How Would You Measure Up?

If you are willing to let me step on a soapbox to share an opinion please read on.

Florida Representative Kelli Stargel has introduced a bill were K-3 teachers would be required  to grade parents. 

The assessment would be based on three criteria: quoted from cnn.com article 

"• A child should be at school on time, prepared to learn after a good night's sleep, and have eaten a meal.

• A child should have the homework done and prepared for examinations.

• There should be regular communication between the parent and teacher."

As a teacher (and not a parent), I think this is a fantastic idea!  This quote from a Huffingtonpost.com article on the topic does a nice job of explaining the rational

"We have student accountability, we have teacher accountability, and we have administration accountability. This was the missing link, which was, look at the parent and making sure the parents are held accountable."

Teacher accountability and judgment has become a bit unrealistic and unfair. I will be the first to admit that there are teachers who are horrible!  Few things (in the world of education) make me angrier than complacent and ineffective educators!  They should be publicly named, denounced and have their licenses revoked.  

But for every horrific teacher I've worked with there have been two terrific, dedicated teachers.  Yet, all the passion, training, and hours in the world can't guarantee students' rate of progress and level of accomplishment.  There are many contributing factors- funding, time, parental involvement, early intervention/education, housing, natural aptitude, hunger, language proficiency, health (mental and physical), disAbility, proximity to violence, etc., as hard as I work and as dedicated as I am to my kids, I can't combate all the outside factors.  As a special education teacher I have multiple examples which illustrate the point that "all kids can succeed , just in different ways and at different times". And how No Child Left Behind is unrealistic, unfair and harmful to my kids (but that is a different post).

Yet, parents (and lawmakers/politicians) judge us. The harsh judgmental, gossip parents spread- verbally, and more and more frequently in public forms like facebook, is inappropriate.  It shows a lack of respect for the time, effort, energy we put into educating their child (and the overall profession). 

The sayings about "parents being a child's first teacher"and being a "parent the most important job in the world", are very true and it's time they be assessed.  If they want their child to be successful, parents should be doing all in their power to make that a reality. 

As a special education teacher I've my share of crazy, unreasonable, unfair and unkind parents.  There have also been kind, sweet and appreciative parents.  Some parents are unrealistic, others are too involved, some should be more involved. But it is not acceptable for me tell them that in, someways, they might be doing more harm than good.

I would expand on the three criteria outlined in the proposal.  Naturally, there needs to be some structure and boundaries to ensure the assessment was conducted in a professional and productive form. I'm also curious about the consequences and remediation for a negative grade.

I doubt the bill will pass, but I think it is an interesting idea that should be explored further.

What do you think?