Letter: School changes drive teacher out

I have been an elementary schoolteacher in two schools for the Jefferson Parish Public School System for 29 years, and I am in my second year of DROP. I have endured many changes in administration, curriculum, and policy. However, the changes made over the past two years have created the most-chaotic and challenging years of my career.

On Feb. 20, we were informed that we could no longer administer the yearly standardized tests to the students we teach. In other words, the state does not trust us to not cheat.

In the past, the philosophy was to create as comfortable an environment as possible for our students to perform well on these high-stakes tests. That level of comfort exists when students are testing with the teachers who have worked with them daily and who have established a rapport with them. Apparently that philosophy is no longer valued, and we are no longer trustworthy. Keep in mind that these one-time test scores can be the basis for a student’s promotion to the next grade level and are a major criterion for a teacher’s yearly evaluation.

I was told to not take this directive so personally. But, the fact of the matter is that after dedicating 31 years of my life to teaching, I do take it personally.

And, that is why Feb. 20 wasn’t my last day of working for the Jefferson Parish Public School System. Because I do take it personally, I will continue teaching through the rest of this school year for my students and then retire early.

Connie Gauchet

teacher

New Orleans

Comments

1) Comment by bourbon-soda - 03/03/2013

Afterthought and at risk of perseveration: Christianity is often condemned both for closed-mindedness and for impurity for incorporating pagan material into itself. To me, it has to be one or the other. My understanding is that very little of classical, pagan, learning would have survived if not for Christian clergy's having preserved it, implying, to me, a respect for and recognition of worth of non-Christian (or Judeo-Christian) thought and achievement. An interesting question, to me, is that Greeks knew about steam, Egyptians at least a little about electricity, so why not a Mediterranean, rather than Northern European, Industrial Revolution? Just a question.

2) Comment by bourbon-soda - 03/03/2013

Jesus' "suffer the children" would be an antithesis to "seen and not heard." What Sheaffer (?sp), Oppenheimer, and Whitehead might ask is, why did the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution take place where they did? As you suggest, the answer is not simple and maybe not knowable. I know it's annoying to be told what to read, but I can't resist recommending Robert Reilly's "The Closing of the Muslim Mind," whose focal point is the "dehellenization" of Islam. No need to read the whole book; lots of good reviews around and there is a video of an oral presentation that pops on google. As usual, thanks for civil discussion.

3) Comment by prbeav - 02/03/2013

@bourbon-soda. Imagine the challenge of a family member from another school district asking you to list their children as members of your household. The challenge can estrange families.>>>>Off hand, I am not impressed with Whitehead or Oppenheimer's or other opinions justifying religion: many people struggle to tie advances in understanding to Christianity. Christianity tries to appropriate all good things. Consider for example, "God is love." Balderdash: love is love, and I will not accept any substitutes. God, whatever that is, needs no man's help.>>>>Mom and Dad taught us: children are to be seen and not heard, and I long for such good teaching when a three year old continuously interrupts my evening at a restaurant with ear-piercing shrieks. So, their religion was good enough for some things. If you Google that phrase to try to learn its source, you need to know to add "Aristophanes" to find it referenced in "The Clouds," 423 BC with "boys" in place of "children." Then, when you bring up the text, you discover that Aristophanes merely quoted (placed in quotations) an old saw! In the same way, much of Christianity is an appropriation of Greek plays and dialogues. There are better examples, like in "Iphegenia at Aulis" and "Symposium." I have gotten way off topic but am grateful for your additional input, which I will follow up on.

4) Comment by bourbon-soda - 02/03/2013

@prbeav - you are welcome. My impression s that the Prussian system was double-edged: totalitarianism but lots of Nobels. Whatever Luther's faults, another of my impressions is that he and the Reformation were precursors of the Enlightenment, but that's a bit much to take on here and I am not qualified anyway. One Francis Schaeffer (?sp) is interesting in this regard; and both A.N. Whitehead and J. Robert Oppenheimer credited Christianity as the incubator of modern science that led to the Theory of Evolution among other things. The idea of American public education as derivative from the Prussian system came to mind when the _Advocate _ had that story with photo of the police out trying to catch "boundary jumpers" who wanted their kids to go to school in a different district - raiding a private home to see whether toys etc. were there, for example.

