Teacher Voice

It's been awhile since my last post (September 23, 2011).  I stopped writing because I was struggling emotionally with several issues related to education.  Standing up for teachers has taken its toll on me, and I had nearly decided that I wasn't making much of a difference anyway.  Besides, teaching itself takes an incredible mental toll on me.  I tend to immerse myself in my work for much of the school year, leaving little time for outside factors.  I had nearly given up when a good friend shared a blog post with me by Kelly Flynn, former teacher, and education writer.  This posting explores why more teachers have not used their voice to speak out against education "reform."  This caused me to look back at what I have written during the last eight months or so:  my Mlive persona, javamama, has made 864 posts and has 8 followers; my teacher musings blog has had 328 views since its inception; my Daily Kos account (CleanSlate) has 8 diaries with a total of 109 recommends.  While these aren't big numbers, they do show some interest in these issues.  According to Kelly Flynn, every voice can make a difference.  I have decided to add my small voice to those of others and continue to blog.

Today I would like to write about something a little closer to home than many of my other posts.  I have written in the past about the changes in legislation in Michigan and how I tried to make my voice heard there, sadly to no avail.  Now, I would like write about how these changes are actually playing out in my daily life.  First, I would like to explain how politics played a role in our local contract negotiations.

Our contract negotiations began well before the new governor and state legislators went to work to "reform" education in Michigan. In fact, our negotiations began well before our contract was to expire.  Economic issues were not discussed at first.  Then, the new governor took office and wrote a budget in record time!  In his budget was a "shift" of revenue  from the School Aid fund and the cutting of the foundation money each district receives.  That was when the sky began to fall.  Then came a bill that essentially would freeze contracts while negotiations were taking place.  This meant no raises.  Next, legislators pushed a package of bills through that would change teacher tenure and evaluations, making it easier to fire "bad" teachers.  Then, the legislators passed a bill that required districts to pay no more than 80% or a hard cap on teacher health insurance.  All this time, our contract negotiations were taking place, but really not progressing.  The state was essentially negotiating for our district and there was no real incentive for settlement.  All of this legislation was in the name of reforming education, but in reality, it poisoned the very atmosphere of my job.

Even now, after we have settled the contract, the general mood is negative.  While I am happy to have negotiations over with, I am not happy with the contract.  I did vote in favor of it because I felt it was probably the best contract we could get considering where things began.  I think several of my colleagues would agree with me.

So, now back to business of educating children, right?  Wrong.  Now, I must worry about more than tomorrow's lesson plan.  Now, I have to figure out a way to show growth for all of my students or I will be in danger of having an "ineffective" rating on my teacher evaluation.  It's not like I haven't thought about what I can do to help my students become better writers.  I've always done that.  No, showing growth is very different from that.  The sad thing is that this new evaluation system will not "get rid of the bad teachers" as so many of our legislators hoped.

I have experienced my first turn at being observed and evaluated, one of many that will surely come.  Now, we must be observed twice every year.  Some may think that our evaluations should be kept private, but I am willing to share my evaluation results with anyone because I think they are garbage and not indicative of my ability as a teacher.  

Out of 81 indicators of performance, I was deemed "highly effective" on exactly seven of them.  That's right, seven indicators.  I will tell you that this made me feel very "ineffective," although I didn't receive any "ineffective" ratings. When discussing this with my principal, he told me that he felt that I was a highly effective teacher (lip service? not sure).  He, however, was being forced to use the rubric.  When I pointed out to him that that rubric didn't match the indicators, he admitted that, but said he had to follow it.  Yes, this is how ridiculous things have become.  In all fairness, the state is supposed to hand down an evaluation tool that may be different than the one my district purchased (gasp!) and the rubric may very well be different.  I don't put a whole lot of stock into the governor's council, which is made up of several data heads, to create a fair and accurate evaluation tool.  The one my school is using will certainly not weed out the "bad" teachers.

Instead of relying on data collectors to come up with an evaluation tool, why not talk to some teachers?  Teachers are in the trenches everyday and know what it takes to do this job and do it well.  That's not happening right now.  

If doing what's best for kids is really at the heart of all of this reform, why involve people who know nothing about what it takes to teach and what makes a good teacher?  This will negatively impact children, in fact, it IS doing so right now because now I am more concerned than I should to be about 81 indicators that may determine whether or not I keep my job, instead of worrying about tomorrow's lesson plan.

Stop the insanity...use your teacher voice to speak out against all of this.  Our future depends on it.