I have spoken to over 1000 teachers in the last two months

[The Straight Story]

Both by phone and email, the company I work for provides books for schools. We have online books as well well textbooks, and many CD's for teachers to help their students.

I deal with large school districts, academy's, catholic schools, folks who just want to home school. Some states I deal with have State Adoptions (Florida and Texas for example).

One thing I have seen consistently over time is that the teachers just want to help their students but folks at the district level keep dropping the ball. The district did not buy them all they needed (Authorization codes for our sites, did not buy teacher editions, or enough student editions, etc). They might well be in class for weeks and not have the materials they need to teach.

They bought, or so they thought, online student editions for the kids. Only to find out that the district did not bother to understand licensing agreements and only bought 5 student editions and expected all of their kids to be able to access the book at home or in school - and they can't because there are hundreds of students.

The teachers call me panicked and worried. They are doing their job. They want their kids to achieve and do their best. But the folks at the district level, or Diocese level, did not pay any attention. Had a license last year for one of our sites that you found helpful to some kids? Sorry, but the district did not bother to purchase it this year. All that student information that you have been saving and using for years now is sitting out there - their test scores and progress sitting in limbo because admins were trying to save a few bucks this year.

Simple phone calls for books or products were ignored. To top it all off the IT dept's of many schools lock the teachers down so hard that they cannot view or install the products they need to teach. They don't trust them. Teachers call me because they cannot access the lesson plans they need - and it is always because the school locked them down. So then they have to go back to their IT dept for the district which could take weeks to get resolved.

I told one teacher that my grandmother taught school in the 1930's and never had this problem, and she agreed that it had become not only too complex but that it also was sad that their own school did not trust them to install the programs they needed to teach.

The teacher has become a pawn in the game. The very people we so often want to hold accountable are the ones whom we should be holding the least accountable - because they are not the ones making the decisions any more. They are taking orders from others and trying to deal with their decisions.

You want to hold someone accountable? Then hold those who make the decisions day to day accountable. It is not the teachers you have to worry about, they are (for the most part) doing their best - but they no longer make the decisions.

Are there bad teachers? Hell yes. But in the big scheme of things the biggest problems in our education are not the teachers.

You took the power from them to teach as they are trained to do, and gave it to admins and districts - and then complain about them when they don't perform?

I'll go all in on holding teachers accountable - when you go all in on giving them the responsibility and the power when it comes to making decisions. Until then, my problems are not with the teachers but with the districts and dioceses that try to control it all.

[MindPilot]

1. They say those can't do, teach.

Clearly those who can't teach or do, administer.

[The Straight Story]

3. Would have to agree :)

The teachers I deal with are always worried about their students. The admins I speak with are worried about saving money "Why can't we have access to your books for free like we used to?" and then drag their feet for weeks on end while teachers try to figure out how to teach their students without textbooks.

I have literally spent an hour on a phone call with a teacher trying to get them access to special ed materials for their kids, when all that needed to happen was a simple email from the administration. It has all come down to money - the teachers are worried about the kids, but the admin about cash.

[Recursion]

54. That's their job

Somebody needs to worry about the money. That's what they do.

[leveymg]

2. Excellent Op-ed! You should submit it to the major newspapers.

Very :thumbsup: :applause:

[The Straight Story]

4. I am a temp there, may get hired on soon - but if I don't will be more than happy

to send all that I have experienced to local media.

We have taken teachers out of the equation. Companies like the one I am working for care more about profit, as do the local districts, and the students and teachers are now nothing more than dollar signs.

We have an hour hold time, and our emails are 10 days behind - all because no one wants to spend the money to provide customer service and school districts don't want to spend the money to do things right.

We blame the teachers because they are easy targets - but they are not even in the loop anymore.

[leveymg]

22. Don't wait and don't keep it local - send it to some of the major papers

try NYT-Boston Globe first. If they don't respond, try the WaPo, CSM, the major regional paper in your part of the country . . .

You might be pleasantly surprised. Go for it!

