My Long Rant...

This week I had the opportunity to be a part of a forum about teacher issues, led by Michelle Rhee.  If you've never seen Waiting for Superman, or you have no clue who Michelle Rhee is, she was the controversial Chancellor of DC Public Schools, who fired principals and teachers if their schools were consistently under performing.  She now runs the organization, Students First, and is basically my all-time hero when it comes to education reform.

I waited to write about my experience with Michelle until after I saw Education Nation's 2nd Annual Teacher Townhall that was on MSNBC today, and I'm glad that I did because it gave me a greater perspective.  The most pressing issue that Michelle spoke about was the last-in, first-out policy.  With education being cut out of states' budgets, schools are constantly having to let-go of more and more teachers.  Sadly, most states follow the last-in, first-out policy, which is based strictly on seniority.  The argument is that we're losing too many new, good teachers to off-set the budget deficit, instead of taking quality into account.  If there was a performance-based evaluation in place, less teachers would have to lose their jobs as it would be teachers of various pay-ranges.

This is not to say that all senior teachers should lose their jobs.  And it's not to say that all new teachers should stay.  It should be based on quality.  This is an overarching issue that, I believe, needs to be in place regardless of layoffs or not.  As a teacher who has performance-based evaluations consistently being performed in my school, I see it as highly effective.  We are teachers.  We are professionals.  I expect to be paid based off of how well I perform - not how much I know or how long I've been working.

Evaluations aren't a way to weed-out the "bad teachers" either.  It's a way to help you grow.  As an example, we're now 4 weeks into the school year.  I've probably had an administrator in my classroom at some point in the day at least 2-3 times every week.  Sometimes I'll get feedback as a quick email stating the "glows" they see in my classroom and the "grows" that I can keep working on.  Other times it's a formal observation where they were looking for targeted points in my instruction.  I truly appreciate knowing I have administration that are in my classroom and seeing what I'm doing.  I feel confident enough in my instruction that I'm happy for them to see the great work my kids are producing.  But I also greatly appreciate the feedback that I receive to help continue to push me and my students.  For instance, after reviewing a lesson my assistant-principal saw, and going over some of my concerns, we were able to come up with a concrete plan on how to focus on my 11 struggling students who still, for the life of them, cannot tell me one letter of the alphabet (even though I've been pounding A in their heads for 4 weeks now!)  We were also able to work out how I could push my other students even further, by having them start to blend sounds, etc. while I focused on my intervention group.

I get severely disheartened when I feel like I work for a school with an effective model, and I come from inspiring talks with Michelle Rhee - only to continuously see comments that immediately bash any idea that goes against the status-quo.  It's constantly an "us vs. them" mentality that is getting us nowhere.

Michelle Rhee vs. The Unions.  Public Schools vs. Charter Schools.  Old teachers vs. New Teachers.  Democrats vs. Republicans.  It goes on an on!  We're all teachers!  None of us got into this profession for the money or because we're so well-respected.  We love what we do.  We love our kids.  Please view me as a fellow teacher and give me the respect that you ask others to give you.  Understand that we're all trying to help our kids succeed in our own ways.


I understand teachers who are hesitant because they feel evaluations will be a popularity contest.  But there needs to be multiple measures in place to see what makes a great teacher:

• Administration Evaluations
• Peer Observations (We have board certified teachers who could conduct these)
• Test scores (evaluating not just the end result, but the growth of the class)
• Student/Parent Feedback - did your teacher explain this concept?  Did they help you understand what you did wrong?  Do you feel your teacher cares about your education?
• And also taking into account all the other extracurricular activities the teacher may be doing to help the school that is outside the realm of their contract.

After watching Education Nation, I actually felt encouraged that so many different teachers seemed to be on the same page.  Teachers want more pay, and realize there need to be evaluations in place to earn that pay.  Teachers want more ways to be assessed than simply standardized tests.  I'm hoping we've reached a point where we can start to come together to work out these issues, and remember that these changes should be made for the betterment of the students.  This is not going to be a quick fix.  There are too many issues that need to be changed for this to all be covered under one new policy.  As Michelle Rhee said, "if you want the changes to occur, you have to be in it for the long haul."

I feel like I'm just getting started.

Quote of the Week:
Me: What do you want to be when you grow up?
Student: I want to be a race car driver because they get all the girls!