Perdido 03

Perdido 03

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Politics And Regents Grading

Not a lot of time to post here before I have to run off to Regents grading, but the one thing I notice every time I meet teachers from other schools sent to a central site for grading is that many teachers the system over are feeling pissed off and demoralized.

There's a certain education reform-friendly "news" blog that promotes the Gates Foundation-funded Educators4Excellence teacher group as if there are a lot of teachers who belong to it and support its education reform policies.

Most teachers I meet these days think the entire education reform movement is bullshit, the reforms Bloomberg pushed are bullshit, the Common Core (which some used to support until they had the EngageNY materials foisted on them) are bullshit, the leadership at Tweed and the state are full of shit and the governor and any other politician who hawks this stuff are full of shit.

Once again, that is what I have heard in the Regents grading room from teachers - young ones, with just a few years in, and grizzled veterans who have been through school closures.

In my work, I have met one E4E, a not-terribly bright fellow who worked at my school for one year before going off to train to be an administrator somewhere.

Educators4Excellence tried to get teachers from my school to come to a "happy hour" by bribing them with free food and drink.

No one went.

No one.

This Regents grading experience, while demoralizing because the test was designed so badly and so many students are having problems passing the Part 3 component, has been fruitful in one way.

It reminds me again that many teachers the system over are on the same page with the reform movement, the reforms, the Common Core, the APPR system, etc.

They think it's all bullshit and bad for ya.

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