By Bob Harris
Certain education policies seem to be driving teachers out of some school systems to less stressful schools or out of the profession altogether.
The July 17 Washington Post reported that teachers are slowly leaving the Virginia public schools or switching to less stressful subjects or classes. In Virginia students are required to pass Standards of Learning tests. This seems to be creating stress because the administration wants the students to pass the tests at all costs.
The article told of an honored mathematics teacher who was teaching Advanced Placement and college-level calculus classes. He felt that passing the SOL dominated all conversation in his high school. School meetings were all devoted to making sure that students passed the SOL. He wanted some discussion about interesting techniques, new teaching ideas, not just rote drill to make sure the students passed the standardized test. He has moved into a private high school which he felt valued his teaching and interaction with the students.
It seems that teachers are retiring early or moving schools or switching to grades or elective courses which do not require a standardized test. The Post report said, “Slowly and quietly, in ones and twos, some are revolting against the high-stakes tests and the success-at-any-cost climate that they believe the exams create.” Some teachers resent policy-makers who are not educators, telling them what and how they should teach and what is achievement.
The article showed that in New York City some fourth-grade teachers are asking to teach other grades where they are not under the pressure of the new state exams in reading, math and science. There is concern that less-experienced teachers will wind up teaching the fourth grade classes. However, one must remember that it is what the students are taught from K to third grade that prepares them for the new fourth grade tests.
This year many teachers are retiring from the New York City public school under the pressure of no contract and the threat of the current mayor who says that only teachers whose students do well should receive a raise. Sometimes a class just doesn’t advance very much academically however hard the teacher tries to help them.
I know of a kindergarten teacher who just retired because the administration would not let a disturbed child transfer into a special education class two years ago. She can only imagine what the first grade teacher went through with this disturbed child. How much has this student interrupted the learning of the rest of the class?
I just read a letter about one of our big high schools in Queens. It seems that several of the experienced teachers who teach the AP classes there transferred to schools on Long Island. The wrangling over the teachers’ contract and the uncertainty have prompted them to leave the city system. Who will replace them? On the other hand, a young energetic teacher might do a very good job — but it takes three or four years for a teacher to really master the art. How does this impact on classes in our neighborhood schools?
GOOD AND BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK
I was in Washington when Washington Post publisher Katherine Graham died. I learned a lot about this amazing woman who rose to the occasion when her husband died and she took over the Post. I learned that she had been raised to just be the wife a powerful man but overcame a lack of confidence to achieve what she did achieve. Another thing I found interesting in a column by Gloria Steinem was that Kay Graham was slighted by the movie “All the President's Men” — the movie did not refer to her at all. The film that shaped the public impression of the Watergate investigation did not even mention that this woman had permitted the Washington Post to continue to probe the Watergate burglary and subsequent cover-up. It seems that she took home the reporters’ notes every night so she would have to be the person served with a subpoena.
Talk about strength.
