Creating an Environment for Success #michEd

 This is the classic cliche: You can lead a horse to water but can’t make it drink argument. Ironically I agree with the Nerd on this one. I am confused because this is the exact same statement educational professionals have been making for the past few years as so-called educational reformers have changed how student achievement data is used to evaluate educators. Are teachers supposed to be held to a higher standard than  the governor?

A teachers job is to create an environment where every learner can be successful. All of our students are at different starting points when they arrive in our classrooms and when they leave they exit through different doors on their educational journey. Our job is not to have these students score proficiently on a standardized test one day out of the 180 they are in our classrooms.  Teachers are trained in creating an environment for educational success. When are teacher evaluations going to be created that measure the ability of teachers to build this atmosphere and teach, instead of how well our students perform on tests created by large corporations.

Governor Snyder, if you feel that you can use this statement to defend the business climate here in Michigan. Then you need to listen to teachers who make the same statements, instead of dismantling our education system in the state. Stop allowing for-profit charters from taking over public school districts. Return educational funding to pre-recession funding levels. Changing the educational funding system to create an atmosphere for educational collaboration instead of competition. Then you will have given teachers an environment for success like you have created for businesses in the state. The children of Michigan deserve it. The tax payers desire it. Educators have been demanding it.