Previously, I've discussed how important test scores are to my continued career as a teacher. Well, the ACT scores are rolling in and the scenario is bleak.
Just to refresh your memory, in March all eleventh graders took a battery of tests over a three day period. The first test given was the ACT. The laws around this are astounding as students who had been in the country for as little a few weeks took these tests, including the ACT. The ACT is a very difficult test and does not test basic skills. It is a test used to make predictions about how a student will perform in college. If you can't read English in a quick, skimming manner and do that for comprehension, you will do poorly on this test.
In order to stop a state takeover of our school, we need two things to happen. First, we need our test scores to improve by 10 percent. Second, we need to NOT land in the bottom five percent of high schools in the state. There is actually a third, but I can't recall the exact details, so I've skipped it for now. Last year, our average ACT was 15 point something. In order to make a ten percent jump, and make "safe harbor" our scores needed to improve to approximately 17 percent. We are currently at 16.4 percent. I learned this last night after work at the bar. I was only drinking juice, but at that moment I really wanted to add a shot of vodka to my glass.
We need the results from the other two days of testing before our fate is finalized, but my spirit is currently waning.
8 comments:
Sorry for the stress :(
I guess I'm not clear how a state takeover would absolutely negativel affect your job. Our school district was taken over by the state last year and the people who really had to worry were everyone except the teachers. Even though they ended up closing schools for budget reasons, they tried to keep the good teachers. What they got rid of (or are still trying to get rid of) are the plethora of completely ineffective mid level school administrators. And good riddance to them.
It's not pretty but you sound like a great teacher so maybe you have less to worry about than you think.
A state takeover could lead to a firing of 50 percent of the staff. In my whole 13 years at the school, I have been evaluated three times. I feel safe that the same could be said for most of the rest of the staff. That probably means that my file and the slacker down the hall's file look pretty similar.
Who knows what will happen to our salaries and benefits. We could be turned over to a for-profit management company.
Our district was turned over to a for profit management company BEFORE it was taken over by the state because the board couldn't make the hard decisions. It was a PR disaster. But part of the problem was that they looked at the district's primary responsibility as being education rather than a jobs program for poorer communities (which, it is). They fired all of the janitors and kitchen workers etc. and outsourced it and they sold a lot of school buildings and consolidated things. The public outcry was so big and it divided the public so much that their contract wasn't renewed. Then the state ended up taking over.
The thing is - you are a teacher capable of teaching at the AP level, you aren't the kind of teacher they would want to get rid of when they are trying to prove to the community that education is number 1 with them and that's why they are firing all the non-teachers.
But I don't mean to minimize your concern, if I was in your position I'd be imagining the worst too. I just wanted to say that, as a business person, if I were told to turn around your school district YOU would be the last person I'd want to fire. If that makes you feel any better. :)
I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you and your fellow teachers, students, Toni. The persons who thought up the brilliant idea of using ACT scores for judging the quality of high school instruction should be required to 1) spend some goodly bit of time teaching students, and 2) post their own ACT scores.
You are not crazy to fear job loss: Detroit has given more than a third of its teachers layoff notices in the last 8 days. My husband is one of them, and yes, he'll likely be called back to teach at the last minute as he was last year, but this is nerve-wracking, to say the least. Then the prospect of having his work judged on the basis of a test his kids will take in early October (though he's only had them since the beginning of September) is just insane.
And yet, there is this: My grad students are starting a research project right now on teacher morale, and it's unbelievable to me that we get asked why teachers would have low morale, and did I mean low morals instead? -Kidspeak
Logically, I know mary is right. I am a good teacher.I'm not sure how much that matters. I am also an activist who speaks her mind when an administrator is being moronic and that doesn't exactly endear me to higher ups. But, I am always there for the kids, sometimes to the detriment of my own life.
KS - I'm sorry about teach's pink slip.
There are so many potential changes coming down the pike, it's hard to imagine anyone honestly wanting to become a teacher, if he/she knew everything. Friday, we were talking about the half-baked talk of tracking students from teacher to teacher and then financially rewarding those teachers for students who scored well. In places like Detroit or Hamtramck, tracking students would be impossible. I have a student who probably didn't attend school for seven years while he lived in Yeman. He has been back here maybe five years and he is so far behind his even average peers, it's heartbreaking. Yet, under the tracking system, I as his 10th grade teacher would be penalized. Amazing.
Hi Toni,
I agree with Mary - Sorry about the stress and I think you're a good and caring teacher for your students.
If good thoughts help I'm sending all of mine to you.
Take care,
FM
Thanks FM. I appreciate it.
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