Teachers aren’t martyrs, monks or nuns. But they are dedicated and trying their best for their students.

This comment is incorrect “Teachers aren’t martyrs, monks or nuns. But they are dedicated and trying their best for their students.”
It should read “Many teachers aren’t martyrs, monks or nuns. But they are dedicated and trying their best for their students.”
Not all teachers are dedicated and trying their best for their students. There are bad apples in the bunch just as there in other professions.
When Maureen paints every teacher with the same broad brush, she negates concerns from parents and anyone else who has a different opinion.
This blog is just pandering to the base. It’s not journalism, it’s brown-nosing.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Pride and Joy, You write, “When Maureen paints every teacher with the same broad brush, she negates concerns from parents and anyone else who has a different opinion. This blog is just pandering to the base. It’s not journalism, it’s brown-nosing.”

Talk about painting with a broad brush!

• Link
• Report this comment

Financial gain: There is no doing more with less. Less is less. In any economy, poorly paid workers look for other ways to make a living. In order to teach to the new standards, teachers need new supplies. They aren’t likely to spring for those classroom book sets when their own budgets have been cut to the bone.

Martyr mentality: It’s a profession, not a volunteer ministry.

• Link
• Report this comment

Teachers are no more or less dedicated to their profession than the guy who collects the trash or the guy who installs cable, the nurse who administers shots or the cop who chases bad guys. They all get out of bed every morning and try hard to do their jobs well. As far as I am concerned, they should all be paid about the same per hour. Teachers think they are special. They are “special”, but in the same way as everyone else.

• Link
• Report this comment

Do Tell….so maybe allowing students to draw or not to draw smiley faces on teachers’ evaluations is not such a novel idea?

Maureen you should have been put to sleep for that comment.

How about promoting the idea for the reduction of class size by 50 percent. The money is there…in the budget today….but it is being used for other purposes.

The only way education in Georgia will improve…is to hire more teachers and lower the student teacher ratio…..STRAIGHT UP….MAUREEEN

Now get busy writing about something to solve the problem rather than side stepping the issue with foolishness. Have some heart and show some courage.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hopefully, those who should will appreciate Jordan’s insight and wisdom.

Just consider distinguishing “leader” and “manager” and perhaps replace the former with the latter to reflect essential reality: on the one hand, scant leadership FOR teachers; on the other hand, excessive management OF teachers.

Leaders typically go about the business of providing for other leaders to emerge. Managers typically go about the business of trying to figure out who needs to be subjected to, say, “quality control.”

• Link
• Report this comment

How many times are you going to post the same story?

• Link
• Report this comment

jezel – Class sizes are already half of what they were when I was in school (six years in Catholic school, six in public), yet student accomplishments do not match those of the late 1960’s, not on ACT scores, and not on other standardized tests. There was an urgency to learning in those days, but with the extended childhood of today’s youth (to age 26 for health care on mommy’s policy), there is no urgency.

• Link
• Report this comment

The great thing about our government is that we are the government. Voters are the boss! So, how many people would work for a boss that seldom praises good work, that allows a few bad apples to color the perception of everyone else’s motives for working for the public good, and a boss that refuses to analyze evidence and make decisions in a business like manner.

Very few. It is no wonder turnover in teaching, public safety and public service is so high. You get the government you deserve.

• Link
• Report this comment

Bravo, Jordan. Well said.

• Link
• Report this comment

As I read these negative responses, I am floored and angered. How is it that teachers can be blamed for all of the problems with today’s students and schools and yet be treated like this? I am sorry that some of you have had bad teachers in the past, but the majority of the teachers that I’ve worked with in my 10 years of education have been top notch. It’s obvious that we won’t be compensated more in the near future, but a little appreciation – the same appreciation we show to other public service workers- is all we’re asking for!

• Link
• Report this comment

In Hall Co., the firemen are leaving for better pay and benefits out of the county.
Next it will be teachers leaving.

• Link
• Report this comment

Maureen, I wish that you’d do more posts on how our schools can improve, spend money wisely, and provide a quality education to the children. The nonsense about teachers not being well paid, etc, is really tiring.

As a former teacher, teachers have many benefits that other professionals do not (extra vacation time, a nice salary for 180-190 days of work, summers to get an extra job and add to their income, etc). Every employee is feeling the current economic climate, not just teachers. How many non-teachers have had to pay more for their healthcare each year, or would love to even have a health care for their family? How many would like to have vacation time where they don’t loose money, or have time off with their children at Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and the summer?

Teachers complaining about pay, demands, ect have little ideas of what other professionals have. I know many professionals paid comparable to teachers, who work more days/hours a year, have poorer benefits, and don’t complain nearly as much.

Our society doesn’t need more blog posts about pity parties for teachers, but we need to have posts on school systems around the country that are doing well in the current economic times (meaning students are learning and thriving, ready for college and the world). How are these districts spending money differently? How are their priorities different from those of districts the Atlanta metro area? Do we need smaller school districts to better educate our children?

In my 40 years on this earth, I learned in twelfth grade that teachers will always feel under paid and want more. Lets move on to topics that can actually help our children and improve our schools.

