Throughout history, there are numerous examples of smart people who have made poor decisions. At the time, they may have thought that the decision seemed logical, appropriate and promised that positive changes would result. We have all read stories of well-respected people who have made incredibly ill-conceived statements, policies, and proclamations that in hindsight were misguided, short-sighted and downright wrong. Here's a grievous example of one of those misguided decisions.
The new APPR plan that is being initiated across many states is one such policy. The policy, of course, in all its incarnations is believed to be filled with good intentions. If they took a harder less expedient look, they would find that the idea is incredibly misguided on so many different levels, so much so that it is hard to understand how it could become the law [remember those "smart" people I mentioned above].
APPR instead of working toward improving the quality of education will have created a “gotcha” mentality, when it is fully implemented, that will ultimately create a negative “culture” for students, teachers and parents. The “do it or we will hurt you” mantra that state education departments are using is both demoralizing to teachers, principals and parents and divide the union that teachers, parents and administrators have worked hard to create. We all desire change where it is necessary, but this is not a great way to effect the change that is needed! It ignores all of the intangibles by boiling everything down to a number.
The totalities of the changes that SED is proposing are simply beyond the capacity of local districts to implement with fidelity. In addition, many of them are misguided and lack a research base to support them. The sheer volume, coupled with the knowledge that there is no scientific basis to support doing things that are hurtful to teachers and students has the effect of making the initiatives another demoralizing agent. Those in power must recognize that teachers and administrators are not the enemy, and we deserve to be treated with the respect and dignity afforded by those who dedicate their life’s work to educating young people.
What is missing in the mandates? There seems to be no recognition about what it will take for all the various “priorities” that SED is foisting upon educators to actually work. What will have to be relinquished and what effect will that have on the overall growth of our youngsters? The analogy of medicine is an apt one. Someone needs to ensure that the various ‘prescriptions’ that are given to the patient do not counteract in such a way that the patient is harmed. That appears to be what is happening all across the State with all the current initiatives. Each area of the state agenda [e.g., Common Core/APPR/Teaching Standards/Data-Driven Instruction/SLOs/PARCC Assessments, etc.] in and of itself is a large undertaking. By putting them all together, at once in one large bundle of conflicting medicines, the State is creating a thoroughly impossible and completely unmanageable system. Additionally, there will be no way to determine which of the many changes is having a positive or negative effect on student outcomes.
Of course, the elephant in the room is the tax cap, which will make most of the other requirements secondary to the real tragedy yet to unfold--that there will be fewer professionals in our schools to meet the needs of our students. The tax cap will trump many of the initiatives due to the simple fact that funds will not be available to implement them effectively.
I will not argue that we have a perfect system, and I will say that as educators that we should be held accountable for students' results, but at what price and in what format? Let’s listen to the experts and field test ideas that make sense and are actually “doable and helpful. “When hard-working teachers and principals are reduced to a number and a score, we have surely lost our way.