Friday, September 26, 2014

Apology to teachers

This week, we sent out an apology to Kentucky teachers. We apologized for the software glitches that teachers were confronted with when they tried to complete the components of the new evaluation system. What happened that warrants an apology?

Kentucky has worked closely with teacher, principal, superintendent, school board and parent organizations to develop a system called the Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (PGES). This system is in response to federal and state requirements to develop evaluation systems that use student growth as a significant factor. The work has been ongoing for almost 5 years now. In collaboration with teachers, principals, and superintendents, KDE designed software to support the new PGES.

For teachers, the new software system provides them with access to content standards, standards rewritten into “I can” statements, lesson planning tools, assessment design tools, student performance, professional development, and the components of the new Teacher Professional Growth and Effectiveness System (TPGES). The effectiveness system components in the software are self-reflection, professional growth plan, peer and supervisor observation data, student growth data, and student voice data. The components are grouped together in our state software system within the Educator Development Suite (EDS). By using the software, principals can keep up with the components of the effectiveness system for each teacher they supervise and teachers are able to manage the evidences of the system without having to keep a paper portfolio (paperwork reduction).

The system was designed by teachers for teachers; however, the last few weeks have been very difficult for teachers and principals. The first component of the EDS was the teacher self-reflection. Teachers are asked to utilize the Charlotte Danielson framework for Effective Teaching and identify areas of strength and areas of improvement. This should have been very easy to use and not require too much teacher time. The reality is that the software had a number of problems. Teachers had difficulty logging in. Teachers, who did not save their work often, lost it. The software did not have an auto-save capacity and the time out restrictions were too tight. All in all, many teachers struggled with the software during the early part of the school year when they had little time to spare.

KDE and the software provider have been working overtime to correct the problems. As of this week, we now have more than 32,000 teachers who have successfully started or completed their self-reflection. Many teachers have now moved on to the professional growth plan, observations, and student growth goals. The data are showing that most of the software problems have been addressed and repaired.

As commissioner, I wanted to offer my sincere apology to the many teachers and principals who experienced frustration with the software that was supposed to make their job easier – not more difficult. I wanted to thank teachers and principals for their patience and persistence in dealing with the software problems.

We have worked almost five years together to develop a system that elevates the teaching profession and focuses on professional growth of teachers and principals. We will continue to monitor the software and the teacher experience with the software very closely. As teachers discover problems or concerns with the software, please let the Help Desk know of the problems so that we can quickly address the issues.


It is my hope that the rest of the year and the required components of the new system go very smoothly and that teachers feel they are supported in their efforts to grow professionally.

36 comments:

  1. I am an 18 year third grade teacher. I love teaching reading to my students. It is such a high to see how far they can progress in a year's time. I know my student's well and could tell you where each student is in reading fluency and comprehension. My test scores in reading back this up. Most importantly, I love being a part of so many little lives and hopefully making them better.
    With that being said, the PGES is making me want to leave the classroom. I have no instructional assistant or any help in my classroom. Anything that gets done, I do myself!!! I don't have a problem working hard and spending every spare second I have working with kids and helping them be better readers and better at comprehending. I do have a problem with a lot of busy work that is taking my time from those students that I love so dearly. Right now, I am spending more time in meetings and collection of data than I am teaching my students. HELP!!!!! Something needs to change or a lot of really good teachers are going to be looking for other jobs.

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    1. I have said the same thing as the above many times. I only have 3 years left and am ready to leave the classroom now. For those of us, who have worked smart and hard for over 20 years, this is a slap in the face. I constantly reevaluate my teaching and learning and improve as needed. I don't want to do more and more paperwork or computer work so others can read it. I WANT TO Teach my KIDS which is why I got into teaching in the first place. Not to do more and more paperwork and assessments!!!!!!!

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    2. i agree. when you say you do so much paperwork and computer work so others can read it, i have to disagree because I question whether some of this stuff is ever seen by another human eye. every now and then i will stick a sentence like "let me know if you are reading this" in the middle of a long paragraph. No one has ever said anything.

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    3. Ditto. I am an ECE teacher in a self-contained classroom with 10 students 2nd - 5th grade and no instructional assistant at any time. Trying to keep up with 4 grade levels of common core that dont overlap much in any given cycle and collecting and analyzing data on 5 or 6 IEP goals for each student, finding and adapting materials for the many ability levels within those 4 grade levels, planning and prepping for 3 -6 activities in EACH subject (the group I am teaching and then the two groups that nobody is teaching while I work with one) and then keeping both an intermediate and primary gradebook in every subject on IC, not to mention writing IEPs and doing re-eval testing and paperwork. . . oh and the hour or so of BILs on Cascade many days... well that takes up 3-7 hours a day outside of class every single day. But i do all of that because i love my students and want to see them learn and succeed. For my students I will spend all of that as m Ich time as i.possibly planing, adapting, and prepping and keeping data and grades. But I have neither the time nor the energy to do ONE MORE THING. I have perused PGES and quite frankly it is insulting. If you want to evaluate me, evaluate me! Don't make me do it myself! This echos of the gawdawful amount of paperwork, time, and energy, we have put into "Program Review" . . . I am always reflecting on my teaching and modifying my methods. I already have my peers reviewing me; I collaborate with them all the time. Just like our school has always reviewed programs to make improvement. If someone wants evidence of these things let them come do their own damn paperwork.

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    4. I agree whole-heartedly. I too teach third grade. This is my 13th year of teaching. I love what I do and I work hard to progress my students to proficiency. This takes careful planning time that has been taken away by PGES trainings and busy work. I am happy to reflect on my work and make goals, however this is overwhelming when you also add to the fact that we are expected to provided a great deal of evidence for Program Review! How can teachers be expected to devote so much time to paperwork when this takes away from the job we are really here to do. Teach kids. I all of my colleagues are worn out and feeling outraged! Please do something to change this system. Our children will be the ones to suffer, along with teachers who work hard to meet those needs.

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    5. The apology should not be for the glitches in the software. The apology should be to teachers for causing so much busy work. Teachers do not get paid enough do to the difficult, yet rewarding work they do. Teachers are one of the least appreciated people in our society. They are also one of the most underpaid. And instead of being paid for their devotion and hard work, they are given paper work added on top of the work they already bring home daily to assess student learning and plan for lessons. Get rid of PGES and Program Review. These programs are unfair to teachers. I don't mind getting rid of tenure. But please, let me do my job.

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    6. Teachers are not given anywhere near the amount of prep and paperwork time it actually takes to accomplish all the new stuff dropped in their laps in the past several years. Bottom line, they can spend their evenings and weekends planning good lessons, or they can spend their evenings and weekends entering data and filling out online forms for the state and district and school admins. The public won't get both. You choose. The apology needs to be for far more than just one computer glitch!

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  2. I am in 110% agreement with the comment above from Oct. 2 @ 4:55pm.

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  3. I am a 25 year teacher of Kindergarten. I love teaching my students to read. It is so rewarding to see such great progress in a year's time. I know my student's well and could tell you exactly where a child is in letter recognition, letter sounds, decoding texts, applying phonics, etc. My formative and summative assessments back this up. Unfortunately, PGES is making me want to leave this profession. I teach Kindergarten and only have an instructional assistant two (2) hours a day. I can't find another school in the state with this small amout of instructional assistant help. This year is the first raise we have seen in 8 years, and it is only a 1% raise. With the increased paperwork, of student growth goals, PD paperwork, RTI paperwork, referrals, meetings, etc. I feel like I'm sinking. Kindergarten has become first grade. Many of my students enter school not even being able to write his/her name. We are seeing more students with behavioral issues, such as autism and they just expect these students to go through RTI and be in the regular classroom, because "we don't want to label them" too early. The standards are more complex than ever for a 5 year old child. Each year we, as educators are expected to do more and more with less and less.

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  4. It saddens me to see the state of education. Teachers are highly educated and most enter the profession with excitement and joy only to have it stifled by an endless stream of hoops to jump through. Students care less and less and yet we are supposed to make them care and "grow" them. Many parents expect us to raise their children. We're tired and overwhelmed. Instead of being able to help children as we should, we're stretched so thin that we fall short in all areas of our life. Common core? How about common sense? It isn't that common anymore. These children are not just data! They are our future.

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  5. This is my 20th year of teaching. I love teaching my 7th and 8th grade students; however, I am heartbroken because I just don't think I can do this job anymore. Enough is enough. We take abuse from everyone - administrators, parents, students, community members, and other education professionals. If we were given 1/2 day to teach and 1/2 day to do all of the other things we are required to do, I still don't think I could get it all done. I would just love to have time to do the job. I wonder how many people who have moved "up" and out of the classroom would find the PGES wonderful. I love teaching and kids, but I need hope, energy, and time to do my job.

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  6. Wow. I am so happy to hear that I am not the only one drowning. We get MAYBE 45 minutes of planning a week. The rest of the scheduled planning times are taken up by ARC meetings, RTI meetings, PLC meetings and even trainings are held during our planning. Every teacher at my school is there to work on Sunday because it simply cannot get done during the week. We also have 2 hour meetings after school every Wednesday. Our principal has never been in a regular claim and cannot see the value of planning. She calls our planning period our "break" or "free time". If you want better education, provide teachers with ample time to prepare valuable lessons. Instead, you are doing the opposite.

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  7. This is my third year teaching. All of the TPGES is making me regret my decision to go to college for education. I agree with every comment. When will these people come to their senses?!!! This is insanity.

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    1. I am truly sorry to hear the regret in your words. Teachers like you are who Holliday owes an apology. I am also sorry to tell you that this is not likely to change any time soon. I am in my 43rd..yes 43rd year in the classroom. In that time I have seen what was a noble ,if poor paying vocation change from one where" IT " was all about the kids to where it is today, a business period. It is not about educating children but providing income for some overpaid administrators who want to tell you how to run your classroom and load you down with useless repetitive meetings and tons of unread documentation that will be analyzed the justify what ever their bias is. Pathetic. Your college advisor did you no favor in directing you into this dead end profession. Ah...atleast I can look forward to a retirement where..oh yeah,we just we get screwed again when you go to get Social Security. Penalized by a society that couldn't care less about your years of devotion to their children's education. Sorry so negative. Get out while your still young!!!

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  8. I am a 16th year elementary Art teacher. Program Review is a HUGE task which I am the chair of for my school. It was like writing a book. Now with this new demand of the TPGES and setting a baseline for my students and I service the entire school... It does make me think about leaving. I love the teaching part of my job and I love my students. Every year it seems the system adds one more thing to our plate without taking anything off! It takes up more of our time, of which I am busting my butt to manage already. I am becoming burnt out.

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  9. I teach Elementary Physical Education and am in my 28th year of teaching. I too am stressed by the effects of PGES, Program Review and pressure because of the state of the health of our children in Kentucky. And now our schools are making all teachers, with 3 or more years of experience, become Peer Observers which is going to require more sacrifice of planning time. And despite the raise in KY our district reduced our pay by reducing the number of school days. When will it stop?!?

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  10. I am a teacher. I am a mentor of teachers in training. Those are the jobs that I willing signed up for, and gladly do. I am not a statistician, nor am I an analyst. I do complete quite a bit of that type of work as part of my job of teaching students with special needs. I have IEP's to write, I have goals to monitor, I have reevaluations to complete, report, and have meetings about. I test my students bi-weekly for growth in Reading and Math, they are subjected to many state and local assessments to attempt to show progress. For the month of August, I had three weeks in a row with no planning because all these things have to be done during non-class time. That means that all my planning for my classes has had to be done on my own time, along with self-reflections, Student Growth goals (for students who already have IEP goals), and preparing for a PGES based observation. Here's a thought, if we want to show student growth, let the teachers teach!!! I have not, nor have I ever had an issue with anyone coming in my room to see if I am doing my job! I do my best everyday, not because I am being monitored, because I'm a good teacher, who loves to see her students succeed. This type of Big-brother supervision is insulting and demeaning! WE are professionals! We should be treated as such. From the time I was six years old, all I ever wanted to do was be a teacher. Now, after just under 20 years in public education, I am frustrated and exhausted. I am ready to quit. Perhaps THAT is something that the state and national leaders need to reflect on!

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    1. I have 25 years high school ELA and Mathematics teaching experience. I agree with the Big-Brother supervision comment, it is demeaning and insulting. We are professionals, but sadly, we are rarely treated as such. If you have not had an evaluation or a mini-observation with the PGES document yet, prepare yourself. There is very little on the document that is about what the observer/evaluator sees while in your classroom. Hopefully you are on "good" terms with the observer/evaluator, otherwise you will NOT receive positive remarks. And these negative remarks are published on the world wide web for everyone to see! It is so good to know that this system is objective. NOT!! It could so quickly turn into a witch hunt.
      Thankfully, according to Dr. Holliday, the scoring numbers have been removed. Needs improvement sounds much better than a score of 2.67. Also unless I get to hand pick the students in the class that is being used as a means of my evaluation, how is that evaluation valid? Or legal?
      And since I have a place to say this, in case you don't know yet, your 1% raise is about $40. Not too bad unless you work for one of the districts that gives its Superintendent a new car to drive and a 5 digit clothing allowance.
      Oh, yeah it is all about the students. I am with you, Big-Brother watcher-- tired, frustrated, and counting down.

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  11. I see you have a blog titled, "Feedback is critical to success." I hope you use the feedback in this thread and scrap your expensive and useless evaluation system. A good principal once told me that a good principal knows an effective teacher quite simply.

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  12. I can relate to every comment made here. It is no longer about how or what students learn. The only thing that matters is CYA for KDE and our state BOE.
    I applaud our elementary teachers! It takes a special person to help foster a love of learning the youngest of students. I bow to you!!
    To my middle school sisters and brothers in arms how will we accomplish all this extraneous work while teaching 152 students a day? We at least do receive 50 minutes of planning time a day instead of a week. That planning time is already not enough time to accomplish all that needs to be done. So we take it all home and steal more time from our families. And now? Now, we have more students in classrooms, more expectations that we steal even more time from our families. All because there is a pervasive erroneous belief that is perpetuated by our own KDE and BOE that there are more bad teachers than good and great.
    Part of me believe that the good and great teachers are purposefully being pushed out of teaching so that TFAs can be brought in. Why? Because they are a) young b) new c) afraid to speak up d) easily manipulated.
    Try your hardest, some of us great teachers won't be pushed out. We will stay and we will continue to speak up and out.

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    1. Not just young, new, afraid to speak and malleable -- although they are all four. The primary reason? They're cheap, and half of them will be gone in two years and 80% will be gone in five. That way the workforce never gets tenured or well paid.

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  13. I retired early after my plate overflowed with so many bureaucratic demands I could no longer attend to my family (yes, teachers have a life outside the classroom). Most of the demands were about data and involved technology that was not teacher friendly. Time consuming tasks that hindered my effectiveness in the classroom. My last year, I refused to do anything on my plate that had no value to my teaching. Best year ever, and my juniors greatly benefited from it. Transforming teachers into bureaucrats paper-pushers only benefits those who are just happy to sit at their computers all day while kids fill in worksheets. Sad, very sad.

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  14. Dr. Holliday,
    First I want to thank you for your tireless work to support KY teachers and students. I do see that and I appreciate it. I have been teaching ELA for 15 years in a high performing school. My student test scores have consistently shown improvement. I spend hours, days, weeks, my entire summer planning, researching and preparing for quality work in the Common Core. I have always reflected on lessons, evaluated data for student growth and the list goes on. Let's be honest- KY drank from the cup because as you stated, "This system is in response to federal and state requirements " with a heavy emphasis on Federal requirements that are becoming ridiculous. Teachers have endured over the centuries, despite what is thrown in our faces, due to our commitment to children, because education is the key to success.
    The PGES system needs to be reviewed, as do the Program reviews (including the world language review) - all are busy work- none of it reveals a quality teacher- most of it can be manipulated. Let me repeat, none of it reveals quality.
    The amount of work thrown on me this year has been beyond ludicrous. I have had less planning time than ever and this has shown in my preparation each day. I have done less formative assessment this year because I simply don't have time to evaluate it due to the SGG, Reflections (4 times a year? Come on! We only evaluate student growth once a year on state tests), meetings for RTI and PLC (which are a joke and simply turn into yet another meeting), and on and on.
    I propose that elements of the PGES remain- of course evaluations by our principal, Reflect at start and end of year, to name a couple that seem valid. However, having us peer observe- with little real guidance as to how to do this- is a waste of our valuable planning time. I do see valid opportunity in getting to observe another teacher's classroom- but the paperwork involved and meeting before and after- is a huge use of my valuable planning time.
    And Student Growth Goals? How is it fair that Math and ELA get TWO, while others make it up - make the rubric up- and voila! They've "grown". Last I saw - CC literacy standards are for everyone- not just ELA, and teachers with no tested content should be focusing on that. And how is it the ELA teacher's fault if they do not meet their goal or their test scores are low- when literacy IS everyone's responsibility in the school?
    Don't even get me started on Student Voice Surveys. My principal has noted multiple times over the years that my relationship piece (their words not mine) is outstanding with my students. Ask any student in the school and my name will be one of the top names for teachers who care, love and teach well- yet my SVS results were horrible- (yet I was top 3 in the whole school- a high performing school I might add again)- why? Because children are not qualified to really understand what I do and how I do it on a daily basis. The SVS should NOT be a part of a teacher's evaluation- any good teacher could look at those results and reflect on the validity of the results- but to include them - to use them to evaluate if I'm a good teacher is an insult.
    KY needs to take a stand and take back education- removing it from the jaws of the Federal Gov't and the business model that only seeks to make money on the backs of our students. I could argue that Common Core and the almighty Pearson is also doing the same- because let's face it- almost all of this testing and remediation materials- and PGES system- is about money- not about our children and their future.

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  15. So, let's pay dentists based on how many cavities each client has. Ridiculous, right?

    There will be a teacher shortage soon. #Buh-bye

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  16. Sadly, like many of my peers, I'm seriously considering a career change. The job that I do is not the job that I earned 3 degrees in education to do. This system isn't weeding out weaker teachers, it's weeding out strong, seasoned teachers who JUST WANT TO TEACH. At what point is our voice heard? I'm truly afraid that point is going to be a bit too late.

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  17. I just don't understand why, if we have all this money to spend on technology and hardware and software, there aren't just a bunch of retail store surveillance cameras installed in every classroom already! This would reduce so much busy work and inarguably provide the proof that is so sought after with all the mumbo jumbo and meetings. Just find out who the bad teachers are and fire them already. Leave the good ones alone. I am a stranger in my own home and it's only October 5. P.S. I am not in Kentucky but we have the same situation everywhere.

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  18. I am in my 28th year of teaching, for the past 17 years I have taught first grade. The things that I taught in my first year of first grade are now taught in the preschool and kindergarten classrooms. Common Core was developed by business leaders not educators, any educator would tell you that small children need to have their physical and emotional needs met and be taught in concrete ways to be successful learners. Our students are more and more restless, because what they are being expected to learn is not developmentally appropriate. Children are not playing outside anymore, building core muscles that allow them to sit appropriately in classrooms. Children who are less physically able to learn are being expected to learn developmentally inappropriate content. I am in a high performing school, and my students' end of year test scores are always exceptionally good. I am well regarded by my peers and my students. This will be my last year teaching. I wanted to make it to 30. I grieve over the fact that it is nearly impossible to be an effective primary teacher due to the constraints put on us by inappropriate content and our time being spent doing useless paperwork. This school year I have not worked less than 70 hours a week. I physically cannot keep up with the demands of my job. It grieves me terribly. Not one teacher in my school is satisfied in his or her job. I am praying for our future.

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  19. This is my seventh year teaching. I’ve spent the last five of the seven teaching 5th grade. I do not have as many years of experience as most of you that have left comments on the blog thus far, but it doesn’t take too long before any good teacher begins questioning the profession. I agree with what most of you have stated. I have devoted my life to this profession. I teach. I coach and I do a lot of volunteer work in my community just for a chance to better understand my students and to build relationships with their families. I love what I do and I know it’s where I should be but the demands are overwhelming and the nonsense of all the paperwork and documentation takes away from our time to analyze student performance and plan instruction and myself, like many of you are considering other options. TPGES was constructed with good intentions, but it’s failing and no one will take responsibility for the ineffectiveness. Consistency? Commonality? Most of the criteria or guidelines in the model CEP were “DISTRICT DECISION”. That makes a lot of sense to me. Leave it up to the local districts to develop their own criteria instead of creating ones that would be consistent across the state. OR give districts until December to finalize CEPs but start holding teachers accountable to the plans in September. It stinks to go sit through PGES cadres and hear teachers from all over the state express numerous frustrations and we really can’t help or give each other advice as we are all being told and given a different set of instructions from our administrators. We were given deadlines to complete reflections, PGPs and SGGs- but wait…… our teachers have to go to trainings and learn how these are to be completed and then bring it back and present it to the staff the week before they are due. I’m 100% for accountability!!! I hold myself to high standards and accountability. I hold my students accountable each and every day they step into my classroom, but I’m not going to give them a test over material I haven’t covered. I’m not going to assign them homework and then never grade it. I’m not going to ask them to try an experiment without me trying it first and I’m certainly not going to keep pushing or require them to complete an assignment when I’ve already realized it was poorly planned and it failed.

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  20. I too am all for accountability. I too WANT a paper that says I'm great at what I do, if only to shut up the teacher haters.
    But this, this is Ky once again flying a plane it is still building.
    An accountability system that has teachers observing and evaluating teachers. These observers have not been trained to do this. According to your ol' pal Gates' MET study, these observers need to receive continual training and should NOT be teachers with those they are observing. This is to cut down on the subjectivity of the evaluation/observation.
    Who came up with this idea to put another ton of work on teachers? IF it was a teacher, then they taught entirely too long ago to realize what current teachers are doing and going through.
    I disagreed with the idea of cameras in every classroom. There is just too much of a chance that one 3 second snippet can and would get taken out of context and then used against that teacher. However, I have changed my mind. I would rather see cameras in every classroom and have this insane amount of extra work taken off of teachers. Of course it would be placed on administration. Administrations that are obviously not doing their job of recognizing teachers who need support, giving them that support and evaluating them again to see if they need to leave the classroom. I say obviously because you Dr. Holliday MUST believe that Ky has more bad teachers than good teachers. Why else would you dump this amount of extra work on ALL the teachers? Using a system that can not handle the shear number of people logging on at one time. Dare I ask, is this another Pearson product in Ky? Of course it is. Because that's the easy way, buy instead of create. Not less expensive, just easier and faster. And again, wrong for teachers and wrong for students.

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  21. I am school teacher who in a small Kentucky town. I went back to college at a older age because my town had no African American teachers so it was for a CAUSE!! First I don't appreciate my retirement money being used for a ponzi scheme without my permission ( so I have to pay it back when seriously it should be by the folks that used it in the 1st place), and LASTLY, I didn't pay (still paying) to go to college to have someone have me redo my college lessons for their own personal agenda to prove I can TEACH!!!

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  22. If I did not have over 23 years invested in this career, I would quit in a heartbeat! As it is I am only going to teach two more years and call it quits at 25 years, instead of 27. Enough is enough! I have had only one raise in the last five years, while people at the board office gets raises every year. I do not make enough money to take the abuse that the school system is putting on teachers. Who in the world came up with this crazy idea? It is like a slap in the face to veteran teachers! We have enough paper work to do, and this is just adding more! Please let us do our job TEACH, not paper work for us to show growth on paper only!

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  23. Reading all these comments males me so sad...for you teachers...for the kids who deserve better...and for our society. Is anyone listening out there in reformerland?

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  24. I can say from a parent on the outside looking in that apparently the situation at the top of the food chain, especially after reading this "apology", is very bad. I've had children inside Kentucky schools for possibly the last 14 years and I myself graduated from a Kentucky school. To pick out the differences between when I was in school to now is almost so bad that it makes you want to cry. Top level directors, commissioners, etc. are too focused on getting "scores" in regards to testing and getting funding to line their wallets with more money than they are to allow teachers the freedom to actually EDUCATE our children. It is really disturbing to me, as a parent, when my two younger children come home and can barely write legible on a piece of paper to save his/her life. Why is this happening you ask? Because of situations like this. The top level "executives" you might as well call them are too concerned with tasking already over tasked teachers to do more and more non-teaching things that it takes away from their ability to do what they want...guess what...I'm pretty certain that is TEACH! Please understand that this is by no means a stab at the many, many teachers of this state. I have quite a few close friends and colleagues that are teachers and I know for a fact that if I were in your shoes I would have already went mental. This rant is directed right at the top. I find it sad that the Commissioner of Education for this state is willing to post a long apology in regards to a software program, which I'm sure was funded by funds that would have been used better elsewhere, but they are unwilling or just simply don't care enough to see where the real NEED lies in our schools.
    To the Commissioner and the rest of the folks that came up with this idea: I think you should be required to work 1 week in the shoes of any of these teachers so that you can see how hard it is on these individuals due to the need for "evaluation" as you all call it. I have other beefs with the education system in this state that I will not go into BUT I will guarantee you it has NOTHING to do with any of the teachers that are willing to go that extra mile for my children or anyone elses children in this state.
    WAKE UP AND OPEN YOUR EYES so called Commissioner of Education something is terribly wrong and I'm afraid it starts at the top.

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  25. This is my third year teaching and like others have stated, I have also considered moving on to another career while I am still young. I am overwhelmed by paperwork and pointless meetings for PGES and only given 15 mins a day for planning for my STUDENTS. They are who matter and I love teaching. I miss them over breaks and I love to see them light up when they come in my classroom, but the data collecting must end. I am math teacher and I could make triple the money I make teaching... While my superintendent flies on a jet to a fancy meeting. Why?! Why must I suffer with 3 years of no raise yet my superintendent gives theself a 15% raise?

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  26. I think you should survey your teachers, Mr. Commissioner, not the admins. Survey us in the trenches. See how PGES is turning away so many teachers. Soon, quality teachers will become rare, and the student scores (which seems to be the ONLY concern of higher ups) will go down without their teachers there. And you have nothing to blame but yourself.

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