Saturday, October 17, 2009
Post 4
As teachers, we are held accountable for reaching and teaching all children, regardless of the myriad of factors that influence their academic success or failure. We, and no one else, are held accountable for raising test scores in classes whose sizes we can’t control, in schools that are falling apart, without enough books or computers and too often without the support of families.
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Given the atmosphere that's sweeping the nation,it seems that we're going to see some innovation in teacher compensation in Illinois. Seventeen states in the U.S. already link the teacher evaluation process to student test scores (Glassett, 2009). While educators at all levels have been told that we are accountable to our students and to our profession, the particular interpretation of "accountability" varies depending upon who is creating the expectations (Quisenberry, 2003). The idea of holding teachers accountable for the low test scores of their students lacks validity because there are other variables that interfere with test outcome. Most teachers are doing an outstanding job considering the constraints placed upon them. They are accustomed to doing so much with so little, they can do almost anything with nothing, and in general, most teachers do the best they can to assure student success. Many politicians believe public school teachers have earned their pay based on years of service and advanced degrees without considering performance. That's about to change, thanks to pressure from Pres.Obama and his reform-minded education secretary who recently announced $4.35 billion in competitive grants for states that propose innovative ways to improve student performance (NBC News, 2009). The greater body of research over the last several decades reports that the best indicator of student success is the home. Students whose parents and families encourage personal responsibility succeed. Students who lack this core value are much less likely to succeed in school, on standardized tests, or in life (Lynne,J., 2009). Our social service institutions and prison systems are populated with these students. Is this a failing of the school, the home, or society? There are too many variables in the formula to draw a straight line conclusion from teacher to test scores. The educational climate in a school is a product of the culture that walks through the school door. Teachers cannot overcome all the ills of society that interfere with student success in the few hours a day they have their students (Lynne,J, 2009). If we have students 8 hours a day, society has them the other sixteen. Where is the greater accountability? Teacher effectiveness is only one of the variables that figure into the student success formula.
ReplyDeleteThis post just really makes me mad. Basically as teachers, we have to try to teach to every specific little thing. We are also expected to basically "babysit" the students and try to get them to behave and have manners. Parents expect everything of us. If the student is not doing well in school, then it is the teacher's fault. But what do the students do at home? Do they even do their homework? Do the parents even help them with their homework? Not really; most parents want teachers to do it all.
ReplyDeleteThen, we are expected to teach with no resources or materials. How are we to do that? Society thinks that if a school has high test scores, that they should receive money. But what about the low test schools? I think they deserve the money so that they are able to have the resources to get test scores up. They need the money to help the children that are struggling a whole lot more. Also, the money needs to go do find better teachers. A lot of schools can not find the better teachers because they cannot pay what they need to pay. If the money went to find better teachers, then maybe those areas can increase in test scores.
It is not only the teacher's duty to teach, it is society;s duty to teach also.
I feel that this statement is very true, and it really bothers me. We are teachers, we are not the students parents, and yet sometimes we have to act as that figure. From taking a course at SIU about families and how to have home-school communication with parents, nothing can work if we as teachers think that we know what's best for that child. Because we don't. I have learned from that class that students can, and will be successful in the classroom with our help. But the learning does not stop at 3pm when they leave until the next morning. As a child, everything that is a new experience is a learning experience. We can teach them how to count, give them comprehension strategies to use while they are reading, but rarely do we teach them about how to change you car oil, or your car tire. We as teachers need to have that reinforcement at home. We need to have the collaboration between home life and school life. We need to always be on the same page, or else it's the child that is really going to get punished in the long run.
ReplyDeleteNow that teachers are being put on 'evaluation of test scores' that determines your pay, what are children really going to learn. I feel that there is going to be less 'off-topic' discussion, where I feel sometimes some of the best learning takes place at. How is this a fair determination of teachers who only teach honor's classes, versus a teacher who teaches severe and profound students in high school and are still working on adding two or three digit numbers?
