Education Rant
As a teacher in Florida, I feel this needs to be addressed from my side of the issue. But first, here are the facts: The State Senate just passed Bill 6 and it has moved onto the house. Bill 6 is a plan that would eliminate teacher tenure and pay for experience and advanced degrees. Teacher pay would be solely determined by student standardized test scores. If your students do not perform, you can be terminated at the end of the school year. District's will lose control over pay scales and collective bargaining would be eliminated. The state will determine teacher salaries across the board. A teacher will be on a probationary contract for five years before being eligible for an annual contract- that is, (like in the first 97 days on the job) you can be fired ANY day without cause.
Now- this doesn't even address the proposed amendment for the re-vocation of the class size amendment which would add 5 students to the PREVIOUS caps OR the amendment to cut FRS benefits by nearly half, but I digress.
I consider myself to be a (dare I say) great teacher. I work hard, I care about my students, I have extremely high expectations, and I push myself and them for success every single day. I guess the first issue that would have to be addressed is how would they determine how K-2 teachers are performing since we do not take the FCAT. Well, they would be "creating" a standardized test for these grades, thereby, spending more money when they are trying so hard to "tighten their belts". A few years back we had Stanford 10 in first grade. It is a lot of pressure on those little kids and their attention spans are really just not ready for a long test like that. FORGET about K. So, I feel like this is just another way we'll end up teaching to a test-- even in K-2.
But even if we get past that, let's talk about how this would set up great teachers for failure. Last year, I loved my class. They were wonderful, amazing, well-behaved and extremely bright. So, by this system, I would have gotten paid and been re-hired because they would have rocked out on a standardized test. This year, I was given a class that nightmares are made of. The students were put in my class because I could "handle" them and supposedly "fix" their problems before they move on to upper grades. They are rude, disorganized, have trouble focusing, and are generally not a very high level group (to put it nicely). I don't teach them reading. I teach reading to the ESOL kids (only 2 of which are in my homeroom- since a lot have moved back to their home countries). I can't control what is taught in those other rooms, but on standardized tests their scores would have MY name on them because I am the homeroom teacher. So some of the kids that can't read and I KNOW it's because one of the teachers can't teach reading to save her life could affect my future??? Is that fair? I think not.
I agree that there should be a way to award great teaching practices. If we could measure student gains in conjunction with other factors, this bill might be slightly more acceptable. Does it annoy the crap out of me that one of the teachers on my team is a HORRIFIC reading teacher and should have retired years ago? YES! Should I make more than her even though she has been teaching 30+ years-- wouldn't that be nice? But her homeroom is pretty good this year with a LOT of gifted kids and a LOT of my ESOL kids (who can read) so her numbers would look good wheras mine would probably be pretty crappy. Should I lose my job because I get the "more difficult" kids? And what about the teachers in the low SES schools?? They already have the hardest time finding/keeping teachers-- who is going to want to teach those kids now? They are going to cycle through teachers each year and lose continuity. There will be no real incentive to stay in those schools and those kids will fall further and further behind. Who is this bill supposed to benefit? Not those kids!!!!
As someone who spent an extra year in college to get a Master's degree, I take great offense to some newbie coming in with a Bachelor's making more than I do if she gets lucky with the class she is dealt. Advanced degrees don't matter? Why would anyone get them then? Also, if you put in 10 years and you do a great job but you don't always get the classes who can score high on a single test-- should you make the same as someone who has done it for 2 years and is given easy classes who score well (or make less)? What the what? How on Earth will you keep anyone in education?
We cannot afford to let this bill pass! It is bad for teachers, bad for parents, but most of all BAD for our children! The ones that are really going to suffer from these kind of changes would be the kids. i am all for education reform. I think there are a lot of things we can do more efficiently, there are ways to reward those for doing their job and to punish those that are not. THIS bill is not it.
Education is my passion and I am passionately against Senate bill 6.
Now- this doesn't even address the proposed amendment for the re-vocation of the class size amendment which would add 5 students to the PREVIOUS caps OR the amendment to cut FRS benefits by nearly half, but I digress.
I consider myself to be a (dare I say) great teacher. I work hard, I care about my students, I have extremely high expectations, and I push myself and them for success every single day. I guess the first issue that would have to be addressed is how would they determine how K-2 teachers are performing since we do not take the FCAT. Well, they would be "creating" a standardized test for these grades, thereby, spending more money when they are trying so hard to "tighten their belts". A few years back we had Stanford 10 in first grade. It is a lot of pressure on those little kids and their attention spans are really just not ready for a long test like that. FORGET about K. So, I feel like this is just another way we'll end up teaching to a test-- even in K-2.
But even if we get past that, let's talk about how this would set up great teachers for failure. Last year, I loved my class. They were wonderful, amazing, well-behaved and extremely bright. So, by this system, I would have gotten paid and been re-hired because they would have rocked out on a standardized test. This year, I was given a class that nightmares are made of. The students were put in my class because I could "handle" them and supposedly "fix" their problems before they move on to upper grades. They are rude, disorganized, have trouble focusing, and are generally not a very high level group (to put it nicely). I don't teach them reading. I teach reading to the ESOL kids (only 2 of which are in my homeroom- since a lot have moved back to their home countries). I can't control what is taught in those other rooms, but on standardized tests their scores would have MY name on them because I am the homeroom teacher. So some of the kids that can't read and I KNOW it's because one of the teachers can't teach reading to save her life could affect my future??? Is that fair? I think not.
I agree that there should be a way to award great teaching practices. If we could measure student gains in conjunction with other factors, this bill might be slightly more acceptable. Does it annoy the crap out of me that one of the teachers on my team is a HORRIFIC reading teacher and should have retired years ago? YES! Should I make more than her even though she has been teaching 30+ years-- wouldn't that be nice? But her homeroom is pretty good this year with a LOT of gifted kids and a LOT of my ESOL kids (who can read) so her numbers would look good wheras mine would probably be pretty crappy. Should I lose my job because I get the "more difficult" kids? And what about the teachers in the low SES schools?? They already have the hardest time finding/keeping teachers-- who is going to want to teach those kids now? They are going to cycle through teachers each year and lose continuity. There will be no real incentive to stay in those schools and those kids will fall further and further behind. Who is this bill supposed to benefit? Not those kids!!!!
As someone who spent an extra year in college to get a Master's degree, I take great offense to some newbie coming in with a Bachelor's making more than I do if she gets lucky with the class she is dealt. Advanced degrees don't matter? Why would anyone get them then? Also, if you put in 10 years and you do a great job but you don't always get the classes who can score high on a single test-- should you make the same as someone who has done it for 2 years and is given easy classes who score well (or make less)? What the what? How on Earth will you keep anyone in education?
We cannot afford to let this bill pass! It is bad for teachers, bad for parents, but most of all BAD for our children! The ones that are really going to suffer from these kind of changes would be the kids. i am all for education reform. I think there are a lot of things we can do more efficiently, there are ways to reward those for doing their job and to punish those that are not. THIS bill is not it.
Education is my passion and I am passionately against Senate bill 6.