5) Comment by prbeav - 02/03/2013

Bourbon-soda. Thank you for introducing me to the Prussian education system. See also Pietist influence at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system. Quoting your source, “King Fredrick systematically established a schooling model engineered to ensure that the “spirit of ability within” was permanently extinguished.” I think my elementary school had reformed from that system.>>>>I have written before my gratitude for Staub School, Knoxville, Tennessee in the 1950s. The teachers, excepting Nina House, 5th grade math, are a mystery now, but those years instilled concepts from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance,” and Thomas Paine’s “The Rights of Man.” I recall a “film strip” that began with a policeman knocking on someone’s front door and the resident greeting him, “Watch’a say, Flatfoot,” in an appreciative tone.>>>>My imperfect (they taught me to smoke cigarettes), Baptist dad and mom so indoctrinated me that I continued in self-indoctrination for five decades. But love for my French-Catholic spouse plus my intent to be true to my understanding saved me from 1) Protestantism then 2) Christianity.>>>>Not to diminish my love for my wife, I am so grateful that none of the Protestants I courted sufficiently appreciated me: I would still be a prisoner of the Pietist education system.>>>>I will try to discover why Yehudi Meshchaninov does not credit/blame the Lutherans in his coverage of the Prussian system.

6) Comment by agagent - 02/03/2013

An article in today’s Advocate indicates a bloated administration in public schools. It might be a good thing for some of public school administrative personnel to quit over the new evaluation system.

7) Comment by teacherguy - 01/03/2013

@joeyesposito...no, no blog...but let me tell you the secret to my success. This is the simple truth of it...1. locate the list of vocabulary terms "they" expect your students to know by the end of the year. Drill them daily...and when you complete the list, start over again. They won't remember much of it a month down the road, so reteaching it later will bring the "dummies" up to speed. 2. Spend the rest of the time teaching students to answer constructed response questions using the core tenets of your subject (example for social studies: geography, economics, civics, and history) and using "key" vocabulary words when appropriate. (Geography = places, natural resources, physical features, etc.; civics = government, republic/representatives, rights/responsibilities, popular sovereignty, taxes, etc.; economics = trade/transportation, supply/demand, market system, imports/exports, profits, trade- offs, opportunity cost, etc.; history = dates, names, events, etc.) Your kids will look like geniuses compared to the rest of the state when they are throwing around these core tenets and memorized vocabulary on constructed response answers. They may not like school much, but your scores will improve dramatically. Let me give you an example of how a core tenet answer would work on something that would normally render a student clueless: Gen. Packenham was sent home in a hogshead of rum after the Battle of New Orleans. Why? Without the core tenets, you MIGHT get a sentence out of them....but this is what I empower them with as a way to answer - Geography - it took 6 weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean...his body would stinketh if they didn't do something to cover the smell, Civics - he was a General, therefore his government had to bring him back home for burial, Economics - he was "rich" so he could afford special treatment, history - dead bodies decayed, so the alcohol in the rum was used to stop the decomposition process. If they apply these core tenets of social studies to EVERY constructed response question...your kids can't help but provide decent answers to questions they may not normally have any clue how to answer! Good luck

8) Comment by ScotB - 01/03/2013

There is no "teaching talent" in administering a test. I suspect if this is motivating you to quit, there is more to the story. In the private sector, they do audits on us. We are not allowed to audit ourselves. This falls under the maxim, "trust, but verify." Have fun in your comfy retirement that is way better than any of us in the private sector. We have seen the results of the fine teaching in Jefferson Parish over the last 29 years. Thanks for your service and enjoy your retirement.

