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 Being a good teacher is a tough job, there's no doubt about it. There are enormous amounts of pressure and stress involved with the job and as we always hear, teachers are also underpaid for the job they do. It seems that to be a good teacher and to enjoy the job, a person truly has to feel as though it is a calling rather than a job. Some middle school science teachers in New Braunfels, Texas recently had some additional stress and pressure to deal with. According to a report by MySA.com, the principal at the school threatened to kill the teachers if the students in their classes did not improve their scores on standardized tests. You'd have to wonder if the comment by the principal was really a threat or if his delivery of what was meant to be a joke went monumentally wrong somewhere. It was no laughing matter to Anita White, a teacher who taught at New Braunfels Middle School for 18 years. She was transferred to the district's Learning Center after principal John Burks allegedly made the threat during a meeting with the eighth-grade science teachers on January 21. White filed a complaint with the New Braunfels Police Department after another teacher spoke to the school board about Burks' alleged threatening remarks and was ignored. After telling the teachers that the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test scores had to improve, Burks allegedly ended the meeting by telling the teachers that if the scores did not improve he would kill them all and then kill himself. The teachers said that he followed that remark with the words, "You don't know how ruthless I can be." None of the teachers thought it was a joke and they say that it was not said in a lighthearted manner. They left the meeting believing that their lives had just been threatened. Burks denies making the threatening remarks to the teachers. The police report was filed as a verbal assault but the police department is now reportedly investigating the incident as a terroristic threat. Standardized test scores are apparently a deadly serious matter with school administrators. Teachers complain that the test scores often do not actually reflect how well the students are learning the materials that are covered in class. However, school principals are held responsible for poor test scores and principals who can't deliver the required standardized test scores are in jeopardy of not only losing their jobs, but their careers as well. This certainly isn’t the first time that a principal has been stressed over the importantance of standarized test scores. School districts put an enormous amount of pressure on principals to deliver high test scores because funding for the schools can be cut if the scores are not up to par. However, Burks crossed the line and allegedly ventured into the territory of criminal behavior. If he was cracking under the pressure it would have been appropriate for him to take a leave of absence rather than to terrorize the teachers at his school. While the matter is under investigation, Burks is still on the job, which has to make the teachers uneasy. White has been transferred, so at least she can breathe easy. Her transfer paperwork was underway before she filed the complaint with police, so the transfer was not a result of the incident or he complaint, just a happy coincidence for her. She doesn't have to be one of the victims of the potential murder-suicide plot if the test scores at New Braunfels Middle School are inadequate this time.
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  written by feefifoto, April 05, 2008
No Child Left Behind, no matter how well-intentioned it might have been, is at the root of much of today's standardized test desperation. If you haven't read Freakonomics check it out -- there's a chapter on how teachers were discovered to have altered their students' standardized test answers so as to protect their jobs and salaries.
 written by chris, April 20, 2008
WOW! The most unfortunate thing about this whole issue is that our educational system will get another bad rap. People should realize that poor test scores is not only a result of poor schools with poor teachers and poor principals. We need to see that a failing educational system is a reflection of our failing society. If we want better schools and better test scores then we also need to fix crime, poverty, and unemployment in certain areas of our country.
But, what do I know...
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