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HistoryWes · 09-28-2010, 01:14 PM

A lot of good points made so far and I agree with almost all of them. I can tell you though that there simply is no long line of people wanting to be teachers. You can call for all 10,000 teachers, but they are just not out there. Fewer and fewer people are choosing the profession and as a teacher, I have to tell you I wouldn't choose it again if I had the chance. I was originally an engineering major and switched to education.

I have been watching "Education Nation" on NBC, Oprah, and other programs recently and it all boils down to teacher bashing. I can't imagine anyone wanting to become the town whipping boy.

My school is rated as a "failing school" because not enough of our students reached the new Math proficiency levels. We passed the level that was set for last year, but it gets raised every year. Eventually we're supposed to be at 100% proficiency. We reached our Reading proficiency. In fact our Reading scores went up 22% over the previous year. Does that mean our Reading teachers are great and our Math teachers suck? I can tell you the answer is no. There are dozens of other factors that come in to play, not the least of which is that the students have absolutely no incentive to pass the test or even take it seriously. It doesn't affect their grade, only the school's. Yet the teachers are under tremendous pressure to try harder, work harder, do anything to improve the scores. We are under a huge amount of pressure-- at each weekly meeting, at staff development days, from parents, from community leaders and politicians, from the district.

That includes me. I teach History. They don't even test History. Yet I'm supposed to be "accountable" because my students haven't all reached their desired Reading and Math levels? The same for the Science teacher, PE teachers, Art teachers, Music teachers, Computer teachers. We're told we are failures because of the Math and Reading scores of students on tests that were never designed in the first place to rate schools, but to evaluate individual student needs.

09-28-2010, 01:14 PM	#22
HistoryWes Teacher/Novelist Posts: 632 Karma: 2274466 Join Date: May 2008 Location: Nevada Device: Nook STR, iPad	A lot of good points made so far and I agree with almost all of them. I can tell you though that there simply is no long line of people wanting to be teachers. You can call for all 10,000 teachers, but they are just not out there. Fewer and fewer people are choosing the profession and as a teacher, I have to tell you I wouldn't choose it again if I had the chance. I was originally an engineering major and switched to education. I have been watching "Education Nation" on NBC, Oprah, and other programs recently and it all boils down to teacher bashing. I can't imagine anyone wanting to become the town whipping boy. My school is rated as a "failing school" because not enough of our students reached the new Math proficiency levels. We passed the level that was set for last year, but it gets raised every year. Eventually we're supposed to be at 100% proficiency. We reached our Reading proficiency. In fact our Reading scores went up 22% over the previous year. Does that mean our Reading teachers are great and our Math teachers suck? I can tell you the answer is no. There are dozens of other factors that come in to play, not the least of which is that the students have absolutely no incentive to pass the test or even take it seriously. It doesn't affect their grade, only the school's. Yet the teachers are under tremendous pressure to try harder, work harder, do anything to improve the scores. We are under a huge amount of pressure-- at each weekly meeting, at staff development days, from parents, from community leaders and politicians, from the district. That includes me. I teach History. They don't even test History. Yet I'm supposed to be "accountable" because my students haven't all reached their desired Reading and Math levels? The same for the Science teacher, PE teachers, Art teachers, Music teachers, Computer teachers. We're told we are failures because of the Math and Reading scores of students on tests that were never designed in the first place to rate schools, but to evaluate individual student needs. Last edited by HistoryWes; 09-28-2010 at 08:46 PM.