Why not look into the corruption and misspending of DeKalb? Rumor has it that the school district misspent millions of federal dollars and needs to pay it back. Lets have blog posts that can help change our schools and make them better than what they currently are. Having posts where teachers complain about their compensation and work conditions does little to improve the quality of education our children are receiving and works to bring down teacher morale-which is pretty low in many districts.

• Link
• Report this comment

“Teaching is no longer the fun, creative adventure that it used to be. It’s all business about results.”

What else do you expect??? The federal government basically calls the shots now in education. Teachers now are afraid of failing any student – this democrat idea/buzzword of “social promotion”. Teachers are afraid of grading in red ink because you night “hurt the students feelings”. Teachers not allowing the students to play “kill the man with the ball” because it is not politically correct.

Teaching is a joke.

• Link
• Report this comment

I looked into becoming a teacher. The deck is stacked against them from the git-go. Low pay, indifferent students, horrible parents and short sighted administrators. Sure every once-in-a-while a motivated student comes through but our society has so devalued education and educators I don’t know that America will ever regain all the ground it’s lost.

• Link
• Report this comment

Teachers have a hard job. I respect that. The idea that my kids’ teachers work In wretched conditions is just ridiculous. I cant speak for all schools of course. When teachers generally engage in this kind of rhetoric, it makes us poor taxpayers and parents disconnect.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

^^That statement right there, made the whole article for me. We expect more from teacher that we ourselves are willing to give.

How many of the ones complaining about “bad teachers” don’t go over their kids homework with them? How many of those complaining don’t got to PTA meetings? Sell cookies for the school? volunteer in the classrooms? ETc., etc., etc.

Yet we expect teachers to work long hard hours with some kids that even their mothers’ don’t love, supplment these kids school supplies out of their own pockets, give, give, give until they can’t give anymore while the parents give NOTHING but critizcism and disain. HOw realistic is that?

Instead of saying that teachers have an “entitlement mentality” the complainers need to point that finger at themselves.

PS: If you can read this, thank GOD for your teacher. If you can understand it, Thank GOD for your teacher. If you’re not smart enough to understand then BLAME yourself for falling for the “false narrative” that blames teachers and praises CEOs who still us blind.

• Link
• Report this comment

MM: Teachers now are afraid of failing any student – this democrat idea/buzzword of “social promotion”

Teachers were able to innovative and go “outside the box” until something called No Child Left Behind came into play. You’re so quick to decry Democrats, but please tell me, what brilliant mind thought of NCLB and how has it worked since its conception?

• Link
• Report this comment

Everyone crank up Netflix this weekend and watch “Waiting For Superman”. It’ll tell you a lot about the schools systems in this country.

Null Op you’re “Waiting for Superman”

REMOVE THE KRYPTONITE!

Allow teachers the authority to remove the chronic/severe disrupters, allow them to advocate with REAL SAFEGUARDS in place against retaliation, THEN judge them.

Don’t set them up to fail, then blame them for failing.

Set them up to succeed, THEN blame them for failing.

• Link
• Report this comment

I am so tired of hearing “there are 20% of teachers who should be fired…” In point of fact, that could be said of EVERY profession, but you never hear anyone complaining about the percentage of incompetent lawyers and doctors.

Hear, I’ll say it now, “20% of doctors and lawyers need to be fired and replaced with cheaper practioners!”

What we need to do is come up with a score card for doctors and lawyers. Let’s see how many doctors cure their patients. Let’s see a score card of wins and losses of attorneys. Make them put these up in their waiting rooms. What’s that you say, it’s unfair to the doctors? Doctors give instructions to their patients and if the patients don’t follow instructions, it’s not the doctor’s fault?” WRONG!!! They get paid a lot of money — some of it from the government, yeah…that’s right… They should be held to the same standard a public school teacher that makes tons less money is, right? It’ll never happen though, right? Their association… uh… union will prevent it from happening by buying more legislators.

• Link
• Report this comment

No need to get so ugly folks; Jordan’s article was spot on! Teaching today is not what it was 40 – 50 years ago so stop with the comparisons. If you haven’t stepped inside a classroom lately it’s time you did! Go volunteer.

• Link
• Report this comment

@MM As someone who had children in North Fulton schools and now works in the system, I can tell you that it is not “all that” to work here. School board members and HR personnel have told people in public, “if you don’t like working here (Fulton), there are many people eager to take your job.” We have had wholesale changes in administrators (look at the long lists of personnel changes in the Board Briefs the past two years for verification) and some of those have definitely not been improvements. If you actually read the posts here, rather than spouting your invalid rhetoric about unions, Roy Barnes (who tried to make it easier to remove incompetent teachers while Sonny made “austerity” cuts in times of prosperity), and so on, you might get the message. Teachers aren’t leaving because they’ve lost their love of teaching.

(And the comment about education majors – put YOUR broad brush away. My degree was not in education, but you know, as with everything, there are weak and strong people in every field – including engineers!)

• Link
• Report this comment

Teacher Reader…if teaching was so awesome why did you leave the profession?

