Teachers aren’t martyrs, monks or nuns. But they are dedicated and trying their best for their students.
I am hearing a lot about teachers leaving their schools, even in high performing areas.
One of the Get Schooled blog’s most eloquent and articulate posters, Jordan Kohanim, who gave up her north Fulton teaching job this year, shared this list of ways schools could stem the exodus.
By Jordan Kohanim
There are some obvious solutions to this problem which can be addressed at the grass-roots level.
1. Acknowledgement: This one of the most important factors. Recognizing that teachers have a difficult job and are doing the best they can (and often successfully so) is an essential and surprisingly easy thing to do. Acknowledgement across all realms of education — not just math and science is essential. All teachers have a role and purpose in a school. This doesn’t mean the principal needs to have a Ra-Ra session every year, but admitting that:
•This is a hard job, with not enough monetary compensation, that most people appreciate silently.
•There is a counter narrative that disparages the work of public schools which is largely false
•Teachers are being asked to do more with less and are adapting to those expectations for the sake of their students
Principals need to attach meaning to that. They need to express it not only to their teachers, but also their community. Leaders need to admit that public education is a worthy and successful endeavor — one that would not be successful without its teachers. Too many times, leaders refuse to counter this narrative because it allows them the savior role. If they agree with the perception that public education is failing, they can be the hero that saves it. This can lead to another dangerous scenario where educational leaders get caught up in their own ego and the misconception that a school’s success hinges less on the ability to govern and more on the principal him/herself.
2. Financial Gain: I have not seen a STEP raise. Had I stayed in teaching, I would likely not ever see a STEP raise. The money is not coming back for a long time, if ever. This is a hard economy, so it is no surprise that schools and teachers are suffering along with everyone else. That being said, leadership does not always have to do an across the board raise. There are other ways to compensate teachers. A good leader must be resourceful in involving the businesses around the school. Reaching out to the local businesses to provide free meals to teachers during teacher work days can make a big difference. Having local businesses give out freebies to teachers in the form of classroom supplies can also help. Respecting teachers’ time enough to understand that endless meetings is not the most appropriate use of Teacher Work Days — work days that need to be used to plan for larger classes and a new curriculum. As one of my teacher friends put it, if there are so little monetary resources, those resources need to be put where they will do the most good — in the classroom. Finally, giving hope. As I said, had I stayed in teaching I would likely never see a STEP raise.
Every year I taught, I lost money either through furloughs or benefit cuts. Had I been told there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I might have tried to stick it out. Instead, I received a narrative of money woes that basically told me to suck it up, that I should be grateful I had a job at all. I am grateful I have a job; I wish it were teaching. Instead, it is a field in which I am monetarily compensated for the time I put in.
3. Destroy the Martyr Mentality: The other dangerous perception that exists in teaching today is the “do it for the kids” narrative. This means that if you were a good enough teacher, if you cared enough about teaching, you would suffer whatever it takes to make your classroom successful. After all, you got into the job not for the money or the summers off, but to help society, right? This mentality creates a Kafka-esque Hunger Artist scenario. Teachers are told to sacrifice more and more to show just how dedicated they are. Equating an individual’s ability to suffer for the sake of his/her work is not a durable approach. There must be a breaking point.
Allow teachers the freedom to speak out about the conditions in which they teach without fear of retaliation. Shift the public perception that good teachers suffer for the sake of their students. It is not necessary. Teachers are not monks and nuns. School leaders need to produce a narrative that teachers are not the sole equation of success. Schools require all community participants from local businesses and social institutions to parents and elders to contribute to the success of the school. A school’s success affects housing value and thus the wealth of the entire community, so it would behoove all members to bear the responsibility of the success of their school — not just the teachers.
Of the utmost importance is the voice of the educational leadership. The voice needs to change from one of blame-shifting to one of support. Everyone can acknowledge that changes are being made to improve schools, but scapegoating teachers will not only demoralize them and drive them out of schools, it will forever tarnish public education. Leaders need to sacrifice their egos and admit they are not the sole bearers of success. They need to impart to the public the importance of keeping GOOD teachers — not just the importance of getting rid of BAD ones.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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175 comments Add your comment
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
1:32 pm
mountain man, 6:53 am
“So I am confused – if a second-grader has not mastered second grade math, do you retain them in the second grade to re-teach them second grade math and teach them advanced other subjects?”
==================================================
We want each student to master each area of the curriculum with at least 90% mastery of each skill. If a student has not learned to multiply, for example, it is fruitless to teach him division until he has, first, mastered subtraction and multiplication. Try not to think in terms of “locked in” grade level curriculum, i.e. subtraction, 2nd grade; multiplication, 3rd grade; and division, 4th grade. Think, instead, in terms of a continuum of the total mathematics curriculum, 1 – 12.
If a student has done well in all of his other courses in 3rd grade, but he has not yet mastered multiplication, he should not be retained in 3rd grade for a full year to be taught, again, all of the 3rd grade skills, in every area of the curriculum. (In fact, he would probably be bored if that were to happen to him and he might even “act out” inappropriately because of it.) He simply needs more time in order to master the skill of multiplication. Therefore, he should go to the next grade level – or 4th grade – but the 4th grade teacher should be able to address teaching him the 3rd grade skill of multiplication while he is in her 4th grade classroom. Otherwise, she would have to teach him division with all of her other other 4th grade students, and, if she were to do that, he would, obviously, fall even further behind – because, then, he would not be able to process either multiplication or division. He could never master division until he had, first, mastered multiplication.
It’s not the grade level that should be the focus, but the continuum of skills in which every student should achieve mastery. Some students will take longer than others to master the same skill, but that skill can be mastered, if more time is given – via targeted, precise instruction – to those students who need more time. Also, bear in mind that although that student might need more time to master multiplication, he might, also – once he “got” it – excel with division skills and he might, even, move more quickly through division skills than other students. Or, that student might need more time in both multiplication and division skills, while also being advanced in his English and social studies skills, and concepts. There are a myriad of students’ instructional variations that teachers must be aware of for each of her students. This is how the computer can be of aid, instructionally, to teachers today – by charting quickly the mastery of skills and concepts learned by each of her students – at point in time. Every student should be taught where he or she is functioning for growth to occur.
Mountain man, having worked as an Instructional Lead Teacher in a continuous progress school, 1 – 8, for a decade, and having received an M.Ed. as a reading specialist, the coursework in which I was taught that these variances among students, in all grade levels, will – always – be present, it would take me more time and effort to explain my understanding of continuous progress and mastery learning, k – 12, than I am able to give to your interest in this phenomenon, unfortunately.
I hope that you will go to my blog and read my many educational essays, which should help you to understand more fully continuous progress and mastery learning. I do think you are sincerely interested. I am sorry that I do not have more time and effort to give to your answer. My best regards to you.
Here is a link, specifically, to one of my blog posts, which is the story of a student named, Cyndie, who was reading on 2nd or 3rd grade level in her 5th grade science class, and what her innovative and caring science teacher did to “catch up” Cyndie, with her peers:
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/category/cyndies-story/
Archie
August 2nd, 2012
2:08 pm
I remember social promotion quite well when I worked in the teenage pregnancy capital of South Georgia. Shortly before it was abolished, we were faced with the situation of three pregnant sixteen year old girls in our system’s only seventh grade class! The reason they were there? They hadn’t been socially promoted yet! To make matters worse, the younger girls in the seventh grade started looking up to these three proudly pregnant girls and saying “I wanna bebe, too!” The school system’s reaction was to finally hire a counselor for the middle grades (After they found out the state would pay for it, of course!)
Mary Elizabeth Kelly
August 2nd, 2012
2:27 pm
I did not know I was Maureen’s base. There are always a few bad apples. Of course! But, most teachers are hard working. I am happy to arrange a week for you to do a teacher’s job. All week. I mean from start to finish. Including dealing with the constant comments made by folks like you! Again, most teachers work hard. If a school has a lazy bad teacher then the teacher should be let go. This is not a union state and firing teachers here does not require a long legal process. This is just another load of propaganda out there. Good schools require that parents, teachers and students all do their share of work. It is as a group we succeed or as a group we fail. Put up or hush up!
Gregory Harris
August 2nd, 2012
2:35 pm
This is a very good article. I believe, we have to get the message out to the public so they will have a good understanding about the need for good teachers . We also need to pay them what they deserve. When teachers are asked to make sacrifices and the pay is not where it should be because of budget cuts we need to support the teachers with higher pay because they deserve to be paid a professional wage.
Mountain Man
August 2nd, 2012
2:39 pm
“Here is a link, specifically, to one of my blog posts, which is the story of a student named, Cyndie, who was reading on 2nd or 3rd grade level in her 5th grade science class, and what her innovative and caring science teacher did to “catch up” Cyndie, with her peers”
From your answer and this story link, I then take it you DO believe in social promotion, with the responsibility falling on the teacher to “catch up” the student. Thus if a 5th grade teacher inherits a “socially promoted” student who is reading at a second grade level, it is his/her responsibility to catch that student up whil teaching ALL her other students (and catching them up too). That is absolutely insane. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. No wonder teachers are cheating. You have given them an impossible task.
Mountain Man
August 2nd, 2012
2:42 pm
“I remember social promotion quite well when I worked in the teenage pregnancy capital of South Georgia. Shortly before it was abolished, we were faced with the situation of three pregnant sixteen year old girls in our system’s only seventh grade class! The reason they were there? They hadn’t been socially promoted yet! ”
So, Archie, your solution is to socially promote them so that the pregnant ones all stay together? Then either they drop out together or you give them a high school diploma based on attending school 50% of the days required? And you wonder why businesses insist on having 4-year degrees for its managers?
Beverly Fraud
August 2nd, 2012
2:59 pm
From Mountain Man
Thus if a 5th grade teacher inherits a “socially promoted” student who is reading at a second grade level, it is his/her responsibility to catch that student up whil teaching ALL her other students (and catching them up too). That is absolutely insane. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. No wonder teachers are cheating. You have given them an impossible task.
@Mary Elizabeth, I think that’s a valid concern Mountain Man raises. I see the point of if the child is struggling ONLY in multiplication you don’t hold him back; but realistically how often does a child struggle ONLY in multiplication while mastering addition, subtraction, and all the other skills?
And to promote a child who ONLY is struggling in reading…isn’t that like saying “Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?”
Michael
August 2nd, 2012
3:37 pm
I agree with those who have posted that those who wish to speak ill of public education probably haven’t darkened the inside of a school since they were children themselves. Education is a very complex endeavor. In most countries, it is a highly esteem and very well paid profession. Even in this country, states with the highest per capita spending, they also have the highest NAEP scores (the only statistically proven “measuring stick” in education).
I disagree with the comments that administrators go into administration because they cannot teach. I know of many outstanding administrators who were great teachers, which one can still see because they now instruct their teachers. I am an administrator who “fell into” that part of the profession by a series of unfortunate (?) events. I started as a substitute teacher, and then became an elementary classroom teacher. I quickly became one of the most effective teachers in my grade level according to my colleagues, administrators, and yes – test scores. I was asked to become a math trainer for the school district, which I did while I was still teaching – with no extra pay. I was also asked to become a second language consulted on new curriculum implementation. Later I was asked to give advice to improve math instruction in a neighboring school district. It was suggested, at that time, that I go into administration because of my curricular expertise and my other “real job” experiences. I reluctantly went to “the dark side,” as it was referred to by teachers, believing that I could have a greater impact on even more students. I later completed my doctoral studies (Ph.D. not Ed.D.) in Instruction and Curriculum and Instruction, not Educational Administration, because for me it was about the teaching. Are there bad administrators? –yes, but that has been said in this blog as well.
Again, if you really want to know what is going on in public education, spend a week in a school – especially a low income school. You will see all the things that public educators have to put up with. It is mind boggling. While what the teachers in this blog have expressed some “truisms,” it not the whole picture at the school level. As an administrator, one sees even more. We have parents who believe their child is always right and can do no wrong. We have students who come to school hungry, dirty, tired, ill clothed, abused, neglected, etc. We have students who are ill mannered, rude, violent, etc. but have the have “a right to a public education.” Then you have parents who know school board members or some other Central Office administrator who want exceptions to the “rules.” These issues are just the tip of the iceberg for many schools. As someone else has mentioned, schools are places where a lot of beliefs, cultural mores, and societal norms meet. This makes the discussion on education even more complicated and muddled. Even at the founding of this country the discussion of education was problematic. While these types of issues may exist in other fields, the sheer number of students and media scrutiny make education the convenient “punching bag.”
Isn’t it interesting that when society wants something “fixed” they give it to schools to do (character education, AIDS education, drug prevention, gang prevention, et al), but when schools need to be fixed society doesn’t want to be bothered.
CCMST
August 2nd, 2012
3:38 pm
@ Another Math Teacher – I know, I know – I try to stay quiet, but reading the same incorrect information over and over is really annoying. I wonder about the large amounts of misinformation out there, and I am concerned that a casual reader would read comments like that and take them for truth. My husband tells his coworkers stories about what I do, and they are often incredulous at what really happens.
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
3:42 pm
Mountain Man, 2:39
No, social promotion means to send the student on to the next grade and allow him to be taught on the curriculum for that next grade level, regardless of where he is functioning, even if he had failed the course work in the previous grade. Obviously, if that is done, he will only fail again.
That is quite different from what I am saying. I am saying to send those students who have mastered most of the curriculum in their prior grade level to the next grade level, but teach those students on those skills – where they are behind – on the levels in which they are functioning. And, in some cases, in which a student did not master say, 80% of the curriculum, for a grade, then perhaps that student should repeat that grade. But, retention should be considered on a case by case basis, only.
I am not the “enemy.” I am simply delivering the truth of what the varied functioning levels of students are in classrooms across the nation, and some do not wish to see that truth. Therefore, we continue to have studentss who fail and who drop out of school. This educational problem is as much the problem of society-at-large, as it is a failure of the educational system. Low socio-economic background is the surest indicator of student failure. Why do we not address society’s problems? That would mean helping families and children in need in society. We would, it seems, more often rather “blame” someone like parents, or teachers, or students, than simply to see the source of the problems. And, I believe that we have become so self-orientated in the nation, today, that we do not value giving a hand up to others, through how we spend our taxes, especially to those who are struggling in the lower classes. A mother who works two jobs to keep things going for her family financially simply does not have the time and energy to read muc to her children in the evenings, or engage them in interesting conversation. She is exhausted. As a society we would rather blame her and her children than tax of the top 1% few percentage points more. Our nation needs a renewal of altruism toward others, in my opinion. This would help parents, students, and teachers.
Now, perhaps you better understand why 35% – 40% of Georgia’s students drop out of school. It IS an amost impossible task that we expect of teachers, but it can be handled, and that is why teachers need training, technological aid, and encouragement – not ridicule.
Here is part of a post that I entered on July 26, 2012 on this blog, that should inform you even more of the facts of instruction that teacher’s face daily:
“Language development actually starts at birth, if not prebirth. The child hears the sounds around him and learns the cadences and intonations within speech. Later, he picks up meaning and word knowledge. The complexity of the spoken word that he hears around him will effect his reading development, later. In some homes, there is little dialogue happening and that fact hinders language development. Some children have little interaction with other children in their age group, or with older groups. That, too, hinders language development. Some children are exposed to picture books earlier than others. Some are not exposed to these books at all. Some children will “graduate” from these picture books to books with a minimal number of words printed under the pictures. Some children, seeing those words, will start to pick up word meanings simply by exposure to the books with words, and through having had their parents, or siblings, read the books to them. Some parents have read stories and nursery rhymes to their children from the time they were only months old; other children have had no language development exposure, of this nature, at all. Therefore, by the time a child enters kindergarten, five years of very varied language development has already occurred among children.
Let’s take ‘Johnny’ who had all the positive experiences related to language development that I just shared, and let’s take ‘Sam’ who has had none of those experiences. That means that when they both enter first grade, Johnny might be reading on 3rd, or even 4th grade level. Sam, on the other hand, might be not even be able to recognize all of the letters of the alphabet, nor be able to separate them into vowels and consonants, nor be able to sound them out. To Sam, ‘p,’ or ‘b,’ or ‘d’ may be the same letter, just turned in different directions, like a chair can be turned in different directions. Obviously, when they both take the standardized reading test in 2nd grade, Johnny will ‘pass’ the test for 2nd grade students, and Sam probably will ‘fail’ that test. Sam, you see, although he learned much in his first grade year based on where he had begun in first grade (at a 3 year old level in his language development), still he was not reading on 2nd grade level when he started 2nd grade.”
I have said many times that in testing 600 9th grade students, yearly, on the Nelson Reading Test, one-half (or 300 students) yearly scored on 6th grade level, or below. (Obviously, the system will not be able to retain “300″ students yearly in middle school.) And, the range of the 9th grade scores was from 4th grade level to grade level 16. So, even if one could logistically retain 300 9th graders in 8th grade yearly, some would be reading on 4th grade level, some on 5th grade level, and some on 6th grade level.
Teachers can team with one another to share groups on the same level, multiage groupings of students can be formed, and smaller classes of few students would help teachers address different levels in their classrooms. Instead, Georgia’s legislators keep cutting the education budget. It has been cut by over one billion dollars in the last decade.
Here is a link from my blog, which informs teachers (and parents) of techniques that will help those students in their classrooms who are reading several grade levels below their actual grade level in school:
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/12/about-education-essay-4-sq3r-expanded-for-reluctant-readers/
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
4:12 pm
correction: “classes of fewer students,” not “classes of few students”
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
4:14 pm
fewER students, not few students
Mountain Man
August 2nd, 2012
4:21 pm
My suggestion for a good education system:
Start with the problems of attendance and discipline. If a child misses two days without a doctor’s note, then the parent is summoned for a meeting with administrators. If the parent is a no-show or if the problem persists after that up to 5 non-excused absences, then DFACS should be notified and become involved. If the probelm still persists up to ten days, than truancy laws should be invoked and the parent (notice I use the singular) should go to jail. Same with discipline – two referrals to the office and a parent conference is required. Any more and an alternative setting is required for the child, NOT back to the regular classroom. And DEFINITELY NOT In-Scool suspension, where the child gets exactly what he/she wants and the parents do not suffer. Keep the child in after-school suspension with the requirement that the parent pick them up. That should wake a few up. If the parent does not show, turn the child over to DFACS.
Once these very inportant fist steps have been achieved, then testing is done at the end of each school year for mastery of the BASICS. If they fail this test, then they must enroll in “summer school”, where they attend in small classes with intensive teacher focus. ( here is where it gets problematic, because this approach would entail all teachers working a year-round schedule, with higher pay and that means higher taxes). At the end of “summer school”, the students are again tested, and those who still fail are retained, no ifs ands or buts. Now ME, I don’t have a problem with the 1st grader who passes everything but math being “provisionally” promoted up to he second grade, but that is where it ends. Rather than have a law in Georgia (who came up with THAT stupid law, I don’t know) that says you can only retain a child once, you should have a law that says they can only be provisionally promoted once. This is the only way to keep ninth-graders (as you pointed out) from reading at 4th, 5th, and 6th grade levels. You may have to make special classes for those who have been serially retained (most likely due to parental apathy).
We cannot fix society, it is not within the purvue or the educational system. But we can focus on making our education actually mean something. That is what has been lost over the past 30-40 years – a high school diploma might as well be toilet paper – it is worthless.
Julisa
August 2nd, 2012
4:27 pm
Bottom line: It takes a village to raise a child (especially, nowadays).
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
4:37 pm
Beverly Fraud, 2:59 pm
I think my 3:42 pm post to Mountain Man addresses your concerns, for the most part.
To all readers: Please realize that I don’t pretend to have all the answers in how to address the multilevels that will always be a part of the educational process, in every grade level.
I am simply trying to point out the heart of the problem. If we don’t address the myriad instructional levels within each grade level, students will not grow; some may even regress; and others will drop out of school. Educators with more expertise in instructional models must find solutions to this problem, but the varied instructional levels within each grade level must not be denied as they do so.
Failing massive numbers of students is not the answer. Blaming massive numbers of teachers or parents is not the answer. Understanding the reasons that these variations will exist is enlightenment. Next, must be the development of better instructional models for teachers, based on this underlying instructional truth.
mountain man
August 2nd, 2012
5:01 pm
“If we don’t address the myriad instructional levels within each grade level, students will not grow; ”
Instead of having “myriad instructional levels within each grade level”, how about “myriad ages within each instructional level”. That way you keep the instructional levels where they need to be, just not the children’s ages.
That is wher they started talking about how it is better for a child’s ego to get promoted even if they have not learned anything. Maureen talked about visiting a school once (that later turned out to be one of the many cheating scandals) where the kids were energetic and positive and confident, but yet could not write a coherent sentence. Where do those kids go when they get into the real world where bosses don’t coddle you and praise bad work and “socially promote” you. I tell you where they end up – in the unemployment line, bitter and angry that they can’t keep a job even though their teachers told them they were special.
mountain man
August 2nd, 2012
5:07 pm
And Mary Elizabeth, I don’t disagree with everything you say, I just think that the type of teacher you speak of (super-teacher) is few and far between in ghetto schools. If they are there, they soon transfer out to better schools, private or public, or leave teaching altogether. Most of what is left behind is the bottom 50%. Do I think they need to be fired? Heck, no. I think they need a lot of support from their administrators and a healthy realization from the public that most of the students in these schools are lost from the beginning. It goes back to that society thing. The only way you could turn these kids around would be if you got them away from their current surroundings (parent) and into almost a boarding school where you control their home life as well as their education.
Archie
August 2nd, 2012
6:50 pm
@Mountain man: When I started my teaching career, I was not in favor of sex ed. My motto at that time was “teach the kids to read, not breed!” I was naive, because while a lot of kids coming out of our high (and middle) schools couldn’t read well enough to get a job as a filing clerk, they didn’t seem to have any trouble learning about the latter. Passing them along by socially promoting them every three years whether or not they knew the material, was definitely NOT the way to go.
Mary Elizabeth
August 2nd, 2012
7:00 pm
mountain man, 5:07 pm
“The only way you could turn these kids around would be if you got them away from their current surroundings (parent) and into almost a boarding school where you control their home life as well as their education.”
==================================================
I do not believe that. Please read the story of Robert, in the link that I am postsing, below, to share with you. I found that when I believed in the students whom I taught, that that inspired them to want to be the best they could be. I think most parents want what is best for their children. Robert’s mother certainly did. Some simply have more resources to bring “to the table” than others. There are “bad” parents in every socioeconomic group, as well as in every ethnic/racial group, but there are more good parents than “bad” ones in those same groups.
About forming multiaged groupings of students who would be functioning on the same instructional level: Note your words and mine, below, which we both posted earlier, today. We have made the same suggestion to solve the problem of “myriad instructional levels within each grade level” which -”will always exist,” based on the research shared in my graduate reading class, in 1972, by my reading professor.
Mountain Man: “. . .how about ‘myriad ages within each instructional level?’ ”
Mary Elizabeth: “. . .multiage groupings of students can be formed. . .”
About students with self-esteem, without skills to match. Healthy self-esteem is a good thing; we just need students to have the skills to match their self-esteem. (We surely don’t want to condone low self-esteem.) That is why we must invest in more teachers’ training courses, which are also positive answers, instead of simply berating teachers. Just shifting the emphasis from “teacher firings” to “teacher training” would change the emotional climate in most schools and keep many teachers from leaving the profession.
BTW, in the continuous progress school in which I functioned as the ILT, we used multiaged groupings of students placed in the same instructional level. It worked very well. The important thing was to get the students targeted to their correct instructional levels, and to have them advance as rapidly as they could, with mastery, through the skill continuum. Groups changed frequently as some students needed more time than others to master given reading and mathematics skills.
Here is the link to Robert’s story. Robert became one of my favorites from the 98% African-American high school where I taught for 16 years:
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/roberts-story-love-never-fails/
mountain man
August 2nd, 2012
8:56 pm
From the headlines:
http://www.ajc.com/news/truancy-a-lingering-problem-1489975.html
Mary Elizabeth
August 3rd, 2012
10:44 am
Words of wisdom, from the link provided by mountain man, at 8:56 pm, August 2, 2012, regarding students’ chronic absences from school:
———————————————————————-
“And students who drop out are likely to occupy a low rung on the economic ladder or a prison cell. Nine of 10 prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts.”
“Sometimes, a student doesn’t like school because of poor vision. Other times, it’s embarrassment over clothes or emotional toil due to a parental split.”
“. . . “The vast majority of our parents just need help and guidance.”
————————————————————————————–
From my experiences as a high school teacher, Reading Department Chair, and Student Support Team Chair for 16 years, I have recognized that many students stop attending classes because they are too far behind in the curriculum concepts that they must confront every day in their classes. They are sitting in classes that are being taught on their frustration levels.
As wise educators, we must find ways to address the myriad instructional levels within every grade level, so that ALL students are being taught on the precise academic levels in which they are actually functioning, irrespective of their grade levels. Educators must expand instructional models to include multiage groupings, team teaching, volunteers as mentors to students, instructional “coaches,” instructional professionals, and the possibility of taking more than 12 years for some students to earn a high school diploma.
Georgia’s citizens would save money by making these instructional changes because, from the link above, we see that “Nine of 10 prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts.” Tax payers will either be spending more taxes for prisoners or for students. Better to pay for the growth of students through more innovative and targeted instructional models, than to pay for their continuing demise when they end up in prison. We must fund public education adequately, as well as improve its instructional delivery models so that all students are well-served.
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/roberts-story-love-never-fails/
Dr. John Trotter
August 3rd, 2012
3:47 pm
Well stated, Jordan. Unfortunately for the students and the teachers, most politicians, policy-makers, educrats, and superintendents have their heads up their a$ses. Just wrote an article on this today.
http://georgiateachersspeakout.com/
Pride and Joy
August 3rd, 2012
10:42 pm
ME, Excellent 10:44 post. I agree. Students mentally drop out when the don’t comprehend the material. I did that in college once but I was allowed to drop the class. We don’t allow kids to do that. You’re right. we have to ensure the kids are prepared for the class before they get into it.
Bravo for a well-written, intelligent observation and comment…again, as usual
P and J
southside teacher
August 4th, 2012
3:48 pm
I’ve said for years that before reproducing, everyone shouldhave to spend a week working in a middle school. Now I’m beginning to believe that it should also apply to those who thinks they know something about schools, before they are allowed to speak. That would include “reformers”, legislators, philanthropists, disgruntled taxpayers, and yes, parents.
Pride and Joy
August 7th, 2012
2:14 pm
To Mary Elizabeth Kelly, You said “There are always a few bad apples.”
Where do you teach Mary Elizabeth Kelly?
Do you teach in APS?
Try an APS school to teach in for a week. Experience the frustration we parents fee everyday when our child’s teacher cannot speak nor write common, simple English. Experience the frustration we feel when we arrive promptly for teacher-parent conferences and the teacher is late.
Experience the frustration we feel when the teacher passes out the photocopied ditto-sheet, tells the class to “circle the right answer” and then sits at her desk and ignores the children.
I’ve been in side the class for a lot longer than a week, Mary Elizabeth Kelly.
You may teach in a school or district where it is true that most are good but unless you’re down here in APS and running in my shoes, you really don’t have any room to talk smack.