9486 in the collection
Fad Bad for Greeley Schools
Don Perl, who sends out announcements from the Coalition for Better Education, of which Pat Kennedy is an active member, reports: "Each day for the past several days I have had the experience of opening my mail to find yet another outraged parent or teacher requesting her/his name be placed on our subscribers' list. We now have a subscribers list of 675 members."
This is remarkable. Take a look at this example of the group's work.
On billboards, at bus stops, and in newspapers, this group pounds home the message that children are being hurt by an oppressive one-size-fits-all system.
by Pat Kennedy
Most of us have tried a popular fad diet at one time or another because it promised dramatic change in a short time. Companies that promote these fads make millions of dollars and claim success because the diets do work -- if the dieter is able to adhere to extreme, albeit unhealthy, changes in eating habits that can cause permanent damage to one's health.
Current successes in Greeley-Evans School District 6 are similar to the results of fad dieting. The board, in order to make quick gains on test scores, adopted an expensive, one-size-fits-all reading curriculum. All students and teachers are required to adhere to scripted lessons and a common schedule. Students who aren't up to benchmark sacrifice science and social studies instruction to get more practice in tested subjects.
Like the dieter who obsessively weighs in daily, students and teachers are required to stick to the prescribed regimen and keep their eye on the numbers.
And, according to state reports and district power point presentations, those numbers are improving. Our superintendent says teachers deserve a pat on the back. The Commissioner of Education has called Greeley-Evans a model for the state of Colorado and has taken us off watch. Now all District 6 has to do is keep up this rigorous pace and all will be well.
There is only one problem. Teachers and students are rapidly reaching their endurance point teaching and learning such a restrictive curriculum at break-neck speed.
What has been added in the past two years? A new literacy program with substantial training and preparation requirements, tool kits in all subjects, and ongoing, never-ending data collection requiring extensive time blocks for testing, scoring, recording, and analysis both in and out of the school day.
What has been taken off the teachers' plate? Nothing. With no more time added to the workday to accomplish required tasks, teachers are simply expected to work harder on their own time to meet deadlines.
And what about the kids? They get more hours sitting in a classroom drilling on material that will be tested. If you are bored, too bad. The district has dropped technology specialists, cut back on ESL teachers, field trips, music, art, and P.E. time, and generally put everybody into a rigorous boot camp learning environment. If kids get tired, well, they can get up and do a few jumping jacks or maybe even take an occasional recess.
But then, get back to work, which means learning to produce the right answer when tested. So much for 21st century work skills: problem solving, risk taking, innovation, creativity, and technology skills to compete in a global economy.
Our superintendent, like the promoters of fad diets, makes big bucks and claims success. Scores are up, students are achieving, and we are off watch. All those things will look impressive on her resume when she finally leaves Greeley for an even more lucrative contract elsewhere.
But, also leaving Greeley and some even the teaching profession are scores of frustrated administrators and frazzled teachers, both veteran and new, who are tired of the testing treadmill, are not allowed to use their professional expertise, and do not feel they are serving children.
And let's not forget the bored students who leave by dropping out, nor our brightest students who are leaving Greeley schools as parents seek a more rounded, nurturing curriculum in private and charter schools where rigor doesn't mean a lock-step curriculum. "Scripted curriculums," one teacher quipped, "are like Novocain to the soul."
Fads don't work over the long haul, and our latest "data driven" fad is no exception.
Ironically, the more our district depends on scripted curriculums to raise achievement, the less healthy our classrooms become. Inevitably, student achievement will suffer as the souls of our children disappear under an avalanche of data.
Pat Kennedy is a retired elementary classroom teacher from Greeley-Evans School District 6.
— Pat Kennedy
Greeley Tribune
2007-12-30
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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