Teacher to governor: This is what I take personally
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence recently created a mini-firestorm in his state when he was talking to teachers at an elementary school about the newly designed standardized tests called ISTEP. Noting that policymakers had expected the scores to go down because the tests were new and more difficult, he indicated that educators shouldn’t take the results personally.
Of course, it’s hard for teachers not to given that the results are linked to teacher evaluations, though Pence, a Republican, is supporting legislation that would hold teachers harmless for a year because the tests are new. Still, there was immediate reaction to Pence’s comments, including from the camp of Glenda Ritz, a Democrat who is the superintendent of public instruction in Indiana and who briefly campaigned for governor until dropping out this past August. Annie Mansfield, spokeswoman for Ritz’s reelection campaign, said in a news release:
“Working with students every day is a calling, and any teacher who heard Governor Pence’s ‘don’t take it personal’ suggestion would be offended. Teachers and schools do take it personally when they are told they are failures because of high-stakes testing.”
According to the Star Press, Pence’s press secretary Kara Brooks said he had been misunderstood. She was quoted as saying:
“The Governor was explaining to a dedicated third-grade teacher that we are in a transition year and that the decline in scores was fully anticipated.”
Teachers weren’t mollified by the explanation. Here’s one reaction from Donna Roof, who has taught in Indiana public schools for 30 years and is a co-founder of an advocacy group called the Northeast Indiana Friends of Public Education, which was created to inform the public about the effects of legislation and education reform policies that are instrumental in dismantling and privatizing public schools. She has testified before the Indiana State Board of Education, written letters to lawmakers, spoken with lawmakers of both parties, and hosted conferences of her organization with attendees from Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. This appeared on her organization’s blog.
Here’s the open letter to Pence from Donna Roof:
So, Governor Pence, you recently told a teacher not to take the ISTEP results personally.Well, actually, Governor…When I see developmentally inappropriate education curriculum,Teacher to governor: This is what I take personally - The Washington Post: