It Just Doesn't Matter

Looks like I will get an entire week out of my "I don't care" phase, at least. Still not getting my buttons pushed by students who try to act adult, disrupt, talk, not follow directions or generally just be the asshats I have come to expect. Today is planned - mini-tests with TCAP review on the smartboard - some of which we experimented with yesterday.

Yesterday, though, was the bombshell. Meeting during our planning period to discuss the latest test data. Mind you, these tests were given 6 weeks ago. We were originally told to give them as paper tests, to get the kids used to bubbling in answers (really!), but the paper tests arrived too late. We teachers looked at the data the day after the test was finalized, but the administration waited until less than 2 weeks before the test to share with us their plans. Basically, they have decided that the achievement gap is close enough in Reading/Language Arts to warrant a heavy 6-day push on "bubble kids" who are near to Proficient. As far as Math goes, last year only 16% scored Proficient or higher (a statistic I am hearing for the FIRST TIME), and the goal is 39%, so there is no reason to try to move that needle.

I am dumbfounded. I have been driving myself into a nervous breakdown trying to prepare these kids, despite obstacles in their prior knowledge, behavior and attitude. I put a huge burden on myself and now, six days before the big test, I am told not only that the goal was probably impossible from the start, but they are not even going to focus on Math. Why was I bothering? At least now the pressure is off - even a single point gain will be significant - and you can be damn sure I will take the credit. But if there is no gain, or a drop, I shouldn't be accountable, although state law disagrees and I will still be responsible (to the tune of half of my evaluation).

I have been hearing my same feelings about discipline voiced by others in the building, especially in the Middle School - teachers with a decade of experience who can manage things. They are having disobedience, disrespect, outright defiance. And the pattern seems to be - This is an elementary school (hence the name) with 6th, 7th and 8th grades. The administration wants the middle school to be lambs like the lower grades. They don't want to implement a different policy, different rules and different consequences than the little ones. And that won't work. And it isn't working. But with a first year principal, following two other one-year principals, his mind is on his job - mainly keeping it. Which means keeping office referrals down, suspensions down (since they are reported to the board) and parents happy. Which means throwing teachers to the wolves if it makes the parents happy, or returning discipline problems to the classroom, or sending them to in-school-suspension for a day, rather than a meaningful out-of-school suspension. And the kids are aware of it, and take advantage of it.