Carla Hammersley of Northport, a teacher of 15 years, was recently forced to resign due to a MEAP test violation. She did not give out any answers or prompts, but a committee of school board members found her guilty of the following:
• Providing information to three sixth grade students that may have aided in answering a total of five questions;
• Coaching sixth, seventh and eighth grade students by encouraging them during testing sessions, including writing, to include details, follow previously taught formats, and correct grammatical mistakes;
• Returning assessment materials to seventh and eighth grade students after students believed they had completed the test, and giving the students the opportunity to edit and revise their work;
• Using an overhead projector to review a persuasive essay format immediately before administering the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade writing tests
Hammersley insists that she is innocent and has done nothing wrong. Her concern remains on her students, insisting that they know that they have done nothing wrong throughout this whole process. She is going to try and seek to start a career somewhere else. She stated that if she stayed at her school in Newport, she would become “the kind of teacher she hates, never challenging another student or parent, for fear of reprimanding.”
I admire the fact that even though she is being forced to give up a job, and most likely students that she loves, she is still showing concern for her students. I personally would be furious if I was forced to resign, although I suppose it is better than being fired. We as mere readers of this article cannot know for sure whether she is innocent, but for now I will trust her word. I can only imagine how difficult of a situation she is in. What with all of her students being interviewed and asked to testify against her. It reminds me somewhat of The Dead Poet’s Society, where the children are turned against their teacher in order that their school might not take the blame. Of course I have no way of knowing that went on, I’m just talking.
The thing I realized from this article and from Carla’s resignation is that fact that we take standardized testing extremely serious in this country. I had never thought that there were ramifications for failing to distribute and give a test properly. I look at some of the things that she was accused of doing and underneath it all I see a person trying to be a good teacher to her students. Maybe she understands that the demands put upon her students by the MEAP, more specifically the writing assessment, are extremely demanding. Any teacher who sees a student in need of assistance is naturally going to want to help that student. Were these her motives, or was it merely a lack or caution on her part.
This situation makes me think that we as teachers are always going to have to cover out “behinds”. This in turn makes me wonder why it has to be this way? Why should a teacher of 15 years have to worry about being fired over helping her students with the MEAP. Why should teachers have to constantly look over their shoulder, in fear of being reprimanded-or even sued for doing this or that.
Perhaps I am being too dramatic, or too cynical. It may be I am worried about all these things because someday soon I might be in that same situation. This article shows again how much I do not know about the teaching world and how much I have to learn.
5 responses so far ↓
1
Ashley W
// Dec 3, 2007 at 11:29 am
I think that you raise a very important question…are we always going to have to cover our “behinds?” I think in a sense MEAP testing is out of control. If MEAP is all our teachers are worried about for a good chunk of the year, is that the kind of eduction we want kids to have? An education were they have to study the strict and structured elements of writing so that students can pass a timed test. Since NCLB, teachers have focused do much on keeping their schools off the “under-performing” list that MEAP prep has become the most important lesson of the day, month, and year.
While this teacher may have broke some rules of the MEAP test, can we blame the hype that is placed on preparing students for such tests?
When your livelihood is based on whether the students in your school perform above a certain standard, wouldn’t you want to give them every advantage possible. When your students learning and value as a student is assessed by a standardized test, wouldn’t you want to give them every advantage possible?
There has just got to be a better way in my opinion.
2
Ashley
// Dec 3, 2007 at 1:53 pm
This has to be, without a doubt, one of the most saddening/nerve-racking stories related to the topics of teaching and education that I have ever heard. It goes to show how extremely serious the subject of testing has become and how clearly education has lost its focus. From what I gather, it sounds like the teacher was doing what a good teacher should - guide a student in the right direction by helping him/her fix mistakes. Why must we disregard this when administering a test?
I do not want to try and answer my own questions, nor do I want to continue to rant about what most of us surely consider to be an idiotic policy. But I do want to express some concern that stories like this make me question my professional goals. There seems to be a plethora of negativity in the teaching profession which has forced multiple teachers to resign, and this terrifies me. I don’t want to become one of these teachers, but when the pressure is so high I have to wonder why I’m even doing this. I hate to say it, but my google reader has brought me articles similar to this multiple times this semester, and I have questioned my ability to stand my ground in a corrupt educational world.
Let’s just hope I’m alone in feeling this way.
3
Standing on Reason » Comments
// Dec 3, 2007 at 4:08 pm
[...] #2 [...]
4
Christina
// Dec 4, 2007 at 1:58 am
It’s true. MEAP and other standardized tests really monopolize a Michigan teacher’s time, and, therefore, her students’ time. I understand what Hammersley’s saying about caring for students’ learning more than the test. However, I do question her motives. She must have known that what she was doing was against regulations and all that. She chose to give her students that kind of help, anyway, and I wonder why. When I read this post, I get the feeling that Hammersley had an ax to grind about the whole standardized test issue. It seems like she was unhappy with the situation and handled it by going against the standards, which I’m fine with, except that she brought her students into it, and that I have a problem with. Of course, this is all speculation on my part, so I really do have little to say, but that’s the impression I get. I agree wholeheartedly with her and anyone else that standardized testing has reached nauseating proportions, but I think that as teachers we should handle it a little better than Hammersley.
5
» Comments Galore! Writer’s Block Demolition Site
// Dec 4, 2007 at 3:03 am
[...] Jonathon: http://sapele.edublogs.org/2007/11/30/teacher-resigns-over-meap-violation/#comment-20 [...]
Leave a Comment