Let me open by saying this is the last I will write on the subject. Responding letters from Nancy Carlson and Kevin Epp fail terribly to grasp the points in the message. I’ll do my best to quickly bring you up to speed.
Ms. Carlson: Your statement that I implied about “sneaky teachers” hiding assessment data and that most teachers you know send emails, printouts directly to the parents. That was never argued by me.
My argument is that you, the teachers, do not want to have broad-scale assessments run independently of your markings to show the results that teachers, schools, school districts are making with students at the Grade 4 and 7 level (I believe those to be correct, if not I stand corrected). Irregardless, are you saying in that statement that because you are a teacher you should be excluded from having your work assessed in that manner? Multi-billion-dollar companies bring in outside consultants (as one example) to fix, refine, grow, steer, evaluate their operations.
As I stated, and will again, as taxpayers that ultimately pay your salary, assessing how schools are bringing along students at those levels is a good thing. Or should we just wait until they are 14, hitting puberty, having peer pressure and then tell them that they don’t measure up? Both you and Mr. Epp miss the mark on this.
My five business professionals? I said pick five, not my five. Perhaps we should assess your reading level, as now twice you have clearly missed what I wrote.
Lastly, you write that schools are at the mercy of not being able to “sell more widgets”. Almost 20 years ago I took a job as a district manager for a chain of stores that had gone into bankruptcy protection the year prior. With that, all of our service contracts were gone. It was so bad that I used to go to Costco to buy eight-foot florescent light bulbs by the dozens and carry them in the car with me. In stores, there I was on a ladder, in a suit, doing what it took to make stores go.
Did I enjoy that part? Not really, but it’s what it took. And if I didn’t like it, I had every opportunity to work elsewhere. Bottom line is I made the choice to be there and work through what was in front of me. There was no union to protect me, no resources to make it better at that time and I sure as hell didn’t get three months holidays. No, we went on call overnights for two weeks at a time in which we were responsible for any after-hours problems for the province. These problems ranged from pipes bursting, cash registers jamming, rocks being thrown through windows and up to and including physical assaults and murder. We got one day off with pay for each two-week shift we did.
Let’s bring this back to what it was: me challenging Kevin Epp that these exams do have a place — and they do. Teachers are not above being graded.
Kelly David
Penticton