My spouse is a teacher, so I know a bit what you write so well about.

[YvonneCa]

36. I agree. Please do this. n/t

[madfloridian]

5. Very good post. Thanks.

Teachers used to be able to use their discretion and make their own decisions on curriculum to a large degree. We had the textbooks chosen by committees, but we could use them to make our plans in our own ways. Now it is all practically scripted to meet test criteria, and teachers are daily blamed for everything.

Decisions are made by people who know nothing about education, and whose goals are to save money.

[The Straight Story]

10. Your posts here have inspired me in many ways

Teachers are getting railroaded. They are just trying to do their job but they keep getting smacked down by people way above them in the chain. Then folks get all mad at the teachers, who had nothing to do with the decision making.

The teachers are busting their asses to do a good job - but they are held back by people up the chain.

For those wanting to judge teachers and hold them accountable I say - hold those accountable first that have the power.

[YvonneCa]

34. Thank you. n/t

[MedicalAdmin]

39. Accountable = responsible = authority

Those with the authority are responsible and should be held accountable. Teachers have no authority outside the classroom and almost none in it.

I have never met an administrator who I would piss on if they were on fire and several I have worked with I would smack with a car door if I saw them walking on the side of the road.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. You have access codes??

You are now my friend. What do you drink? Smoke? I'm here for you, babe! :evilgrin:

[The Straight Story]

7. I got all the codes :) Heck, probably talked to you in the last week LOL

What book are you using? I can probably get you an online version of it :)

[AlecBGreen]

8. lol

can you get me around the firewall so I can show youtube clips? teachertube sucks

[The Straight Story]

11. I probably can :)

You just need to be able to go to an external site they 'trust' and then have it re-directed to you tube.

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. The kids know how to do that. LOL

Can't tell you how many times I look over and see a kid surfing Facebook or youtube or some other forbidden site. Last year we joked that we should bribe the kids to get their tricks around the firewall.

[MedicalAdmin]

40. Bribe hell. Ask 'em. They'll tell ya.

Better yet find the most sneaky and devious computer geek in every class and put them in charge of getting around the BS firewalls.

[dkf]

32. An iPhone or android can probably be streamed to tv also.

I think there are apps to save YouTube content.

My work has so many restructions I gave up trying to tweak it. Cell access is where it is at.

Irony is I need the message boards to get through programming bugs or spreadsheet/database functions and they cut me off from those.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. We're wrangling with Pearson now

I even took pictures of the access codes they posted at an August workshop. But that was only one subject. We need the others.

Thanks for a great OP. It describes the problem to a tee. It's beyond frustrating.

[Desertrose]

9. Kinda like health "care"....

It's the admins calling the shots, not the professionals trained and educated to do the job. Makes NO sense.

And of course the bottom line is always about the $$.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Just had a conversation with a nurse friend not long ago

We agreed the bottom line for teachers is students and for nurses is patients. But the admins in both industries have a different bottom line.

[MedicalAdmin]

41. I run a small clinic.

It's totally like health "care" insurance. All middle men are parasites be they insurance shrews or school administrators.

I've always been kinda luke warm on Obama, but this crap he's pulling with public education is beyond the pale. I just can't vote of a repub or a dino. I just can't.

[dkf]

12. Why don't teachers create curriculum materials and give them out for free?

One of my first jobs was working for a couple of resource teachers typing up a manual. With computers, one teachers efforts can theoretically satisfy the entire nation on that subject.

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. Our district let us do that this summer

But that doesn't get you around the access code crap.

[dkf]

18. They won't let teachers access the teacher created curriculum? What?

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. Accessing the curriculum is not the problem

Ours is online and even you can access it if I send you the link.

The problem is as SS described - the resources in the curriculum. Most curriculum resources are locked behind access codes that school districts pay licensing fees for. They either don't buy enough texts or don't buy any at all. So we are forced to Google. But when you find what you need, it is locked in an invitation only site.

