Schools in the U.S.

I was listening to NPR on my way to work this morning and they had an article (is that what you'd call it on the radio?) on school closures in Chicago. The Department of Education decided that the worst schools would need to be shut down, all staff replaced, and then re-opened.

Now, when I left New Mexico my school district was in the first year of restructuring. They were going to have us all re-interview for our jobs and basically start over for the upcoming year. It was a way to get the worst teachers out of the school since tenure prevents schools from firing bad teachers unless the principal can gather an unholy amount of documentation on them, which can take even up to 3 years to gather. That's 3 years of bad teaching, which kids can't afford to loose. I'm not convinced, however, that even the worst of the worst teachers were hopeless cases.

Has anyone thought to ask why the teachers are bad? You don't generally go into teaching to be a bad teacher. I suppose some stay even though they're not the best, but I haven't really met a teacher who isn't interested in improving their classroom. Many could improve their practice if given the opportunity, but most feel there's no way to improve. Plus most teachers are really not BAD bad, they're just overwhelmed, exhausted, or untrained.

Right now I have a wonderful schedule and I work for a fabulous school. I only teach 100 students in 5 different classes (and one of those is actually done now because the seniors already graduated). I have a 70 minute prep time every day with an additional 70 minutes once a week and one more 70 minute study hall period in which I can speak with students who need help or do additional work when the students are quietly working.

I'm about to go back to New Mexico, it's all but final. When I go back I'll teach 6 periods of students, which adds up to 150 students and I'll only get 48 minutes of prep time each day. I'm loosing 4 hours of preparation time a week, adding 50 students and all the work that accompanies more students, AND I have a longer work day.

The schedule we have now allows students to take 7 classes in 70 minute blocks. Students have A,B, AB, C, D, CD, and E block classes that are on a 6 day schedule that rotates weekly. It's genius. To explain further it goes like this:
Mon: AB, B, C, CD, E
Tues: A, B, CD, D, X
Wed: A, AB, C, D, E
Thur: AB, B, C, CD, E
Fri: A, B, CD, D, X
Mon: A, AB, C, D, E
and so on... Two on, one off each class, which means students have one class 3 to 4 times a week.

New Mexico's schedule is more traditional. Students take 7 classes that last 48 minutes each every day. The minutes spent on each class adds up to the same number by the end of the year.

I calculated the schedule I have now, even working with 6 classes instead of 5 I would still gain about 2 hours of prep time each week. If we want schools to work, how about looking for time for teachers to prepare first. The more time you have to get ready, the better the classes will be, the happier the teachers will be, and the more relaxed the students will be.

That AND fire teachers if they're terrible. Even a teacher with many years of experience hires on with a new contract at schools here. There's no guarantee that they'll be rehired after the first or second year, and many teachers don't make it past the second year. If I really, really sucked, I'd want to be fired. Well, maybe I wouldn't WANT it, but I would believe it would be better in the long run. I wouldn't want to work somewhere that my employer didn't believe I was doing a good job anyway.