teachers behaving badly

I've just discovered it's possible to post links on the Irvington Parents Forum (I think you have to join the Forum to get to the links...)

Which presents a golden opportunity to post links about Math Trailblazers.

As I was scouring the web, looking for the now-classic Trailblazers How to Public-Relation Parents support document, I discovered that The ARC Center has composed "Implementation Stories" for a number of the constructivist books.

These narratives conclude with "The Ups and Downs of this Story."

"Ups" are called "strengths."

"Downs" are called "challenges."

Scarsdale is there:

• This implementation was aided by the widespread interest and involvement of all teachers.

• Another strength is that the administration and parent community were supportive because they were continually informed and involved.

• Teachers had to adjust to the spiraling nature of the curriculum. Concepts were introduced, but mastery wasn't necessarily expected until they were revisited. This meant they had to look for new ways to assess student growth.

• Teachers are continuing to shift their emphasis from teaching material to focusing on children's thinking and learning.

Wait!

Back up.

Did they just say Scarsdale teachers are continuing to shift their emphasis from teaching material to focusing on children's thinking and learning?

I believe they did.


District 2 in Manhattan (birthplace of NYC HOLD) has clearly been a thorn in everyone's side:

Challenges

• The change was more difficult for schools that had been successful with traditional curricula. [ed.: argh!!]
  

• Principals had to learn different ways of looking at mathematics classrooms. [ed.: argh!!]

• It takes time for both teachers and administrators to internalize the changes well enough to clearly articulate them to parents. [ed.: argh!!]

• The volunteer model has positive and negative aspects. One of the negatives is that students at the same school could be getting different curricula. Parent concerns are an ongoing challenge. [ed.: profiles in euphemism]
  

• Any new program that requires new materials and significant staff development presents funding challenges. [ed.: especially when you already had a traditional curriculum that was "successful"]

Indian River in Delaware may have accumulated my favorite list of Challenges thus far:

• When Math Trailblazers was implemented, the district reacted to parent questions and concerns. Subsequently the district took a proactive stand and schools are now making a strong effort to inform parents. [ed.: inform=pacify]
  

• Teachers' concerns about the state test and its alignment with Trailblazers must be addressed by the district
  

• Principals are not active participants in on-going training.

• Teachers' beliefs about reform mathematics are stronger than their practices. Many teachers don't see the need to follow the curriculum as written, supplementing with practice instead of moving forward and giving students more opportunities in mathematics. [ed.: teachers behaving badly]

• Professional development is voluntary and it is a challenge to reach those who choose not to attend.

So what do we see here in Indian River?

We see teachers on strike, that's what we see.

Teachers and possibly principals, too.

And....it's sounding like parents could be a whole lot better informed than they are at the present time.

Things are not copacetic in Indian River.


update

NYC Educator leaves this observation:

I want a job at that district where professional development is voluntary. If you've never sat through hours of some clueless educrat pontificating about why this new program is the only one in the world that will ever work, precisely what the same person said about another program last year (now discarded), you are lucky indeed.

This is why I say teachers in Indian River are on strike.

I've never heard of teachers getting to choose whether or not to spend hours of their lives listening to edu-blah blah.