9) Comment by teacherguy - 01/03/2013

Sorry prebeav...a little defensive...I do like my first idea of ordering a daiquiri machine and let the teachers have a party in the teacher's lounge while students are tested with a proctor! :) I do wish teachers would stand up for themselves, but we have to do it all together...otherwise it would be futile suicide...without cohesion, the next best option is wait for the dilettantes to decide they were wrong...but they won't see that until they have driven the education profession into the ground. I honestly believe that there will be a few years of "improvement" before what is being done will become grossly clear and the short gains we will see will be backed up by severe deficiencies later. I honestly believe LA's public education has actually been masking the more severe society problems...and these problems will only be more pronounced given time to figure out career educators are the most valuable pieces to the public education puzzle. teachers are more accepting to a performance evaluation than they are results-based...because there are so many variables affecting results that are simply out of the teachers hands. Someone said to me once before that someone who sells houses or cars can be fired for not producing results even if the economy is bad...but there is a difference in selling a piece of property in Scotlandville vs selling it in Zachary, I had a nephew who sold tires on Airline Hwy and he was doing good sometimes to get people to put a patch in a tire vs a cheaper plug...he switched to a Denham Springs outlet and remarkably became a master salesmen because he didn't even have to ask if they wanted a new tire...they'd buy 4!!! The same goes for school districts, and classes, and students....being fired for not selling a house/car in an economic downturn is a calculated risk of being a salesmen...but if you WANT a teacher to show up everyday in a war zone and hold them responsible for what the kids can't do...well, you don't see a lot of million dollar homes and car lots in Scotlandville...and you won't see a lot of teachers begging to put their neck on that accountability butchery shop. If you want career professionals in those schools...tying student test scores to teacher effectiveness will simply create a bigger void of career teachers willing to go there.

10) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

Sounds like you survived the Prussian/American system. Just found an interesting read including an allegation that students are indeed widgets, and that part of the plan in the early 20th century was deliberate design to preclude so-called over- education. This guy has an agenda, but still an interesting perspective: http://thenewamericanacademy.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/the -prussian-industrial-history-of-public-schooling1.pdf or google prussian industrial history public schooling. The apotheosis of the Prussian system might be when no one any longer recognizes what is going on but recites mantras about inculcating critical thought, individualism and autonomy.

11) Comment by prbeav - 01/03/2013

Thanks, bourbon-soda. I just like to remind folks now and then that I write opinion only because I do not know the objective truth. I did read the Atlanta evidence.>>>>Also, my thirty-five year career was based on results and in my performance evaluations, my bosses always focused on what I had done lately. (I'll never forget the time one boss said, "You are too sensitive." I responded, "I think what you are really saying and don't want to admit is that I am acutely aware and act on my understanding." He responded positively, "Maybe so." I rose to an unexpectedly high ranking.>>>>My point here is that good teachers need to stand up for themselves and continue meet the challenges, because we depend on them, and that in fact is the point of my first post. Thanks again.

12) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

@prbeav - Don't let 'em grind you down. Keep right on thinking without a license. You want experts, look at _The Best and Brightest - McNamara and the Bundy brothers, who are responsible for more deaths than is Ted Bundy. Teachers definitely have a conflict of interest in their own students' test results and should not want to administer high stakes tests to their own students, just to protect themselves. The _Atlanta Constitution_ did great investigative reporting, easy to google. Every time they turned over a rock, the first caterwaul out of the perps was, how could you insinuate this about hard working kids and their dedicated teacher?

13) Comment by prbeav - 01/03/2013

No doubt I am speaking out of my field, except as bourbon-soda seems to describe: a student in the past with deep appreciation for what teachers did for prbeav and only imagination of how hard it is to brook the misery of the classroom today. Even witnessing my wife's teaching experiences, reading the newspaper, and listening to friends' concerns do not qualify my to express more than my opinion.>>>>The only messages I wanted to share are 1) VAM is a sensible element of teacher evaluation and the practice should be worked out with the best available teachers, 2) in today's parent and student environment it makes sense to separate test proctor from teacher, and 3) everyone wins when the best teachers make the system work. People are correct to think me nothing beyond concerned taxpayer. I appreciate all the concerns about my concerns.

14) Comment by bourbon-soda - 01/03/2013

1) Compulsory-by-default American public schooling was largely modeled on Prussia, whose system was very like manufacturing widgets. Whether American public schooling has escaped that beginning might be a more open question than is commonly supposed. 2) A Republic is ultimately run by dilettantes known as voters. Most politicians are dilettantes, settling large questions of which they cannot have more than limited knowledge. Today's (and maybe all days') editorial writers are dilettantes by definition, opining on vast areas of knowledge of which they can have personal mastery of only a few segments. Those who agree with me are experts; the others, dilettantes. 3) Teachers are at a disadvantage compared to doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other vocations, in dealing with dilettantes from a position of expertise, because compulsory educational attendance has produced so many dilettantes who have personal memories of extensive and intensive interaction with teachers and their work.

15) Comment by nimby? - 01/03/2013

after almost 30 years in EBR , watching its degression , vandalism of my car , my desk broken into numerous times , verbal/physical attacks from students as well as parent , lack of support from spineless administrators , a school board more worried with social engineering , quotas than teaching critical thought it was time to call it quits . I more than did my fair share .

