In the spirit of getting the word out: A speech I gave a couple of months ago re. the District 6 School Board Race: (video AND text, in case the stuttering throws you off!) youtube/watch?v=Q3aEj73R5Xs My name is Rob Taylor and I am a District 6 teacher at Amherst Elementary as well as a district 6 parent of three Knox County Schools children. It is a difficult time for a child to be a student in Knox County Schools. As a direct result of our current leadership’s overwhelming focus on test scores and “measureable data”, our kids are being subjected to an ever-increasing array of tests, probes, surveys, and assessments – a dehumanizing process by which our most precious assets –our children - have been reduced to numeric points and test scores on spreadsheets and data room walls. Not only is this excessive regimen of measurement and assessment diminishing the amount of authentic instruction our kids are receiving in their classrooms in order to replace it with testing and test-preparation, it fails to consider the social, emotional, vocational, and developmental needs of our youngest, most impressionable, and most vulnerable students. Additionally, over recent years OUR SCHOOLS, long-considered stable pillars of our community whose principals and teachers often became extended family members of the students they served, have been destabilized and disrupted by unprecedented, policy-driven churn as record numbers of teachers resign, quit mid-year, or retire early and principals are arbitrarily reassigned or replaced. In more extreme cases, schools in some of our neediest neighborhoods have been targeted and reconstituted, with entire staffs being fired and replaced based upon standardized test scores. It is unfortunate that the price paid by OUR STUDENTS for the misguided direction our school system has taken under current school board leadership has been: - a stifling of our children’s innate love of learning, - feelings of frustration and discouragement with the learning process, - a loss of family time and extracurricular activities in the face of increasing academic penalties for displaying anything less than “proficiency” , -increasing instances of crippling anxiety and physical illness, -and witnessing the sad metamorphosis of once-nurturing and predictable learning environments into cold, analytical data-factories. It is a challenging time as well to be a professional educator in Knox County Schools. Today in our school system, teachers are no longer referred to as “educators”, “ “staff, or even “people,” but as “human capital.” They are no longer encouraged to be creative, passionate, kind, or inspired, but merely “effective” - teaching in mandated lockstep to scripted and prepackaged curricula which allow little room for professional judgment or consideration of individual student needs or strengths. Our teachers are subjected to a deeply flawed and hastily-implemented one-size-fits-all evaluation system by which they are ranked, rated, and ultimately reduced to a single numeric score - the value upon which their jobs, financial security, or entire career can hinge. They are now compensated in a manner that discourages and disincentivizes the pursuit of advanced degrees in their field, discounts the value of years of teacher experience in the classroom, and relies increasingly more on an arbitrary, Vegas-like numbers game of rubrics and test scores masquerading as “merit pay”. Like our students, our teachers – and by extension our teacher’s families – have paid dearly for the shortsighted policies enacted under the leadership of our current school board. They have paid with their : Physical health With their emotional well-being With their financial security They have paid with the loss of their hard-earned professional esteem within the very community they serve. And with their loss of the dignity and respect once afforded them for choosing to follow their noble and unique calling as educators. The difficult circumstances facing the students and teachers in our school system did not happen over night, nor are they the result (as some would have you believe) of State Mandates handed down from Nashville to which our School Board has no choice but to adhere. In fact, it was our own Superintendent, with the blessing and consent of our current School Board, who drove both to Nashville AND Washington DC to advocate for AND help design the very policies which are causing SO MUCH HARM to OUR schools. Something is rotten in the highest offices of our school leadership. That much is clear. But how did we get to this point? Since the appointment of our current Superintendent in 2009, our school system has increasingly come under the influence of outside, for-profit interests. Our central office has been staffed with business people with no educational training or experience and no ties to our community, and they have imposed a top-down, corporate-style business model of test-and-punish “education” upon our classrooms. They have diverted scarce financial resources from our students and classrooms and directed them instead to Central Office administration and to outside vendors and for-profit consulting firms. They have imposed a culture of fear, retaliation, and enforced silence upon our educators – driving many of our best , brightest, and most experienced teachers out of our district in order to make room for younger, less experienced teachers - the majority of which - research states - will leave the field of Education within 5 years BUT, in the short term, will cost less to employ. And they have, ALONG WITH THE MAJORITY OF OUR CURRENT SCHOOL BOARD, chosen to turn a deaf ear to students, parents, and teachers who finally stood up and said “What you are doing is bad for our kids, bad for our families, and bad for our community!” – and in response, they have given us MORE OF THE SAME. Those of you who are aware of the events of the December 9 School Board meeting already know where the priorities of 8 of their 9 elected members lie – and they do NOT lie with the needs of Knox County’s students, families or educators. Luckily, thanks to people like Brad Buchanan, this is within our power to change. It is time for the social, emotional, developmental, and educational needs of OUR CHILDREN to take precedence over the interests of for-profit testing companies and third-party vendors. OUR CHILDREN are NOT not test scores, data points, or “revenue streams”. It is time that the professional judgement and autonomy of our teachers and principals are returned to our schools and classrooms, Knox County’s educators are NOT “human capital”, budgetary line-items, or interchangeable cogs in some giant data machine. It is, quite simply, time for a change.
Posted on: Fri, 07 Mar 2014 00:25:45 +0000
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