DeKalb high school teacher Rita Robinzine, a 24-year educator, wrote this opinion piece directed to the Legislature, which is about to assemble in Atlanta for the 2014 session.
By Rita Robinzine
During the upcoming legislative session, the legislators, governor and state school superintendent should take the emphasis off of teacher performance as education reform and focus on helping all children of Georgia to get a good public school education. That should be their chief reform plan instead of continuing to pass legislation that has only served to frustrate teachers and caused them to leave the profession or lose the joy of teaching.
Help teachers help students.
The state has reduced the amount of funding that would normally go to the local school systems and have forced the local school boards to make up the difference. This is a difficult task for local school systems when property values have decreased significantly. When there is no money, then there are no resources, yet teachers are still expected to have all their students do well on state mandated tests or they are at risk of losing their jobs because their evaluations are unfairly tied to test scores.
Not only do teachers have limited resources, but the state decides that the answer to low funding is to increase classroom size. Now teachers are working with limited resources, but are expected to yield high returns as it relates to test scores.
via Letter to Georgia Legislature: Help teachers help students and… | Get Schooled | www.ajc.com.
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