Re: “,” Oct. 7 news story.
I taught in Aurora for 22 years. I retired earlier than I wanted to because my frustration level became unbearable.
I agree that APS lurched from one plan to another too frequently. Teachers referred to these gyrations as “the flavor of the month.” No sooner would we gather the materials and techniques to adequately implement a curricular shift, than those at the top would be replaced and a new program would be initiated. After two or three such shifts, teachers are leery to invest much in the new “flavor.”
Over my career, increased emphasis was placed on top-down management and the resulting bureaucratic inertia devalued the knowledge of experienced teachers. If teachers questioned the newest “flavor,” we were branded as “not being team players.”
Poverty and ineffective parental involvement also handicap many APS students’ academic careers. As a basketball coach and a teacher, I had much better parental attendance at basketball games than I had at parent-teacher conferences.
I now sub in high-performing districts, namely Cherry Creek and Boulder Valley. Despite their better results, I can see that the teachers in these districts are not better than the teachers in APS. In fact, most wouldn’t survive in APS.
Many of my former APS students went on to college and successful careers. They worked hard in my class, and their parents/grandparents/guardians were involved and concerned about their progress. They understood the concept of deferred gratification and they came to school understanding that education was their opportunity to improve their lives.
Edward Epstein lives in Denver.
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