16) Comment by spqr - 01/03/2013

Rgeraldwallace is just stupid. Plain stupid and totally out of touch with reality. Dumb. He will never understand what students are like today. Never. I think he may be Piyush Jindal.

17) Comment by joey.esposito - 01/03/2013

@teacherguy: do you maintain a blog or other site where your methods can be viewed by others outside of your school? I would be very interested in reading your techniques. TIA.

18) Comment by teacherguy - 01/03/2013

@prebeaver...you don't get it...these "tired" teachers are not denying students their expertise as a retaliation for being evaluated based on test scores! Most teachers take pride in knowing their students have achieved higher levels than the year before and break their backs to help students better themselves. A personal VAM score isn't most teachers' motivator...working together to increase productivity IS. Take my personal example: If my past ratings (past two years) are any indicator on this year's rating, I'm going to be in the top 25% of teachers in the state...but if I'm not, let me tell you why. I helped the other teachers of my subject on my campus raise their test scores last year...because I have a proven method that raises my students' test scores, I shared with the other teachers on my campus how I do it last year. I walked them through the process the WHOLE year. At the end of last year their students posted stronger numbers than ever before! They were already in the top 50% of teachers in the state before my assistance, but I helped them achieve my level of "competency" in the mid-70's. Now I am teaching their students this year and as a group, the students' "starting line", for ME, has moved from the 50th percentile to near the 70th percentile. This means my students this year, which were their students last year, will automatically show less progress this year because there is less room for them to grow, and it is my own dang fault for being a "team player" and helping students that aren't even my own. Do we REALLY want professional teachers to hoard what works, or do we want them to share freely? For me, knowing that those students made gains last year because of my "help" was my motivator...however, I've created the lowering of my own VAM score this year and you want me to accept this atrocity without a fight? When I take my students from the 70th to the 80th percentiles, I feel sorry for their teachers over the next five to six years...they are going to have a heck of a time pulling my 80th percentile students up! It is a no win when you think about it. Teachers have a greater sense of fairness than most may believe, and this education reform is unfair to public school teachers, specifically! 1. You are basing my worth as a teacher based on so many factors I war with daily that are absolutely out of my control (poverty, hunger, truancy, lack of technology, what their teachers taught after testing the year before, etc.). 2. You are pitting me against the teachers in my school/district while hanging my Scarlet Letter on my chest BECAUSE I assisted other teachers in scoring better than they used to? That ain't fair! 3. I can prescribe healthy educational maintenance when not at school, but my worth as a teacher depends on whether families are committed to practicing these prescriptions? (reading, homework, journal writing, math in the grocery store, etc.) 4. You freeze my budget, actually diminish it via voucher/charter/course providers, but require me to provide more technology? (Seriously?) 5. You take our state and local taxes devoted to public schools and give them to voucher/charter schools but do not expect equal accountability of these schools using an accountability system "that is perfect in determining a public school grade"? (Use the SAME accountability rules for ANY school collecting public school taxes or they can't have it! Period.) 6. We look at the "best districts" in the state and we see an abundance of highly qualified teachers (defined as certified, years of experience, Master's degree, etc.) yet we strip the requirement to keep experienced/certified/educated teachers in our classrooms? (I can understand the desire to open up more options for our lowest performing districts than they had, but to de- professionalize the education career altogether?) The bottom districts are going to stay at the bottom...the "best teachers" from the "best districts" are the ones that will rebel to what is happening with their feet, like Mrs. Gauchet. They will be accompanied by our brightest young people who will look at this removal of career attractiveness and turn their feet to other professions. Given TIME, even the "best districts" are going to have a hard time supplying replacements for the current "best teachers in the state". When I read my list of atrocities, it really does amaze me that teachers haven't walked out and demanded "fair reform"! Teachers are fighters by nature...but instead of fighting stacked decks against them (BESE, LDoE, legislators, etc.)...we are going to show disapproval by disappearing over the next 5-10 years without a lot of career teachers replacing us. It used to be us versus the students (they're usually too ignorant to know what is best for them, but we at least we had the support of society)...but now it is us versus mainstream society (which has become too ignorant to see the miracles we've been performing to this point)...and most teachers are smart enough to walk away from that war ASAP.

