Educators & Evaluators

Today we had a Department Meeting after school. The focus of this meeting was two fold.
1) Fine tuning of department DDM's (District-Determined Measures for Teacher Evaluations).
2) Looking at the department Mid-term grades, by grade level, and analyzing the results.

Now, both of these things have very little to do with improving our craft, creating curriculum for the students or accessing best practices from our colleagues. It has more to do with numbers. Numbers of students receiving grades that are failing or in need of improvement. Numbers that could, through some arbitrary formula say that we as teachers are failing or need improvement. We were directed to not put blame on any entity, but rather discuss possible reasons for the large amount of low grades.

See we as teachers know the numbers. We know that when we have classes of close to, or at, 30 students for 52 minutes that they are not all completely focused and on task for 52 minutes no matter how hard we try to engage and entertain while educating them.

We know that from that  class of close to 30 "regular" students 5 opted out of AP or Honors due to scheduling conflicts; a large number are perfectly placed but may have an IEP/504/other factors we must take into account; and some may have just FLEPed (which roughly means they have recently transitioned into a regular classroom from an ELL classroom).

We know that Honors classes have a similar numbers pattern to the above;  some highly motivated, self directed learners; some well behaved but not as motivated or skilled; and some who are trying to stretch academically (some will do so and others will not). We know the bell curve numbers the mid-terms should show, and that City Hall wants to see. But do we create those number or do we hold onto our integrity?

We know there are so many levels of classes, that it's hard to measure them on one scale, and yet we must (just like our students).

We know that our course catalog gives prerequisites for each course, and we are accountable for who, how and why we do or don't recommend students for their next years classes. We also know that parents can override our recommendations and we are left having to teach students that haven't met the prerequisites who are then sitting in our classrooms. Do we keep allowing this to happen with no say in the matter, yet our evaluations are based upon this fact?

We know the numbers of our every shrinking department and the every growing school population. When I first entered LHS we had 22 English teachers in the Department. The freshman class this year is 550 students. We are now down to 17 and one of them is not teaching English classes you'd find in the catalog. We know our teachers are not being replaced and that we have to do more with less constantly. We know that some of us regularly have taught 5 sections of classes and as many as 145 students at a time, while others of us have taught 5 sections of classes and as few as 75 students a year. Do we insist that there is parity department wide, so that we are all teaching, carrying and grading an equal load?

We know that the DDM's test scores, of measuring what our students know at the beginning of the year and what they've learned by the end of the year, are being used to evaluate us, not the students. We know that we must make the test scores from fall to spring improve significantly.

So does that mean we teach to the test? Does that mean if there are too many students getting low grades on their midterms that we as teachers should be paid less. Do the numbers on a sheet of paper determine if any of us are worthy of keeping our classroom and position? We are told to hold high standards and to not yield, but we are also told to not let kids fail. I bend over backwards to stay after, allow for late work, and access to me electronically. Those numbers of hours are never measured by the administrators, nor are they are always fully utilized by the students. But shouldn't I keep offering to help? So that the students can rise and I can keep my integrity?

There are other numbers that we don't talk about. The numbers that assign blame outside of our walls.  That 40% of our students qualify for free lunch. That another 15+- qualify for reduced lunch. And those are just the students who filled out the paper work, I'm sure the number are higher on both fronts.

The staggering numbers of kids who move multiple times during the course of one year. The disproportionate  numbers of students who lose a close family to death, disease or drugs. The news worthy numbers of students that are homeless. The number of students living on their own. The number of students living in unsafe homes or homes with no heat.

The numbers of tests, licenses, course, training sessions, and continuous professional development requirements that we as teachers mandatorily must complete is overwhelming at times, even for the most efficient zen-master teacher. To add tests we have to create (a grammar exam),  to test our students, and then work on excel sheets to show the progress or lack thereof and have it directly reflect, through this once slice of  our annual volume of lessons whether we are good teachers or subpar is ludicrous. Forget about MCAS or the Common Core or PARC. I haven't even mentioned the 2-5 teacher observation evaluations that are performed mandatorily, too, by our headmasters and/or Principal. Do you think any other profession is evaluated and tested as much as a public school teacher? I don't!

I'm just trying to do the best I can in the classroom each day. But increasingly it seems that when I step outside of it, into a meeting where I'm supposed to gathering with peers, or supervisors, the work we do is about mandates and numbers and not about education. Where is the integrity? Who is to blame? It's all becoming data driven, and the headings in the column  of the excel sheets keep changing to reflect the academic politics of the moment.

I for one will start demanding that if we are accountable for teaching courses with prerequisites, that we have the power to enforce they are met, instead of having to teach two classes in one. Don't get me wrong; I've taught ELL, Inclusion, Regular and Honors. Love them all. Don't even mind the slinky classes where some kids get the material immediately and others take a while, sometimes a long while. But I do mind being evaluated by two snapshots taken in a slinky class. Or by having students who perform poorly on the mid-terms determine my career, especially as they most likely didn't earn a slot in my classroom from the start. That is where I draw the line. That is where I hold my integrity.

I believe teaching is a calling. One has to surf daily, and sometimes instantaneously, the highs and lows of the High School classroom. The students can be inspiring and exhausting depending on the dynamic of a million different variables. This is a challenge and a duty. To be of use, even when things sometimes feel hopeless. Yet, occasionally there are celebrations, inspirations and victories, too. But they have nothing to do with numbers and everything to do with timing and being prepared.

So tonight I say Good Night with a plan to try to build a bridge of parity for these evaluations. That we have equal numbers and equal work in the department. That since each course has prerequisites, that they must be met by the students if they are to be enrolled in my classroom. If those two, simple, factors are met, then I'll be completely fine with being evaluated with multiple snapshots by my headmaster and the biannual test scores of my students.


Good night, educators and evaluators, G'night!