• Link
• Report this comment

federal programs with catchy names and a load of regulations will never improve education. parents driving the importance of doing well in school is the real solution. until the parents take responsibility for their childs academic performance, the situation will not change.
most teachers work hard at their jobs and care about the students. some don’t. no difference in any other business.
until the parents support the teachers and administrators, it will not change. today, if you try to discipline a child, the school and teacher risk being sued by the parent.
here is a proposal for a new law: every parent should be required to spend one week each school year working as a teachers assistant in their childs school.
how many businesses issue employment contracts that legally require the employee to fulfill, yet they then cut the promised pay with furlow days and unpaid work days without retrobution?
Local school systems should be in charge of educating the children the best that works for them i their area.
Parents should be able to send their children to the school that best suits their needs. The state government then should merely administer the paying of schools accordingly.
All tenure should be eliminated and teacher unions outlawed. Teach the approved subject matter effectively or be gone.
If the child does not do the work, flunk them. The current program of endless chances to “recover” is aimed at meeting federal regulations for school improvement not educating. It merely reinforces to the child that they really don’t need to do or learn anything.
Well, that should be enough to crank up the readers.

• Link
• Report this comment

GwinnettGuy:

You pretty much summed it up. My experiences mimicked yours.

I long ago said teaching needs to move away from being a calling, and move toward being acknowledged as the profession it has become. That taking the old ‘doing more with less’ and actually following through with it is hurting the profession as a whole. The kids should absolutely be the focus, but teachers are human and are affected by their environment as much as the next person.

• Link
• Report this comment

“There is a counter narrative that disparages the work of public schools which is largely false.”

“. . .but scapegoating teachers will not only demoralize them and drive them out of schools, it will forever tarnish public education.”
=============================================

Jordan Kohanim has written a truthful, eloquent, and wise appeal to leadership in public education. If those in leadership will heed her remarks, their voices and actions can help to create more positive school environments for public school students and teachers, the vast majority of whom are caring and competent.

However, the public must also ask questions. For instance, why has this negative bombardment against public education and its teachers occurred with such intensity, especially within the last decade? Consider this possiblity: Traditional public education cannot be dismantled and supplanted by private education and by corporations which may run public charter schools – both of which would exist mainly for profit – unless traditional public education and its teachers are, first, disparaged and underfunded. All who will see, will see that the disparagement and underfunding of public education have been occurring with increased, and deliberate, momentum.This overall momentum is beyond the power of school site administrators to control. But, the public, made aware, can control what has been happening, and the public can turn around what has been happening – through their voices and votes. But first, they must see.

Here is some advice I gave to a caring poster yesterday on this blog. I will repeat my words, below, for the consideration of all who read this blog.
——————————————————

“Your comments, above, are wise and caring ones.Thank you for them. I urge you to become politically savvy and to begin to recognize how what is happening to public education and to public school teachers is larger in scope and design than the educational arena alone, and to recognize that what is happening has very powerful and wealthy forces behind it. Knowledge is power.”

• Link
• Report this comment

In a local paper the BOE funding of 10m plus was approved for a school that graudates 60 to 80 students a year in a small community of 2000. Explain this cost please.

• Link
• Report this comment

The APS spend 12k+ per student. North Fulton spends 1/2 that. Dare we discuss student performance between the two?

Democrats answer to everything = just spend more money.

• Link
• Report this comment

“nationally”

• Link
• Report this comment

@williebkind

I fully believe that the overall failure of schools is a sociological problem. It doesn’t mean it is the only problem.

Our society is attacking education on all fronts. You have a segment of society that attacks public education as not only a failure but a bad thing overall. You have a segment of society that tells kids they don’t need an education when they can resort to criminal activity. You have a segment of society that tells them that society “owes them” and they don’t have to work. I can continue to list these all day long.

What is the one overriding influence in society that can overcome those mentalities? The parents.

You then have the federal government and state government trying to institute a “one size fits all” approach to education. They are instituting uniform standards and curriculums across all school districts. It is tough enough to apply a uniform standard to a single school district much less an entire country. However, this is what the state and federal government are pushing off on school systems.

You have studies touting the fact that minorities/non-whites don’t test well compared to their white counterparts… yet we are judging a school’s success on standardized test results. Which ones are performing well? Typically, the school systems that have a super-majority of white students.

Yet… We then sit and question why school systems can’t improve performance.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Dr Henson: So WHERE is the call for lax/lazy administrators to be called to task for NOT doing their job of truly evaluating teachers and following the process to have them removed so they don’t create the negative posters who say they only had three or four adequate teachers in their K12 years?

This IS a call for educational leadership to make the teaching environment a positive one, including removing the albatrosses whose presence removes hope from students and other faculty. How do we – parents, educators, and taxpayers – make administrators accountable? I tried, on several occasions, and had almost zero success…

• Link
• Report this comment

@EYES ROLLING: The above was for you. Your post showed-up after I posted the above. Love it!

• Link
• Report this comment

First, teachers are not underpaid. The average starting salary for teachers is $36,800 for a 10-month position. This is equivalent to $44,160 for “year-round” careers, and compares favorably to average starting salaries for other non-technical careers (sociology, social science, social work, public health, English, journalism, art, etc.), but compares poorly to STEM careers. This is especially true when you realize that education majors typically have lesser qualifications than other majors. The bigger salary problem is that earning potential is capped unless teachers leave the classroom for administration. Another salary problem is the way teachers are paid. When you can’t increase salaries for good teachers without also increasing them for bad teachers, it raises public opposition to throwing ever more money at a problem without commensurate progress.

