Comments and Notes:
Information above is from a privately purchased database and/or unverified user submissions. Please verify all information before depending on it for anything critical. We welcome corrections!
| 2009-02-16 register | login | ||
Relates to: Arizona gets low grade on teacher retention (citizen-local)sigh...Actually, my daughter goes to an excellent public school (Borton) here in Tucson and has an amazing teacher. She is doing much more homework than I did at her age, and her writing skills have improved by leaps and bounds over the two years she has been in public school. I could keep bragging but only other parents would understand ;-)I actually do agree with school choice, charter schools, and merit pay if based on objective metrics probably does have a place. However, other aspects of the 'no child left behind' law and its Arizona implementation are worrisome, and I know some really good and caring teachers who are either frustrated or have left the profession specifically because of the micromanagement that has come about. Last year as I understand it, there was a mandated computer program that had to be applied at specified times during the day on any child who had not reached a specific reading level. This was a ridiculous intrusion into the teaching day. It is certainly necessary to measure and ensure that children learn to read, but micromanaging the day to that extent is absurd. And no, I do not know whether republicans or democrats implemented that particular measure - I'm not saying that all the problems are the fault of Republicans, or that all Democrats are great. Some actions of our Az Legislature, voted by Republican majority, have me sick to my stomach,but I hope that I never lose an open mind to the point where I'd make a statement like 'Republicans hate teachers', jeez. The question for me usually comes back to, what can I do to make the situation better? So we support our school, teach our kids, and try to occasionally put in 2c about the big picture. I think maybe the next step for me will be to interview district officials about the controlling scripted programs I'm concerned about, perhaps they've lessened now under Celine - I know that not all schools have to implement them. If you are concerned specifically about merit pay feel free to press the issues now that there is full Republican control of the state, perhaps it will be implemented this year. But what seems to be happening instead is a full scale gutting of K-12 and university education - and refusing the federal dollars that would have helped, from what I recall. " |
||