 choices. 1. Lie to parents about what was happening 2. Work non stop to make myself not feel like a liar- even though my efforts never covered the Gap.

I took on a role as a well compensated nanny. I get to hang out with kids, explore, plan field trips and meet them where they are at. Oh, and we have a credit card for any activities we do. The irony is it’s what teaching should have been but never was. [/quote]

The lying about sped is spot on. Not a sped teacher but sat in meetings where the admin and sped team lied about services. I don’t blame the sped teacher- the sped team has to follow the lead of the admin.

If DCPS parents only knew..[/quote]

SPED parent here, and many of us do know. Teachers and SPED intervention specialists are constantly lying about my child's abilities to justify reducing services. It's a constant battle and my kid is very far behind peers.

I appreciate the teacher insight. Eliminating oversight or reporting feels like a constant union theme to reduce transparency into teacher performance and student outcomes. We need more funding and staff for SPED. Moving control to the SBOE (Robert White's proposed legislation) would be a de facto move to more control for the teacher union, and that's historically been a very bad move for all kids but especially SPED kids. This shows us that what teachers want (reduced reporting and transparency) is not in the best interest of children.[/quote]

The cynicism here is unnecessary. Why would anyone ever go into the field of Special Education if they wanted to harm children? Perhaps this problem is bigger than you think...read and listen to the teachers on this thread. [/quote]

It's not that parents think that all teachers want to harm children. It's that teachers - and definitely the union - are advocating for thing to make their jobs easier and avoid accountability, which are sometimes in direct conflict with what's best for children. [/quote]

In this, you are wrong. SOME testing and reporting is helpful. Too MUCH is just the opposite. Currently there is waaay too much, which does harm children. If I didn’t have so much administrative busy work, I could plan more field trips, hands-on experiences, FUN learning opportunities. [/quote]

So true. I have to say, and this is definitely not a common opinion, but I don't mind testing days. I put the kids on a computer, I'm not allowed to help them since it's a test, so as long as they stay quiet, I can work on all the boatloads of paperwork i have to do. It's not enough time to make up for the increased paperwork overall, but it means less I have to do from home that evening. This year, we are testing one day a week - it's extremely helpful for my schedule because I have time to get paperwork done.

All that said, I am DEFINITELY advocating for a decrease in testing because it is TERRIBLE for students, and especially my special education students. Each test is another day that they get to feel stupid - they struggle through the test or just give up in the first 5 minutes. My students need more time for instruction to actually learn how to do the work. They need small group and 1:1 support to provide targeted support and learning strategies. If I COULD skip the test and just teach, I would do it and bring the paperwork home. But I'm not allowed to do that. So I use the time to my advantage to get everything done.

Some tests are needed, for sure. But testing every week in every grade is unnecessary and doing far more harm to kids than anything.[/quote]

Testing one day a week is appalling.  I am a teacher and things like this will make me send my own kid to private if we can afford it.  No child should be on a computer 20% of their schooling time.  Especially after last year.[/quote]

And it's only one test a week now. In September, it was 2, and it will be back to 2 central assigned tests in January because of MOY testing.

And this doesn't even include teacher created assessments (the ones we actually use to support students because we can design them to provide us actual useful information).[/quote]

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