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Three Cheers for the Teacher Willing to Speak Out
Rigid drive for literacy burdens some teachers
By Kara J. Shire
Contra Cost Times
In West Contra Costa schools last year, fewer than one in four third-grade students were able to read at the state-mandated proficiency level.
School district officials have responded to the subpar reading skills with an intensive campaign designed to improve student literacy skills by keeping every classroom moving at the same rigorous pace.
A year and a half into the "It's Literacy" program, school district officials say their focus on core reading skills is working.
Many teachers, however, remain largely unimpressed.
The strict implementation of the literacy curriculum has caused morale to plummet at many schools. Teachers said some younger students have been reduced to tears by the intense focus on reading and assessments.
While some teachers have said the district's elementary-level reading curriculum works, many others disagree.
A teachers union president said the level of dissatisfaction over the program varies from teacher to teacher and from school to school.
Among the chief complaints is that the scripted curriculum leaves no time for science or social studies, let alone creative lessons taught through singing, acting or painting.
Science and social studies are supposed to be "embedded" in the reading curriculum, but many teachers complain that the material is insufficient and not in line with state standards.
Teachers also said the rapid pace of the lesson plans leaves them no time to interpret the many assessments and no choice but to "spray and pray."
"We spray the lessons and pray they learn them," quipped one Riverside Elementary teacher.
Added Diane Draper, a third-grade teacher at Highland Elementary School: "I feel rushed all the time, and that kind of in turn is expressed to my students," she said. "I kind of feel like a rat in a cage."
In many cases, teachers admitted to deviating from the district's mandated literacy curriculum even though they worried that doing so would lead to a write-up by their superiors.
Most teachers declined to comment publicly for this article, saying they feared that doing so would lead to retribution. Draper and veteran teacher Sheila Kogan were among the exceptions.
Kogan, a teacher at Downer Elementary in San Pablo, explained that she has decided to finish a classroom lesson on birds by having her third-grade students build their own nests.
But doing so would take time away from the literacy lesson, and Kogan worried that she would be written up again.
"In all these years of teaching, never in my life have I seen anything like this," she said.
"It's astounding. We are ordered to teach in a certain way with no leeway for what we know is right for our kids.
"If they fire me because I'm not doing it the way they want me to, I'll retire early and I'll get another job," Kogan said. "That's how strongly I feel about it."
West Contra Costa schools Superintendent Gloria Johnston said strict implementation is key to the success of the program.
"The higher the level of implementation, the deeper the level of implementation, the better the students do," she said.
But teachers counter that the rigid tactics of the program's administrators have left them feeling as if their own knowledge and professionalism no longer count. Many teachers said they are worried they will be written up for not arranging student desks correctly or for not hanging posters in the right place.
"There's an atmosphere of 'Big Brother is watching you,' and teachers are definitely feeling that and it's not making them comfortable to teach," said Terri Jackson, president of the United Teachers of Richmond.
At Downer Elementary, some teachers have taken to wearing buttons that read "Open Cult" or "Read books, not scripts," in reference to the Open Court curriculum of direct instruction.
"It seems like a lot of people are pushing programs rather than pushing education," said Downer teacher Eduardo Martinez.
Not all teachers are so turned off by the district's literacy program.
Tara Hills Elementary School teachers found ways to incorporate a much-wanted garden project into the Open Court curriculum. Newer teachers also tend to be more accepting of the literacy program.
And at Collins Elementary School in Pinole, teacher Pam Suess said Open Court has unified teachers across the district by putting them all on the same page.
"We like it because it gives us all the components that we need to meet the standards," said Suess, who recently ended a unit on space by taking her students to the Chabot Space and Science Center.
"There's a few things we have to add -- the writing program isn't that great, so we're enhancing that. But as far as we're concerned in fifth grade, it's great," Suess said.
Most teachers see at least some benefit to the program, Jackson said, but they still have their complaints.
"I think where the complaints are really is with the workload," Jackson said.
"If we could just get past whether Open Court is good or bad and talk about how it has changed the jobs of all teachers -- the assessment schedule, the pacing schedule," she said. "The workload on all of this has increased with no extra time and no extra pay."
Johnston makes few apologies for doing what she says must be done to improve student reading.
"We have many fabulous teachers who have done wonderful things for years and years," she said.
"But across the district, when I came here, less than 30 percent of the students were reading on grade level, and that's not acceptable. So we had to do something, and we couldn't wait five years to do it."
Contra Costa Times
2003-12-22
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/living/education/7542586.htm
INDEX OF OUTRAGES
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