The ideology is simple, actually. No Child Left Behind just needs some tweaks (i.e. expect more from (I'm paraphrasing) lazy, incompetent teachers) to make the 2014 target work.
Right.
The basic ideology is that standardizing expectations, particularly in Math and English, across the country will even the playing field because everyone, no matter their background, will be expected to perform at the same basic level or better.
Funny thing is, now states are realizing that they will not be making their 2014 target. So they have two solutions: increase demands on teachers, or decrease the expectations.
Virginia, among other states, decided to do both. Teachers were told at the beginning of the year this fall to add a bunch of additional (relatively illogical) things to their curriculum while different racial groups will have different expectations attached to them (only 57% of black students compared to 78% of white students are expected to meet standards).
I wonder if a big part of the problem is people who vote for policy makers who have no idea what they're doing but make speeches that seem just fine to them (see: Scott Walker)? I wonder if anyone has decided to consider the possibility that the problem in the first place was that all of the increased expectations was put squarely on the backs of teachers? If this is actually the case (which I suspect it is), then as a social scientist I can expect that unrealistic expectations with no additional resources for any given person will have some pretty horrible impacts, both for that person and for the whole system. I can expect something like this will become common:
LONG RANT: Had my first anxiety attack / breakdown last night after work. Tried to eat, had trouble breathing, cried like someone had died, rocked in a fetal position, and couldn't calm down until Ryan took me up to the bed. Cried more, threw up, and then Ryan put me in a hot bath to try to settle me down. I finally calmed down after having some melatonin in my system. Thank you Ryan for EVERYTHING you did for me! And a big thanks to the people "downtown" who created this unnecessary curriculum stress on elementary teachers across the city. I really appreciate staying at school until 6pm or later almost every day in order to be somewhat caught up in all the curricular changes when my contract time ends at 2:45. I appreciate all the "rigor" you apply when expecting teachers to give an 8 year old a fifth grade level algebraic problem that you expect to be graded when students haven't even been taught multiplication. I appreciate the thought you put into continually changing the online grade-book so that teachers don't understand what they are doing and neither do the people training us on some occasions. I most of all want to thank you for trying so hard to take the joy of teaching from my spirit. But I've got news for you. I love those students more than I care about your lack of common sense. I am there for them regardless of all the hoops and ridiculous barriers you put in my way. You tried to break me and I thought you had for a moment. That was until little Jaeda came up to me today and said, "Teacher, will you come to my birthday party in October? I am just inviting a few friends." Or when Johnny shouted out, "I get it now, teacher!" after talking about how a sugar cube is a structure and what makes up a structure during science class. I am not broken...yet. Please just understand that I cry because I care so much. I stay after school for hours on end because I want to give students the best education in my power. I have trouble breathing because I have a hard time reaching my best teaching potential when half of my curricular units seem to be missing very important pieces and there is honestly no time to make anything up because our whole grade level has to agree on the changes. And there are WAY too many other bigger questions to discuss in our limited planning times together. I throw up because I keep visualizing all the wasted time hunting down materials that are missing in our building or that aren't online where they are supposed to be. And I'm tired...SOOOOO tired! This is due because I can no longer sleep at night because of the stress of all these little things and more. So no, I am not broken yet. But if you keep pushing and pushing and pushing more and more and more...I will break. I am only human after all.
Signed-
A Teacher Who Just Wants To Teach
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