****
It was 11:30 and Tamiko was almost late for the big emergency meeting. When she arrived she had just enough time to scrawl her name on a sign in sheet and find a place at the crowded table and sit down. She was squished between Miss Moss and Miss Fields. Tamiko knew she wouldn’t see Rosalyn here since her lunch was next period. Not soon after Tamiko was seated, Booker hurriedly closed the conference room door and Nettlenerves rose to address everyone.
“Has everyone has gotten their memo? If you’ve read it then you know that we are going to be having our Quality Review early this year. Now that’s not such a big deal as we are always providing our students with a quality education. What is a big deal is that there are going to be some changes to the review process and to the criteria for the ratings. Charlie’s going to hand out the copies of the new guidelines that I got at a Network meeting.”
At Nettlenerves cue, Booker passed out copies of the Quality Review guidelines and procedures to all of the teachers. After briefly perusing the pages, Tamiko felt overwhelmed. There was so much information in such detailed technical jargon, she could hardly make out what it meant.
“We don’t have time to go over everything, so I’m just going to go over what the important changes are and how they affect us. The first big change is there is no longer an “Outstanding” Rating. There are only 4 ratings Undeveloped, Undeveloped with Proficient features, Proficient, and Well Developed. Of course we’re going for Well Developed. The next big change is the criteria for Well Developed. This year the department wants every child to be able to articulate a set of personal learning goals for every subject and be able to tell reviewers what their goals are. This is for every child in every grade. You will need to post these goals on a classroom goals board, and keep copies in a special goals binder. You will also need to keep track of how the students are progressing toward their personal goals.”
“Even Pre-K!” asked Miss Smith, one of the pre-kindergarten teachers.
“Even Pre-K”, affirmed Nettlenerves.
“But that’s absurd. I could understand if the children were older. But 4, 5 and even some 6 year-olds don’t understand what a goal is, much less make a bunch of them and remember them”, complained one of the kindergarten teachers.
“And I could see if it were just one goal, but for one kid to try to remember all these different goals for all the different subjects. They’re having enough difficulty learning the academic content we’re teaching them and then they want to pile this on top of it”, added another teacher.
“This is what’s coming out of central and it’s not going to change. So we’ve got to find a way to make it work”, Nettlenerves replied.
“Maybe you could make songs out of them, that way it would be easier for the children to memorize them”, suggested Booker.
“And what about the paperwork for us? A goals binder and a goals bulletin board?” the kindergarten teacher shot back.
“No one said this was going to be easy. I’m not going to have a picnic in the park either. All teachers will have to make goals as well. I’m going to have to keep these goals in a binder and keep track of your goals”, Nettlenerves argued.
A lot of mumbling and disgruntled moans echoed throughout the conference room.
“There is another big change to the Quality Review which is even more important. You know that in years past, Mrs. Stone was able to choose the classrooms for visits, as well as the participants of teacher committee that would speak to the reviewer. Now it’s out of our hands. Central will be providing the reviewer with a copy of our organization sheet and they will be picking classrooms at random”, Nettlenerves continued.
Tamiko’s hear leapt into her mouth.
“They are going to want to see our professionals across a spectrum. They will want to see one first year teacher, one seasoned professional, one cluster teacher, and a resource room specialists. The team that will be interviewed will be composed of these teachers.”
“Lord, God, please let them pick Joan. Please let them pick Joan.” Tamiko prayed silently to herself.
“I would like to impress upon everyone here that this Quality Review is very important, not just to the school but to the community. It is imperative that we all put our best foot forward in order to keep this building open and to continue to provide the great educational experiences to these children who need it most. Now I know that we all don’t always see eye to eye, and some of you are not pleased with the procedures and policies of this organization. However, I ask that you do not use the Quality Review as tool of retaliation or to make your grievances public. Not only is it unprofessional, but there will be consequences.”
Tamiko thought it was unprofessional even to bring something like this up. She was sure that no one in his or her right mind would ever use the Quality Review to settle personal grievances.
“We are going to have another meeting on Tuesday afternoon before the break. Hopefully some of you will want to volunteer for our Quality Review Team and help us prepare. In the meantime, I want you to go over the criteria rubric and the new regulations over the weekend and think of the ways in which we meet the other criteria listed, and how we can integrate these goals more seamlessly into the fabric of our school culture.”
As the meeting ended Tamiko dashed back to her classroom. She needed time by herself to digest everything that she learned at the meeting. When she got back she realized that she had 15 minutes left to the period to eat her lunch, but she was way too distracted. Tamiko flopped into her teacher’s chair at her desk and stared into space. They were going to pick people at random, and they were definitely going to pick a first year teacher. There was a 50 percent chance that she would be picked and that was a very good chance. She wondered when they would know who was picked. There would be nothing worse than finding out a few days before the actual Review. “You’re being silly.” Tamiko said to herself. “You may not even be picked and all this worry will have been for nothing. And with the way Stone and Nettlenerves feel about you, I wouldn’t be surprised if they bribed someone not to pick you.” But then what if she was picked? What kind of lesson would she do? What if the kids had an off day? What if she ended up making a really stupid mistake, causing the school to receive some sort of sanction? “Lord help me to leave this in your hands. Let your grace be sufficient enough for me”, Tamiko prayed.
Forty-eight