Whatever happened to instruction?

[proud2BlibKansan]

All we hear is schools are failing. We have to bring up test scores! Our kids are being short changed! My supt has been all over the local media this week (and in USA Today today) describing our district as "one of the worst in the nation" and he says our diplomas "aren't worth the paper they are written on".

We are failing. Our kids are suffering. So let's fire all the teachers in the 'worst' school in our smallest state. That'll show the rest of those failing teachers they had better get busy!

Here's the problem. Go back to the basics here. In order to solve a problem, you have to define it. And no one has explained WHY test scores are down and WHY kids are failing. Even if you want to say it's bad teaching, that isn't specific enough.

I have been a prof development junkie for my entire career. I am hooked. We can't possibly refine our craft or do what's best for our kids unless we are continually learning how to do this teaching thing better. So I go to PD, I volunteer to be on committees, I read books, I do it all. And one thing I have noticed for the past year or so is they are no longer telling us how to teach better or smarter.

PD today is focused on raising test scores. Not HOW to raise test scores with better instruction, but how to get kids into bubble groups to show an increase in their test scores. They even call them 'bubble kids'. These are the kids who will help us make AYP if their scores improve by a certain percent. So we have PD focused on how to identify and group our bubble kids. Not WHAT to teach them or HOW to teach them but how to sort the kids.

My dept has one PD session a year and this year it was about how to fill out paper work. Nothing about teaching strategies, but how to do the paperwork required by the state and the feds.

I am on a leadership team for my school and we go to training once a month that we then come back and share with our staff. And again, nothing about instruction, but more bubble kid stuff. I told the story here a few months ago about one of these sessions where we were told that we needed to start testing spelling like it is tested on the TEST. No more calling out words and having the kids write them down. Now we are supposed to design spelling tests that are just like the spelling items on the TEST.

At our last leadership training we were taught how to make a graph that meets the rubric on the TEST. Not how to research and collect data, or when you would want to make a graph or even what kinds of graphs are best for different sets of data. Nothing about drawing conclusions from the graph or using the information. None of that. Our session focused on how to make sure we taught our kids how the graph should LOOK. How to label the axis, don't you dare forget a title, make sure your numerical values are written exactly in front of the line, not on top of it. We spent an hour on this. Then we had to come back to school and share all of this important information with the other teachers in our school.

So we are now experts on constructing graphs and we are experts on teaching kids to identify misspelled words. But have we learned to teach kids Math or Spelling? No we are just teaching them how to pass a test.

As long as we continue down this path, our kids will indeed fail. We have abandoned real learning and are now engaged in test taking. And it royally sucks.

[Dinger]

1. Same At My School

Not much for professional development any more. It's apparently cheaper and easier to destroy and then "build up." Pure idiocy.

[stray cat]

2. Real teaching is needed for Real Learning.

[noamnety]

3. They are starting to push that on us as well.

The bubble emphasis is going to result in yet more inequitable education. We shouldn't have a business standpoint, but NCLB and RTTT pressure us into it. The business standpoint - identify the kids who can pass the tests easily. Give them less attention, because the payoff isn't important. Identify the lowest performers - the people who came to talk to us didn't refer to them as "lost causes" - but it was clear that's more or less what they were talking about. Teach them, sure, but don't waste too much effort on them.

The whole bubble thing is about training kids like monkeys to perform to benefit the school, instead of focusing our efforts on the school benefiting them.

We haven't started that yet, I just saw it in the sales pitch we had this year for software that's being forced on our district next year.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. We have that software

First the kids test and then the software develops lessons for them - individually - to zero in on the skills they need. Teachers have rights to design particular lessons. So I dove in and wanted to set up some lessons for my kids. But I kept hitting roadblocks. Wouldn't let me access the skills I thought they needed. Then I realized my opinion didn't matter. What I think they need was not what the software said they needed. So I gave up.

What I found very interesting was this program was asking my kids to complete lessons for which they don't have the prerequisite skills. My 4th grader who doesn't know any multiplication facts was being asked to do 3 digit multiplication.

In the meantime, there has been some glitch in the program and it isn't working anymore. I am secretly hoping they don't get it fixed for a long time. Because I can now pick other programs and websites that I know will meet their needs and are at an appropriate level.

[CoffeeCat]

6. As a parent...I read this and sigh...

My two daughters attend elementary school. They're in 3rd and 4th grade.

Listening to this behind-the-scenes stuff sheds so much light on "strange"
things that happen around the school. Parents, for the most part, in my
opinion, have NO idea what is really happening at their child's school.

I've had my own drama--my child's teacher insisting that she be put
into special education. Interesting timing--several weeks before
the standardized tests would happen.

I've had a friend tell me that her child, who is incredibly bright,
is practically ignored by her teachers. This parent
has told me that her child is bored at school and is starting to
dislike school. She's had a few meetings with the teacher, who
seems disinterested in this problem. Meanwhile, her child finishes
assignments before everyone else and wants to do more.

What you describe, sure could explain why advanced kids may not
get extra attention and the stimulation they need. Why "invest"
in a "commodity" that won't provide a "pay off" for the school?
This child is all ready doing very well on the standardized tests...
and that's all they appear to care about.

Kids who fall behind can get left behind, but so can the highly
intelligent ones too!

[CoffeeCat]

5. Proud to K&R...

I can't even imagine what it's like to be a teacher and watch all of this happen.

Slowly, but surely, the educators who really care about learning, will become
exasperated and leave teaching. I'm sure there will be stalwarts, such as yourself,
who will hang in their and make a positive impact. However, it must be so tough
to do that in this environment.

It feels like our schools are being run with a "corporate" mentality.

Thank you for all of your hard work, and for changing the lives of children.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. Thanks

:hug:

[adnelson60087]

8. Truly, we are lost. If this is all we aspire and work towards, we are lost.