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student behavior and the increasingly permissive culture of raising kids adhered to by parents and other adults. I've read numerous columns on turnover in teaching, and this factor is often left out. I work in a high school where the principal's philosophy is that, as teachers, our main job is "to love the kids" and this is the only way to get through to children with disruptive, dangerous and criminal behaviors. Unsurprisingly, our school is a mess and not only do the inmates run the asylum, but they know they run the asylum. Also unsurprisingly, our test scores continue to plummet. It's sad. Particularly for the kids who want to learn. It's what I call "misplaced compassion." We devote most of our compassion to the students who disrupt classrooms the most and victimize their peers the most. The majority who are not disruptive and do not victimize their peers become the victims and we all suffer because they do not receive the educations they deserve. All based on what is aptly called "failed parenting techniques," except we now apply these failed parenting techniques in our schools.
I've read numerous stories of teachers quitting because of insane work environments with out of control students. I have little doubt that if this isn't reason #1 for most who quit, it's reason #1B.
Student behavior was indirectly responsible for my quitting. I was being berated on MY failure rates but the real problem was disruptive students not learning and their behavior preventing the kids who wanted to learn from learning. Put three kids in a class determined to make sure no learning takes place and it won't. I had a few kids who would just work ahead and seek individual instruction but I played whack-a-mole with the rest of the class. I cannot recommend teaching high school as things are right now.
I do think in the past teachers weren’t always held accountable for how their actions impacted student success and/or behavior but today the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction and students are not held accountable for their actions and behavior. Either extreme is placing an unfair burden on one party and allows the other to behave inappropriately with impunity.
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I asked an administrator many years ago what I should do to motivate students who were put in French class who 1)did not ask to take French, 2)did not want to take French, 3)did not like taking French, 4)did not need it for graduation, and 5)were not going to a four-year college (requiring 2 years of FL). Without much hesitation, she told me, "I'll have to give that some thought." I never did hear any words of wisdom for motivating such students.
Our district's response to massive course failures was to institute a policy that gives any student with a term grade less than 50 to receive a 50. As a 60 is a passing grade, all it requires to pass is to have a 70 for first semester. The students that do achieve that are then able to do literally NOTHING for the rest of the school year and still pass.
We still have massive course failures, as many students will not even do enough to get the 50 that is given to them. I had a conference this morning, final exam day, with the mother of a student who has straight 50's and who did not attend at all during the fourth term. Her mother wanted to know about her make-up work. I told her that as she had not gotten the three progress reports I send each term, the mid-term progress report and the report cards that the school issues each term, that there was nothing much I could do. All of my coursework is online and students who are absent are to go to the website to get their notes and email me if they have any questions. (Of course, very few do that.) The mother did not have much to say. The two teachers who followed me were much more blunt.
We have teacher accountability, but none for parents who don't get their students to school or check their grades (also available online) or students who just want a passing grade for being enrolled. Some of those students do receive passing grades despite never attending class because we have "teachers" in place who give 100's to everyone on their rolls, whether they attend or not.
I'm so ready for this year to be over. Two Fridays to go.
I think one variable not considered lately is an uptick in the economy these last few years. 9 years ago when the economy was "recessed" my school saw maybe 1 or 2 people leave due to wanting to change career paths / schools / etc.... maybe 1 or 2 leave due to retirement. This year alone we are having to hire 5 new math teachers in a math department of 13 math teachers. All 5 are simply switching schools but staying in the profession.
Our district currently has 40 openings across the board for custodians. For years the guy in our district who is in charge of plant engineers and building custodians has always told us that it becomes increasingly difficult to hire custodians when the economy is better. Simply put why would you want to make 13 dollars and hour to clean up $%^& when you can make 20 an hour or more working at the local tire plant next door or work at the local car plant down the road. I remember in 2009 our building principal told us he was getting resumes from people with masters degrees for custodial jobs. That's how bad the economy was in 09-10.
In 2018 people are more willing to "risk" leaving the profession due to more opportunities opening up in the private sector. If you have a degree in Bio or Math or Chem or a Foreign Language you have far more options afforded to you these days than you did 9 or 10 years ago.
