Vitti’s default position about teachers is they suck (rough draft)

There have been lots of issues with the new curriculum. The bottom line is teachers don’t like it and they feel pressured and micromanaged into implementing it.

Vitti’s response is eventually teachers at high performing schools with high VAM (Value added) scores will be allowed to deviate from the curriculum while teachers with low VAM scores and at struggling schools will not.

Oy vey.

First VAM scores are a complicated formula that is supposed to be predictive of what a child learns over the course of a year are wildly inaccurate. They are kind of like asking your cat what the weather is going to be like tomorrow and for the record Captain Slippers says it will be purrrrfect. It’s a catastrophe that VAM scores are being used for anything more than lining the cages of birds.

But teachers have to prove themselves too? Veteran teachers with years of success under their belt, now have to be micromanaged and prove that they know what they are doing? Are we 12 year olds mowing the lawn for the first time? Or are we professionals with degrees and lots of training?   

Then what if you work at a low performing school? Then you are just doomed to be micromanaged forever. Screw creativity, innovation and vision or all the things that made most people want to be a teacher and welcome to reading a prepackaged script that you are never allowed to deviate from.

And all because our superintendent who was a teacher for a cup of coffee a decade ago doesn’t trust nor understand teachers.

We are never going to reach our potential by tying our teacher's hands behind their backs, never.