“Why don’t teachers just teach what is going to be on the test?”
Here is a guest column by Jonathan R. Herman, director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Georgia State University.
By Jonathan R. Herman
The astonishing reach of the CRCT cheating scandal may be opening lots of eyes, but many of us in the academia have already been noticing a fundamental, and unhealthy, change in how many people understand the purpose of education and what is meant by “learning.”
A case in point. Last semester, I taught a seminar on the infamous Scopes “monkey trial,” which addressed the question of whether public school curricula should follow the consensus of the community or the expertise of instructors. I asked my students to think about who should determine what is taught in the classroom and how exactly that determination should be made.
As the conversation developed, one young woman seemed especially impatient, punctuating her irregular eye-rolls with exasperated sighs. “Why don’t teachers just teach what is going to be on the test?” she finally asked.
The implication couldn’t have been clearer. There is a finite, identifiable body of data that students are supposed to learn. It is the task of the instructor simply to transmit that information.
A generation or two ago, the very worst thing one could say about a teacher was that he or she went blandly “by the book,” assaulted students with facts and figures, and demanded that they “regurgitate” names and dates on tests. It was widely understood that learning should nurture critical thinking, creativity, imagination, analysis and synthesis.
But now, many students want “just the facts,” and they are often baffled by teachers who seem too lazy or recalcitrant to hand them over, who instead haze them with Socratic method, linger on interminable class discussions, and force them to do research apart from consulting Wikipedia. “Less thinking,” they seem to be telling us, “more regurgitation.”
So how did this happen? Why is the expression “teaching to the test” even a part of everyday vernacular?
I would suggest that a big part of this is the sometimes sincere, but more often cynical, desire to hold schools and teachers accountable for what they are accomplishing in the classroom, which has produced a clumsy demand for concrete, mathematically interpretable “data.” Thus, the new educational lexicon involves “rubrics,” “measurable learning outcomes,” “quantifiable standards of performance,” “numerical targets,” and so on.
Suddenly, these calculations have become the basis for funding and accrediting and hiring and firing, which turns the whole intellectual process inside out. Curricula are designed to satisfy the numbers, students are conditioned to tick off their rubrics mechanically when they fulfill assignments, and schools are mandated to engage in ongoing “assessment,” i.e., to construct methods for reducing students’ learning to measurable data points and determining what quantitative thresholds are sufficient to indicate success.
How could a student be immersed in this environment and not conclude that learning is anything other than a process of jumping through a protracted set of strategically placed hoops?
Such a view is perpetuated when schools are pressed to participate in the charade, to foster a “climate of assessment.”
Like the time I wrote an “assessment report” of our program’s goals and results. Shortly thereafter, I was asked to meet with assessment coordinators from other departments so we could discuss how to improve our methods of assessment and write better assessment reports. You heard me; we were assessing our processes of assessment.
At the end of the meeting, I was asked to fill out a questionnaire, asking me for recommendations that would improve this type of workshop. They wanted me to assess their assessment of my assessment.
Don’t get me wrong. It is absolutely crucial that we put considerable effort into curricular design and that we hold our teachers and schools accountable. But the simple reality is that the very best of what we accomplish cannot be boiled down to these “learning outcomes,” and I want my own children to gain more from their education than an ability to satisfy rubrics.
I recently received a surprise email from a long-lost former student, who is now a public school teacher. “Classes I took with you,” he wrote, “were so instrumental in rewiring the way I saw the world around me.”
He added: “I love what I do, and, part of what I do, is try to re-create that same learning environment I experienced in your class. To throw it all into question, to push my students to wrestle with the content and come up with their conclusions, and to take seriously every question that every student asks and to answer it sincerely.”
I’d like to see someone try to quantify that.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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96 comments Add your comment
C Jae of EAV
April 30th, 2012
12:30 pm
It would seem the big question that remains unanswered is what’s to be done after the assessment. With all the various instruments of assessment floating about (CRCT, ITBS, SAT, ACT etc.) we seem to have quite a firm handle on the gap in learning, but have yet to figure a way to fill it in. What use is all this data when collectively we can’t understand what it tells us enough to effect any lasting progressive change.
HS Public Teacher
April 30th, 2012
12:55 pm
@GwinnettParentz – You state “decidedly liberal newsroom staff”. What does this mean? How do you measure it? How would you know?
Do you know the definition of liberal? I would bet a large wager that you do not. Look it up. I would bet it goes something like…. one that is generous, favors freedom of religon, favors freedom of choice, etc.
So then, how do you know that the staff of the ajc fits that definition?
Just asking.
HS Public Teacher
April 30th, 2012
1:02 pm
When will the “powers” in Georgia get it?
Regardless of how ‘bad’ or how ‘good’ something is, no one will ever know if it works unless we allow it enough time. Georgia jerks education from one place to another every 4 years or so. No one knows if QCCs, or GPSs, or Core Standards are good or bad because Georgia will never give them enough time to see!!!
Honestly, these types of things don’t matter at all if we cannot get the children of this State to take their own education seriously. And, this starts at HOME!!!!
Mary Elizabeth
April 30th, 2012
1:09 pm
@ C Jae of EAV,12:30pm
“What use is all this data when collectively we can’t understand what it tells us enough to effect any lasting progressive change.”
==============================================
We can effect “lasting progressive change,” if we use instructional data, as a good doctor uses diagnostic medical information for each patient, to assess where each student is academically functioning. Then, we must, as educators, be allowed by those in higher authority, to teach each student where he or she is functioning. That can be through small groupings witin larger groupings. Once we address each student’s instructional level, lasting progressive change will be forthcoming in education. If we do not do this, no change will be forthcoming, even if we use the data to rank teachers and schools. Assessment instruments and data must be used, primarily, to assess if individual students are being placed properly, and instructed on their correct functioning levels, whatever their grade levels are.
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/cyndies-story/
Fled
April 30th, 2012
1:48 pm
This is a question for which it is easy to see both sides. Back in the day, we were freer to explore and follow our bliss in college because we could work enough to support ourselves and get out of college with a degree and not very much debt. There were some people who went overboard with borrowing and regretted it, but the situation was much different than that facing today’s students where borrowing huge sums seems normal.
Thus it is that while I firmly believe in learning for learning’s sake, it is hard to fault students for being of a practical frame of mind. Many of them are essentially reducing themselves to peonage for a number of years simply to get through college. I have a hard time encouraging anyone to major in English anymore, and especially not to pursue graduate degrees in the humanities, when there is such a financial burden attached to the degree.
At the same time, I find it hard to have sympathy for people who attend college just for the piece of paper at the end and expect to be coddled and spoonfed all the way through. I never thought anything but that I must raise myself up to a level to be able to appreciate great art, music, and literature. It simply never occurred to me that great work and thought should be lowered to the level I was when I began my education.
I am sorry that financial pressures mean that many young people will not have the chance to explore tangents and learn about subjects like philosophy and anthropology. We are all the poorer for it. Also, if liberal arts majors were truly the ones who started Occupy Wall Street, we could use a lot more of them.
Frankie
April 30th, 2012
1:51 pm
Teach the test? Then teach them how to take a test, that is timed. Teache them to answer the questions they can and guess on the ones they are not sure about…
THen yuo will see kids failing even more so. I had a friend of mine skip a question and go the next question, but he marked his answer on the line he skipped…hence he flunked the test because every right answer was off by one number…..
the content of the crct should be a part of the whole curriculum for that grade…
Maybe the CRCT questions need to be more intune with what is taught in the class room….just sayin.
Lauren
April 30th, 2012
1:57 pm
Accountability should be on everyone. ESPECIALLY and MOSTLY students. I don’t see the problem with having top level classes versus lower level classes to adjust how and what lessons are taught. And if you fail, you stay behind. You’re taught to think for yourself, not just to memorize.
GwinnettParentz
April 30th, 2012
1:58 pm
@Maureen. To be clear, our earlier reference should have been to surgeons who lose too many patients, investment advisers who continually make losses, and Presidents whose policies fail to grow jobs or the economy.
@Tonya. Consider that a private school can get by with less testing because it is the choice of parents with confidence in its program. Expanded parental choice (tuition vouchers) would result in more kids going to schools, public or private, which parents likewise have confidence in.
William Casey
April 30th, 2012
2:40 pm
Isn’t it interesting that the rising call for teacher accountability has coincided precisely with a declining call for student accountability? Hmmmm. I favor BOTH. And, less quit pretending that there aren’t any “students” in our classes who lack intelligence and motivation. NCLB my a$$.
MOUNTAIN MAN and others here have advocated “teaching the basics.” I totally agree. We’ve somewhat gotten away from this because it is tedious and boring. It is, nevertheless, essential. I’m all for critical thinking and taught it. However, I also remember thinking 30 years ago when higher order critical thinking became all the rage: “How does one think critically about NOTHING?”
William Casey
April 30th, 2012
2:41 pm
that’s “let’s quit pretending…” sorry for typo
Just Saying
April 30th, 2012
2:54 pm
Oh well! The state has money to implement these standards but not enough to keep schools open or teachers employed. The only Common Core I care about is how I’m going to pay my rent. If anybody really cared about schools in this state, they’d realize that implementing these changes in curriculum won’t matter at all when there are no teachers in the classroom. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I foresee a time (in the very near future) when Georgia (and possibly the entire nation) will face a huge shortage of teachers. These students who are borrowing vast sums of money for their educations are not doing it to become school teachers. They have seen how teachers are treated. Oh, and by the way, the common core material is pretty darned simplistic.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
3:29 pm
The purpose of the assessment climate, as I see it, is to make our education system look bad, because if it looks bad, then every company with a “snake oil” cure for it can make some money. Politicians then get their nice dinners, vacations, golf days, what have you. At some point, no matter how much anyone does to improve, there has to be failure in order for the reformers to have anything to fix.
I would urge everyone here to do a little searching on problems with standardized tests. They can be a helpful tool, but they are often as flawed as the humans who create them. They may be the best tool we have so far, but that doesn’t let us off the hook for trying to find another. I still think portfolios could be done and objectively graded and show a lot better proof of a child’s learning, but that’s just my two cents worth (actually a penny when adjusted for inflation and furlough days).
irisheyes
April 30th, 2012
3:46 pm
@GwinnettParentz, as a parent of a GCPS student, I would think that you would understand that Gwinnett is certainly not afraid of assessment. If anything, we swing the opposite way! Consider, for example, my son who will be in fifth grade next year. In that year, he will take these standardized assessments:
CogAt
ITBS
Georgia Writing Test
CRCT
5 Benchmark Assessments over the 5 core subjects for a total of 25 tests
That’s approximately 34 or 35 mornings out of 180 days taking a standardized assessment. At what point do we say “Enough is enough”! I would think that we could cut out at least ONE or two of these assessments and still get an accurate reflection of his progress.
mountain man
April 30th, 2012
5:29 pm
“A generation or two ago, the very worst thing one could say about a teacher was that he or she went blandly “by the book,” assaulted students with facts and figures, and demanded that they “regurgitate” names and dates on tests. It was widely understood that learning should nurture critical thinking, creativity, imagination, analysis and synthesis.”
That was about one generation ago and that was when education started going downhill, with more and more students graduating college without mastering what used to be mastered by the fifth grade. “Social Promotion” became the watchword of the day, no corporal punishment, and “critical thinking” (but not simple arithmetic). No more “three R’s”.
mountain man
April 30th, 2012
5:31 pm
You can imagine my surprise when I asked my son a while back when Columbus discovered the new world and he could not tell me! He had never heard the mnemonic – “in 14 hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. So much for getting away from rote memorization.
mountain man
April 30th, 2012
5:35 pm
Irisheyes – We would not need all those tests if the grades that the teacher puts on the report card (and the administrator does not change) was indicative of the mastery of the subject matter, but it is not. Especially when teachers are told “NO ZEROES”.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
5:37 pm
Even if we have vouchers, does anyone here think the testing companies are going to just roll over and play dead because many private schools don’t use they myriad of tests the companies produce? RIGHT…and I have some great beach front property in Arizona you might want to check out.
They’ll find some reason to push their products on the private schools and their glitzy car salesmen will roll in and scare the bejeesus out of everyone because the schools aren’t testing more. I wonder what will happen when all the average and below-average kids, whose parents have vouchers, show up hoping for admission to private schools that have pointedly avoided them for so long. Will they turn away the money or find a reason to “expand” their offerings to be more inclusive? It will be interesting to watch Louisiana as it broadens its voucher programs. Time will tell, and I can only hope we’ll wait to see how it works for them before we jump into the same situation.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
5:40 pm
mountain man @5:31: there’s no standard for teaching the mnemonic for that evidently. In the attempt to increase rigor, the powers that be interpreted that as more, not tougher. Kids don’t learn basic, important skills because the curriculum maps and pacing charts don’t give them enough time to learn it. Sad, isn’t it?
Real teacher
April 30th, 2012
6:23 pm
Last week I was giving an assignment to a 6th grade student.
Student says “Why do we have to do this?”
I said “Because you are here to learn.”
Student gets an attitude and says “But school is over.”
I tell him “School is not over’ and direct him to get to my assignment.”
Student says with a big attitude and throws his hands up. “School is over. We took the test already. Isn’t that what we are here for?”
This is a true story–reality—what happens in the trenches– and what education has come to, period. Bottom line is the test score and real estate value. This one student is bold enough to voice his opinion while other students just act it out. It doesn’t matter where the curriculum comes from…. Until NCLB is done away with, this is the reality of education. Sad thing is, students like this are born into NCLB and learning to take a test is all they know. They take a test and think its over because society paints it that way and makes the jobs for teachers difficult. Politicians, leaders, professors, all like to direct from their ivory towers while their jobs are not on the line and they lack true experience in the trenches of public education but this is the reality teachers deal with everyday–and it sucks.
GwinnettParentz
April 30th, 2012
6:48 pm
@Ron F. You obviously serve another master in your unrelenting fear and loathing of companies in the vanguard of K-12 innovation.
Competition’s a nightmare for NEA union bosses, eh?
But those of us focusing on KIDS rather than on union revenues would point out that companies such as KIPP are doing excellent things in inner cities—where the union offers only stale excuses. Bad news for union bosses can mean good news for black kids and their parents.
We’re sure you wake up in the middle of the night with fears of Gov. Bobby Jindal under your bed. May it one night prove to be true!
mountain man
April 30th, 2012
6:58 pm
“Student says with a big attitude and throws his hands up. ‘School is over. We took the test already. Isn’t that what we are here for?’ ”
So why would you schedule testing before you have covered all the material? i.e. before the end of the year. Would you not get a higher score if you saved the testing for the very last days? Isn’t that what they do in college – schedule the finals on the last day of class? They don’t teach more after the finals.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
7:14 pm
“companies such as KIPP are doing excellent things in inner cities—where the union offers only stale excuses.”
Well since there aren’t unions in GA, by law, your argument is rather….”stale”, but keep on harping. It seems to amuse you, and I even had to laugh at the predictability of it. At least you’re consistent, albeit nutty.
As for KIPP, so far the results look good. I’ve never criticized them, and the fact that they’re a NONPROFIT organization gets praise for them from me. Maybe if a few more of those came along to help, teachers like me might just support the charter movement. Any ideas how to make that happen?
Bobby Jindal would scare the bejeesus out of me. Too uptight- now Chris Christie, I might not like his politics, but I bet he knows how to party!
EduKtr
April 30th, 2012
8:40 pm
The National Education Association (GAE in Georgia) isn’t as shy as some on this blog in frankly acknowledging they’re a union. Any reader who googles “NEA” and “union” will find the National Education Association website page on which they declare themselves to be “the largest union in the United States.”
So they’re obviously not confused about it. Nor is the Georgia Association of Educators on a good day. (All GAE members belong to the NEA @($168 extra yearly).
Likewise, a search on “NEA” and “donations” will bring up reference websites which track political donations reported by the union to regulatory agencies. Virtually all the NEA’s political money goes to Democrat candidates and liberal causes. And that’s merely what the union chooses to officially report!
Like @Ron F they sleep with one eye open—terrified that, one day, parents will have the freedom to choose their children’s schooling.
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
Brandy
April 30th, 2012
8:43 pm
I might be with the pro-voucher crowd if you all would answer my oft repeated questions:
What if a parent chooses to spend their taxpayer funded voucher on a Catholic school? A Seventh Day Adventist school? A Jewish school? A Muslim or Islamic school? What if they choose to spend it on a school out of state? Out of the country? On a boarding school? A school that only accepts one gender? Only one race? if they can’t find a private school that will accept their kid? What if they still can’t afford the tuition after the voucher? What if they get in, but then get kicked out–who keeps the money? How will the private schools be held accountable?
Answer the questions, honestly, and you might have a convert. Right now, I can’t help taking your continued silence as an all too telling answer: You couldn’t give a d*mn about any of those possibilities, you just want your choice (to send your kid to a private school) to be paid for by the state. Well, sorry, life doesn’t work that way.
Brandy
April 30th, 2012
8:44 pm
Oh, I forgot one: Will homeschooling parents get to keep the money?
Come on, guys, answer the questions.
EduKtr
April 30th, 2012
8:52 pm
The National Education Association (GAE in Georgia) isn’t as shy as some on this blog in frankly acknowledging they’re a union. Any reader who googles “NEA” and “union” will find the National Education Association website page on which they declare themselves to be “the largest union in the United States.”
So they’re obviously not confused about it. And all Georgia Association of Educators members belong to the NEA @($168 extra yearly.
Likewise, a search on “NEA” and “donations” will bring up reference websites which track political donations reported by the union to regulatory agencies. Virtually all the NEA’s political money goes to Democrat candidates and liberal causes. And that’s merely what the union chooses to officially report!
Like @Ron F they sleep with one eye open—terrified that, one day, parents will have the freedom to choose their children’s K-12 school.
Like the union bosses themselves do.
ref: http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm
ref: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ
ref: http://goo.gl/bNdPt
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
8:52 pm
Brandy: I gave up asking and just try to ignore the jabs. It’s like convincing Don Quixote that they’re just windmills even as the blades smack them off the horse. Like you, I’m open to considering anything that will truly help our kids succeed. But I want the questions answered first, and they won’t be. As a parent AND teacher, I want the best but I’m not rushing into this.
See you at the water cooler outside the cubicles…
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
8:55 pm
“Like @Ron F they sleep with one eye open—terrified that, one day, parents will have the freedom to choose their children’s schooling.”
I have two teenage boys at home who are well liked by quite a few teenage girls (and the girls ain’t shy these days!!). I ALWAYS sleep with an eye and an ear open…and the alarm set so I know if the doors open.
Helps to harpen my skills so I know when you’re sneaking into my cubicle.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
8:57 pm
sharpen, not harpen… get nervous thinking about all those folks under my bed. Much worse than the monsters of childhood OR my ex-wife!
EduKtr
April 30th, 2012
9:39 pm
@Brandy. Where are the words “BUT WHAT IF…!!!” as you contemplate the disaster of public school education in most of today’s large urban areas?
And I’m sure the local Louisiana NEA bosses won’t have reservations about applying their new tuition vouchers to their OWN kids’ private school tuition.
EduKtr
April 30th, 2012
10:11 pm
@Brandy. Where are your words “BUT WHAT IF…???” as you contemplate the disaster of public school education in most of today’s large urban districts?
And I’m sure the local Louisiana NEA bosses won’t have reservations about applying their new tuition vouchers to their OWN kids’ private school tuition.
Brandy
April 30th, 2012
10:20 pm
@EduKtr, Your comment to me makes absolutely no sense in regards to my post. Obviously we have different views on things. Good! Disagreement is good for the democratic process.
Now answer the questions.
Brandy
April 30th, 2012
10:26 pm
@Ron F., You bring the coffee, I’ll bring the donuts! Gah, do these people know how ludicrous they sound? Yes, we are all mindless NEA robots spouting off the common refrain they have programmed us to say. Um, nope, just as I’m sure they aren’t all Sarah Palin wannabes. Let’s all act like the grown ups we are and try to put together valid arguments.
Answer the questions and we “union shills” (i.e. teachers like me and Ron F. who are NOT, I repeat NOT members of nor employees of NEA, AFT, or any other union) might jump on the bandwagon along with you.
Ron F.
April 30th, 2012
11:02 pm
Brandy: I think the reason some don’t answer is because they just don’t know the answers. That or they’re afraid that folks with differing points of view might just be able to work together to make things happen the right way. That seems to fly in the face of current political leaders who just refuse to consider the possibility. I don’t know why people are afraid to honestly discuss, challenge, think, and accept questions. I enjoy the challenge and have learned a lot in recent months that has impacted my thinking, and not just to push it farther away from compromise. Oh well, I guess we just keep trying.