Second, teachers are not alone in suffering economically through this recession. Based on the ones posting here, however, they think everyone else should have suffered more to insulate teachers from the effects of recession.

Third, all teachers are not trying their best for their students and all teachers are not good at their jobs. To say so reveals the depth of bias of this blog’s author for the status quo. It also flies in the face of objective and subjective evidence. When the classroom teachers cannot demonstrate proficiency in reading and writing, or when math tests are repeatedly graded incorrectly because the teacher worked the problem wrong, or when a teacher tells a student, “You are not allowed to think that in my class,” it boggles the mind to say they are trying their best or are even adequately professional.

Fourth, it IS more important to get rid of bad ones than to keep good ones. Bad teachers directly harm the students, whom are, after all, the entire reason for the schools. Importantly, bad teachers also harm good teachers, because the bad teachers are a huge drag on the reputation of teaching as a profession.

Finally, it would really help advance the discussion of the problems in education if we could better distinguish between the role of teachers, administrators, and central office staff. Although there are bad teachers, many of the biggest problems in education can be placed at the educational leadership level. Some of the most harmful strategies for students are the fault of administrators and leaders, not teachers. Just to name a few: eliminating ability grouping, zero tolerance policies, inadequate/inconsistent discipline (since administrators frequently penalize teachers for trying to keep order in their classrooms), administrative/central office bloat, creation of silly support positions (graduation coaches, anyone?), etc.

• Link
• Report this comment

Milton Man:

Because many of those chosen to be administrators are not chosen based on merit, but on brown-nosing and political connections. The most outspoken teachers, those that will do anything for the betterment of their students, are generally considered ‘rabblerousers’ and not given the opportunity to move up. At least not into administrative positions for the most part.

This piece was an eloquent presentation of very real issues facing the future of our kids. Ignoring it won’t make the presented problems go away.

• Link
• Report this comment

@DebbieDoRight – Apparently you have forgotten why NCLB was passed. If there hadn’t been excessive cases of high school graduates that couldn’t read or write, NCLB would not exist.

• Link
• Report this comment

@WW If you think there aren’t still excessive numbers of high school graduates who can’t read or write, you live in an alternate universe. But they CAN bubble in answers REALLY well. (Of course, they’ve grown up in a world where everything is a multiple choice test, but that’s all they need for a ballot anyway, right?)

And Bush’s buddies who set up the pilot for NCLB in Texas, and sell the textbooks and tests aligned to each state’s standards, are as rich as oil men.

• Link
• Report this comment

@DebbieDoRight – Apparently you have forgotten why NCLB was passed. If there hadn’t been excessive cases of high school graduates that couldn’t read or write, NCLB would not exist.

WarriorWoman that’s what you were TOLD when, in the quintessential example of bipartisan ignorance, it was passed. But look at the “bidness” relationships between testing/book publishers and certain politicians and you’ll see what REALLY drove this legislation.

Surely WarriorWoman, you can’t believe that a bill that called a school a “failure” if even ONE student failed, had any integrity in it to begin with can you?

• Link
• Report this comment

MiltonMan: “Also, teachers receive a pension – hardly ever mentioned by a teacher. Most private sector companies no longer have this luxury.”

In the private sector I make significantly more money and can fund my retirement without an employer helping.

“Teachers who complain about the school adminstration, here is a question for you: Are these administrators former teachers themselves? Are you trying to convince us that they were good people when they were teachers and all of sudden become bad when they become admin???”

I can only speak of the administrators that I know. (I’ll be referring to them as ‘he.’)

1) A former SPED teacher of 3 years. He never was a lead teacher. Likeable but incompetent. Wouldn’t last 6 months in the private sector. Hired due to personal relationships.

2) A former ESOL teacher of 1 semester. The class size was 10 or so kids that could not speak English well, if at all. He has tried to move to different schools every year. No one else will hire him. (He was hired into the district by a fraternity buddy.)

3) A former English teacher. Last in a classroom over 20 years ago. Likeable but not cut out to be an administrator. Was demoted this past year. Hired by the super because they are friends.

4) A middle school social studies teacher. Had 8 years in the classroom…in 4 different districts. Never got ‘tenure.’ He was related to the new principal. Attempted to place many teachers on a PDP. He didn’t do the paperwork correctly and cost the district a whole lot of time.

5) He had 6 years in CTAE. Likeable but incompetent. Was hired due to friendship with other administrators. (Poker, coaching.)

In general, many of the worst teachers try to move ‘up’ to administration as fast as possible. Typical reasons are more money and to get away from the kids.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Beverly Interesting you should suggest that because our high school had the experience of “no-confidence” situation with a principal. In his second year, at the school, NO ONE on the leadership team spoke out on his behalf in a meeting held with the area superintendent. He was THAT ineffective, BUT he was, in sadly typical education fashion, moved to the county office. The next year he was principal of an alternative school and later moved to our other school, with a smaller population. He is about to begin his sixth year as principal of an alternative school; this year he will begin the year with 18 students in the school with 30+ staff members, including an assistant principal. (For EIGHTEEN students!) His salary in 2011, according to open.ga.gov, was $124,639, making him the highest paid (non-retiring) principal in Fulton County last year.

