Whew! It's March. Time is just a-flying away!
So I got a link to this article. It's a response to action taken in a Central Falls, RI school, where all of the staff was fired since the school was not making AYP.
This quote stuck out to me:
It would be good if our nation's education leaders recognized that teachers are not solely responsible for student test scores. Other influences matter, including the students' effort, the family's encouragement, the effects of popular culture, and the influence of poverty. A blogger called "Mrs. Mimi" wrote the other day that we fire teachers because "we can't fire poverty." Since we can't fire poverty, we can't fire students, and we can't fire families, all that is left is to fire teachers.
And...this sums up a decent number of my struggles and frustrations over the last few months (the fact that we can't "fire" the multitude of things outside of my control)- I only have so much "control" in the classroom (I feel silly thinking I have any control sometimes- fire drills, anyone?). I hope you get a chance to read this article in its entirety- interesting to see a perspective from someone who has been intimately tied with NCLB but has recently decided to have a change of heart on what it means to b an "effective" (or ineffective) model of reform.
I hope all of you fellow MACers are hanging in there!
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