Teacher World

Here we go again! Facing more changes to our standards in the state of Ohio! If you are anything like me, you are waiting anxiously for these revised standards to be released, as I understand it, sometime in the summer. Then the questions will be answered: what does this mean for us; how will it change what we currently teach; and what new materials will we need to do our jobs?

This is just so typical of education. Just as we get used to what we are doing, things change yet again, and we are told to make the necessary adjustments to our curriculum to accommodate those changes. So for us begins the worrisome questions which seem to have no definitive answers: What standards that we currently teach will be changed, and what new standards will be added? Will we know early enough in the summer to prepare and gather the materials we will need in order to adequately cover these new standards?

If you are like our school system, you order test prep materials in the summer for the following year. Will what we order align with the revised standards, or will they be ineffective in preparing our students for the state achievement tests? Will those who are responsible for deciding on these changes also be adjusting the achievement tests for next year to reflect those changes? This seems unlikely when you consider that for two years there is not enough money for our state to produce social studies tests, so we aren’t taking them this year or next year. If there isn’t enough money to provide us with all of our tests, where would the money come from to update current tests to reflect the new standards?

What about those standards-based report cards we worked so hard on last year? Will they be obsolete, or will they require minor tweaking? And will we know in time to meet as a committee to make decisions as to exactly what changes need to be made before the start of the school year so that teachers know what they are expected to assess for each trimester? And what about the formative assessments that many of us worked to create? Will they have to be changed as well? And when and how will all of this take place in order to start the school year off in an organized and prepared fashion?

Does anyone else feel like we are on a merry-go-round that never stops? Anyone else feeling like jumping? Oh, I know we won’t! We’ll do what we always do. We’ll complain for awhile, and then we’ll roll up our sleeves and dive in. And we will do what is necessary to provide the best instruction for our students.

But, for right now, I’m still in the complaining stage! Feel like joining me?

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 Yes, this is another shout out! This time, I am extremely interested in getting feedback from those of you whose school systems have switched to standard-based report cards. This is our first year, and we are all pretty overwhelmed with the changes. We are developing formative assessments for each trimester, and the goal is to administer three tests each trimester for each standard measured. Most of us are finding it difficult to administer so many assessments in one trimester. So, again, I am interested in how other school systems have handled these challenges:

* How were the standards which appear on your report card chosen?
* How many assessments are administered for each standard, and when are they administered?
* Does your school system compile test results, and if they do, how is that information shared and utilized to drive instruction and provide intervention?
* Do you group students according to assessment scores for instruction and intervention?
* How is student progress assessed on your report cards? Are grades assigned, or is another method utilized?
* If grades are not assigned, what has been the parental response?
* Do you provide ongoing information to parents through a website linked to your report card which shows how their child is progressing? If so, do parents really visit this site on a regular basis to see how their children are doing?
* What has been the general response to a standard-based report card by your staff?
* How do your teachers feel about the additional testing and retesting taking place in their classrooms?

Any additional information you would like to share about the successes and failures your school system has experienced, techniques you have found to be helpful, coping mechanisms teachers in your school use to handle all the additional work, etc., please feel free to include in your shout out. Again, I appreciate any feedback you can give, as we all can learn so much from each other. After all, who better to teach teachers than other teachers? So shout out!

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True confession: I don’t love teaching as much as I did when I first started in this profession. It pains me to admit this, but I don’t think I am alone. In conversations with other teachers, I am hearing the same complaints. Teachers are increasingly overwhelmed, overworked, and unappreciated.

Why are we overwhelmed? Because instead of being able to teach children to love learning, we are now in the business of teaching them how to take tests. Those of you who have moved to standards-based report cards know what I am talking about. In our district, we have created three formative assessments for each standard we cover in a trimester. We are required to administer these tests at the beginning, sometime during, and at the end of the trimester for each standard. The goal is to show improvement towards mastering each concept. After each test, we intervene with those who are not grasping the concept in a variety of ways before testing again. This is all above and beyond the normal testing that has always occurred in a classroom.  Is this what I signed up for when I became a teacher? Is this how you pictured yourself making a difference in your students’ lives? Is this really the way to get children excited about learning?

I am in my thirtieth year of teaching, and most people probably think that means I am coasting along doing less than I did when I started out. But I am working harder and longer hours with each passing year because so much more is demanded of teachers than ever before. Now, I don’t mind working harder if I feel I am working smarter. But I contend that we are losing sight of simple truths. Like the fact that repetitive testing is turning our kids off. And that teachers need to believe in and love what they are doing in order to be effective in the classroom. And that I can assess a student’s progress in a variety of ways, and testing is just one way. And that working harder doesn’t always mean working better.

And I feel unappreciated. No one will ever realize the additional hours I put in to try to meet my districts’ and state’s expectation that somehow I can get every student in my classroom to pass a test that has no real significance to them. We have even heard students voice the opinion (that they obviously have heard at home) that the tests are really to see how well the teacher is doing, not how well they are doing. When my students do score well, does anyone congratulate me on a job well done?

Again, I am working harder, enjoying it less, and not even recognized for the extra efforts I make. So, sadly, I find myself thinking more and more of retirement because my job is gradually become more work than it is a labor of love.

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