BOY, was HE penalized for his lack of leadership, teacher support and discipline. Slap on the hand with MANY hundred dollar bills and almost a 2-to-1 staff: student ratio. Now the teachers at the original high school are teaching the equivalent of at least another class-full of students each day and he …? Think that qualifies as demoralizing – to the teachers and other administrators? So, SO sad.

In other words, there has to be a plan to either remove administrators FROM THE SYSTEM or send them back to the classroom. We can’t afford this method of dealing with ineffective “leaders!”

• Link
• Report this comment

One has no doubt, whatsoever, that teachers aren’t monks, martyrs, etc. Just exactly WHAT are they? Is the teacher corps comprised of dedicated professionals who SEE the problem and have the guts…the professional desire to actually DO something about the issue(s), or are they simply YESMEN (oops…gotta be politically correct…thats YESPERSONS).

• Link
• Report this comment

“Teachers who complain about the school adminstration, here is a question for you: Are these administrators former teachers themselves?”

People who can’t teach, become administrators.

• Link
• Report this comment

On our last day of preplanning, I was rummaging the school so I could find enough desks for my 35 person class. And then in class when they added another student, he didn’t have anywhere to sit. A teacher has to worry about a lot of things. Having enough desks shouldn’t be one of them.

My supplies were 2 markers. Two! Granted I’m thankful to have a job (we cut 6 positions from last year) but I hate that more and more is being asked of me and I’m given less and less support.

Oh, and here’s a real morale booster: yesterday we all came in to our rooms to see an email discussing a pay reduction in our checks. Welcome back!

• Link
• Report this comment

@MM Don’t see the mix between social promotion and multiple AP classes…if your school didn’t provide the joint enrollment and gifted directed studies your children needed, why did you not advocate for that to change? I was more effective when “only” a parent in Fulton and have know others who have been successful with consistent, non-confrontational insistence on meeting the needs of the students effectively “left waiting” with NCLB. Bonus: when you advocate for your own child, others often benefit as well, as you may benefit from others’ advocacy efforts.

A principal cancels a field trip that was the culminating event for a group of TAG directed study students so a group of special ed students can take eggs to a business partner (photo op for principal). WHY do the parents of those TAG students not scream bloody murder? (The teacher can’t – see retribution..)

Contac Georgia Association of Gifted Children and work to make a positive change for students like your children, okay?

• Link
• Report this comment

Contact GAGC – hit submit too soon.

• Link
• Report this comment

“ask yourself why PARENTS don’t demand that ineffective administrators be removed”

Because PARENTS WANT ineffective administrators. That way they can come down and demand that their Johnny (LiL Angel) Troublemaker be put back IMMEDIATELY into his classroom with no punishment allowed.

• Link
• Report this comment

@mtnman As a parent I wanted administrators who supported the strong teachers, helped the teachers who just needed fine-tuning, and GOT RID OF the incompetent, uncaring, hateful staff. Luckily my sons didn’t encounter too many of the last group, but sadly some of them are still in their positions, or retired when they chose after years of maltreating students.. (Did have one suggestion too late for my own children – if the administrator doesn’t deal with a KNOWN problem staff member, I would now forward the original written complaint to the superintendent and school board. That shows you’ve followed the appropriate reporting procedure, but alerts them that nothing has happened.)

• Link
• Report this comment

(Cont. Hit the wrong key.) …she knew quite well the negative responses her position would call forth. And they really do seem to illustrate points #1 and #3 she makes above very nicely. Other teachers’ testimonials illustrate point #2. Carry on, for all of you are giving evidence that her assessments are correct and she was wise to leave when she did.

Of course her article also shows that she still cares a great deal about the profession she left and those who remain there.

• Link
• Report this comment

Actually, there is one little-known benefit that teachers enjoy that the rest of us in industry do not have. Must be a best-kept secret, since I never see it mentioned on this blog.

Teachers can retire after 30 years and keep their insurance. That means they could retire at age 52. I wish I could do that. I am tied to the 66 year old Medicare retirement age.

• Link
• Report this comment

To Jordan’s point about STEP increases, Fulton County pay scale is quite different than neighboring counties in Cobb and Gwinnett. They are being paid a lower salary than other school systems as a result of budgets. It’s hard to imagine that a teacher in Cobb is worth more than a teacher in Fulton ( I mean that in a positive way – no slam on Cobb). That alone is discouraging, or at least, encouraging for a teacher to jump counties.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Mountainman: You are correct on health insurance. Not true of life insurance, at least in Fulton County. That’s a benefit that influenced my decision to return to public schools from private for my last 20 years.

• Link
• Report this comment

@WARRIORWOMAN: re– your 11:20 post. Excellent teaching is a 12 MONTH JOB. I have about 10 fat binders per course of materials I developed on my own time. Of course, all teachers aren’t excellent. No occupation has all excellent members. The “Edsel” and “New Coke” immediately to mind as do the prosecutors in the OJ case.

• Link
• Report this comment

MM: I taught myself how to read…….by age 3.

then you must be a genius!!

Oh, and whatever educrat drone taught you to spell “steal” as “still” ought to be fired…

You also don’t have a drop of manners. Sorry for the earlier “typo” — however if it made you upset, (some people can’t stand to see typos), then it served me well!

• Link
• Report this comment

The best way to dumb down a whole population of voters/people is to destroy the Educational System.