Now doubt Pay and Benefits are an issue in some states. Student and parent behavior IMPO is probably more a school by school basis. Go to a high school in rural Ohio or Indiana where the school maybe has 150-200 kids in it and you won't see hardly any discipline issues. Go to a large urban high school of say 2,000 plus students many of whom are probably pretty transient and you'll get a lot more issues.
I asked an administrator many years ago what I should do to motivate students who were put in French class who 1)did not ask to take French, 2)did not want to take French, 3)did not like taking French, 4)did not need it for graduation, and 5)were not going to a four-year college (requiring 2 years of FL). Without much hesitation, she told me, "I'll have to give that some thought." I never did hear any words of wisdom for motivating such students.
Our district's response to massive course failures was to institute a policy that gives any student with a term grade less than 50 to receive a 50. As a 60 is a passing grade, all it requires to pass is to have a 70 for first semester. The students that do achieve that are then able to do literally NOTHING for the rest of the school year and still pass.
We still have massive course failures, as many students will not even do enough to get the 50 that is given to them. I had a conference this morning, final exam day, with the mother of a student who has straight 50's and who did not attend at all during the fourth term. Her mother wanted to know about her make-up work. I told her that as she had not gotten the three progress reports I send each term, the mid-term progress report and the report cards that the school issues each term, that there was nothing much I could do. All of my coursework is online and students who are absent are to go to the website to get their notes and email me if they have any questions. (Of course, very few do that.) The mother did not have much to say. The two teachers who followed me were much more blunt.
We have teacher accountability, but none for parents who don't get their students to school or check their grades (also available online) or students who just want a passing grade for being enrolled. Some of those students do receive passing grades despite never attending class because we have "teachers" in place who give 100's to everyone on their rolls, whether they attend or not.
I'm so ready for this year to be over. Two Fridays to go.
My school district is exactly the same. Kids receive a base grade of 50 regardless of performance each quarter / semester. If a kid gets a 70 for the first semester then there is no way they can fail for the year. Some know this and by the 4th nine weeks barely show up and if they do they show up late and are only there to cause problems. I've literally had kids tell me at semester change not to expect much if anything from them because they know they've already passed for the year and it's only January.
As part of our end of year eval with our grade level admin if we have more than 10% failures for the year we have to write up a report explaining why this occurred. So if I teach 150 kids (which I do) and have 15 kids fail for the year I have to write a report and then sit there and essentially argue why.
Parents and kids can see their grades online at all times, they receive progress reports midway through the 9 week grading period and then a 9 week grade report. Parents who don't know how their kid is doing academically simply put DON'T want to know.
student behavior and the increasingly permissive culture of raising kids adhered to by parents and other adults. I've read numerous columns on turnover in teaching, and this factor is often left out. I work in a high school where the principal's philosophy is that, as teachers, our main job is "to love the kids" and this is the only way to get through to children with disruptive, dangerous and criminal behaviors. Unsurprisingly, our school is a mess and not only do the inmates run the asylum, but they know they run the asylum. Also unsurprisingly, our test scores continue to plummet. It's sad. Particularly for the kids who want to learn. It's what I call "misplaced compassion." We devote most of our compassion to the students who disrupt classrooms the most and victimize their peers the most. The majority who are not disruptive and do not victimize their peers become the victims and we all suffer because they do not receive the educations they deserve. All based on what is aptly called "failed parenting techniques," except we now apply these failed parenting techniques in our schools.
I've read numerous stories of teachers quitting because of insane work environments with out of control students. I have little doubt that if this isn't reason #1 for most who quit, it's reason #1B.
I sub in around 10 school districts and this describes exactly a middle school where I am subbing less because of the behavior. This is a school that used to have excellent behavior but the principal has adopted a policy of not punishing students and often rewarding them for bad behavior. Numerous teachers in this school have complained to me about the situation. One teacher's comment was she doesn't think her health can take another year of this kind of teaching environment.
It is a minority of the students who are disrupting the education process in this school. What I have noticed is the disruptive students have a negative effect on some of the other students but the majority are still well behaved. It is also interesting to compare this school to one of the neighboring districts that is lower economically and academically, but has better behavior. The difference is the administration and probably also the discipline in the elementary schools that feed into these schools.