Starbucks or Dunkin? I’m honestly finding I like Dunkin’s coffee just about the best. Not all the complicated list of names to remember for a simple cup o’ joe.
Cobb History Teacher
May 1st, 2012
5:58 am
@mountainman
“If you have “tracked” the kids into different levels, then the ones who need to work on basic arithmetic in 12th grade are in one class, while the high achievers are in another class discussing Descartes. And the SPED students are not interfering because they are also in a separate class.”
Good point but at some point the “ego strokers and warm and fuzzies” decided that tracking was labeling and that’s wrong. They couldn’t see how maybe just maybe tracking students by ability might help the system to focus on their needs.
EduKtr
May 1st, 2012
8:15 am
Those new to the blog, and perhaps puzzled by the above “Ron F” and his obscure references … should be aware that he posts in multiple names (”Brandy,” for instance, today).
He’s an antagonist of education reform and a bitter-end defender of the teachers’ union against all who might question the role it’s played in bringing public school education to its present sorry state.
A character right out of the film “Waiting for Superman.”
irisheyes
May 1st, 2012
8:32 am
Ahh, I missed @EduKtr and his/her tin-foil rants. Who would like muffins at our mythical headquarters on Mt. Olympus?
real teacher
May 1st, 2012
9:55 am
@mountain man, teachers do not have control over the scheduling of standardized testing. These test dates are set by the state and local school districts… They schedule the test towards the end of the year and then try to leave enough time before summer to notify students who did not do well and give them a chance to register for summer school and retake the test. Our hands are tied.
crankee-yankee
May 1st, 2012
7:45 pm
@GwinnettParentz
So, the competition of charter schools keeps me awake at night?
Not likely, lets see why…
Nobel Learning Communities (charter schools in 15 states) successfully sued by the federal Dept of Justice for discriminating against kids with learning disabilities. (http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/January/11-crt-051.html).
Hmm, discriminating against kids, good corporate policy for sure.
Kaplan Higher Education Corporation sued by DOJ for a “systematic practice of refusing to hire African American job applicants. (http://www.lawyerscommittee.org/about/letters?id=0022).
Lets model segregation for our young, malleable minds.
Imagine Schools to pay out over 1/2 million in back wages plus lawyers fees, court costs, etc. for firing 2 pregnant employees (http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/3-18-10.cfm).
Gee, I guess they figure we have enough kids in the pipeline, they don’y need their employees adding to the population.
And not the least of which, right here in “good ol’ boy” GA, Greenforest-McCalep Christian Academic Center loses a pregnancy discrimination suit with the EEOC (http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/3-26-10.cfm).
No pregnant teachers are going to teach in my church!
These are the kind of bottom-feeders who are coming out of the woodwork with the attacks on public education.
Oh, and lets not forget the fundamentalists & creationism!
(http://www.southerneddesk.org/tag/creationism/)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxP4gI-qNhc)
What, me worry? It won’t be long before John Q. Public wakes to the facts and pushes back, at the ballot box.
Cobb History Teacher
May 1st, 2012
10:12 pm
@Gwinnettz, Teachers do sit for exams.
And here is the another analogy on the other side of teacher accountability debate using your doctor framework:
We wonder if a hospital would hold a heart surgeon liable for an overweight patient who never exercised, who ate Big Macs and fries for lunch every day, who forgot to take his medication, who skipped appointments and who told the doctor, “I am never going to give up my cigarettes or my Jack Daniels.”
Well put Maureen!
@GwinnettParentz
Teachers aren’t suggesting that there be no accountability in education, what we are asking for is shared accountability. Teachers are accountable for teaching the state standards using appropriate strategies and materials. What most would like as a certain amount of accountability on the students part and even to a lesser degree a certain amount of accountability on the parents part to provide supplies, a stable home, and reinforcement that what we are attempting to do in the public schools is relevant and important.
Folks can whine all they want about teacher accountability but until “precious” decides that his / her cell phone, constant restroom passes and sidebar conversation during instruction are less important than what is going on in the classroom, no amount of teacher accountability will change anything.