Actually, based on the steadily-declining educational results of the past several decades, the most effective way to dumb down a population is to make sure as many of them as possible are consigned to be “taught” by incompetent twits in government schools for 12 (or more) years.

• Link
• Report this comment

Hey, I’d like to teach but haven’t yet been able to actually interview principals with any of the local school districts. Too many people are in line before me.

Is there a strategy I’m unaware of here?

• Link
• Report this comment

mtnman: Yes, in fact, I have. Two office referrals in my sons’ combined 26 years of K-12. One was a legit office referral and once not. The time it was, legit, home consequences for my son were serious and extended twice as long as the others’ did. When the school’s (assistant admin’s) penalty was WAY out of line, a conversation with the building principal followed, with written documentation at the principal’s request afterwards, and the AA had consequences.

As I said, I’ve experienced both extremes (and the middle) of the administrative capabilities, and have supported them when valid and appropriately challenged the decision when not. Don’t we tell our children that they will have consequences for poor decisions? Don’t we also expect that when others make very poor choices that impact our children, our children should learn the proper way to resolve the problems?

• Link
• Report this comment

@ Beverly The problem with accepting the “send them to county office” is that there is obviously a significant tolerance for central office bloat. I’d say send them to work under a proven principal, with frequent reports on their progress, AND with the understanding that it that principal moves them along and they have problems again, that will reflect on the supervising principal’s evaluation. We have had way too many cuts at the school level to consider relocation to CO in a created, or placeholder, position a viable option for dealing the administrative weakness, IMHO.

• Link
• Report this comment

Fled has the right answer: Flee. When there aren’t any more warm bodies to fill the classrooms, MAYBE the educational status quo will get it.

Maybe.

MB Got no problem with sending an incompetent administrator to go do some ACTUAL work under a competent one.

OR…”counseling” them out of the profession. Notice the Rhee, Duncan crowd NEVER mentions “counseling” ADMINISTRATORS out of the profession?

• Link
• Report this comment

DebbieDoRight, 2:57 pm

“This whole attack on teachers / public education; was a well thought out battle plan that was probably instigated 10 – 20 years ago.”
———————————————————————————————

Hello, Debbie. I believe that your statement above is a true, and I compliment you on delving deeply into political realities that are effecting this nation in profound ways, including the creating of public school climates whereby excellent teachers leave public educational systems.

Again, to all: Jefferson was a proponent of public education because he wanted the populace to be able to see into the machinations of those with wealth and power as to how they might use the masses to serve their interests, which would turn America into an obligarchy, instead of sustaining the democratic republic that she was designed to be. Wisdom and vision from the pen of Thomas Jefferson.
========================================================

Eyes Rolling, 3:02 pm

“Actually, based on the steadily-declining educational results of the past several decades, the most effective way to dumb down a population is to make sure as many of them as possible are consigned to be ‘taught’ by incompetent twits in government schools for 12 (or more) years.”
—————————————————————————————————

It appears that you have bought into the propaganda of the ultraconservative movement. Public education should be improved, but it should not be dismantled.

Please read the link, below, which does not concur with your statement, above, that “steadily declining educational results” have been occurring in the “past several decades.” Reading should be a priority within society, as a whole. Moreover, when declining educational results do occur, they often are reflective of increased societal problems, rather than simply educational problems. We must attempt to solve society’s problems, as well as improve public schools, and we can do neither by continuously berating public school teachers and public schools. We must analyze problems correctly to solve them effectively.

http://connection.ebscohost.com/literature/literacy/decline-reading-us

• Link
• Report this comment

Mary Elizabeth – You want to save public education, yet you seem to have bought into the big lie that you can just “socially promote” students and they will be caught up by the next teacher.

To save public education, it must be changed so that it is effective in creating students who have mastered the basics. That cannot be done with social promotion. Fail the ones who fail.

• Link
• Report this comment

I don’t have the first complaint about my pay. I have NEVER received a county supplement to teach, as I work for an economically-distressed county. I enjoyed reading this former Teacher’s email/letter to Maureen; however, some folks need to realize that she wasn’t just complaining about step raises on the state’s salary scale. It’s the insult added to injury of some of the things that these hyped-up administrators do to teachers to make them “cower in their corner”. On the other hand, our pay matters are not being helped by tobacco-chewing assistant coaches who’s wives went online and got them a six-year degree, or “DOC-TROT” (incorrect spelling intended) in “teaching & instruction” from Argosy, or that Leadership add-on from some Florida diploma plant.

I worked just over ten years in private industry selling industrial equipment, and my pay was what I made it. If you didn’t sell, you didn’t eat. That’s about as close as you can get to opening up your own business. I did very well. I just got tired of the pressure, and living in a big city. Why did I mention this, and the thing about P.E. Teachers walking around with a whistle and a six-year degree in seed-spitting? To lend credence to the fact that a lot of what this Teacher’s letter to Maureen was about was truthful, and accurate. Yes, I do read before I type. I read 2 out of the three webpages of responses before I posted.

Conditions are such that some of our state’s best Teachers are about to crack. Your less-productive, less-caring teachers will always figure a way to weather the s_ _t storm. To hell with the pay issue, just give Teachers REASONABLE working conditions. Find some adult volunteers from the community to do some of those time-consuming duties, during and after school hours.

