What Teachers (and Students) Need Most from Administrators

Some may think the (and students) means I consider student needs secondary behind teachers' needs. Not true. I wrote it like that because most students don't really understand what they NEED most, and what they need most isn't necessarily what they want out of school. 

The classroom is different today than it was five years ago. When we sent kids home in 2020 and told them to hide under the covers and we'd give them an A...for doing absolutely nothing...for learning absolutely nothing...for nothing...nothing, when that happened, a shift in expectations occurred. And it hasn't shifted back yet, at least not everywhere. Teachers (and students) need that to shift back, and they need it now!

Kids got used to having great grades for doing almost no work. Kids got used to having a high GPA without learning. To make things worse, when they came back in the fall of 2020, we sent them home for two weeks at a time when they heard the word Covid in the hallways. Over and over again, instruction and learning fell prey to the dreaded call over the intercom, "so-and-so, bring all your belongings and come to the [insert exile departure location here]." The dreaded quarantine call. When you heard it, you knew you wouldn't see them again for at least two weeks.

Through all that interruption to teaching and learning, kids' grades were not allowed to suffer. It was demanded most places that report cards looked as good to parents as they had before the plague ensued. The expectation that kids make good grades remained, but the expectation that they actually learned anything vanished. So report cards went home with A's and B's, even though very little or no learning was occurring. 

Don't get me wrong. Some places saw how dangerous this was and maintained expectations and standards. But many didn't. Many still haven't shifted back, and good grades are still expected even when little or no learning occurs. In some cases, teachers' may be at fault, but in many teachers are just trying to do they best they can with the cards they're dealt.

Too often, policies and practices dictated by administrators make it nearly impossible to assign a failing grade to a kid who does nothing more than breathe. Teachers are given a list of hoops they must jump through if a kid's grade falls below x%. Multiply those hoops by dozens of kids and it is physically impossible to get them all done. If the teacher tries, and only assigns the failing grade to the ones s/he managed to get through all the hoops for, then charges of treating those kids differently than the ones who earned failing grades but didn't get them because the teacher just couldn't get to the hoops for those kids, let alone get through them.

Then teachers who try to impose expectations on kids are chastised for being too mean. Assign too many detentions for disrespect or refusal to follow instructions and the teacher is charged with poor classroom management skills, while the consequences the kid receives are the same offense after offense after offense. The purpose of disciplinary consequences in school is not to punish. At least, it should not be. The purpose is to change inappropriate behavior. If the same kid repeatedly commits the same egregious behavior and repeatedly receives the same consequence with no resulting change in inappropriate behavior, the consequence needs to change so that it achieves its purpose. Instead, too often, the teacher is blamed for poor classroom management.

What it all boils down to is this. ALL the expectation is dumped on the teacher. None on the student. Many students figure all this out and take full advantage. Once they realize you cannot fail them, they sit back and coast. Once they figure out the same ineffective consequence is what they'll receive, there's no inhibition to continue the misbehavior.

Thank God there are still parents who insist their kids behave, work, and learn, because human nature takes over with many who could get so much more out of school than what they leave with. What incentive does a kid have to go home and do an hour of homework if he knows the student in the seat beside him will get just as good a grade if he doesn't do it? What motivation is there to learn and prepare for a test if a student knows they will get to retake it as many times as they want until the grade is satisfactory to them? Why should a kid behave in class if he sees the kid next to him get sent back to class after a candy bar and a cold drink when the teacher sends him to the office?

Kids aren't dumb. They figure things out. And one of the easiest things for them to figure out is when administrators have no expectations of students, and blame teachers for the kids' misbehavior and lack of achievement. 

Don't get me wrong. There are certainly bad teachers out there. Just like there are bad doctors, lawyers, police officers, and every other profession. There are certainly parents out there who make it difficult for administrators to hold a line of expectations on students, but that's why they have the nice big desk and get the nice big check. To hold that line and create an environment where teachers can teach instead of jump through hoops, or constantly endure unabated discipline problems. 

I'm not claiming it's easy. Administrators who give teachers (and students) what they need most have a super tough job.  Administrators who don't are working to make their own jobs as easy as possible. And that results in an environment where teachers can't teach and students don't learn.

What teachers (and students) need most is policies that create an environment where teachers can teach and students learn.

Teachers need the freedom to assign the grades that students learn with the understanding that administrators will support them. If a student fails a grade or a class, the student should repeat the grade or class. Anything less--social promotion or a ridiculously easy task or series of tasks that "earn" them the credit--discourages students who can learn from putting forth the effort. 

Teachers need administrators to assign consequences that will change aberrant behavior. Subsequent offenses or persistent misbehavior should result in progressive consequences, up to expulsion. If the straw that breaks the camel's back is a seemingly minor offense, that minor offense isn't what results in the major penalty. It's the pile of offenses, regardless of their severity, and the unwillingness of the student to change their behavior when they received lesser penalties, that results in the serious consequences they eventually receive.

Teachers need administrators to stop trying to force all teachers into a prescribed mold. If a teacher is engaging in unprofessional conduct, then call that teacher aside and address the issue with the offending teacher. Don't create a new procedure and call a faculty meeting to impose it on teachers who aren't offending. Every time a new one of these procedures is put in place, it piles on one more thing for teachers to do or change. It doesn't take many of these changes or extra duties to hobble a great teacher and make it impossible to accomplish what she otherwise could. That great teacher who was always doing her job and never a problem should be able to continue to practice her art how she was practicing when she was so effective!

Teachers who struggle and all new teachers need administrators who trust their strong, experienced teachers enough to assign them as mentors. Anything less is poorly managing the most valuable resource in the building--experienced teachers.

I only taught for 18 years. Believe it or not, when I started, all of this I mention here today was pretty standard in school. At least it was in the schools people considered good schools. Now, 18 years later, these things are the exception. But the schools where they exist are largely still considered good schools. 

Administrators. If you want your school to be a good school, the provide what your teachers (and students) need most. 

Expectations of students. High expectations that students learn and behave. 

It won't be easy to get the train back on track, but it will be worth it. Give teachers an environment where they can teach and students can learn. They'll thank you for it one day. It won't be today. But one day they will thank you.