School Leadership 2.0
Today, for the first and only time in as long as I can remember, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a teacher. by Jennifer Higgins
Today, for the first and only time in as long as I can remember, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a teacher. The reason? One that I am embarrassed to admit.
As an elementary educator, there are any number of challenges I face on a daily basis. We’ve ALL been there. Schedules that seem impossible, students who struggle, curriculum demands, parental communication, interruptions for students leaving early or coming late, social drama “spillover”, not enough time in the day, the list goes on and on…and on. We teachers wear many hats – at times, we are parents, coaches, friends, mentors, social workers, psychologists, and cheerleaders, just to name a few. Yes, our job is to teach our students reading comprehension, problem solving strategies, and research skills, but our job is also to remind them of their manners, to encourage them to talk and to listen to each other, to practice kindness so they may model it, to comfort them when they come into school upset because a parent or grandparent is in the hospital, to reassure them when they are nervous about taking a test, to give them a hug and a Band-Aid when they give themselves a paper cut…because if we don’t do it, who will? So, we do. And most of us – myself included – love every minute of it. And because we love it, we don’t just do it – we do it with enthusiasm, with compassion, and with pride.
I don’t know how you would measure the value of a teacher in a student’s life, but if you could, I would rest assured knowing that anyone whose job it was to evaluate me would notice how I greet each child with a smile every day, how I incorporate Community Building activities into my classroom, and how I work for hours at night and on the weekends planning, giving feedback on assignments, and coming up with creative ways to teach 21st Century skills to my eager learners. In addition to teaching 4th grade in a collaborative, special education integrated classroom, I also actively participate in my school and district community as a Student Council co-advisor, volunteer on our Teacher Center policy board, summer school remediation teacher, and member of various committees including curriculum writing and the OLWEUS Bullying Prevention Coordinating Committee. I would be comfortable with having someone observe my classroom management, read through my plan book, take notes on my rapport with children, view my parent communication log, or otherwise evaluate any number of measures, which contribute to being a dedicated and effective professional.
Too bad that New York State has other plans in mind. Instead of fairly measuring the effectiveness of my planning and teaching by utilizing methods deemed appropriate by actual educators, my evaluation is based on a convoluted matrix, developed by some non-transparent “powers that be”. I have read about it, researched it, had many discussions centered around it, taken countless notes at meetings – and still, I can’t tell you how it is calculated. What I can tell you is this (and this is extremely difficult for me as someone who does not enjoy “tooting my own horn”):
I have been told by my colleagues that they love working with me. I have been told by my principal that I am an exemplary educator. I have been told by parents that I have made their children love school and that I was the best teacher they have ever had. I have been told by students that they wish I could follow them to the next grade. I have been thanked by administrators for my involvement and dedication. I have even recently been made aware that there is a Facebook group for moms in my school, in which I have repeatedly received accolades and compliments.
But… I have also now been told by New York State that I am 2 points short of being an “effective” teacher; that, in fact, after 12 years in the classroom, I am only “developing” at my profession.
So what now? Well, when I heard this news, I did what any person wanting to be rational but acting with their heart instead would do – I cried…and cried…and cried. I didn’t sleep. I had trouble focusing on anything else. And then, the more I thought about it, the more I got angry.
I am angry that I spent hours and hours of time last school year using test prep books that made students miserable. I am angry that some of the brightest students I know received grades on the state test that will no doubt make them question their own intelligence. I am angry that if someone doesn’t know me better, they could look at my score of 72/100 and think that I am not a very good educator. I am angry that there are other good teachers in the same position as me. I am angry because, if I am truly failing at what I am supposed to be accomplishing, there is absolutely no way to improve because I have no idea what I did “wrong”. And I am angry because I would never give a score lacking feedback to a student, and yet that is exactly what is being done to me.
Let me be clear: I believe in evaluating teachers, and I am the first one to admit that there is always room for improvement. I self-reflect, I study best practices, and I try - each day, each month, and each year - to be better at my job than I was before. What would a fair system for evaluating teachers look like? I’m not sure, but I know with absolute certainty that it would not look like this!
