Teaching Tips & Tricks, Uncategorized | Jun 11, 2010
Switching grades: teacher needs vs. school needs
By Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Switching grades: teacher needs vs. school needs
By Angela Watson
8 little words can invoke panic in the heart of almost any teacher: “You’re moving to a different grade next year.”
Changing grade levels is a big topic of conversation in June. In some schools, nothing’s been decided yet, so the rumors are flying and everyone’s unsettled. Other principals have already dropped the bomb: I’ve heard of one school in which a kindergarten teacher is being moved to 7th grade, which means the 7th grade teacher is being moved to 4th, so that teacher’s moving to 2nd, and the 2nd grade teacher’s going down to kindergarten.
Why the huge shuffle? Because one teacher is the weakest link, and the principal’s playing a game to make sure he inflicts the least amount of damage on students.
Situations like that infuriate me. It’s one thing when a drastic move is necessitated by budgetary reasons; for example, when a position must be cut due to decreased enrollment or funding. I can also understand moving a teacher into his of her field of expertise or preference. However, causing a chain reaction of switches for no reason other than to shuffle an incompetent teacher is a tragedy.
I’m amazed at how often this happens. Sometimes the principal is trying to run the teacher off or force early retirement (and it often works). But many times it’s a matter of placing ineffective educators in non-standardized-testing grades, as if children who don’t get scored by the state one particular year are of any less value or don’t deserve a top-quality education.
Another grade-switch reasoning that bothers me: This teacher’s been in the same grade for too long. He’s getting stale and stuck in a rut. I’ll move him up two grade levels and he’ll have no choice but to change with the times!
Wrong, wrong, wrong. He DOES have a choice: to get really angry, shut down, and try even less. He has the choice to take his frustration out on the kids and everyone around him. And chances are, if he’s the kind of teacher who refused to try new things in his former position, he’s not going to be too excited about learning to work a SmartBoard now that he has a whole new curriculum to figure out.
I’m not excusing the laziness and incompetence of certain teachers. I’m ascertaining that moving ineffective teachers to another grade level doesn’t fix the problem by itself, and it can make things worse for everyone else affected.
Most teachers have an increasingly limited amount of autonomy in their jobs, and I believe that choosing the age level or subject area they’d like to devote their career to teaching is a reasonable expectation. An unhappy teacher is never going to be as effective as a happy one, so shouldn’t a principal honor a teacher’s wishes whenever possible?
Not everyone agrees with me on this, I know. Whether you do depends on your feelings about a few fundamental questions:
- What is a legitimate reason for forcing a teacher to switch grade levels?
- Are administrators obligated to make any switch that will benefit the maximum number of students? If so, how can those potential benefits truly be gauged in advance?
- Is it worth making a few teachers unhappy if it’s advantageous to the school as a whole? And when we refer to the benefit of the ‘school’, do we really mean the faculty, the students, or the test scores?
We can all agree that the purpose of school should be to meet the needs of children, but teaching is a professional career choice. I don’t think anyone should be stuck teaching something they’re not passionate about.
So what’s more important in your perspective, the good of the ‘school’ or the good of the teacher?
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Discussion
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I can’t believe in this day with all the testing that principals still don’t work with teachers to see what they feel most comfortable teaching. If a teacher is moved to another grade they should get extra get 3 years before being brought up on tenure charges if they can’t get things turned around. You can’t just move people around every year and then say you better be highly effective in November.
I was told a few weeks ago I may be the new technology teacher next year. Something I started as 7 years ago to get my foot in the door. I have taught 2nd grade the last 6 years. I have absolutely no want to push a cart from room to room with laptops. I give so much credit to specialist, but that is not me at all.
I have had good test scores all year so I really feel like this is a move to bring in a friend or ruin my career. Either way the position they are trying to move me into has been funded more then 2 years in a row and everyone else who taught it got fired. It is a dead end set up.
I need help. I’m a parent that is leading a charge against an elementary grade school principal that is strong arming teachers in to changing grade levels and hence loosing some wonderful teachers at our school in the process. I need to know the protocol/criteria for changing teachers grade levels so I can go to the superintendent fully informed. Sadly, our teachers need the parents to fight for their jobs. He is a new principal that is splitting up the stronger teams in a power play that is unacceptable to parents and teachers alike. Thanks in advance for your advice.
Diane, thank you for standing up on behalf of your school’s teachers and kids. I wish that I could give you a standard protocol, but it really depends on your state and district. I’m assuming you have already attended to speak to the principal directly about the problem. I would think the next step would be to attend school board meetings or request a meeting with the superintendent (or area superintendent, if it’s a large district). Get in touch with the office of the principal’s supervisor and ask for the protocol in having your concerns heard and addressed. I wish you all the best.
Diane you are a saint! Thank you for being an advocate for all the children who would end up suffering if all the teachers get shuffle around. The general rhetoric is, “change is good”. But in my opinion, so is stability. I believe that these ludicrous shuffling of teacher is nearly a cruel tactic to force out the older, more expensive teachers. Then replace them with cheaper new teachers. I’ve seen this happen way to often. This is a tricky way of getting out of dept. I believe there maybe a case for age discrimination.
I am a teacher going into my third year. When I was hired, I expressed that I preferred primary grades but was placed in fifth grade with the promise that the following year I would be moved into a primary grade. My principal made good on that promise and moved me into first grade (which I loved). Now at the conclusion of this school year, I was told that I would be moving back to fifth grade because they want someone more experienced in the first grade positions. As a new teacher, I feel disgruntled and defeated. I was not notified of this thought process until the last day of school and feel that I was not given the support or opportunity to grow. My fear now is that I will have to change grade levels each year and never be able to grow as an educator. Am I justified in feeling like I am being short-changed?
I’m entering my 18th year of teaching and have recently gotten new administration who are clear that we will be moving grades/subjects. Unfortunately we won’t be told where until the end of July and school starts August 17. With only 2 weeks to prepare for something new I’m so frustrated. It angers me when new administrators feel they need to make moves to assert their authority before even getting to know their new staff. How can they make such important decisions without knowing our strengths and weaknesses and passions?
Megan,
I can feel the pain in your message. It really is something that happens all to frequently these days in education, and with little real explanation. You can only gain experience by letting you go through the motions like every teacher has. I would be curious to ask some other questions. If you would like email me at mpfire24@yahoo.com so we can discuss some more. Good luck and talk to you soon. 🙂