The District Trouble

Today I read a letter from the Alisal Teachers' Association, addressing all teachers in the Alisal School District. It included: "Our school district has been ranked by the state school board as the lowest performing district in the state." Congrats.

With this ranking come School Improvement Grant (SIG) funds, which can be a very significant amount of money, but also can have many "strings attached," as the ATA puts it. Some of those include:

"Reliance on student test scores as a means of teacher evaluation, establishing teacher pay, and determining which teachers keep their jobs."

Yikes. This, among other things, is causing teachers, administrators, parents, staff--and as a result, students--to freak out. How can test scores determine the quality of a teacher? It is outrageous to think that your salary, no, your livelihood itself, should be placed in the hands of a bunch of kids with their own serious issues.

A few things will happen:

1. Teachers will will fight over good test-takers and dread having difficult students in their classes.

2. Teachers will teach to the test.

3. Teachers will cheat for students and pad their grades before turning them over to the state.