and it's not because teachers want to. It's because the district can then point proudly to their "improvements," which are defined by what those evaluating the "improvement plan" are looking for.
It has nothing to do with teaching and learning, and everything to do with politics.
I remember the dumbfounded, and then outraged, look on the staff's face back in the very early years when my then district brought in consultants to teach us how to "use data to improve instruction." Two teachers from each school in our large district went to the training, and came back to report out to us. Our two could't even look us in the eye, they were so embarrassed by their "report."
What were they trained to do? The first thing: "Stop thinking of them as children. They are data."
If that wasn't bad enough, this came next: "Forget the outliers. You don't need to do anything different for the high achievers; the lowest won't move much. Focus on the 'bubble' students who are the closest to meeting benchmarks. That's where your greatest gains will come."
And finally: "Give more time to tested subjects, and let the things that aren't on the test go. Achievement is measured by the tests, so that's what counts."
Yes. We were dumbfounded, and we were outraged. Today? That's business as usual. If you AREN'T doing all of the above, you are a teacher who "needs improvement."
The above example was provided to an inquiry-based school that, not coincidentally, never had a problem meeting AYP. So we listened. We didn't explode on our colleagues who presented to us, because we knew they were just as unhappy with it as we were. When they were done, we glanced at each other, sighed, and went back to what we were doing right. We could ignore the trend at that point. I'm in another state now. I don't think anybody, at this point, gets to ignore the mandates, though.
= new reply since forum marked as read