For example, I'm teaching an entire unit in Science this week on measurement. I have a curriculum and it lists textbook resources I have no access to. Since we don't even have these texts, and no teacher manual either, I am forced to look at the learning targets and find other resources that support the targets. There is a list in my curriculum that notes pages in a textbook and supplementary activities in that same text or teachers manual but I don't have access. So I am looking at other ways to teach this. Fortunately measurement is a relatively easy concept to teach so I can handle this week. But later on in the year I am anticipating mucho problems.

I helped write the curriculum so I understand this issue well. We had access while we were writing this summer. But now there are new codes. The textbook folks don't give anything away for free anymore.

Another big problem is the resources our districts have access to don't completely address the learning targets. One of our grade levels starts the year with place value in Math but there is nothing in the district's adopted resources at this grade level on place value. So we have to find other resources. And when you Google and find them, they are often locked down with the access codes SS mentioned in his OP.

[dkf]

25. Damn. It may be that the licensing agreement is more expensive than buying books too.

In retrospect, licensing may be more expensive in the long run than books. Just look at the anti virus models for potential perpetual sales.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Probably so

One thing we did when writing our Math curriculum was look back at a text we used to have and knew was still in most of our schools. We listed as many lessons from it as we could relate to the learning targets. Can't block access to a textbook. LOL

[Hannah Bell]

27. The licensing model is the new corporate model; the customer owns a license to

the product for a specified period, not the product itself.

I recently volunteered at a charity used book sale. Some of the volunteers were talking about their kindles, & i realized that whole model would end such charities.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. Damn

I love my Kindle. I read all summer for the first summer in years. Books are a hassle. I lose them or don't want to carry them.

[Hannah Bell]

29. that's great, but you don't own the book, only a license to read it for a certain amount of time.

all information will eventually come under this regime. and that has a lot of implications, not just for education.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. We've wondered how long those books will be on my Kindle

Supposedly music is erased from iTunes eventually as well.

[Hannah Bell]

31. another kind of "planned obsolescence". i dislike the possibility of being

able to change the text for all users with one keystroke as well.

[MedicalAdmin]

44. Licencing gets big in education just about the same time...

that Bill "I own everything" Gates got involved in the field. I guess Billy Boy is advising his friends in the billionaires boys club on how to squeeze money from the serfs.

[dkf]

50. Okay that is a scary thought.

[Hannah Bell]

55. agreed. & he should know.

[The Straight Story]

16. They do, and they have

Problem is - there is no money in that.

Districts get funding based on how much they need to spend, student enrollment, etc.

Let's say you get hired on to a district and you want to show your boss how much you can bring in. If you go the 'right' route (in accordance with what you mentioned, free resources that help the students and teachers) you won't get much in the way of federal funds. If you say you need more federal dollars and that things are a mess you get millions in funding.

It is not about the students and teaching anymore - it is about the money.

[dkf]

21. Well that is messed up.

Maybe half the problem with education is we don't use technology as we should. Kids are amazing on computers. My 6 year old nieces can pull up their favorite music artists on you tube for goodness sakes.

[YvonneCa]

35. Half the problem, at least half, is that...

...teachers are 'straight-jacketed' by everyone and not allowed to teach.

[MedicalAdmin]

43. These days a lot of teachers are REQUIRED to teach only the

approved curriculum. And they will be fired / punished if they are found to be varying from the "plan" as approved by the school board - a board that is often stocked with some real divot-heads.

Back when I was a teacher I wrote or co-wrote several curriculums which were used by some pretty big district programs. The problem these days is that the teachers I know who are still working in the field are not allowed to develop their own materials.

[CoffeeCat]

51. Wow, this is hitting close to home...

A good friend, who was a third-grade teacher 15 years ago, recently began working part-time as
a kindergarten associate. I was never a teacher, so I didn't quite understand what she was
talking about when she said that teaching was so different now and it was scary.

She told me about a new literacy curriculum. She said that each and every teacher was required
to teach the EXACT, SAME lessons at exactly the same time of the day. There was no varying of
the schedule or of the lesson plans. No teacher could infuse any kind of creativity or veer
from the lesson plans.