I sub in around 10 school districts and this describes exactly a middle school where I am subbing less because of the behavior. This is a school that used to have excellent behavior but the principal has adopted a policy of not punishing students and often rewarding them for bad behavior. Numerous teachers in this school have complained to me about the situation. One teacher's comment was she doesn't think her health can take another year of this kind of teaching environment.
It is a minority of the students who are disrupting the education process in this school. What I have noticed is the disruptive students have a negative effect on some of the other students but the majority are still well behaved. It is also interesting to compare this school to one of the neighboring districts that is lower economically and academically, but has better behavior. The difference is the administration and probably also the discipline in the elementary schools that feed into these schools.
I asked an administrator many years ago what I should do to motivate students who were put in French class who 1)did not ask to take French, 2)did not want to take French, 3)did not like taking French, 4)did not need it for graduation, and 5)were not going to a four-year college (requiring 2 years of FL). Without much hesitation, she told me, "I'll have to give that some thought." I never did hear any words of wisdom for motivating such students.
Our district's response to massive course failures was to institute a policy that gives any student with a term grade less than 50 to receive a 50. As a 60 is a passing grade, all it requires to pass is to have a 70 for first semester. The students that do achieve that are then able to do literally NOTHING for the rest of the school year and still pass.
We still have massive course failures, as many students will not even do enough to get the 50 that is given to them. I had a conference this morning, final exam day, with the mother of a student who has straight 50's and who did not attend at all during the fourth term. Her mother wanted to know about her make-up work. I told her that as she had not gotten the three progress reports I send each term, the mid-term progress report and the report cards that the school issues each term, that there was nothing much I could do. All of my coursework is online and students who are absent are to go to the website to get their notes and email me if they have any questions. (Of course, very few do that.) The mother did not have much to say. The two teachers who followed me were much more blunt.
We have teacher accountability, but none for parents who don't get their students to school or check their grades (also available online) or students who just want a passing grade for being enrolled. Some of those students do receive passing grades despite never attending class because we have "teachers" in place who give 100's to everyone on their rolls, whether they attend or not.
I'm so ready for this year to be over. Two Fridays to go.
ITA! IMO the failure of our education system is a failure to hold students accountable. I can't make kids come to school prepared. I can't make them pay attention. I can't make them try. I can't open their heads and pour in the knowledge. Teaching is pushing a rope. You can play out as much rope as you want but until the students pick up the rope and pull nothing happens.
My last district wanted me to just pass kids. That's why I left. I feel bad for the kids. They are being passed through a system that is doing nothing for them. Then they will have to compete for jobs in spite of being totally unprepared.
1. Out-of-school suspensions. These are seen as days off by students. It's a joke because these students overwhelmingly don't value education, so any time away from school is a reward for them.
2. Providing endless "modifications" and "accommodations" for students who are given the "EBD" designation often because adults in their lives (at home and at school) refuse to hold them accountable for their poor behaviors, set meaningful limits and thus harm them by insulating them from the natural consequences of this poor behavior.
3. Reinforcing manipulative behavior by students. Weak, lily-livered administrators allow students and their parents to intimidate them into forcing teachers to give in the demands of students or to overlook/minimize misbehavior. Teenagers quickly ascertain they have the upper hand and can control the adults.
Teachers who are "under attack" from many students, many parents, and administrators have 100% of my sympathy.
As a parent to two troubled kids whom we adopted and who were considered special needs (severe behavioral and emotional problems), I did everything I could to support the teachers, only to be told by the principal that my kids would pass "no matter what", as that was the district policy. The kids knew that they could get away with not doing homework, being disrespectful, etc. at school, and they took full advantage. (Also, I was considered to be too strict by school counselors for issuing severe (but not harsh) consequences at home when I received a bad report about my kids.)
It was like neither the parents nor teachers nor the kids could win when faced with district policies like those described in the above posts. It makes me wonder if apparently intelligent people are just completely clueless as to the harm they are doing by their "preserve the kids' self esteem at all costs" policies.
In my opinion, teachers who persevere despite all that they are up against are heroes beyond measure, and that applied to about 90 percent of the teachers my kids had. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about the school principals, counselors and psychologists, with only a couple of exceptions. (I even had one psychologist tell me that I should just worry about my kids' behavior at home, and leave their problems at school for the school staff to handle.)
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