Wanna know the truth???

These TN teachers, under the safety of anonymity, tell what they really think:

• All we do is test, test, test. There is not enough time to Teach, Teach, Teach. 
• The reason I became a teacher more and more fades away. My love for students and their love for learning leaves because of the stress placed upon everyone involved. Teaching is not about students anymore. They are seen more as data and statistics rather than a personal child.
• I work at school until 5:00 PM everyday and spend hours working at home, because I love my students. Is this fair to my 10 year old and 4 year old? 
• Common Core is a bad idea being pushed through without support materials. You have the cart before the horse.
• There is too much testing. We are teaching kids to hate learning. 
• Teacher effectiveness scores do not correlate with true "teacher effectiveness" at my school. 
• Our curriculum (Pearson) is NOT common core. It says it is… it is not. CC is less standards but should delve deeper. That is not what Pearson Math or Reading does!
• I went into this job as a lifelong dream. I love my kids, I love my parents, and I love teaching and seeing my kids grow and learn; HOWEVER, I have found the things I love are being taken away. We test too much and are way too stressed as teachers...it is not right.
• Too much testing ‐‐ let us teach!
• Common Core is not Kindergarten developmentally appropriate
• I truly love being an educator, but have spent more time away from my family, in tears, and sick due to stress. This is not okay!  My students need more from this district and it begins with respecting us as educators.
• I feel my school is so micromanaged that I am limited to complete the needed things that I know my kids need. PLC's at our school feel forced and counter productive. The students are tested WAY too much and don't have time for authentic learning opportunities.
• I feel as teachers, no one is listening to how stressed, overworked, and underpaid we truly are for the job you are expecting us to perform. 
• Testing is ridiculous. Teachers are wasting too much time collecting data (numbers of no value). 30 to 35 days out of the school year is wasted for testing. Wasted time.
• Educators are not "human capital!" We could be excellent partners in making our school district a truly exceptional one, if allowed the opportunity!
• Assessments are excessive. Students in K‐2 should not be expected to participate in high stakes testing. They are not developmentally ready for this and it is pitiful to watch them take these tests. Our decision‐making as teachers has been reduced and we are not allowed to make decisions about what benefits our kids.
• CBM, TCAP, Discovery Ed, Module Test, SAT 10, CARE, summative test, formative tests … How much testing/assessment needs to be done to determine where a child is? What exactly are we assessing? Something is wrong when students are excited to simply watch an educational video at recess to "take a break."
• Teachers are overworked, putting in 60+ hours a week, at the expense of time with their own families. The students are as stressed as the teachers!
• Our children are over‐tested! Politicians think this is necessary. Educators need to stand up and let the politicians know this. Everyone working for a school district needs to be an educator, not a politician.
• Evaluation scores should not be 50% on how your class did on one test!
• I am expected to be a professional without being treated as one.
• I was told with the transition to CCSS that there would be less standards to cover with the intention of more times to go deeper with the material and reach a higher level of mastery … when will that happen? We still have to cover the same amount!
• The pacing that we are driving our K‐2 students is overwhelming. Students are moving at such a rapid pace they are loosing the enjoyment of learning. Many students that are already struggling feel defeated. As teachers without many extra hands, we feel overwhelmed with a task that seems out of reach. Please give more support staff.
• The overall morale of our school has greatly decreased in the past few year due to the evaluation model and implementation of Common Core.
• Too much focus on data and not enough focus on what really is good for children. We already know who needs help.
• I wish we were respected more and our pay reflected what we did for our societies future generations.
• Certain aspects of Common Core are acceptable, but others are not. For example, the selling point for CCSS, was that we would teach less standards more in‐depth. We haven't seen the "less" yet. More and more keeps getting added to our plates.
• Teachers aren't allowed to use their own judgment in making decisions for their classrooms. The district has put more value on data and numbers and have forgotten that we are teaching children who have human characteristics and problems. We are teaching to the test and students aren't truly learning for life. That is why we have to spend time reteaching the same skills every year.
• Some CC skills are not developmentally appropriate.
• My biggest concern at this time is the SAT 10 for kindergarten. I do not agree with putting the kids through 4 days of 1‐2 hours each day of sitting still and attending to a test. They cry, get frustrated, have belly aches, and talk throughout the test. The scores you receive from these tests are not a good picture of what they know. The kids would be better served if we kept portfolios, narratives, and running records.
• Our elementary kids are crying about coming to school because of all the testing. WHY DO WE NEED THAT MUCH TESTING???
• The common core standards, plus the rigid adherence to class subject schedules in elementary schools, have taken away the art and individualization with teaching
• Common Core and NGSS are a complete intrusion on teacher autonomy of the student learning process. Not to mention a massive waste of funds that could be used where they belong ‐‐ hiring qualified individuals and giving them a competitive and fair salary
• The acronym "TEAM" is a misnomer. All these evaluations undermine the wonderful team we had in place for decades. Now a demoralized staff that should be focused on individual students has to worry about demonstrating a plethora of good traits every day. Our personal commitment to our students is sabotaged by concern over personal ratings.
• It seems as if the adoption of common Core has now reached the most severely disabled students and their assessment for the next year is not in the best interest of the students, but only the company who is selling it. We no longer look at kids individually, but as the same.
• Please listen to the teachers who have expressed some serious issues with the evaluation process and common core standards. If so many people perceive problems ‐‐ there are problems!

Click HERE to read THOUSANDS of recent comments from Teachers in Knox County, TN.

You can also see more teacher comments on Twitter: #KnoxTeacherQuotes

Knox County teachers, like many other teachers in Tennessee, have valid concerns.  In the past few months, Knox County teachers have bravely spoken at their public school board meetings, even though they risked their jobs by doing so.  These teachers are committed to quality education and their students.

Their requests are fair, logical, and benefit their students:

• A validation system that respects teachers as professionals; provides useful content-specific feedback for growth; and does not detract from the educational process.
• An end to the excessive standardized testing that takes up valuable instructional time, restricts the curriculum, and treats children as data points.
• A redistribution of financial and other resources AWAY from corporate interests and back into our children's classrooms.
• An educational decision-making process that includes students, parents, and teachers as valid and valuable contributors and equal partners.