She told me that they were working on a reading program and they had a "word of the day." The
word was "illustration" and they were to do specific exercises repeatedly with the world "illustration."

She said they were boring and repetitive, and the kindergartners lost interest after 20 minutes. She
mentioned that, when she was teaching--she would have gone home and prepared a quick art lesson to
demonstrate what "illustration" was and she would have picked a cool picture book, etc. She said that
now there is no creativity, and teachers have absolutely no way to use their own brains to help
these kids learn.

This former teacher, saw how this curriculum was hard on the students and boring and how it left the
teachers dispirited.

After reading all of your posts--her comments to me make even more sense.

Why are we devaluing teachers so much? Do the higher ups not want teachers to stick around?

[readmoreoften]

45. It's called COPYRIGHTED MATERIALS, not to mention that administrators often pick texts.

Teachers can't just use any old material they draw up. The materials are usually standardized by the admins.

And even if were allowed to create, say, math materials for second graders, are high school science teachers really supposed to write their own textbooks in their free time? They can't put together course packets because it's copyright infringement. In fact, it's copyright infringement at colleges as well, where it is a more common practice, but many universities now discourage "course packets" for this reason (mine, for instance). Recent rulings have argued that it's only fair use if you use less than 10% of the book and you only use that 10% once. The second time you assign that course packet, it's illegal.

In fact, whenever I upload materials to the webserver for my students, the system will recognize whether or not the university has licensed the material or not and it will ask me if I hold the copyright if it doesn't recognize this. If I say yes when I don't, the university could be sued and I could be fined and fired.

[AnArmyVeteran]

19. Great OP!!!

In order to get a decent raise as a teacher is to leave the classroom to become part of the administration. That means that those who are the best teachers and are more dedicated to teaching our children stay in the classrooms and those who are the worst teachers move up to administration. At one time teachers were one of the most respected people in our society but now they don't even have a voice in education.

I ran for a position on the school board because teachers were terrified to speak out because if they did they would be targeted and punished. I lost to a republican who agreed with the inept and corrupt administrator who used tax money to build a multimillion dollar administration building while classrooms in the district had leaks in their ceilings. After every rain children were exposed to wet carpet and mold.

[senseandsensibility]

20. Thank you

:)

[LWolf]

24. I've had this exact experience in my district.

Three years ago, give or take a few months, we got a new Language Arts adoption for 6th - 12th grades: "Springboard," produced and published by the College Board.

It comes with a teacher's manual, a consumable student workbook for each student, and an online component.

Online, I could access any part of the teacher's manual and student workbook; I could set up my class, keep track of what we were doing, and keep a record of all the formative assessments available to track their progress on standards. Not state standards, but College Board Standards, which they did link to state standards. The two sets of standards were not a great match, the College Board standards being higher than state standards, but it was useful.

Students could do formative assessments on line, get a pretty comprehensive explanation of their scores, and access their records online. I managed the classes, assigned on-line tasks, and got scores that way.

The first year, we used the teacher's manual and the workbooks, and played around with the on-line component, getting some training and trying it out. The second year, we used the online component. The third year, the district did not renew the online component. It costs money. I would rather have gone without the consumable workbooks; I could access individual pages, print them out, and copy just those I was going to use online, with the on-line component. The workbooks are bulky, fall apart too easily, and there is no way to squeeze it all into a year, anyway.

I'd already told my site admins not to order more workbooks, so I was left without the workbooks OR the on-line version.

I did fine. I have a lot of other resources. I had a couple of extra workbooks; I tore one apart and used it as masters to copy whatever I wanted to use, and I use a lot of other resources and materials outside the district adoption, anyway.

Still, the most valuable part of that particular adoption was the on-line piece, and it's gone.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

33. This is horrible news.

I hope you continue to get this very important info out into the public view. Thanks for your efforts!

