Sustenance
I have been in education 23 years and have seen my share of trends, fads, and movements. Like many educators, I became accustomed to waiting them out, not believing that they were here to stay, and true to form, many disappeared altogether or morphed into something else, only to morph again. Perhaps that culture of disbelief among educators helped contribute to the current situation we face in the United States regarding educational accountability.
In Illinois, where I live, we endured numerous versions of state standards and state tests, and the same could be said for the latest and greatest district initiatives.
So it’s not hard to believe that many thought, and still think, that NCLB and AYP are going away.
Well, if you do, you’re wrong. Very wrong. NCLB is not going anywhere.
Before you start thinking “here comes another NCLB post,” please stay with me. This will be more about teaching than anything else, I promise. And I don’t think I’ll even mention Web 2.0.
If you teach in a school that has not been impacted by NCLB, you don’t have long to wait. It’s impact will eventually be felt, as the percentage of students required to reach adequate yearly progress (AYP) increases from year to year, with all students (100%) having to reach AYP in reading and math by 2013-2014. There is no escape.
For many school districts NCLB has required schools to face their shortcomings, face the lack of performance of many of their subgroups, become hyper-accountable, and truly re-examine how they go about educating kids. Sounds ok, right? You might say that this is a good thing for education.
But it’s been disastrous for teaching.
That’s right, teaching.
You see, in the age of NCLB-driven accountability, schools have to perform, and if they don’t, there are penalties. If performance continues to suffer, the school or district enters into something called corrective action, then restructuring, and with names like those, don’t expect it to be pleasant. (see chart, bottom of this page for school improvement “options.”)
There’s pressure, big-time pressure, and that pressure targets administrators first. You can guess where I’m going, can’t you, especially those of you who are teachers….well, you’re next because that pressure rolls downhill, doesn’t it?
And it will change forever how you go about your craft. When performance suffers, instruction is the first thing to get targeted.
If you are like me, you probably believe that teaching is part art, part science. True teaching is an elegant art, with the great teachers creating almost magical learning experiences that take kids to places where learning comes alive. That’s not empty rhetoric, just watch a great teacher do that, or do that yourself, and you know. When you do that, you know what teaching and learning is about, and once you’ve tasted that, you want more.
In 2007, is it wrong to think of teaching in that way?
Enter NCLB. Enter pressure. What happens to that art? What will happen to that aspect of your teaching, perhaps the part that really sustains you as a professional, and what you live for, when you are asked to go in a different direction than what you believe? How will you react to a highly structured curriculum, shared assessments, and teaching the same thing, in the same way, and perhaps even on the same day? How will you react to having to approach teaching in a completely different way, one with limited options? One with the art removed and where instruction becomes cookie-cutter, because all kids need the same experience to perform on that test. What will happen to the climate and culture of your school district when the need to meet AYP drives everything?
In 2007 and beyond, how will NCLB and AYP de-value the art of teaching? Do you believe it will?
NCLB required that school districts employ "highly qualified teachers" by 2005-06. Highly qualified to do what exactly? Get all kids to achieve at high levels, or perform at high levels on a test? We all know that the first may not translate into the second, for a host of reasons. For a school entering corrective action or restructuring, which measure do you think they're most interested in?
You may say we need change. You may say that it doesn’t have to be the way I have described above, and you might be right. You may say that test performance and elegant teaching are not mutually exclusive, and you may be right.
But my question is this, just in case you are wrong. How will you sustain yourself? Teaching is about to become very different for you. If you are near retirement, the answer is easy. For new teachers, well, that will just be how it’s done. But what about a person who has taught 10-15 years, and has a decade or two to go, and has a taste of how it can be? How do you sustain yourself? What will make you get up every morning and teach in an environment like that? That’s the group that it will be hardest for. That’s who we will lose…
So, as the inevitable slowly approaches, it's time to developing some coping mechanisms, because if a school district isn’t careful, NCLB pressure will extract the heart and soul out of teaching. It will. Trust me. Start developing mechanisms that will help you sustain your love of teaching in spite of what you will have to do. Do it now.
What will sustain you?