This is a rant. Sensei needs to get this off his chest.
This Friday, all the English teachers teaching the sixth graders had a meeting, which involved the vice-principal. Stakes were high. Our percentage passes for the national exam have been declining quite steadily these past few years. My vice-principal was naturally concerned; it’s her KPI to ensure that all her charges pass the exam.
Data is important, and the department had already sieved out the 38 students who didn’t pass their final year exam last year.
My vice-principal got down to business.
“Identify the 30 students whom we will try to save,” she commanded.
Being new to the school, I wasn’t familiar with her ways. I naively mentioned something about helping all students to the best of my ability — and leaving it to God to decide who would pass or fail. Such a comprehensive approach didn’t sit well with her.
She then got us to scrutinise the Excel file and surface those who were likely to fail the exam. All in a bid to minimise collateral damage, it seemed.
I’m just so appalled that she would see young children as statistics, especially because I enrolled my son into this primary school. If my son were to struggle in this subject in the future, would he be written off by this school leader? She must have entered the profession, bright-eyed and enthusiastic to help young minds once. What happened along the way such that she turned into this calculative manager who had no ounce of empathy?
I’m just glad that I have retained my idealism and optimism even after teaching students for so long. This gives me the moral ground to judge her lol.
So she's basically saying to pick 8 to give up on and no longer try to help?
Goodhart's Law says that when a measure becomes a target it ceases to be a good measure. Unfortunately, examination pass rates and graduation rates have become that.
I'm still friendly to standardized tests though, because it's still one of the better ways to ensure accountability from the schools and teachers. But indeed it is susceptible to be gamed and it can incentivize teaching to only a certain subset
Yes, she wanted us to be targeted in regard to the extra coaching we were giving our weak-progress students because we probably couldn’t save anyone.
I think we don’t live in extreme times such as COVID, so there is little need to frame our situation in terms of triage. I am flabbergasted that a school leader — supposedly nurturing of the students under her charge — would think of us as expendable resources.
Maybe that’s why she is a vice-principal and I’m not haha.
But I’m not sure that i would want to pay the price to reach her level anyway.
I don’t mind standardised exams. There is a dopamine rush that I relish when I guide my students to game the system haha. But it seems that my pedagogical decisions will be scrutinised this year — I don’t like the feeling of being placed under the microscope
The amount of snow we got disgusted me.
Too much or too little snow?
Do your children like building snowmen?
Way too much. Felt like I was shoveling all week.
Yes my daughter loves to play in the snow. My son is a bit old for that now.
Post some pictures of your POW in ~HealthAndFitness to make your effort worthwhile!
I don't know what administrative manual that strat came out of but the kids are lucky to have you. I'm sure the VP is trying their best under the circumstances.
Still I wonder if the decline is truly significant. Why do you think scores are declining and more importantly what's the best way to blame this on either fiat currency or AI? 😈
I agree that the VP is trying her best and that I wouldn’t want to hear her burdens. But I still expect her to do better.
Face is an important aspect in Asian culture. The decline isn’t that bad in actual terms, but she may be concerned about others associating her competence with the decline. I guess any self-respecting individual will want to protect her reputation
Lol nothing as insidious as that! I just think that the English department isn’t working well together. That’s why we’re currently scrambling to fight fires haha
How have you achieved that??
Great question. Thank you for asking.
I think several things
So I am a serial job hopper even if I have been a teacher all my working life. I think it keeps me fresh because I never stay too long at any one place to adopt learned helplessness and become jaded
More importantly, sometimes students contact me years after our time together. It is always gratifying to witness their growth — even if they were obnoxious little brats back then. I think it reminds me that teaching is like sowing seeds. Not all seeds will germinate — and some require more time to grow
I am also very taken by the bamboo plant. It is said to grow exponentially during the fifth year — an excellent analogy for teaching