Where is accountability for administration?
Why is it that we are quick to hold teachers and students accountable, but neglect to do the same for higher ups?
I am a teacher in RPS. I have taught at the same school for 17 years. My building-level administration is supportive of teachers, staff, and families. They work hard and make a concerted effort to connect. Most teachers at our school feel supported, and I feel safe saying that many families are happy also. Are we perfect? No, but we do have a genuine level of care that’s taken to nurture kids and teachers.
This is not the case for many others. Every day I hear about school-level administrative abuses—I hear from other colleagues, I hear from former students, and I see it on the news. Our schools are not okay. This became abundantly clear during this Monday’s school board meeting. Many parents and educators came forward to express their frustrations.
As I listened, I could hear the desperation in parents’ voices. They want better not only for their kids but others as well. They deserve better. They deserve schools where children are happy, healthy, safe and thriving. This is not just about academics, it’s about our entire culture at RPS. Our district-level administration must do better, and our School Board must hold them accountable. I wrote the following letter to Mr. Kamras and to the school board as a way to express my thought and frustrations:
Good afternoon,
I watched last night’s school board meeting. Several things were alarming. First, the amount of parents who came forward from across the city to address concerns about building leadership. Noncompliance for IEPs, bullying in schools, bullying of teachers, and strip searching students, all of these things should be a cause for alarm. Where is accountability for administration? Why is it that we are quick to hold teachers and students accountable, but neglect to do the same for higher ups? Good leadership is not just about daily emails, school name changes or acknowledging cultural holidays, it’s about actually leading. It’s about making RPS that place where parents WANT to send their special education students. It’s about making school climates safe engaging places for all students. It’s about establishing school cultures where teachers want to work. Positive work environments start at the top. We must do better.
Secondly, I would like to address the conversation regarding PALS. There was a large focus on the Pre-K and Kindergarten data. There were several requests to make this data available sooner. It wasn’t made clear during the meeting, so I want to take the opportunity here to explain. Pre-K and Kinder PALS assessments are later in the fall because the students are VERY YOUNG. Giving a later administration date respects the time needed for our youngest students to acclimate to the school setting. Some of these children have never been to school before. It also gives the teacher a little time to teach, so when they are actually assessed, the children might show that they are adjusting to the academics of school. UVA has spent a whole lot of time thinking about assessment windows, please trust them when they have our youngest students test later. They are thinking of the whole child in this case.
There were also discussions about extended day for Pre-K, Kinder and 1st. I am hoping we ALL pump our breaks before we extend academics for our youngest students. I am a reading interventionist. I work with 1st-4th graders. I see first hand how stressed and tired our youngest kids are. Our kids do not need more academics. We have stripped away all the joy out of school. Students are being treated like robots, their only role is to produce acceptable achievement numbers. School is not just about academics. We are charged with helping nurture problem solvers, creative thinkers and empathetic citizens. This is not happening in our current environments. We focus so much on academics we are refusing to acknowledge the soft skills necessary for healthy happy kids. Kids need time AWAY from academics. We need to give them time to play, create and move. We need to give them time to develop executive functioning skills. Our students are struggling with this, like I have never seen before. They need adults available to coach them through some of these soft skills. They do not need to be sitting behind desks for MORE time. It is killing the joy.
We had an amazing opportunity to rethink education, post pandemic. We have squandered it. Our kids are in front of computers MORE, struggling with relationships (peers and teachers), have no creative or physical outlets and we have whittled their value down to a test score.
I am a Reading Interventionist. I have a master’s degree in Reading Education. I am Orton-Gillingham trained, LETRS trained and have received additional training to be a LETRS trainer. I am a well seasoned teacher who still loves her job. (25 years).
I would be happy to chat with any of you further. Please do your research. Listen to teachers. Listen to parents.
Robin Keegan