19) Comment by DMJ - 01/03/2013

As if the meager salary, long hours and stressful conditions weren't enough of a deterrent to recruiting talented teachers. Ugh...

20) Comment by Crawdaddy - 01/03/2013

This letter is evidence that Jindal's education "reforms" are working! When this dedicated veteran teacher retires early, the system will save money on her salary (they will probably replace her with a less experienced teacher making far less) and she will loose a third of her potential DROP account. It is like the corporation which forces out the employee one year before they qualify for their pension. I wonder if Jindal drifts off to sleep every night thinking, "if not for those nasty public employees messing up my plans, I could be POTUS."

21) Comment by Scrooge - 01/03/2013

prbeav, I will retract the first part of my comment below. Ignore it, wish I could delete it.

22) Comment by Scrooge - 01/03/2013

[e-mail] that is an extremely perceptive comment. So why elect the types who use 'whipping boys' instead of qualified, competent persons? Because the majority of the public needs whipping boys to blame for their own shortcomings?

23) Comment by Scrooge - 01/03/2013

I will wager prbeav has little teaching experience if at all but is working at the Dept of Ed as a "reformer". prbeav's "wisdom of performance rating based on student achievement" is the "wisdom" of a dilettante who believes themself to be is an expert. Claimed expertise and "wisdom" is easy to claim when one does not have to justify it except with platitudes. Public school teachers have little control over which students are placed in their classrooms and teaching students is not the same as manufacturing widgets. A first step to improving Louisiana's public education might be to place highly qualified persons in the positions of leadership at the Dept of Ed. That should be as obvious as it is to easily identify the pretenders to the throne. And you thought Louisiana's public education was bad before? Just wait.

24) Comment by [e-mail] - 01/03/2013

We can all look back and remember teachers who were professional teachers that demanded and got respect, there were some who were playing at being a teacher, some who just needed a job, and some who thought that a teacher was supposed to be a pal Legislators, administrators, and other types are trying to address their own shortcomings by whipping the whipping boy, They've created the mess and letting them try to fix it is akin to putting the fox in the henhouse.

25) Comment by 1ryben - 01/03/2013

@prbev, "wisdom of performance rating based on student achievement" Honestly, as a teacher, I agreed with this statement, until you see how they measure student achievement. Until I saw it implemented. Until you realize that up to 85% of teachers can be mislabeled. That being labeled "highly effective" is akin to winning the lottery, it's just chance. I assure you that good teachers always held themselves accountable for student achievement and we feel terrible when we can't reach a kid. We stay up late at night worrying about our kids. We out up with abuse from politicians, BESE, LDOE, and (what feels like lately) from the general public to help these students achieve. We often act as the only positive adult influence in their lives, try to measure that on your stupid test. We feed them their only meals, measure that. By all means, we agree that the parents of some kids need to step it up a notch. Sorry, but I can't dwell on that. I have a kid sitting in a desk waiting on me. Waiting for me to show her that someone loves and cares about her. Even if she fails my social studies class, she's worth it. I can only hope and pray that although she will probably fail the 8th grade, I want her in my class again next year.

26) Comment by prbeav - 01/03/2013

The cheating problem is real, and rating teacher performance partially on student performance, which seems appropriate, creates a conflict if that teacher conducts the tests. The potential for false accusation is a jeopardy I would not want, and therefore I would welcome a proctor.>>>>I hope good teachers see the wisdom of performance rating based on student achievement and continue to teach rather than deny students the benefit of their excellence, hopefully, including Ms Gauchet.

27) Comment by teacherguy - 01/03/2013

May I say that it is BECAUSE our students' scores matter to our career so much that it makes sense to me that "they" would desire to remove the teacher from test administration to prevent the inevitable cheating that Atlanta saw last school year (maybe it was two years ago), and the allegations that the coveted Michelle Rhee cheated in her DC district. You know, instead of retiring...I think it would be more "fun" to ask for a daiquiri machine in the teacher's lounge so the teachers could throw a party while their students are tested by paid proctors...I can honestly say that it doesn't bother me that they don't trust me to administer the test to my students...they don't trust me to teach them (the new teachers' tool box), they don't trust my experience (seniority doesn't count anymore), they don't trust my education degree/certification (TFA's rule the LDoE and are looking to flood the market with 5 week wonders). Just be glad that you have 29 years and not 19....congratulations on being born early! :)