Wednesday, September 05, 2012

Not Isolated Cases

Robin Kuykendall in comments:

I work for an NEA affiliate. Three months ago, we faced your Teacher B scenario exactly, except it was THREE teachers at once.. We did save the jobs of all 3, but not as reading specialists. They are, instead, back in classrooms & the $Millions+ invested in them & their fabulous literacy library is just abandoned for an IPad infusion, for teachers only, by Wireless Generation. The sup't could not tell how this "technology" would actually touch students. The steady gains in literacy over the past 6 years, which exceeded state norms for African-Americans, had NO bearing on the decision to spend more money and to "go in a different direction," in the words of the sup't. the small district has several certified reading specialists, one with a doctorate in ELL, but none of them were consulted in this decision. The sup't, himself, stated that he has never personally taught anyone to read. He has a postgraduate degree in something, but I really don't know what or from where.

So, I spoke. There are many more, but time for another person to join here.

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