Post #4
ReplyDeleteI think as teachers, we are held accountable for teaching, facilitating, and helping all children’s learning but not so much for raising test scores even though that seems to be the most obvious index of achievement/success. However, “teachers (who should view their primary job as that of an educator) often confuse their responsibilities with those of administrators. When a teacher prides him or herself on the difficulty of obtaining a high grade and then makes it as tough as possible, that teacher betrays the profession and causes students to deplore education” (http://www.uoflife.com/epicenter/grading.htm). I think the ultimate goal of education is to facilitate children acquiring knowledge. Since the goal is the attainment of knowledge, teaching formats should be flexible and theoretically, teachers should be able to make good use of whatever they have. That is to say, under the situation that even though there are not enough books or computers provided and some other factors existing, teachers should try to overcome those obstacles. For instance, they can still teach with blackboards and chalks and students can still practice with paper and pencils; which was how we learned back to 10 or 20 years ago or even longer. If they worked at that time, why not now? In addition, as educators, what we can do to help our children without the support of families is quite limited. It is impossible for teachers to be with students 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Overall, what teachers can teach is quite limited but what they can do is to try their best to facilitate students’ learning. Just as a quote from Henry James, “…I will supply the children with tools and knowledge to overcome the obstacles. I will pass on the wisdom of my years and temper it with patience. I shall impact in each child the desire to fulfill his or her dream. I shall teach.” Therefore, as educators, I think we should teach our children to achieve their goals but not to gain a higher score and know nothing even though sadly, this is how they are evaluated in this society.
While reading this post what initially came to my mind is teachers are a bunch of Wal-Marts- “meaning we need to do more with less.” We are now in the world of high stakes testing and if our students don’t succeed then as teachers we are failures. Once again I resort back to Wal-Mart because Wal-Mart make profits and doesn’t seem to care about workers conditions or their employees’ happiness but they make great gains in profits. So to use their model for business and apply it to education makes sense with the doom and gloom post I am writing about. I guess we need to sacrifice the happiness and harmony of the classroom in order for our students to make AYP, who cares if key concepts are being left out and learning is not in full effect just as long as we are teaching to the test and we can increase our student’s scores. We then are Wal-Mart because we are responsible for businesses failing and small town America being destroyed. In Wal-Mart their big business model is slowly and systematically destroying the fabric of the American Dream and just like Wal-Mart we as teachers are being blamed for destroying the society of America. But there is more going on than just teachers failing to teach their students. Teachers are being given a generic curriculum to provide to their students much like Wal-Mart dishes out a generic fatty diet to consumers. Even the National Reading Panel is getting in on the systematic downfall of society by offering us teachers a generic curriculum. The Panel decided early in its process to focus on only a very few topics and limit its review to experimental and quasi-experimental evidence. Even so, the conclusions of the Panel certainly were credible, as far as they went, covering well the teaching of some beginning reading skills---notably, letter, sound, and word-level skills (Pressley 2006).
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to this statement was complete frustration followed by the realizations that this is what occurs every day across America and nothing is being done to stop it. I don’t understand what administrators, state representatives and parents want us (teachers) to do when we are supplied with minimal effective resources, little classrooms, too many students to teach and not enough pay. This has become an increasing problem especially in the area of special education. When a child has been labeled with any disability automatically they want to place them in special education classrooms, and or resource rooms. When a child is acting up in the mainstream classroom, some teachers do not want to take the time to deal with these individuals so they also send them to the special education teacher causing an even greater increase in the overcrowding that already occurs in each classroom.
ReplyDeleteSo my main question for everyone out there is what else are we as teachers supposed to do, other than do our best and give our all each and every day? I feel that not all, but a majority of teachers are out there, teaching the best they can with the supplies and materials that are available to them. It is not that we are failing or the students aren’t able to succeed, it is that schools need more funding, quality supplies and classrooms and buildings that aren’t falling apart each time you turn the corner. I think that as long as you go home at the end of the day feeling that you have given it your all, you have provided all the right materials and supplies possible and have taken the time to help the students in need, you have done your job as a teacher. There has to be a point in time where others realize that “hey we are also accountable.” Everyone who interacts with a child on a daily basis is responsible for their development and learning. Parents can take the time to communicate with teachers, help their children with homework, and provide extra supports and tutoring from home when possible. Other teachers and administrators can help when there are classrooms that are overcrowding by providing extra supports, getting more teachers aides and helping out in time of crisis. Then there is the child. Children and young adults also need to realize they are responsible for their own learning as well. If a child comes to school and does their homework that is a step in the right direction, but not the whole pie. They need to try as hard as they can, do the readings expected of them, and most importantly learn to ask questions. If every person puts in a hand to help out teachers, and allow extra supports to be given from their sides, and using their time I feel we would see a greater increase in the success of students on standard tests, and academic grades and report cards. Teachers need other’s help, as much as you need them.
