Education reform has teachers feeling under attack

Teachers are feeling underappreciated and under attack.

A series of education reform proposals under consideration in Albany, along with an increased focus on testing and teacher evaluation, have left them feeling like they are being blamed for a widespread failure of the education system in New York state.

There's a feeling that mandates from on high are intruding into their classrooms, robbing them of control over how they teach, and it crosses districts and counties; high- and low-performing districts; rural, suburban and urban schools. For 12 teachers with more than 225 years of experience The Journal News talked to over the last several days, it all adds up to low morale.

"It's discouraging. You put a lot of time and effort into what you do. In the classroom, things are great. You're building positive relationships with students and parents," said Dan Johnson, a chemistry teacher at Suffern High School in the Ramapo Central district. "None of that is mentioned in the political discussion. You hear that schools are failing and that we've got to get rid of these bad teachers."

Janine Gibney, a seventh-grade English teacher in Yorktown, said it hurts to be accused of being in it for the pension when teaching is her calling. Throwing the blame on teachers is a way to avoid a discussion about the real, difficult, issues of poverty and racial inequality, she said.

"It's a much easier approach to say the problem is the teachers," she said.

Teachers under siege

Many teachers feel defeated, Gibney said, but younger teachers are panicked by the pressure to teach to the test. They face the dilemma of whether to sell out their students to protect their careers, she said. As a veteran teacher, Gibney said she refuses to change her methods; she keeps tables in her English classroom, though many other teachers have brought in rows of desks that facilitate testing.

"I refuse to make my classroom a test-prep center," she said.

Teachers have felt under siege for years, going back at least to the economic downturn — when they were painted as living high on excessive salaries and benefits while the private sector was cutting back. A MetLife survey in 2012 found teacher job satisfaction at its lowest point in 25 years. But a series of proposals from Gov. Andrew Cuomo have given them a focus for their anger. Teachers unions have been holding protests and forums around the state to push back against proposals to give student test scores a larger role in teacher evaluations, change tenure rules, expand charter schools, allow for takeover of failing schools, extend mayoral control and make it easier to remove teachers. Cuomo has tied higher state school aid to legislative passage of his reforms.

Tom Perry, who teaches advanced-placement environmental science and botany and horticulture at Nyack High School, joined a teachers union rally March 2 in Nyack that brought out about 100 teachers.

"Politicians who don't have an educational background are overemphasizing the testing to try to prove that they're holding teachers accountable," he said.

Though local school officials often blame a lack of state funding for many of the problems with education, Cuomo dismisses that issue by saying school aid is at its highest level ever.

Holding school aid hostage

Anthony Cardinale, a third-grade teacher at Kent Elementary School in the Carmel district, accused the governor of holding school aid hostage to his education reform agenda.

"The effects of child poverty on education is not being considered by the governor," he said. "Even though teachers are frustrated by the attacks and lack of support from Governor Cuomo, we are hopeful that, working together with parents and local representatives, public schools can gain the support and proper funding that our students need."

Amy Luck, a band teacher in the White Plains schools, said a message seems to be coming from the top that teachers aren't working hard enough.

"My job has changed three times in the last five years due to staffing cuts," she said. "It's hard to work your butt off and feel like there's less appreciation."

Many teachers are frustrated by what they see as an overemphasis on testing.

Georgia Williams, who has taught English at Nyack High School since 1998, said her school community is supportive but much of a teacher's time is spent changing the curriculum to fit the Common Core and testing, taking the focus off teaching. Teachers spend more time trying to prove they're teaching than actually teaching, she said.

"It used to be fun," she said. "The fun is not in the teaching (anymore), the fun is in making the relationships with the students because the Common Core has taken the fun out of the teaching."

Williams said this year, because of the increasing pressure to adopt the reforms, she skipped an annual poetry project she's done for years.

'Overall not happy'

Diana Cherian, who teaches grades 6-12 at Yonkers Middle High School, described the morale of teachers in her schools as "overall not happy."

"We are not happy about our evaluations being tied to the test scores of our students," Cherian said. "Not all of us get students who are well prepared. It's not a fair form of evaluation."

Arguing that teacher ratings don't reflect the achievement levels of their students, Cuomo is proposing to make state test scores a larger part of a teacher's rating. Instead of 20 percent of the score, state tests would make up half the rating for teachers of grades three through eight. He also wants outside evaluators to observe teachers.

Colleen Stritmater, who teaches chemistry at Suffern High School, said she doesn't have a problem being evaluated — in fact, she welcomes the feedback. But teachers and students suffer when state officials overemphasize data and discount the "humanity factor" in their eagerness to reform the system, she said.

In her class, she may have a student with wealthy parents who can pay for after-school tutoring sitting next to a student who has to work after school to support his family. Their test scores may be drastically different and have little to do with her teaching skills.

"The socioeconomics of it and what students bring to the table are not factors in the scoring system," Stritmater said.

Politics, not education

With politicians instead of educators making decisions about teaching and learning, teachers said a lot is being lost.

Instead of focusing on teaching children how to survive in life, teachers teach how to take a test, said Jawanda Awutey, a social studies teacher at White Plains High School.

"I think it alters the way you teach," she said.

Early childhood teachers in White Plains say that, with new demands in higher grades, they're being forced to push young children to learn curriculum too quickly. Judy Ravina, a first-grade teacher at Post Road School, said even though she's not in a testing grade, she feels the pressure.

"Now we're doing things that developmentally might not be appropriate for a first grader," she said.

Johnson, the Suffern chemistry teacher, has been teaching for 18 years.

"It's never part of the equation how effective and valuable teachers are," he said. "Their ability to build interpersonal relationships with students and parents is one of the biggest factors of making a good teacher."

Despite the emphasis on data and testing, teachers say they still draw inspiration from their students.

"Our kids have always been amazing and they inspire us to adjust our lesson plans to match their learning style," said Brenda O'Shea, a social studies teacher at Somers High School. "We try to encourage creativity in the classroom to the extent we can."

Teachers said the state proposals reflect a lack of understanding of what goes on in the classroom.

You can't measure what teachers do with a test score, said Denise Tomici, a physical education teacher at White Plains High School.

"People who are making decisions about kids and our jobs and how we do our jobs don't know anything about education."

Twitter: @eganga