I received a BA from Dartmouth College in Psychology, and I received my MA in Elementary Education from Columbia Teachers College. Sadly, I have been asked MANY times why I went to “such good schools to become a teacher”. The answer that I want to share, but often don’t, is: Shouldn’t a world-class education, from institutions that encourage you to persevere, to challenge yourself, and to think critically, be exactly what we want teachers to have in order to ensure that the next generation will be prepared to inherit the world and hopefully do a better job with it than we have? The answer that I usually give is to laugh and shrug nervously, because NO answer I can give can overcome the fact that the question is reflective of a much bigger problem. The truth is that most of our society still thinks of teaching as a “fallback” job, one that is not to be respected, and one that is undertaken by people who can’t do anything else. Clearly, this is the way we are thought of by the leaders of our state; otherwise, we would not be subjected to such an antiquated and unjust manner of “evaluation.”
Something needs to change, because if it does not, people like me – who have wanted to be teachers since they were little kids and who pour their heart and soul into their profession – will continue to feel at best dejected and at worst outraged. And eventually, those people will leave the field – either of their own volition or because they have been asked to do so because of their low performances on these evaluations.
Today, the reason that for the first and only time in as long as I can remember I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a teacher, was that New York State told me that I am not good enough to be one.
The best – and the only – recourse I have is to take my frustration and sadness and turn it into a call to action. This cannot go on any longer. I can’t sit back and watch it happen. Change is necessary - and it’s necessary NOW.
Jennifer Higgins
Robert. B. Vellani, PhD
Clearly, I cannot for the life of me think of any other profession currently whose workers are facing this type of - quite candidly - on the job harassment.
Could someone provide me with another career where its people run through these kinds of hoops?
Ravtich and others source this war against teachers as payback because teachers unions, as defined in the media, haven't embraced the education reform as proposed by the Educational Industrial Complex of Pearson/ PARCC, et al. Certainly, New York educator feel the Wrath of Cuomo...
Wouldn't we all agree that teachers are perhaps better educated and therefore more discerning when vetting political promises across the ideological spectrum?
It is no stretch to believe that in the New Education Order that teachers are superfluous, standards will be created, impossible to meet (for teachers and students alike), and Big Money will swoop in with high priced tech (more corporate welfare) and American school children will sit before screens in a new kind of cubicle nation.
To borrow a verbal meme: I AM JENNIFER.
Feb 14, 2015
Patricia DeCicco
Jennifer, thanks so much for your amazing article, for sharing an embarrassing NYS evaluation, and for helping the rest of us to take part in a movement to attack the attackers of our noble profession. Please don't give up the fight and leave your job, you are obviously an outstanding asset to your community. As a fellow educator, I am so disheartened and frustrated by those who want to destroy education from the outside in. We have to keep fighting to take out the evil that wants to prey upon educators currently.
Feb 14, 2015
Carol Muscarella
Jenny seeks ways regularly to improve our school and to impact student engagement and achievement. Jenny Higgins is the kind of teacher that every student, parent, teacher and administrator wants to be around. The energy that she exudes is contagious and defines all that is good in public education . As Jenny and I tried to rationalize with the irrational APPR score, it occurred to me that Jenny's situation is the epitome of the absurdity with the current plan. She pushes every rubric to its limit and yet she now has the dubious honor of being the "poster child" for all that is wrong with NYSED. Truthfully.... You couldn't find a better candidate to carrying that banner. Thank you Jenny for your commitment to our profession and for being secure enough to come forward with your compelling story. But, most of all thank you for who you are and for what you do everyday to impact the lives of our students . You are the best!
Feb 18, 2015
Judi Fouchet
Apr 2, 2015
Brian H
Apr 7, 2015
Brian H
Apr 7, 2015
Brian H
Apr 7, 2015
Brian H
Apr 7, 2015
Patricia DeCicco
What a sad little man you are, Brian H! Here this lovely lady writes a beautiful piece eloquently expressing her fear and shame in the face of the public education crisis, and all you can do is belittle and antagonize her? Are you on Cuomo's payroll? Time for you to look at yourself. If you have nothing positive to contribute to the fight against education in our state, please quietly step down and let others take over for you. There truly are many of us willing to help the cause and try to support one another along the way.
