Total Pageviews

Search This Blog

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

How Duval County sets teachers up to fail. (rough draft)

As you read below I want you to think to yourself, is this any way to run a district?      

Teachers have this thing called My Accountability where they can check their class lists. If you are in the union they encouraged all their members to make sure their class lists were correct as an incorrect list can have far reaching repercussions. It can effect VAM scores which can effect employment and pay.

When teachers went to a hastily called meeting to learn why they were told they were getting the QEA bonus one day and nothing the next many discovered that their My Accountability lists were incorrect. Some teachers had kids on their list they shouldn’t while others didn’t have kids that they should. They asked if these mistakes could have led to them not getting the bonus, and the district shrugged their shoulders saying it didn’t matter because any chance to appeal ended in February.

Appeal?!? The district basically said that teachers had to appeal mistakes that the district was making.

Some might argue that teachers should have checked My Accountability to make sure their classes were right, you know because teachers don’t have anything better to do. As I said the union sent out an email a while back telling teachers that they should. The thing is what if you aren’t in the union, have a million other things going on or the union email was sent to your clutter folder which they said was a common problem you might have missed the message. Heck you might have trusted the district to get it right too.

I just for grins and giggles checked my accountability and sure enough there was a student who had never been in one of my classes on my list a name I myself had reported earlier in the year. I’ll cross my fingers and hope that he’s doing okay.

Also only in Duval is there a deadline in getting things right. Who cares that it’s mid-April now. A mistake is a mistake right and if the district has the ability  to fix it then instead of blaming teachers and saying it’s too bad you didn’t get the bonus, then they should fix it.

Now think about the question I asked you to ask.

The answer should be a resounding no. 

2 comments:

  1. Teachers were told mistakes could only be disputed if they had an initialed copy, from the CRT, showing the CRT's corrections. That's laughable. How about the CRT doing his/her job the way it's supposed to be done, in a timely manner and correctly? Just add this to the lengthy list of responsibilities teachers are have...check the CRT!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have asked our CRT numerous times to correct errors and she tells me that when they go to their meetings, downtown says they don't have answers. Example: what grade do I give a student who transferred here without a 1st qtr credit? "I don't know. Downtown doesn't either." We are now in 4th qtr and I have students I haven't seen since December. CRT claims she can't remove them until they officially withdraw. Seriously? The student will get a zero on EOC exam, which will impact my VAM.

    ReplyDelete