[distilledvinegar]

37. seen this first hand

This is my first year teaching middle school, and over the summer I was sent to training for a new Pearson Language Arts adoption that was to be almost exclusively available online. At the training I asked how we were going to be expected to deal with the logistics of providing computer access to every student every day in multiple classes. I got no answer.

Consider that our school has enough laptop computers for exactly one classroom full of kids, but there would be at least two language arts classes at any given time that would need online access to the curriculum through the laptops. Also, the school does not provide digital projectors for all of the teachers to present the online materials, nor does it provide laptops to the teachers. Even if we had the equipment, no one has ever tested our network's capacity to handle 32+ kids watching bandwidth-hogging videos at once. Without workbooks, many worksheet pages would need to be printed, something else that was not considered or budgeted. And about those laptops, the cart they are stored on has to be signed out, retrieved from a secured room, the laptops have to be passed out to students at the beginning of class which takes 5-10 minutes, then at the end of the period they have to be returned to the cart and plugged in to recharge for the next users which takes another 5-10 minutes. That would leave about a half hour for actual work, if all went well. Oh, and the laptop cart has to be returned to the secured room during the 2-minute passing period during which I'm supposed to be monitoring the hallway.

After considering the impossibility of using this curriculum, I decided to ignore it and plan my lessons using the old textbook. No one ever bothered to tell me that the powers-that-be somehow saw the light and decided not to go with the new system - and 4 weeks into the year I still don't know how that came about. I'm just glad I had enough sense not to waste my summer planning for something that was (thankfully) shelved.

But the fun doesn't stop - just this week I realized that although we aren't using the new curriculum, our quarterly district benchmark assessments are still based on it. That means that I'm going to be testing my kids in about 3 1/2 weeks on a number of state standards that I hadn't planned on covering for another quarter or two. Sigh.

[knitter4democracy]

38. It's always been about the money.

Read accounts from one-room-school teachers, and you read of the board not approving coal for the furnace for the fall or not getting a new set of books when the old ones were falling apart. We have never wanted to fully fund education in this country. I've taught in college prep Catholic schools, and we never had everything we needed, either, so even the private schools don't get everything they need.

Once someone is in charge of the budget, for some reason, every little penny becomes paramount, and I can't tell you how many times I've seen thousands lost that could have been saved on a hundreds-dollar move. Preventative moves rarely happen because they're seen as costing too much--and then the school's sunk when the big-time bill hits.

I will admit to being biased: I hate textbooks. I have only ever seen one company I liked for literature, and they provide very little in terms of support materials (something I like--I rarely use the support materials, finding that they rarely are worth the time to go through them). I don't like all the on-line stuff as well, mostly because I don't think anyone ever thinks in terms of access, just what sounds cool. I do like having a class set of laptops for writing days, but there's no reason to make everything all fancy and video-based.

[noamnety]

42. That happened to me Friday!

I had my computer hooked up to a projector, I was showing my students how to access the online forum I use to post assignments and how they post their work to the forum. I clicked on a thread, and my own forum was filter blocked - even though the students in the same classroom could still access it. The teacher accounts do not currently have access to that - or to the wordpress blogs the other teachers use to post their homework. They're supposed to be fixing that now but it is frustrating to have access to things one day, base our lesson plans on it, then the next day bam! it's gone with no warning.

[femmocrat]

46. Thank you!!!

It is just sooooo easy to bash teachers without having any notion of what it is like to teach.

I have total loathing for our IT director and very little respect for most of our administrators. I do not know how these people got their jobs but they sure love wielding their power.

[xchrom]

47. Recommend

[MichiganVote]

48. But don't worry. Bill Gates, Arne and Obama are going to fix all of this.

:eyes:

[southerncrone]

49. Add another teacher to your list. You have hit the nail on the head!!

Thank you for posting this. I wish you would also send this to all of our congresscritters. Teachers have been so marginalized in our nation that whenever we speak of these things, we are labeled "whiners".
YOU may find a friendly ear. PLEASE forge forward on our behalf & the behalf of our students.