I would agree that most people do hold teachers accountable for student success or failure. I believe this is so especially in low income schools where parents haven’t readied their child before beginning primary school, and do not have the time, money, or knowledge to help their children once school has let out for the day, weekend, or summer. We as teachers cannot point fingers back at the parents when they point them at us; it does no good. We want parents to know that we want to help them, not make the situation more difficult, or point fingers at them (even if silently in our minds that may be exactly what we are doing).
ReplyDeleteHowever, you cannot place full blame on the parents when you haven’t lived life from their point of view. We can blame the government just as easily for their lack of knowledge on what teachers actually take on in a classroom, as well as their lack of willingness to effectively help the situation. Why haven’t they moved towards strict education like the schools in China, when obviously that is efficient?
I agree with the post that mentions that money should be distributed to schools that are not scoring well on standardized tests, so that they are able to get the resources needed to accommodate student learning. We as teachers must deal with textbook issues, having to teach from statewide chosen textbooks that are selected due to criteria, but without any knowledge as to whether they are efficient. Nevertheless, we as teachers must use what we have. We may have these students for only one or two years, yet we need to make sure that we provide them with adequate knowledge as best as we can until they have reached the next level. Most of us have the internet providing us with resource knowledge we can bring to the classroom.
We cannot determine our student’s destiny, nor can a test, their parents, or anyone other than themselves. Therefore we are accountable for only how far we are willing to take them in the short amount of time that they have with us. We are accountable for ourselves, and how far we are willing to push ourselves in order to help them learn. The student will then decide how far they are willing to go in order to reach their ultimate goal in life.
Let the finger pointing begin! I agree that some teachers are faced with adverse teaching environments that are beyond their control. I also agree that some parents are not involved in their student’s education as teachers would like. Yes, some class sizes are too large. I also know some teachers who are not provided enough books for their students. It is also important to realize that not all teachers are as effective as other teachers, regardless of their environment. With all of this said how do we get anything done with these students and how does anyone pass anything? There are other factors that contribute. The statement “we, and not one else, are held accountable” disturbs me, I feel that this mentality is a major contributor to dismal test scores. Students are not held accountable for their own actions, including studying or thinking. The old saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make it drink.” How often do I hear about students not wanting to read the textbooks or even do the schoolwork? Some expect answers to be on a knowledge recall level and that information to be spoon fed to them, students want a review of the exact material before taking a test or quiz. I can only speak from personal encounters therefore a global generalization is not advisable. In response, some teachers, teach to the test (whatever test it may be). The interest is no longer in the acquisition of knowledge for needing to have knowledge, but to learn to test. Some states have already fallen victim to supporting these teaching practices, merit pay for testing scores. I must further wonder how merit pay would be linked to Prekindergarten. I do understand that some students are faced with such dismal home lives that academics are the least of their worries. Accountability needs to be a shared responsibility. There are several things that principals can do to facilitate teachers in practicing their craft with research based practices (formative feedback), teachers need to practice using effective models for their particular populations, students need to be accountable for their thinking, and parents need to be involved in learning what and how to facilitate education at home as an extension of school. This is a joint effort and the ball needs to be tossed on all sides of the court for effective play. So, please take away the pointing and use those hands for helping, this goes for all stakeholders.
ReplyDeleteIf education is an investment, the fact is that we may be short on investors at this point. I think that I agree with everyone so far. Our students are not doing well in many cases and this happens in inner cities and in rural schools.
ReplyDeleteWith that being said, I also beleive that people do the best that they can. What I mean by this is that parents have to rely on schools more and more to do the job of educating and parenting. Schools are being asked to offer breakfast, dental/health screenings and after school programs because parents are working. When I was young, many moms stayed at home and when we had homework or needed help with projects from school,she was there to help us. I don't know about other teachers, but I would say that maybe 10% of my students have a stay at home parent.
The other issue is that teachers are asked to do more and more with less and less. Teachers are being asked to work with students that they may not have worked with a few years ago. You are asking them to accommodate 20-25 diverse learners. In the past, these students may have been served in a seperate environment with supports. I work with students that have brain injuries and I was just told that Chicago Public Schools has cut homebound teachers that specialize and have put the burden of providing instruction on regular and special education teachers that have huge caseloads.