Apr 8, 2015
Brian H
Apr 8, 2015
Patricia DeCicco
Brain, I am so pleased that you have such confidence in the political machine that is driving the destruction of NYS public education. Perhaps it is because you teach at the high school level that you are unaware of the inappropriate practices being shoveled down upon primary and intermediate students? Case in point, the 4 years olds coming to school who have never even been to Pre-K or been away from their mothers who are required to take a standardized test in a language they cannot yet understand in their first days of school. And our state constantly changing its game plan so that teachers and administrators will be unable to be effective, because we have no idea what measures will be used to be considered effective, or how to employ them. Our dear Commissioner of Education who recently bailed on the state to accept his next political post even stated in his letter accepting current APPR standards to superintendents,
“Please be advised that, pursuant to Education Law §3012-c, the Department will be analyzing data supplied by districts, BOCES, and/or schools and may order a corrective action plan if there are unacceptably low correlation results between the student growth subcomponent and any other measures of teacher and principal effectiveness and/or if the teacher or principal scores or ratings show little differentiation across educators and/or the lack of differentiation is not justified by equivalently consistent student achievement results. “
In other words, their intent is to insure that some teachers and principals MUST fall below a standard deviation, formed like a bell curve. It is intended to be random and unpredicatable, so that we can’t know what is coming or how to teach in response. The scripted drivel coming from engageny is a joke to teach at the elementary level. They will insure that 20% of us are found to be ineffective each year to weaken our public schools each year, until charter schools take over and only the very rich can have a quality education which ensures cooperative learning, true problem solving approaches and hands on learning opportunities. Just another way for the rich to insure that their kids stay rich and the poor keep on being poor in blind masses, forced to pay huge interest rates to the 1%ers. Opportunities for public school children are being disseminated at early levels as we embrace the “ intense and demanding rigor” of the Common Core. Yes, they are expected to embrace this rigor, while many students don’t have a warm body at home that can read English and have no idea where their next meal is coming from!
But we can all have faith that all will be well and good, because we have Brian H, who doesn’t teach at the level where Common Core state assessments are utilized, who has faith in our system. I respectfully bow out to your greater knowledge and interest in preserving justice in our schools.
God bless you brother, may you never know an innocent, hard working educator who loses their job to Pearson education’s gluttonous take-over, or a child who cries with anxiety upon taking his 117th exam of the school year. I pray for our sakes that you are right. I guess I’m done ranting and whining now, and we will rest assured that all of us “comatose” teachers continue to be rated effective.
Apr 8, 2015
Carol Muscarella
I do believe that his very inappropriate and unprofessional "rant" borders on being libelous. Brian H. makes assertions in his diatribe that have nothing to do with what Jenny spoke about such as the comments about food stamps and salary. Nowhere in her piece did Jenny even allude to a question of compensation. And, by the way, how does he now that she has never been on food stamps? What really borders on libelous is the statement: "Despite this "beautifully" written whiny rant she's not a good teacher in some serious area." If libel is defined as: anything that is defamatory or that maliciously or damagingly misrepresents, then I believe that this statement alone, not even looking at all of the many misrepresentations in his comments, fits into a libelous attack on Jenny.
I have a couple of questions and comments regarding Brian H.
1. He just joined School Leadership this past Sunday. It appears to me that he came onto the site specifically to comment anonymously on Jenny's piece since she had posted it on Facebook on Wednesday. If he had commented on Facebook, he would have been able to be tracked down. Jenny's letter has been up on the School Leadership blog since February and there has been no activity since those few comments in the middle of February (including mine); suddenly outrage from Brian. Brian purposely did not give his last name. Everyone else on that thread had a last name posted. He clearly understood how inappropriate his comments were and needed to ensure that no one was able to actually identify him.
2. I value the School Leadership site and have had many of my teachers and colleagues join. I look forward to Sundays to read every article that is posted and often share these very valuable and professional pieces with my staff. I am concerned that Brian has taken the facebook mentality to this outstanding professional resource and I am concerned that people will be less likely to share their thoughts freely if they are concerned that they will be judged in such an unprofessional and malicious manner.
3. Brian contributed nothing to the conversation in terms of solutions other than to say shut up, roll over and play dead! There are many things that I do not agree with in terms of what the current narrative is putting forward, but I value everyone's opinion as we seek ways to support students, families and most importantly student achievement. His comments were a malicious, and yes, a libelous attack on a courageous and consummate professional, without even getting into his inappropriate response to Patricia DeCicco’s comments.
