Mrs. Doohickie's high school is being renovated over the summer. She had to remove all her stuff and bring it home (actually, *I* had to, but only cuz I lurve her). She has started for the fall already (lead teachers have early planning to do, etc.), but she can't get into her room yet.

They're on the other side of that poor test score divide; if they don't hit acceptable levels this year, they can be shut down by the state. Just to make things interesting, the district swapped out the principal that brought them to the brink of acceptability for a principal that has never run a high school before.

Gotta love that teaching stuff, huh?

What an ordeal, pips. Hope your new school works out.

Yeah, Doohickie, the whole let's close the so-called "failing" schools movement is such a scam. It's really a way around tenure. There's a huge push in many districts to eliminate higher cost veteran teachers. These are fine teachers with years of being in good standing who have earned their way up in the salary scale with often a decade or more of service. The districts can't fire them legitimately, so they close the whole bloody school to bypass tenure. From the administrator's point-of-view, why pay twice as much for a veteran teacher when you can get a new teacher for half the cost? In the long run, though, the students suffer, because, as studies show, teachers with eight or more years of experience are the most effective, with the highest student test results.

What nobody seems to want to say is the biggest difference between schools is really the students. I guarantee if the students in a high income, high performing suburban school were swapped with those in a low income, low performing inner city school, everything else remaining the same (teachers, resources), the inner city school would suddenly have great results.

Even in my school, the year before last, I had two junior English classes, one tracked for upper level math and science and one not, making one class stronger overall than the other. In English, though, I taught the same books and gave the same projects and tests; the school atmosphere was the same, their teacher was the same, the course curriculum was the same, but the pass rate on the state English exam for the stronger group was 97% while the weaker group was 70% (still 20% higher than the overall city average, but nowhere near the 97% of the other class). Frankly, the lower performing group had a higher percentage of students with special needs (including emotional problems), students whose first language was not English, less motivated students, and, dare I say, some students with less innate abilities. Even of those who passed the state test in the 70% group, their scores were generally lower. I reiterate: the biggest difference between schools, and even classes, is the students. It's not teachers who need more motivation and accountability, it's the students, and maybe the parents. Not that I don't continue to look for ways to help every student be as successful as he or she can, but this recent campaign to demonize and blame teachers brings a person down.

Last year, I had two tenth grade classes that took the state English exam at the end of the year, and last year, the tracking was even more direct. One group was an Honor's class, and the other was considered a regular class, with more of a mix of abilities. They all passed the exam, but the Honor's class had a lot more who scored in the 80s and 90s, including one 100%, than the "regular" class. I did use some different books with each group, though, to better match the interests and levels of each, so it's less "controlled" than the year before. Plus, last year, for the tenth grade, there was a third class with the majority of the more challenging students with a different teacher who didn't even take the test; the year before, in my junior class, these students would have been mixed in with the "regular" students. Anecdotal, to be sure, but telling, I think.

Good luck to your wife and her school, in any case. It's hard not to let it get to ya.

(Thanks, Lori... it's not so much a new school as a new location, in the same building. I can't figure it out myself. *shrugs shoulders, shakes head*)