This gets me really upset. I have seen in just the few years that I have been a certified teacher the craft of teaching being devalued by the general public. I started out before all of the additional requirements were put in place for teachers that work with special populations. Since the changes, I have seen parents question the paper qualifications of a teacher, but nobody seems to notice that there are just different kinds of teachers. There are teachers that really want to teach and there are others that see it as a stepping stone to administrative position or a job (and I have seen school systems treat teachers as if they were doing shift work with a time clock).
As far as assessments go. When I started teaching, my students were not a part of assessment procedures. Now I hear that the poor test scores are related to the special education kids. I have mixed feelings about them even taking part in assessments that were normed for students without disabilities, but it also has to reflect negatively on these students and to some extent on special education teachers.
I agree with the statement posed because I think it is very realistic and prevalent to American schools. I know that I am not going to change this problem alone and would love to think that all teachers together can change the world but we all know that is not going to happen any time soon. The MSN website stated a scary fact that "as younger inexperienced teachers are thrown into classrooms to meet new federal standards, as much as 90 percent of the burden of instruction rests on textbooks." This makes me think about how I will be one of those new, unexperienced teachers in just the next year as that scares me, but also makes me excited. It is scary that instruction has been put so heavily onto textbooks, and our students are relatively failing when compared to other counteries. As David Barry the comedian stated "American schoolchildren may nothave the highest test scores in the world, they do have the biggest backpacks" and "those huge textbooks that our children lug back and forth each day are literally the largest and heaviest of any used in the more than 40 counteries whose students were tested."
ReplyDeleteFor this problem to be 'solved' I also think it is important to point out the way that future teachers are taught. Stephen Budiansky stated in his article that "In a study conducted by the National Science Teachers Association, 23 percent of middle school teachers reported they have taught subjects for which they had no prior course work." This is a scary phenomenon. Even though I am not student teaching, I am about to and I know that I do not feel prepared to take over a classroom.
The statement is entirely true. These are the problems that face a classroom teacher today. It is certainly true in my school and most teachers I speak with face the same situations. I spoke with a teacher from Florida this past week, and her class is 95% free or reduced lunch, 75% have English as their second language, and one student speaks a lanuguage from a small Virgin Island that they cannot find an interpreter to use to help with the child or the child's parents. So, yes, this is what it means to be a teacher today. We must learn to deal with these complexities, continue to educate ourselves, and work hard to help the children of today's America. The children did not ask to be born into these situations. We, as educators, are responsible to meet their needs, where they are at.
ReplyDeleteSchools will have to start working more closely with families. With so many children in our area living in poverty, we have to try to educate the parents on how to help their children as students. Of course, not all parents will be receptive to this kind of help, but if we can reach a few, it can make a difference.
I am very frustrated by the fact that so many guidelines and mandates are forced upon teachers by people who do not know what it is like to be in a classroom today. Before any government program is passed, there should be a panel of current classroom teachers (who are excellent teachers), review the program and let the policy makers know if it is something that will actually work in "the real world". I know my head is in the clouds on this issue, but it boggles my mind that the government does not ask people who actually are involved in the process if they think it will work.
In the field of education this seems to be an ongoing issue, and one that I do not agree with. In all of my undergraduate teaching practicums I was placed in schools where I did not get to see what the real world is like. I was placed in schools that did not seem to lack resources and parent involvement/support. Luckily, I was raised in a city where these things were happening in the other school districts around me, and I got to see my Mom experience this in her classroom. The district that she taught in lacked money and parent support. My Mom was fortunate enough to have enough money that she spent her own money on buying materials for her classroom. Not everyone has this luxury and I do not feel that it is fair for those especially first year teachers who are teaching in districts that do not have the funding for text books and computers, and lack parent support. I do not think that it is fair that we are held accountable for reading and teaching all children, but from what I have learned in my classes, this is something that I will probably be faced with and I need to prepare myself for this in the future. I have already started collecting a classroom library so that I can hopefully supply my students with books. I have also started to look into outside resources to use in my teaching. Luckily the internet is a wonderful resource that we have and I know that I will use it a lot in my future teaching career. Although I disagree with the fact that we are held accountable for our student’s success I would not be a good teacher if I did not except this fact. As teachers we are very pressured to make AYP and almost teach to the test which takes a lot of the fun out of teaching, but this is something that as an educator I will have to expect. There is a lot of pressure on teacher’s to ensure their students success and even the very best teachers struggle with this due to the time constraints placed upon us. For the teachers who are in districts who cannot afford text books it makes it almost impossible for the teacher to ensure that all student’s succeed. As for the “younger, inexperienced teachers that are thrown into classrooms to meet new federal standards, as much as 90 percent of the burden of instruction rests on textbooks” (Wang 2006). Without these text books, it makes it difficult for teachers to deliver the curriculum to their students. No matter if teachers have the text books or not they are feeling the pressure especially due to the fact that “President Bush’s No Child Left Behind initiative put almost every imaginable part of the U.S. education system under a microscope, establishing national standards for teacher training, student testing, and basic funding” (Johnson 2006). The profession of education is one of the most difficult and I feel that it is not acknowledged by the rest of the world as being a difficult and challenging profession. I believe that as teachers we should be held accountable for teaching our students and trying to reach all of our students needs as best as possible, but we should not be held accountable for all the myriad of factors that influence their academic success that is beyond our control. Teachers need support from parents and administrators to ensure the success of the students. Teaching should be a collaborative effort from all parties.
