What Would this Pandemic Look Like if Education Leaders Had Listened?

In recent weeks we witnessed states and school districts make difficult decisions to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The arguments against closing schools are familiar ones to teachers. We know better than anyone that for many of our students, school is the safest place. Many children in this country come from families that are dealing with job insecurity, a lack of health care, inadequate childcare options, poverty, addiction, hunger and homelessness. Teachers have been MAKING this argument for more than two decades. 

When No Child Left Behind ushered in annual high stakes testing and rankings that could close schools where students didn’t make the amount of progress deemed acceptable by the government, teachers spoke up for students. We explained that many of them face lives outside of school that make it impossible for education to be their number one priority. 

Many of us who spoke this truth were shamed and accused of not having high enough expectations for our students. We were told that students’ personal lives were something over which we had no control. We were told that we were being too political if we brought up the social justice issues impacting our students. 

Around the same time, curriculum, technology and testing companies scrambled to profit from the idea that we could “fix” students who were falling behind. Common core standards were developed and adopted, with very little input from classroom teachers, and NO input from teachers of the youngest students (K-3). The focus was on pushing down “rigorous” academic standards to the youngest learners to force those “high expectations”. Teachers knew this was damaging our students, because we witnessed the tears, the stress and the distraction that resulted from forcing them to do tasks that were developmentally inappropriate. 

Still, instruction in high poverty schools focused almost exclusively on preparing students to pass the tests. Companies convinced state and district education leaders that one of the best ways to prepare students was to strong-arm teachers into delivering curriculum EXACTLY the way the companies directed. No more professional judgement. No more creativity in lesson planning. 

The term teaching with “fidelity” was born and became a cornerstone of instruction in schools, especially those with marginalized students. History and civics were squeezed out of the curriculum to make more time for tested subjects. Teachers saw that our students were living with injustice and now they were being denied an education that could teach them to challenge it.  We looked into their eyes every day, knowing that the curriculum we were being forced to deliver was NOT what they needed. 

Many of us adopted the practice of “closing our door” and continuing to provide what we knew our students needed. We risked getting off the pacing guide and being reprimanded for it.  Then, politicians and billionaire philanthropists pushed the teacher evaluation systems that meant frequent walk-through “gotcha” observations that punished teachers who were not following the scripts or the pacing guide or the mandates for posting standards. We were professionally developed, unfairly evaluated, blamed and sometimes even bullied to the point that many of us said, "No more... I'm out."

So, as we watch state and district education leaders admit publicly that professionals who work with students everyday provide much more than academics, we can’t help but wonder… what if you had listened to us? What if your high expectations had included things like a living wage, healthcare, affordable housing, and mental health resources? What if, instead of seeing students and teachers through your deficit lens you had seen them as human beings with individual strengths and needs and developmental timelines? What if instead of wasting two decades experimenting on children by allowing corporations to push their curriculum and tests on students you had used your power to strengthen families and demand equity of resources from politicians and billionaire philanthropists? 

What if you had put your efforts into fighting poverty and racism instead of fighting teachers? If you had, maybe our students and their families would have better jobs, healthcare, and housing to withstand this crisis. Maybe there would be more teachers available to help with distributing meals, supporting communities and keeping students connected to their schools during this challenging time. Instead of being accountable, as you so often demand from others, some of you tried to put teachers, students and their families in harm’s way of this virus by keeping schools open. Even amid closures, some districts still required teachers to come into buildings. Teachers, who have always reliably donated many, many work hours from home even before the days of the internet. Perhaps it was about trying to “control the message” as the whole world was about to see how crucial teachers really are to the equation of educating children. 

Of this we are certain, if you had listened to us there would currently be an entire generation of young people more prepared not only for college and career, but to take on the uncertain future that has been left to them by leaders who did not care about them or their families.

Written by Maureen McGurk, Delaware BAT, member of BAT Quality of Worklife Team