In case you've been living your life under a rock, The Trunchbull or, Agatha Trunchbull, was the famous villain from Roald Dahl's children's book Matilda. She was the headmistress of Crunchem Hall Primary School. She was a bully. And she was feared by all who knew her. I'm choosing to liken the Trunchbull to my state's governor, who won't be named on here. Eh, what the hell. It's Governor Susanna Martinez. There, I said it. And now I'll wait for her to show up at my front door and swing me around by my pigtails to teach me a lesson. Or maybe force me to eat an entire chocolate cake in one sitting. I'd be open to the latter, actually. Bring it on.
The teacher evaluation system has effectively demoralized every teacher in my state while eliminating any objectivity in evaluating an "effective" teacher. Principals have been given strict guidelines to abide by when evaluating teachers. We are evaluated on "planning and preparation, environment for learning, teaching for learning, and professionalism." I actually had to take a break while writing that last sentence because as I was looking at everything the NMPED has posted on their website for teacher evaluations, I was overwhelmed. It's confusing enough to make you think you're drunk. If you don't believe me, have a look. Here is the website with all of the wonderful information on how teachers are scored:
http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/NMTeach_EvaluationPlan.html. And here is the link to the rubric on which we are scored, which is equally delightful: http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/TTFDocuments/NMTEACH%20Domains1and4.pdf . Lastly, this one is my favorite. Here is where you can find which plan YOU fall under and how your evaluation is "calculated" http://ped.state.nm.us/ped/NMTeach_EvaluationPlanPDFs.html. I encourage you to look at this if you are one of the many people confused by what is going on with public education and those pesky, lazy teachers.
Now, lets move on to the big guns. Testing! Ahh yes, this is where the Trunchbull really likes to flex her big muscles. Our state has just adopted another standardized test to replace the SBA. It just so happens to be the PARCC exam, created by corporate testing giant, Pearson. It's funny, our secretary of education just happens to sit on the board for PARCC. And when it came down to selecting a standardized assessment, PARCC won in a no-bid contest. Funny, isn't it? We paid somewhere around 26 million dollars just to be able to give this test. And the kicker? Teachers are not allowed to talk about it. We are not to disparage the test in any way (during the duty day). Or else, we shall be sentenced to The Chokey! That's right. It's that medieval contraption the Trunchbull kept in her office to punish children when they were misbehaving. Here's a visual for you.
1. This test is in no way a reflection of how anyone that I know teaches OR learns.
2. I would like to know why PARCC was selected in a no-bid contest.
3. Teachers should not be punished for informing parents of their right to opt their child out of this test. The information is extremely hard to find if you don't have help from someone within the schools. And check out what happened to this teacher who tried to give information to parents: http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3722447.shtml#.VSFt1VYw0ds
4. No one seems to know what the actual "rules" are for opting out. You have some administrators saying it is illegal, but if it's illegal, then why are these forms posted on some school district's websites? Get your shit together, NMPED.
5. You better believe I have some unkind things to say about this test, which is now being tied to my teacher evaluation and my pay!
If you're not an educator, or someone with close ties to the public education system, you may be wondering "What's so bad about being evaluated on your student's growth? Everyone needs to be accountable for their jobs!" Well, yes I agree with that. However, each job is unique and the way in which each job is evaluated should be just as unique. It needs to be a fair reflection. The measures in which teachers are being evaluated are unfair. How many doctors do you know will lose their jobs if their patients don't take their medical advice? Probably not too many, I'm guessing. As teachers, we do our best to educate our students every single day. We see which kids are struggling and which kids are thriving. We try our best to diagnose the problem and get those struggling students where they need to be by the end of the year. However, we have now created a culture in which teachers are being punished if their students are not where we think they ought to be. I'll give you an example. I started out teaching 6th grade special education reading last year. I had at least a handful of students who came into our classroom at a 1st grade reading level. You tell me how likely it is that these kids will be at grade level at the end of the 9 month school year. As a teacher, you can meet with parents and you can tell them that their child is struggling and they need extra help. What you can't do, is make sure these kids have a home to go to each night, have food in the house, that they aren't being abused or neglected...you can't do any of that. But all of those things will indeed impact how a child behaves, learns, and tests in the classroom. Now, I don't know about you, but if I were a student who didn't know where my next meal was coming from, I sure as hell wouldn't be worried about my academic performance on these assessments. I'd be worried about dinner. But, how my students perform on these tests will now directly affect me and my well being, also. We are being evaluated on factors that are beyond our control in the classroom and you're damn right I'm angry about it. You should be too.
We need a governor who sees our state for what it is. We need a governor who actually gives a damn about public education instead of undermining it at every opportunity. Someone who doesn't see dollar signs when it comes to our failing education system that they constructed in the first place. Someone who is willing to really listen. NOT The Trunchbull. We don't need another bully.
I know that my state isn't the only one going through all of these reforms right now. I know that we are not alone. But, we are all just standing back and watching this happen. We are going down like dominos and it's pretty terrifying knowing that nothing big is being done to stop this. Education is not a business, but when big politicians are being bought out by bigger corporations to "fix" our broken system, it becomes a business. A really bad one. And it saddens me to say that I believe my days as a teacher are numbered. I love working with kids. I love teaching and having rich discussions with my students. I love teaching them how to be a good and kind person. But that doesn't count for anything anymore and I will not be a part of such a broken system, just to feel beat up and powerless day in and day out.
If you're an educator, I highly doubt that you were surprised by any of this. I wrote this for everyone, but I really wrote this for the people I hear every day talking about education like they know what is happening when they really don't. Our news sources can't be relied upon to report both sides of the story fairly. So, here is a first hand account of what the last two years have been like. And maybe an indicator of how much worse it's going to get if people don't start educating themselves and try to put a stop to all of this. If you want to keep yourself informed, visit this web page. It is run by some of the best advocates for children and education I know: http://www.stand4kidsnm.org