ReplyDeleteThis statement is something that as scary as it seems is true. Many schools now are looking at their teachers only through the test scores their students receive. We are no longer judged by how much knowledge the students are obtaining in our classrooms, but instead by whether or not they score high on the state tests. No consideration is taken for whether the students are nervous test takers or any other factor out of our control that affects the students. As a special education teacher it is also not taken into account that some of the students being tested may not be able to test up to the standard given even if their teacher is amazing. Many of these students are not given the chance to be tested on the amazing progress they may be making, but are instead judged at a grade level or standard that may not within their reach.
ReplyDeleteAnother topic that this paragraph involves is the many “hats” that as teachers we are thrown. We are told to make sure that the students raise their test scores, but what about the other things that are needed for those scores to rise. We can teach the students at school, but without adequate books? Computers? Other resources that many teachers do not have? These factors we have very little control over, but often times they are a large factor in the student’s scores on the tests that decide many teachers’ fates. The families of our students are also something that sometimes, but not always, is something that supports them enough to sometimes get their child to close and in the best cases feeds them, but many show no effort in their child’s education. What about the children who show up hungry on Monday because they have no eaten since school lunch on Friday or the child who didn’t sleep in a home with a lights or heat the night before so any homework sent home was not completed. The students are under our control from 8 to 3, but in order for them to succeed we also have to worry and try to help them through the times they are not at school.
As I approach the onset of becoming a teacher, I fearfully find this statement to be very true. Teachers are held responsible for student performance even with the lack of resources and cooperation provided from a variety of outside factors. It is our job as teachers to present the information and facilitate understanding which leads to higher test scores, but this cannot be done solely in the classroom by one teacher. We need support from our government and administrators as well as parents in order to make learning easily accessible and to encourage our students. There are many limitations placed on a teacher responsible for the productivity and ability of their students. How can we be held accountable for this when we don't even have materials that guide and facilitate learning? Rather we have adopted materials that are confusing and irrelevant to many students causing them to be disengaged with the learning producing lower test scores. Unfortunately, these books are used all over the nation and don't allow for teachers to alter instruction to best benefit the student, but set guidelines on what to present by when making it the teacher's responsibility that all their students understand this information and can express it on a biased test. “The system is resistant to the entrepreneurial spirit,” Wang said. “There isn’t a mechanism for encouraging innovation in education because of systems like this adoption process.” (msnbc.com, 2006) So i ask you this, if a teacher enters a school who has adopted and implements these resources which do not seem to work with or engage your students, how can you be responsible for the information they obtain through the readings they do not want to partake in and do not understand. This is why all educators and program planners along with textbook developers need to come together and develop a way to make learning accessible and meaningful for all students which is a problem all in itself. Education needs to be direct and individualized and with current resources and support available for teachers it seems to be an almost impossible and neverending task.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that is completely frustrating. And yet, it seems to be a vicious cycle that has yet to be changed. As we discussed in class, schools now require teachers to teach to the test(Glassett 2009). Why have we begun teaching to tests? Because apparently our teaching skills aren't up to par with where they need to be. And why is this happening? Because those who came before us might have not had the skills either. So where do we go from here? It is my opinion that more emphasis needs to be placed on the resources provided to us. As many articles that I have read today have stated, textbooks in this day and age just do not provide students with the information they need let alone help students grasp the skills they need in order to succeed in the classroom. Another problem is the lack of parent involvement. It is almost as if teachers are looked at as full time babysitters. More responsibility has to be placed on the parent to teach their child. After all, who better to teach a child than the person who created them? If we would start making changes in these areas, our jobs as teachers would be much less demanding.
