When you work at a school it is hard to determine who is the bigger gossip- the students or the teacher.
The end of this school year will mark the 3 yr anniversary of the state coming and putting my school on an improvement plan.The word on the street is that our district is very upset with the progress our school has made in the past 3 yrs. The state had hired a principal and gave him the task of "turning around" a school that was in desperate need of reform. Flash forward to now and the district feels there has not been a significant amount of change so they are facing 3 options at the end of the year. 1) Remove all existing administration and teachers and "start fresh." 2) Turn it into a charter school or 3) Close the school all together and bus kids to surrounding schools. Pretty drastic, yes- possible, very much so. Our school has failed to make AYP the past 3 years and our improvement on AIMS scores has slowed down and in some grade levels come to a screeching halt. Our school also seems to be a revolving door hiring at least 20 teachers a year. Of course this is just a rumor but it really makes you think and honestly worry. I would brag how I never had to worry about job security, but maybe I do.
So what went wrong? Who do we blame when a school is not improving? As a teacher I have 3 assumptions: the students, the admin, and lack of consistency. In all honesty the kids run our school. We have a discipline program but that lack of parental support makes it fall flat on it's face. 2 softball players ditched from their game last night and nothing is being done to punish their actions. One of our principals told PE they could not practice walking in lines because it is a group punishment- but if the whole class is goofing off and not following directions - what can you do? Our teacher population changes every year, there are a million meetings, the list goes on and on. The moral at my school is very low right now and it makes it really difficult to continue to be positive.
The other rumor floating around is that teacher staffed computer labs will be no more for next year. So if my school is on its way out and my position is on its way out....what I am supposed to do?
Rumors suck but I fear the truth will suck even more in this situation.
The end of this school year will mark the 3 yr anniversary of the state coming and putting my school on an improvement plan.The word on the street is that our district is very upset with the progress our school has made in the past 3 yrs. The state had hired a principal and gave him the task of "turning around" a school that was in desperate need of reform. Flash forward to now and the district feels there has not been a significant amount of change so they are facing 3 options at the end of the year. 1) Remove all existing administration and teachers and "start fresh." 2) Turn it into a charter school or 3) Close the school all together and bus kids to surrounding schools. Pretty drastic, yes- possible, very much so. Our school has failed to make AYP the past 3 years and our improvement on AIMS scores has slowed down and in some grade levels come to a screeching halt. Our school also seems to be a revolving door hiring at least 20 teachers a year. Of course this is just a rumor but it really makes you think and honestly worry. I would brag how I never had to worry about job security, but maybe I do.
So what went wrong? Who do we blame when a school is not improving? As a teacher I have 3 assumptions: the students, the admin, and lack of consistency. In all honesty the kids run our school. We have a discipline program but that lack of parental support makes it fall flat on it's face. 2 softball players ditched from their game last night and nothing is being done to punish their actions. One of our principals told PE they could not practice walking in lines because it is a group punishment- but if the whole class is goofing off and not following directions - what can you do? Our teacher population changes every year, there are a million meetings, the list goes on and on. The moral at my school is very low right now and it makes it really difficult to continue to be positive.
The other rumor floating around is that teacher staffed computer labs will be no more for next year. So if my school is on its way out and my position is on its way out....what I am supposed to do?
Rumors suck but I fear the truth will suck even more in this situation.
