I have felt a new type of ableism that is emerging within my
school and probably the district. It is
one that is demeaning and hurtful to myself and my colleagues and is taking the
joy out of what is supposed to be the best job in the world. The Clark County School District is the fifth
largest district in the country and has grown rapidly in the thirteen years I
have been working here. It has been a
frustrating few years in the district and this year has by far been the
worst. Because the district is so large
and has so many schools to monitor, they have assigned us to “service areas”
based on academic need. Each service
area has its own area superintendent and academic manager and each school has
its own set of instructional coaches and tutors. This is on top of the district superintendent
and the administrators at each school building.
I work in a Title 1 school due to the amount of children we service who
qualify for free and reduced lunch. The
families in our area struggle daily with providing for their children and we
have a high transiency rate due to evictions and family instability. The children who start kindergarten in my
room have never been to any type of preschool program and are only in my room
for half a day. They also are only in
our school for two or three years before moving. We also have a high English language learner
population and have many children starting school who do not speak any English.
The district has increased class sizes, cut funding, changed
the text book and assessment programs they want us to use multiple times and we
have been transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. Through it all, the teachers in my area have
been working hard to ensure students learn all they can when they are with
us. We have been attending trainings,
staying after to tutor students, and holding parent nights to help increase
parent involvement. However, with the
standards for the tests increasing and our student population growing more and
more at risk every year, our school has not shown the growth they would
like. Because of this the district has brought
in instructional coaches to, as the district said, “help us fine tune our
skills”. I am always looking for ways to
improve my teaching so I was excited about the opportunity to have someone
observe my teaching and give me points on how to improve.
The situation did not unfold as I had hoped. The coaches have been holding trainings
without getting to know any of the teachers in the building. The things they are teaching us are things
most of us already know. They have
brought in another new round of assessments that are all computerized and we
are being trained on it like we have never given an assessment before. They are always in our classroom observing,
which I do not mind, but when it is pointed out what we are not doing well, it
is with a very condescending tone. Our
experience and knowledge is not being valued.
Just because we are teaching in a low performing school, it does not
mean us, as teachers, are low performing.
We are always looking for ways to improve, but also need to feel valued.
“An ism is much more than a matter of
people being nice or not nice to each other.
Isms are expressed in laws, in organizational policies, and in
regulations, as well as in the thinking and actions of people who carry out the
policies” (Laureate, 2010, p. 24). We
are trying hard to feel valued and know that we are making a difference, but it
is difficult when we are being treated like we do not know what we are
doing.
The moral in the building is very low and I have noticed it
impacting the relationships with the students and their families. The staff is not volunteering for family
nights in the same numbers as before, they are piling on more homework, which
is difficult on the students and their families. The school climate has changed; there is no cohesive
relationship between the staff and families anymore. I have been trying to keep things the same in
my classroom and with my families, but it has been difficult. I also know it has been hard on the
students. New testing protocol is
stressful for them. I am trying to help
them relax through the process but am being told it does not match testing
protocol so I have to stop. The children
are the ones suffering the most in all of this and I feel horrible. We also deal with a lot of parents, who
themselves, did not have a good school experience. We are not helping them to be comfortable in
a school setting as I had hoped, and in turn, the parents are not partnering
with the classroom teachers as I had hoped.
I hope I was not rambling or sound like I was
complaining. It has been a rough year
and this assignment came at a good time to help me get some feelings out on the
matter.
Derman-Sparks,
L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and
ourselves. Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of
Young Children
(NAEYC).
You do not sound like you are rambling or complaining. You are giving voice to the frustration that many teachers are facing, I think. I, too, work in a Title I school that has been sanctioned for the last few years for not making adequate yearly progress. We experience able-ism on the assumptions of others that because our students are unable to meet standards on tests (that are created for a majority culture) that we are poor teachers, instead of looking at the need for Universal Design and appropriate assessments.
ReplyDeleteI understand your frustration as well. I have also experienced some of the circumstances where you have felt demeaned. My previous principal would often come into our classroom, arms crossed and quick to point out any mistakes we were making. The morale was low in our school during this time as well. Teachers felt anxious and the anxiety was felt throughout the school, even with the children.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings of frustration!
Thank you for articulating the situation you are in, there was no complaining or rambling in this post. The reality you and your fellow teachers face is the reason I am not studying to be a traditional school teacher. After my service in the military I became a wife and mother and wanted to have a second career of service. Naturally I thought of teaching but my friends who are teachers shared with me what the school system is turning into. Learning about teachers value being measured by standardized test performances was heart breaking. I want to work with children who need extra support, so their test scores will be on the low side; therefore, that is how I will be rated. These realities is what drew me to Walden University and the program we are studying now. Anti-bias education is difficult in a classroom and a non-traditional place is where it can truly flourish. Thank you for sharing your frustrations, I wish this was not the way of the schools these days.
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