ReplyDeleteI think this statement is entirely all too true. I think there is evidence behind this statement in the school systems that are paying teachers based on the success rate of their students. In class, we addressed school systems who hired teachers on the basis that they would keep their jobs if, and only if, they turned the success rate around. I think this is too much to ask of teachers, when the states and nation are not allowing them to teach how they feel is most effective. We are telling them that they must reach certain standards, and then not allowing them to use their knowledge or experience as an educator to decide how best to accomplish the goals. The state mandates what texts are given, what should be taught each year, and how it should be taught. With so many factors that are out of control of the teacher, how can anyone fault them for the results of decisions they were not responsible for making in the first place? A good example of this lies in the information we read about textbooks this week. How do we expect teachers to get students to excel in subject matter when teachers are given unsatisfactory textbooks with misinformation in them?! And how can you blame the teacher when they were told that they had to use that specific textbook?
ReplyDeleteThere are also more than a handful of factors that affect a student’s ability to learn that are out of control of the teacher. In class we have talked about how socioeconomic factors affect a child’s ability to learn how to read. Even before children enter school they have different experiences to books and words. The more experience and practice students have with text the easier it will be for them to learn how to read. Even if teachers alter their instruction to address those not getting as much practice at home, it still will not equal out to those children who receive additional instruction and guidance at home. No matter how one looks at it, it is unreasonable to hold teachers solely responsible for every child’s ability to learn, as well as be able to accurately portray their knowledge through assessments.
I COMPLETELY agree with this statement. As teachers we are held accountable to teach all children. Not only to “teach” all children but teach them based on certain standards. We are held to achieving such high standards despite high numbers in the classroom, low socio economic status, 90% free and reduced lunch, lack of support from families, lack of text books, material, and computers. We might as well be called supper teachers. I teach kindergarten through first grade special education and I see daily the effects that the home environment has on these students. My children are worried if they will get dinner at night, have no books at home, are not read to at home, education is not a priority at home, and to top it all off have specific learning disabilities are still held to the same standards of other children. Now as a parent I can really see the difference for these kids. Mine have unlimited access to books, are read and sung to daily and school will be the number one priority in their lives. Is it fair to hold all children to the same standards??? “Children who enter with limited vocabulary knowledge grow much more discrepant over time from their peers who have rich vocabulary knowledge. (Baker, Simmons & Kame’enui, 1997) They want teachers to realize that all children are different and that the curriculum should be individualized. So why aren’t the tests/ standards individualized??
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the quote my initial thought was, no matter what situation comes my way as a teacher it should not stop me from doing my job. We have chosen this profession that does not pay very well for a reason. I believe it to be the personal gratification you receive when a student does well. To get into this line of work, you either know someone with a disability or you care about what happens to those in need. Unless you live somewhere else other than Southern Illinois, you are going to deal with these types of scenarios in your school system. Yes, we are accountable for or students being able to read, yes we still have to prepare them for high stakes testing each quarter, and yes, we might have to work in a school system that’s falling apart around you. That’s why we as educators at all levels have been told that we are accountable to our students and to our profession; the particular interpretation of "accountability" varies depending upon who is creating the expectations (Quisenberry, 2003
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the above statement. I feel a lot of pressure especially to connect and reach ALL students in my classroom. I have a wide diversity of learners within my room and sometimes I feel as if the requirements put upon me by the "politics" of the school are not allowing me to do more things with the students. I have found myself trying to differentiate instruction so that activities will be meaningful and fun for all types of learners – this is extremely difficult. I feel as if sometimes my “above average” kids are left hanging in the balance because I am so focused on bringing up the “below average” and “average” kids. There is no clear cut prescription to reach students.
ReplyDeleteI know that with the pressures put on the administration by the state, the administration tends to dictate, for lack of a better word, what has to be done to make AYP. Which means there is not a lot of room for creativity or teaching other subjects besides reading or math. I also feel as if it should be mentioned that not all factors concerning success can be influenced simply by reading instruction or a specific teacher. For instance, it has been noted by many researchers and people that poverty has an extreme influence on education. Mike Pressley mentioned a study done by Huston, Duncan and others in 2001 that demonstrated the effects an anti-poverty program with three components (1- wage supports to raise family income above poverty threshold, 2-subsidies for child care, 3- health insurance). This study found academically achievement was significantly higher of the participants than the control. This study proves that outside influences are sometimes better indicators of success than a teacher.