Reply to when schools focus on the wrong things (from a teacher)

Forum Index » Schools and Education General Discussion

Reply to "when schools focus on the wrong things (from a teacher) "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP- My colleagues and I discuss this sometimes. Whenever we start making progress, something changes to knock us back down. We are ESOL teachers and our district was doing well testing students out of ESOL but then last year, they made it more difficult to move levels on the WIDA ACCESS test and all of sudden, teachers must not be doing their jobs since the test out rate was so dismal. You can't win.[/quote]

Yes! And then they use a terrible formula to determine allocations so we actually lost allocation while our number of ESOL students increased. When I first started there was a 1:41 ratio but now I have 60 students on my caseload. There isn’t a way to provide meaningful language instruction to that many students in the limited time we have access to them. But I think that’s how they want it as they slowly seem to be phasing out the role of the ESOL teacher. Pretty soon it will be just another thing on the classroom teacher’s plate.

-another ESOL teacher (MCPS)[/quote]

If the classroom teacher as a result has 5 less students, would it be worth it? How much can an ESOL teacher do with 60 students a week?[/quote]

Only if they are all 1's or all 2's, etc.  But throwing 1's-3's or even 4's into the same classroom of 26-30 with only 1 teacher (dual certified or not) is a recipe for disaster.  You think test scores are low now, just wait until you see the result with that![/quote]

Plus the fact that those classes shouldn’t be sheltered English classes. ELLs need to have exposure to native English speakers in order for their own language skills to improve. It’s not considered a best practice. I get that it’s a way to reduce class sizes, but where is there space in buildings for all of these additional classrooms? I think it will roll out and central office will spin it to make it sound like a win win situation (smaller class sizes yay!), but there are very real logistical issues with the idea.

Where will these extra classrooms be located? How will the teacher have time to double dip the language objectives, which is currently the ESOL teacher’s responsibility? How to balance the needs of the ELLs with the needs of the native English speakers? Not all students need the intensive language support so would that mean native English speakers would be spending even more time working independently in these classes?   The teacher would have to collect additional ESOL grades which the ESOL teachers are currently responsible for. How will the classroom teacher have time to schedule and administer the ACCESS test which is 4 parts and very time consuming? I could go on...[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics