Teachers Left Behind

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:


Teachers Left Behind

Sharon Lerner
May 15, 2013

As budgets are cut and standards raised, new evidence that teachers are growing disenchanted with their profession

Kathleen Knauth has had a rough school year. The principal of Hillview Elementary, near Buffalo, New York, has spent so much time typing teacher evaluations, entering data, and preparing for standardized testing, she barely had a minute to do what she used to do in her first 12 years of being a principal—drop in on classes, address parents’ concerns, or get to know students. When a school social worker stopped by her office a few months back to get Knauth’s take on which children might need her help, she realized she had hit a new low.

“Normally I’d say, ‘This one’s grandma is seriously ill. This child is going through a huge custody battle. This one has clothes that are too small. I could reel off six to eight things,” says Knauth. “But this year, I had nothing.”

Two weeks ago, after she was asked to raise the standards her students would be expected to meet for a fifth time this year, Knauth decided to resign and sent a public letter explaining that the educational reforms she’s been asked to implement are at odds with what’s important for kids.

Knauth is not the only one finding it tough to work in a public school these days—or, for that matter, detonating explosive public-resignation letters that only people with no hope of working in the public-school system again would send. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://prospect.org/article/teachers-left-behind

[duffyduff]

1. Between the lines it's all about horrible administrators.

They have power that supervisors in NO other field have, and that is they can literally kill your career over nothing while they are backed to the hilt.

There is NO accountability--real accountability--for administrators. They might whine they, too, are accountable, but they aren't railroaded out of careers the way teachers are.

[roody]

3. The principal is an administrator.

[duffyduff]

4. Do you think I don't know that?

Teachers use the terms interchangeably because principals are also called "site administrators."

[n2doc]

2. KnR n/t

[Doctor_J]

5. Stupid people vote republican

that's a big reason why the Repukes are ruining schools. As to why the president is on board with the program, ????