WE are teaching IN SPITE of the barriers that are constantly thrown in our path. I have been waiting 4 yrs for the software for one of my classes to be fixed/installed.:argh: It's just not a priority for our IT dept.....revamping elementary school websites w/Flash is.

I will be leaving this profession at the end this school year because of the very things you illuminated in this post (& I will have lots of company--our best are leaving in droves). I simply cannot tolerate it anymore. You can't be successful because your hands are tied, yet teachers are the whipping boys for all the ills of the education sector.

Entering the profession from the business world, I've found in the decade that I've taught, this profession is filled w/some of the worst decision makers ever. The dumbest are in the administrative area. In small districts you have nepotism married to The Peter Principle....outcome = disaster.

THIS is why our kids are lower in skills compared to most of the industrialized world.:dunce:
NCLB/RTTT has only made it worse.

Again, THANK YOU! :pals:

[CoffeeCat]

52. When you speak about administrators...

...are you talking about the principals--or other higher ups?

My children attend an elementary school and I have been gobsmacked by how
horrible the principal is, but how lovely and wonderful the teachers are.

I can't imagine what they endure on a daily basis--working with this man and
dealing with the numerous obstacles that many of you describe.

Please know that you have changed many lives and made a big difference in the
lives of many kids. I'm so sorry that the system has failed good teachers like
you.

[southerncrone]

53. Both. Sometimes you find a good principal, but they are

hog-tied by their bosses. Some principals are still in touch w/the classroom, some only care about THEIR careers. Generally, the higher you go the worse the "leader/decision maker". Like the old saying goes: "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link." No matter where the weak link is, it's a problem.....if it's high in the chain, then more of the chain is disabled. But usually, there are so many weak links that it ceases to be a viable chain at all.

Another thing that is seldom acknowledged is that we deal w/so many more behaviorally & emotionally disturbed students now. Most of us are not trained to deal w/this. We are all being forced to become, not only regular classroom teachers, but special ed teachers, psychologists, and law enforcers. Not what we signed up to be.......of course this is w/no more pay. During our in-service, they will have a "nationally-recognized" (expensive) speaker come & talk to us, hand out a few papers & POOF! we're "qualified" to deal w/these problems. It is a disgusting farce.

The new wave of education will be via computer teaching......virtual school, especially at the HS level. Kids sit at computer stations most of the day & watch video teachers & do tutorials. Goodbye social skills. They won't NEED very many of us expensive teachers then, just a few "monitors/guards" & a few IT guys per school. Won't that be fun?

Thank you for your kind words. Comments like yours, coupled w/the interests of the kids, are what keep us going in an impossible situation. Please let your kids' teachers know how you feel. It only takes a few crumbs thrown our way to keep us chugging along. :hug:

[TheKentuckian]

56. I think you have given an excellent example of the structural handicaps that never cross most minds

People like neat little bundles that are corrected with changing that thing and being done. Once an issues becomes much more complex than changing a lightbulb stuff starts breaking down fast.

Few want to even contemplate a possible future discussion of examining systemic and structural problems. Nothing is wrong with the lamp so the solution is to change lightbulbs till the fucker turns on, it matters not an iota if the bulb works in another lamp or that none of the lamps or bulbs work and now that we notice nothing seems to work.

People seem to think teachers teach so if the kid isn't learning then it is the teacher's fault, ignoring the thousands and millions of factors that teachers are the face of but certainly do not control, in fact it is the reverse.

Nobody but nobody wants to even think that from where we were before all of these neoliberal and right wing shenanigans that the improvement we needed and desired was to move from the 30 in a room, pitch to the middle, on the cheap, non-participatory, done you rather than with you, one size/one approach fits all meat grinder of an 19th century education approach and have foolishly embraced and doubled down on what was dragging us down outside of our patently absurd funding system.

Hell, bad teachers aren't nearly the issue that every style and approach aren't a fit for every student is, but one is easy to spout off about and cheap and the other is very complex and probably won't fit the Walmart model of value.