"Within the adult learning environment opportunities for skillful participation top the list of priorities."
Within the walls of my own school building I know that most of our teachers feel that their input means little or nothing to the administration. Our job is to teach, to jump through the hoops, and compile the data that administration deems important. We administer a pre and post district math assessment four times a year at each grade level. The assessment does not match the pacing guides, often comes with typos and is useless for providing teachable feedback. The scores I send the Board of Education are unreliable at best. My students have not been taught the material, of course they will not perform well. The numbers are sent to the Board anyway. What course of action is taken after we use up an entire teaching day to administer the assessment? None. Administration has been notified at the school and board level. The skilled teachers hired to teach math are speaking directly to the problem. Has anything changed? No.
Opportunities for skillful participation should be available at all levels of education. Rather than placing all of the administrative decisions on testing data, allow the teachers to give feedback and pinpoint changes that need to be made within the classroom. Data is absolutely essential for reflection and decision-making, but there are many times that numbers have different meanings. Teachers can often tell you the "why" behind the data.
If a school, district, group of people with common goals and interests wants to move forward, they must listen to the voices of the men and women in the classroom. Let the participation of the teachers help to guide the decision making process. Not only will this lessen the animosity between faculty and administration, it will facilitate success on the classroom, school, and district level.
Within the walls of my own school building I know that most of our teachers feel that their input means little or nothing to the administration. Our job is to teach, to jump through the hoops, and compile the data that administration deems important. We administer a pre and post district math assessment four times a year at each grade level. The assessment does not match the pacing guides, often comes with typos and is useless for providing teachable feedback. The scores I send the Board of Education are unreliable at best. My students have not been taught the material, of course they will not perform well. The numbers are sent to the Board anyway. What course of action is taken after we use up an entire teaching day to administer the assessment? None. Administration has been notified at the school and board level. The skilled teachers hired to teach math are speaking directly to the problem. Has anything changed? No.
Opportunities for skillful participation should be available at all levels of education. Rather than placing all of the administrative decisions on testing data, allow the teachers to give feedback and pinpoint changes that need to be made within the classroom. Data is absolutely essential for reflection and decision-making, but there are many times that numbers have different meanings. Teachers can often tell you the "why" behind the data.
If a school, district, group of people with common goals and interests wants to move forward, they must listen to the voices of the men and women in the classroom. Let the participation of the teachers help to guide the decision making process. Not only will this lessen the animosity between faculty and administration, it will facilitate success on the classroom, school, and district level.
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