• Link
• Report this comment

@Beverly I have noticed that almost no one in the ed policy world talks about incompetent administrators with the previous exception of NCLB;s threat of removing principals when test scores didn’t improve. It is, IMHO, the elephant in the room as removing the poor administrators (and replacing them with good ones) should resolve the problem with poor teacher performance AND raise teacher morale.

• Link
• Report this comment

@CHUNTER: You live in a dreamworld concerning unions in Georgia. NEA may fund candidates for national office whom you dislike but it is inconsequential in its influence on Georgia schools. The Koch brothers fund idotic candidates but I don’t bring them up here because they, too, are not influential in Georgia schools.

• Link
• Report this comment

@MB:

You seem adamantly ignorant about the National Education Association’s campaign funding and endorsement of liberal candidates at the state and local levels—prominently, for instance, in yesterday’s Georgia primaries.

Do you suppose that the tens of thousands of dollars the Georgia Association of Educators (NEA/GAE) spent yesterday trying to elect Democrats (or failing that) liberal Republicans—had no effect?

Are their national Democrat Party advisers less wise than you?

The amount of money the NEA and its local chapters spend on politics ranges upwards of $450 million per year, by the way. Readers can learn more about that here: http://goo.gl/CR089

• Link
• Report this comment

@Tony: excellent post! One very powerful weapon in politics is “remember when…” The truth about what we really did “back when” doesn’t matter, and it is imperative that we never move back to that. Sadly, what many want to do to education via charters and private school vouchers will separate us as a society just as bad, if not worse.

The continuous rant about NEA is laughable, pitiful, and clearly indicative of the power of the far-right to obliterate reason. If we actually had unions, and the “tens of thousands of dollars” were affecting…anything, one might gain some traction with such an argument. How conservative does Georgia have to become before the angry and socially divisive let go of such foolishness? Continue, however, to shout at the wind. The far-right agenda has no firmer ground on which to build than in Georgia. And in the end, when the victory lap is run, the only victims will be “tens of thousands” of Georgia CHILDREN left with nothing.

• Link
• Report this comment

@MB:

You and the National Education Association seem to be in fundamental disagreement about their status as a labor union (http://www.nea.org/home/18469.htm) and about the $168 in yearly dues every GAE member here pays to belong to that union—and fund its liberal-Democrat political agenda: http://goo.gl/rtJIZ and http://goo.gl/bNdPt.

No doubt are Georgia NEA and American Federation of Teachers members who’d like to get their hands around your neck and help “clear up” your misunderstanding?

• Link
• Report this comment

Chunter: from dictionary.com:\

labor union
 

noun
an organization of wage earners or salaried employees for mutual aid and protection and for dealing collectively with employers

what you call “teachers unions” have no ability to bargain collectively with employers, so do not fall into this definition.

• Link
• Report this comment

Okay, when you move to “who’d like to get their hands around your neck and help “clear up” your misunderstanding?” I believe that is projected aggression and you are allocated to Do Not Even Read status. Enough.

• Link
• Report this comment

@MB: Indeed, labor unions frighten me too—and no doubt the 8 percent of private sector workers who still belong to them. Most of which have no real choice in the matter.

• Link
• Report this comment

The NEA is a union – no one is arguing that.

The GAE is a professional association affiliated with the NEA. Because it is an affiliate organization, some of the dues members pay will be used to support NEA causes. Because this is a right-to-work state, teachers can not be compelled to join any organization as a condition of employment (and over 65% – the majority of GA teachers do not belong to the NEA).

Additionally, there is some legal consensus that it is against GA law for state employees to strike. As a professional organization the GAE can lobby (kind of like the AMA & NRA), however, it can’t collectively bargain and has no say in teacher contracts. You can call it a union if you want, but it sure doesn’t look or act like real one.

As to the candidates the NEA supports – so what? This is America, and we are free to support whomever we like. If teachers, who have a choice in Georgia, choose to join the GAE, they they likely don’t care or – GASP – actually are in agreement with the politics.

What’s really crazy is that in Georgia, the “professional organizations” actually occasionally endorse – GASP – REPUBLICANS!!! I have no problem with whom the NRA endorses; I likewise have no problem with whom the NEA endorses. Last time I checked, no one from any organization was standing next to me in the polls, forcing my hand to choose.

Will whoever is funding the incessant (and strangely similar) comments on the blog, please award the gift cards and move on? This conversation is old and boring – can we PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE put it to rest?

• Link
• Report this comment

Also, Chunter, Georgia being a right-to-work state, no teacher could be forced to join a union even if one existed, so their paying of dues is totally voluntary, sort of like if you decided to send money to lobby your congressman, or sort of like membership in the NRA.

Having been a manager most of my life in union companies, I have no love for unions. I currently work for a non-union company, one that is non-union because it treats its employees well and pays good wages, and unions can’t touch that.

Unions are NOT the reason we have schools that do not have discipline, that tolerate absenteeism, and it is not the teachers or their “unions” that are forcing “f”s to be changed to “c”s. That is the ADMINISTRATION.

