Blame the Teacher!

I am now entering my 11th year of teaching. Every minute of my experience (including student teaching) has been in an urban setting. Therefore, keep this in mind as you think about my opinion. My school is a low performing school. According to George W. Bush and the rest of the government officials supporting No Child Left Behind, we are in Academic Emergency. The parents of our student body receive letters outlining how bad we are. There are some teachers who have been good, caring teachers, following the guidelines of the district that are labeled as not highly qualified. Fortunately for me, entered graduate school immediately after I graduated and earned my Master's Degree. This means I am "highly qualified."

I describe all of this but avoid going into more boring detail to help paint the picture of what I deal with on a yearly basis. My success is based on the test scores of 25-30 students who may not have slept the night before, may not be living in the same place they did last week, come from a home filled with anger, desperation, violence or drugs. They are probably wearing the clothes their sibling wore the day before without getting washed. Their walk to school and walk home later in day could be like a minefield of bullies, scary, drunk, drug addicted or homeless adults and teenagers let alone garbage and unkempt yards or streets smelling of cheap malt liquor or urine. My point is, it is highly likely their mind is not 100% on the test.

So each summer we receive the scores and that sinking heart feeling of, "Man, we failed again. Now what do we do?" We begin the next school year with an attempt at a positive attitude, more data analysis and brainstorming of what works and doesn't work and how to improve scores. Then we enter the school year and implement these ideas or district wide implementations. But we inevitably stumble to similar results. Granted, some years really are better than others. Last year we climbed out of Academic Emergency into Academic Watch through a method called safe harbor. But I anticipate a decline backwards this year.

Naturally, I try to analyze what I am doing wrong. I try to personally examine what I, myself need to improve as an individual teacher to make things better. I have done this a number of times now. I have sat through meetings with fellow teachers and administration trying to accomplish the same goal as a group many times over as well. Most times I walk out with a horrible feeling of failure and defeat.

My wife has just completed her first year teaching and is now experiencing this whole routine firsthand. She is realizing how the blame keeps getting pointed in our direction despite all the work, effort and time she has put in it. As I listen and observe, I hear her talk like a first year teacher. I hear her say all the things that make complete sense...to someone who hasn't dealt with admin for a decade. At times I want to chime in, not because I think she is wrong but because things don't make sense in our line of work and someone will tell her she is wrong. She seems to be noticing this now.

She has officially been given the, "Test scores are bad and its your fault. What are you going to do about it" speech. My poor wife busted her rear end last year and did everything by the book. She went the extra mile and documented each step. She checked every move she made to make sure it was professional and ethical when she did it. And I can attest that it was all professional and ethical. She maintained high expectations for her students but was fair and understanding of each individual situation. I mean her year was air tight.

But the low scores are her fault.

One interesting dilemma for teacher nowadays is the lack of natural consequences. One would think a failing grade would mean something to a student. If not the student than the parents or guardians of that students. But this is not happening. Instead of the student being held accountable for a failing grade, the teacher is the one held accountable. It is not, "what did the student do wrong?" it is "What did the teacher do wrong?" I understand we need to hold teachers accountable. I understand we play a major role in the learning process, but when did we suddenly forget it is the student's job to learn to? Where is the idea of student accountability go?

The administration is blaming the teachers. The parents are blaming the teachers. The government is blaming the teachers. There is now a confrontational relationship between parent and teacher. The students are aware of this and manipulate it. The common citizens in central Ohio don't trust teachers either voting down levy after levy.

Meanwhile, money is taken from our schools for charter schools. Resources are dwindling. We used to have a student advocate in our school to work with the counselor and nurse and community to help our kids with all those things I mentioned in the first two paragraphs. They are now gone. Most schools in our district do not have a full time nurse. Our counselor is only part time. Our principal has to deal with disciplinary matters so much that she rarely gets to address the academic needs of our staff.

As teachers, teaching arithmetic and reading skills comes after you work to get the kids to show up to school, eat breakfast and avoid getting into a fight. All of this is done with all kinds of resistance and defiance and rude attitudes. I don't mean every once and a while, I mean this happens almost daily. I am not exaggerating.

We have completely lost trust in our teachers in an effort to hold us accountable and to a higher standard. It has officially gone too far. We are fighting a losing battle and each year it gets harder. We need help. I just pray to God it isn't this way in other districts.