It IS a joke. I have taught in the best of schools and worst of
schools and I have always been and am a consistent teacher. In
the best school, students under me Met or Exceeded on the AIMS,
in the worst, they did both but had more Meets and Approaches
than anything. It depends on WHO you are teaching.

In the best school, we had all the resources needed and strong
parent support (which many parents don't GET the influence they
have on their kids, positive or negative), and in the worst
school, it lacked parent support and the kids knew it and
unfortunately, as fickle as kids are, they behave based on their
feelings that come from their relationships, or lack thereof, at
home.

It matters to a small amount of children/youth whether or not
they get support from a teacher in all areas. Most kids look to
their parents for approval and interest and unfortunately, WE
have to clean those messes up.

One of the biggest contributors to low scores, in my opinion,
based on experience, is there are so many transient families
because they're moving around looking for work, which results in
many children moving from school to school and what do you get?
BROKEN EDUCATION. Then those kids are expected to do well and
pass the AIMS, and who gets the worst of it...teachers or those
students? It's a double negative.

Nobody (at least those who have the authority to make decisions
and run the schools) wants to look at that and other
contributing factors, such as lack of kinesthetic resources,
parent accountability, etc.

On 10/31/09, it's a joke wrote:
> I feel it's a joke to only look at test scores and then judge
> whether or not a teacher is a "good" teacher. First off,
> kids are going to do whatever they want to do with a test.
> If they want to screw off and randomly choose answers, then
> they are going to do it. If a student gets nervous during a
> test and blanks, there is nothing we can do about it.
>
> Something I learned when I used to tutor for a major tutoring
> company is this: You cannot GUARANTEE A CHILD BUT you can
> guarantee the program (or teaching as in our case). If the
> student pays attentions, focuses and has the support they
> need to at home and at school, then YES they will be able to
> test well and obtain good grades. If ANYTHING is lacking,
> then of course they won't test well or get good grades!
>
>
>
>
> On 10/31/09, ??? wrote:
>> I consider myself and grade-level team strong teachers, but
>> our benchmark and AIMS scores don't seem to reflect it (we
>> all tend to cluster around the same scores). Seems like
>> the same thing every year no matter where I go (3rd-6th
>> year teachers). I love what I do, but every year I feel
>> like I work sooo hard (time, effort, energy, emotion - as
>> we all do)....just to get these low test scores. What are
>> everyone's experiences - do only the good teachers really
>> get great scores???

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