• Link
• Report this comment

mountain man,

(1) I did not mention Medicare, specifically. I mentioned Social Security, regarding France’s lowering the age for their citizens to receive S.S. benefits. Here is that paragraph, again, from my 2:17 pm post:

“In France, the government is lowering the age for their citizens to receive Social Security benefits to age 60, whereas, in America, Republicans are trying to raise the age for citizens to receive Social Security benefits from age 66 to age 70. Republicans are also trying to dismantle traditional public education.”
—————————————————————————————

(2) Yes, I think teachers deserve the benefits which they contracted for when they first began teaching. Yes, I believe that teacher’s pensions should be factored into their total benefit package, as it is presently done. It should be stated that it is not right to change the “rules of the game” when teachers have become old people and especially when they have been conscientious about their work and their finances all of their lives, according to the rules for which they first contracted as young teachers. If some people went straight into teaching after graduating from college at 22, and spent the next 30 years of their lives in teaching within Georgia, then they could retire at 52 with 60% of the salary made per year (average of highest two years are counted). Many teachers, however, do not neatly fit into your scenario. For instance, I did not begin teaching until I was 27, after having worked for 7 years as a secretary while I was also finishing my courses for my college degree. I received my B.A. in English from college at 27, so I did not retire until I was 57. (I continued to work as a substitute teacher for an additional 5 years.) I had worked all of my life – 42 years straight up altogether – and I paid income taxes all of that time, as well as taxes for Social Security, Medicare. Also, I paid a significant amount of my monthly paycheck, while I was a teacher, into my pension fund for 30 years, straight up. You must understand that the TRS invests the teachers’ retirement money for them. About 85% to 90% of teachers’ pension money comes from the investment of their own funds (collectively) from their own paychecks.

Many teachers have moved to Georgia from having taught in other states. Some teachers choose to raise their children and then start teaching, later in life. Some teachers come into teaching, later, from the business world. You have drawn an ideal situation that does not fit every teacher’s situation. Many teachers never make it to 30 years, either because of the reasons I have just stated, or perhaps they develop health problems and must stop teaching as a result of health problems – either their own or the health problems of a member of their family to whom they must be caregiver. In all of these cases, the teacher cannot draw a teacher pension (of less than 30 years) until they are 62 years old. It is either work 30 years straight up or draw at 62; there is nothing in between (except early retirement of one or two years early, for a huge cut in retirement funds). Therefore, many teachers draw pensions for only 10 years, (or 15 years, or 20 years, etc.) and in the case of 10 years, the amount of the pension would only be 20% of their active salary. Obviously, that is not nearly enough to live on.

(3) You must remember that this nation’s military budget is higher than the next 10 world nation’s military budgets in combination, including China’s and many European nation’s military budgets. We must decide if we want our national monetary priorities to be on huge military funding or on the social welfare of America’s citizens. I believe people in the military can retire after 20 years of service. We know that many corporations and private companies make their money from military governmental contracts. The military is important to our defense, but perhaps we should start considering the possibility that America’s military budget might be out-of-balance to other priorities within our nation. Perhaps some of that military money should be going to the old age security of America’s citizens in the form of Social Security and Medicare – and not only for the present old people, but for our children, and their children – when they, too, become older Americans.

(4) Mountain man, I do not think that you understand what I am advocating for in instruction. I am not advocating for “social promotion.” I am advocating for teachers to identify every student’s exact instructional level, at point in time, in every grade level, and teach him/her where he/she is actually functioning so that he/she makes maximum growth for his/her potential for every year he/she is in school. That is a smart understanding of how instructional principals, such as mastery learning, actually operate effectively. The present drop out rate in Georgia is about 35%. Among the minority groups, it is 40%. If we instruct students where they are actually functioning, then some may simply will take longer to receive their diplomas than others, who might be more gifted or more advantaged, but they would still be able to graduate – with true mastery of the curriculum concepts – just later in time, instead of dropping out of school. That is not social promotion, at all. See link below.

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/about-education-essay-1-mastery-learning/

• Link
• Report this comment

I have said this all along on this blog just not as tactful. Yes, I am very tactless much of the time that I am angered on this blog. Thank you Jordan for saying it tactfully!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Link
• Report this comment

@CHUNTER: Maybe the Republicans should field better candidates. LOL

• Link
• Report this comment

Chunter – I’m not the one doing the misleading. I called NEA a union. I said GAE was an affiliate association, but not a union in the traditional sense. While I may be wrong about the GAE ever endorsing a Republican, I know for a fact that my district association has.

I’m still not understanding your purpose in perpetuating your version of the facts? What are you trying to accomplish? Who are you trying to convince?

I don’t even belong to the GAE – I don’t belong to anything – I even voted on the Republican ballot on Tuesday. However, you are engaging in a straw man fallacy, and it makes anything else you have to add to the conversation less relevant.

• Link
• Report this comment

CCMST : “I’m still not understanding your purpose in perpetuating your version of the facts? What are you trying to accomplish? Who are you trying to convince?”

He’s trolling. Have you noticed that some of the old trolls ‘disappeared?’

• Link
• Report this comment

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/

• Link
• Report this comment

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!

• Link
• Report this comment

“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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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?”

• Link
• Report this comment

@ 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.

• Link
• Report this comment

correction: “classes of fewer students,” not “classes of few students”

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment

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/

• Link
• Report this comment

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/

• Link
• Report this comment

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

• Link
• Report this comment

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.

• Link
• Report this comment