As a DeKalb County teacher, Rebekah Morris says she knows some schools need to improve, but maintains the Opportunity School District is not the way to do it.
Writing in the AJC Get Schooled blog, Morris says her own school is at risk of state takeover if voters approve the OSD in November. Amendment 1 awards the state sweeping new powers to wrest schools away from local district control and place them under the authority of an appointed superintendent who can close them, restructure them or turn them over to charter school operators.
» Read more: 7 things to know about Gov. Nathan Deal's Opportunity School District
As a result of her high-poverty high school being on the takeover list, Morris says there is unrelenting pressure to improve and to document every step taken, so much so little time remains to innovate or inspire.
“When your school is ‘on the list,’ it’s not enough if teachers are collaborating to develop rigorous lessons and tests. We have to document we are doing so by filling out a two-page form every week. It’s not enough to write a lesson plan. We have to write a 10-15 page lesson plan every week detailing every way we are teaching every single standard for every single day. It’s not enough we are trying to differentiate for every single student. We have to document we are doing differentiation for every single student. This includes one to two pages per student documenting student weaknesses, strengths, parent contact logs, deficiency notices, response-to-intervention sheets, data team documentation, etc, etc. I’m sure I’ve forgotten some, too,” writes Morris.
To read more, go to the AJC Get Schooled blog.
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