4. I actually do not believe that Brian H. is a teacher and his unwillingness to identify himself, where he teaches, and what he teaches confirms that for me. Furthermore, if we look at any of the many rubrics that are used throughout New York State, he would most certainly be rated ineffective in Domain 4- 4 d - Participating in the Professional Learning Community and 4 f - Showing Professionalism (Danielson). Interestingly, Brian states: "Jennifer...I think you're fortunate your superintendent didn't yank you into central office in ream you out for airing this rant." As a school administrator, I totally understand why Brian would not identify himself. If he were indeed a teacher, he would most certainly end up being "yanked" (there's a word we don't use often in education) into his principal's or superintendent's office to have a conversation about professionalism and professional responsibilities.
Finally, I will not respond to Brian H. as I do not respond to anonymous e-mails or phone calls where someone does not identify himself, nor do I pay attention to children having tantrums. I will respond to Patricia DeCicco who tried courageously to keep the conversation elevated and on a professional level. And, most importantly, I will respond for Jenny Higgins, who I value, and have evaluated, as a highly effective teacher not to mention a wonderful, caring person.
I truly believe that out of everything negative comes something valuable that we can learn and that can help us to move forward in our practice. Maybe we should consider creating some norms for comments that emulate what we try to teach our students, but that are not evaluated by a test....
1. Treat everyone with respect.
2. If you don't have something nice to say, you're not thinking hard enough!
Carol Muscarella, Principal
John H. West Elementary School
Apr 9, 2015
Brian H
Apr 9, 2015
Brian H
Apr 9, 2015
Jennifer Higgins
Good evening. First, I want to say thank you to Carol and Patricia. Carol, for your unwavering support of me and more importantly, your dedication to making our school a wonderful place to live and learn, I will be forever grateful. Patricia, thank you for your kind comments about my article and for sharing your knowledge about the current state of educational affairs.
Brian, I most certainly respect your right to your opinion, but I have to say that I am surprised at the manner in which you chose to express it. I felt like your response was intended to be malicious and demoralizing, which shocked me, especially coming from a fellow teacher. I 100% agree with you that ours is wonderful career, and if you look back in my piece, I mentioned several times how much I love my job. I take objection to your comment that my piece is “all about me”, as my intention for sharing my story was to make it about all of us – teachers, students, administrators, parents, and communities – who are deeply affected by this obsession with “high-stakes” testing. From the majority of comments I have received, here and on Facebook, it seems that my message was well-taken by most, but it is evident that something about it has really angered you.
My primary goal in sharing my education background, praise from my colleagues and superiors, and experiences thus far in my career, was to highlight the discrepancy between my highly effective rating as an educator on measures within my school district and the arbitrary ineffective “growth score” I was assigned by NYS, based upon a developmentally inappropriate exam, which is why my overall score fell into the “developing” category. As a 4th grade teacher, like all teachers in grades 3-8, I am subject to receive this score every year as part of my overall APPR score. I’m not sure that, as a high school teacher, you are aware of how convoluted this system is. Basically, we receive a score from the state out of 20 points (which will account for much more in the future), which is based on the 4th grade ELA and Math tests – tests, which unlike the finals or Regents for your subject area, are not based on what children have learned throughout the year, as they have been proven to include material grade levels above the students for whom they are designed. I referenced the necessary feedback I provide to my students not to give myself kudos for doing a job that every teacher does for their students, but to show the stark contrast between what WE as teachers provide and the lack of feedback being provided to me by the state.
I saw that you also discussed how you would have rather read a piece about how all of this affects the students. Good teachers leaving the profession, for reasons that are not valid, WILL hurt students in the long run. You may be right that I am completely replaceable, but if you have been following the news, I’m sure you have seen the articles about a drastic drop-off in candidate applications at teacher preparation programs in New York State in recent years.
Finally, I just want to say, on a very personal level, that I wrote my piece in September. It took me 4 months to post it on School Leadership, and another 3 after that to post it on Facebook. I sought feedback from many colleagues, friends, and superiors, before posting it anywhere, to be sure that it would not come off as self-centered. My decision to finally post it on Facebook when I did was not a coincidence - after the NYS budget vote, I felt that if I had any voice to contribute, I should – on behalf of people like me, who DO love their jobs, who DO consider themselves lucky to be teachers, and who also know that what is being done isn’t right and is threatening the fate of public education wholesale.
Thank you for taking the time to read my piece, and if you’d like to continue with this discourse in a professional and respectful manner, I would be more than happy to. It is an extremely difficult and scary thing to put yourself out there, and I would urge you to remember that when commenting in the future – not just to me, but to anyone who takes that risk.
Apr 9, 2015
Brian H
Apr 9, 2015
Brian H
Apr 9, 2015