Cobb History Teacher
May 1st, 2012
10:22 pm
@ H S Public Teacher
“Honestly, these types of things don’t matter at all if we cannot get the children of this State to take their own education seriously. And, this starts at HOME!!!!”
Unfortunately many students attitudes about education are learned from home. Parents who had bad experiences in school as children usually transmit these feelings to their children who then carry them to school and repeat the cycle.
Amen. I don’t care how good of a teacher a person is you can’t make a student learn something they don’t want to or don’t take seriously. (You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.”
“I can help those who do not understand, but I cannot help those who do not care”
The Truth Hurts
May 1st, 2012
11:13 pm
Just like any other profession the majority of teachers are good. It is fairly easy to see if a teacher is doing his or her job on a daily basis just by looking at what is being done in class. So, I agree with holding teachers accountable in that aspect. However, parents should bare the same burden. If a student isn’t doing homework or studying then teachers should be able to grade the parent. Only then can a true picture be painted of where the problem lies. A couple of teachers and I are using loopholes with the state laws to basically grade (or at least harass) our less involved parents. When a student doesn’t do an assignment they are given detention. If they fail to show it then becomes a discipline issue which the state law allows us to use the code of conduct to address. So far we have handed out several ISS days and a few OSS days. If the student continues to fail to participate they will be sent to the alternative school where more severe punishments are available. We have had one student make it this far and after spending a week in an isolation cell at the jail recently for his attitude he is ready to learn. In addition, his parents are taking a more active role in his education now…lol. Hopefully other educators will follow suit.
Digger
May 2nd, 2012
11:01 am
Asking teachers to teach higher level thinking is like asking Justin Bieber to compose his own ‘Sgt. Pepper’.
Cobb History Teacher
May 3rd, 2012
10:50 am
@ The Truth Hurts
“However, parents should bare the same burden. If a student isn’t doing homework or studying then teachers should be able to grade the parent. Only then can a true picture be painted of where the problem lies.”
I agree and parents should remember (I’m a parent as well) if you can’t get your child to do their homework or study why do you think it’s any easier for a teacher to get thet same student to do their work? We are all on the same team and that is all too often forgotten. Bottom line students are responsible for their learning by paying attention in class, participating in class, limiting disruptions and studying what they have learned at home.
Cobb History Teacher
May 3rd, 2012
11:00 am
And now for the elephant in the room noone wants to talk about….the schools are a reflection of the community thet serve. If students don’t care about their education and learning where do you think they get that attitude?
Aimee
May 6th, 2012
1:50 pm
As a high school student, I can completely relate to this eye-rolling girl. My experience this “Socratic method” aka laziness all the time from teachers has not been a good one. After going through my junior year, I’ve come to hate creativity and critical thinking associated with learning.
“The implication couldn’t have been clearer. There is a finite, identifiable body of data that students are supposed to learn. It is the task of the instructor simply to transmit that information.”
This statement is so true. I don’t understand why teachers cannot just TEACH for once instead of coming up with a host of nonsensical methods of inciting students to critical think or in other words expect us to somehow become enlightened with knowledge that drops out of the heavens. What I have found is that teachers tend to instruct as little as possible. Then, they put the most absurd and difficult problems on the test and expect us to get the correct answer because apparently through their basic explanations, we should achieve a great understanding of this topic. By “truly understanding” it, we SHOULD answer any question they throw at us. However, in the end, 80% of the class does poorly, and no one ends up learning anything.
As an example, imagine a teacher saying, “4/2=2. Now, we will be having a test on long division with decimals tomorrow. Use your ability to use critical thinking, and you should achieve an A.” Now imagine this happening on a grander scale such as in a Calculus class.
The problem is that I want to LEARN. I wish my teachers would just TEACH me the more difficult info ALSO instead of expecting me to figure out the most difficult concepts of the subject DURING the test. I can’t emphasize how much the failure of teachers has caused students to become discouraged and resentful of learning. Not only that, students’ grades have gone down the grades because of it. As a result many are not getting into good colleges. Let’s face it, ROTE memorization is how we learn naturally as babies. It is how we gain at least an intermediate understanding of the topic. Please! Teachers, teach instead of hiding behind an excuse of using creative methods and discussions. Make your tests an accurate representation of what you teach instead of an examination built towards failure which tests critical thinking.