Kathy Korte often says comments about teachers being “lousy”, parents are “whiny”, and once called a student she had supposedly never met a “jerk”…and though, in my opinion, she has gone off the deep end, I do think she had a point back in 2012 when she said she supported teacher evaluations (Sometimes poor Ms. Korte can’t make up her mind…teacher evaluations are something she now opposes):
“I registered my kids and see that my battles will continue at the schools because of a few rogue teachers who aren’t doing their jobs, and no one is forcing them to,” Korte wrote in an email last week to district administrators, the local teachers’ union president and the school board.
“Sleeping on the job; lack of a clear curriculum; lack of communication with parents; bipolar-like tendencies that tell kids to do one thing as they rush out the door when the bell rings and do another when the kids return to class the next day; the list goes on and on and my frustration grows.”
Korte said in an interview that the teachers she was referring to are ones who have instructed her children over the years or about whom she has heard from others. She said she has complained to principals, who have been unwilling to go through the steps of putting the teachers on improvement plans, or who have put them on plans but the process has dragged out and the teachers remain in the classroom.
In her email, Korte commended the district and the union for moving forward this year on teacher evaluation and reforms at Emerson Elementary, but “those types of reforms should have been going on many, many years ago and only took hold when the state started breathing down districts’ necks.”
Korte said in her interview that she would like to see a team-oriented evaluation system, where those who teach the same subjects and grade levels work together to share strategies. Korte said she believes a team approach would help put pressure on those who are pulling the team down.
“I’m not talking, ‘We’re all going to rat you out.’ But I’m talking about a system where teachers say, ‘This is the expectation for all of our kids at the end of the unit test.’ For a teacher who doesn’t achieve, it’s ‘Well what happened? What did you not do?’ ”
Korte said she hopes such a system would create peer pressure on teachers to either improve or leave the profession. She acknowledged the problem is a difficult one.
“I don’t have answers, I just can tell you my experiences,” she said. “It’s such a few teachers, but why are we even dealing with these few, when everyone knows who they are?”
Today Ms. Korte opposes teacher evaluations– in what appears to be a complete swing to the other side of the debate. But I must admit, I think Korte had a perspective that we can learn something from in the Albuquerque Journal piece above…
VIDEO: The problem in our schools
Thisvideo shows exactly what is wrong with our education system, and shows us how badly it needs to be fixed for the sake of our children and families!
Disclaimer: Lest I be labeled a “union hater” I will say that I have many union-member friends and family. I believe that unions have a place, but hold to the belief that unions have often become “out of hand” and too political, instead of serving the best interests of all involved.
Many thanks to the friends who passed the Albuquerque Journal article on to me, and emailed me the video above!
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Political Fireball 