I truly think that the quality review team should just show up completely unexpectedly (at any point in the year) without any warning. If we have to "get ready" for it, then we're really just putting on a show, aren't we?
First it was the binders with printouts of data that no one really uses. Do you think the QR people will notice that we printed out test item analysis reports to be analyzed a MONTH after the ELA was already over? Clearly those were not being used to "drive" instruction. So the newest thing is the "Vigilante Squad" (as one first grade teacher calls them). The Vigilante Squad consists of the Principal, AP and both coaches. They are going around from room to room completely changing furniture arrangements, demanding that more charts be added, putting in "centers" that we don't use, and generally causing all the teachers in the school to freak out. They don't consult the teacher on what they are changing, nor do they ask the reasoning behind the current set up of the classroom. When they finish their rearranging, they give the teacher three days to complete the organizing and cleaning (Or else?). The funny part of all this is that the administration has been harping on how when the QR people come "you students better know the routines of your class, how to use things in the room, where to find things, etc." So I guess changing every room in the school just a few weeks before the QR was the best way to ensure that.
If only we put the same amount of time and energy into teaching and planning and collaboration, we might just have a decent school.
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Administration drove me NUTS before the QR, swearing up and down that this particular reviewer was most definetly coming into my room, blah blah blah. After 2 weeks of torture, come the QR- nothing. No reviewer (except for the 2 minutes he came in during extended day).
Try not to make yourself too nuts, although I know it's hard.
They (your administrators) may have been genuinely afraid. Not an excuse for being stupid or giving contradictory instructions, just a bit of background. If they don't get enough points for QR and PR and COMPLIANCE and the P's OWN GOALS (whatever those last two mean, since they are in all CAPS they must be important, right?), well, if they don't accumulate enough points, they can get fired. No tenure and all that. And the new system is rigged to make sure a few of them do.
So in bad schools some of them are terrified, and in middle of the road places many of them are concerned (because, like many kids, they are not really good at counting up the points).
Jonathan
"If we have to "get ready" for it, then we're really just putting on a show, aren't we?"
I 100% agree with this sentiment and I know exactly how you feel. Our QR is coming up and it feels like how it must have felt on the boats just before the invasion of Normandy.
There's always something with those admins, isn't there? Always trying to squeeze something out of us or bothering us or what have you. Argh. Here's to hoping it's over quickly. :)
Administrators are good at camouflaging when visitors arrive. At the end of the year, all kids pass... and we all know that!
It would actually be nice if an administrators actually knew what they were doing. It's all BS.
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