TOP Teacher Quits over testing
February 12, 2015
There is a lot more quitting happening than is reported.
While Ms. Starr a special education teacher at a high school resigned in protest over PARCC testing of high school students, there are a variety of other practices currently imposed by administrations that are causing resignations.
Ms. Starr's major disagreement centers on the fact: "These tests are supposed to be college career preparation and not everyone is going to college."
Currently teachers are being worn out by demands that have little if anything to do with improving instruction.
#1.. Attendance is required at PLCs (Professional Learning Communities). What might have started out as communities have morphed in to top down indoctrination sessions with rarely any connection to improving learning but sucking lots of teacher time with busy work.
#2.. Rarely is evidence used that substantiates the need for changes being imposed. The shift to standards based grading might be the next step in dumbing down. The jury is still out on that, but it does take a significant amount of time, energy and resources.
#3.. School wide reading of books related to education and meetings to discuss these books takes time away from classroom preparation.
#4.. The push for everyone "College Ready" as a graduation requirement is simply unrealistic. The gyrations needed to make it appear that everyone who graduates is college ready is exhausting.
#5.. The job of teacher should be to maximize the learning of each individual student. Today the job is to keep everyone happy in this chaotic often contradictory bureaucratic environment. Few teachers signed up for that task -- thus the quitting.
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