Promotion/Retention Season

Teachers it's that time of year again, where the data doesn't matter and whatever the state says goes!

The day has come and it is finally your team's turn to meet and discuss who you think should be retained and promoted. You have your data all ready and you are feeling confident going into this thing.

The meeting starts and you are slowly starting to lose that confidence especially when you start to hear things such as...

"Oh they were already retained. Then no they're being promoted."

You: "Well the student has never been retained and the data shows they've been below level all year long."

Admin: "Did they pass the portfolio assessment?"

You: "Yes."

Admin: "Promoted."

"They've never been retained, but they failed the portfolio? Promoted."

Or my personal favorite...the most confusing loophole that they have for students in special education. "Well if they've had at least two year of special education services, or response to intervention, but if they have have academic goals and are only purple with polka dotted skin and only go outside on Tuesdays while wearing an antenna with a strong signal..." You are just sitting there like...

At this point you're the teacher in the back looking like this..

You start to question whether or not you were speaking English during that meeting or maybe it was opposite day and retained meant, yes promote them, and you just missed the email?

You often leave the meeting feeling like why did I collect this data all year long if none of it matters?

At least the meeting is over and you have a good idea of who is moving on and who isn't!

Until you start receiving emails saying things like this..

"Teachers if you could send down the following students to me at (insert time here) I have one more test they can take to be promoted if they pass!"

"Oh wait we found one more! Send the students who still didn't pass the last one to me tomorrow morning!"

All the while you're sitting there thinking, "Where were these loopholes for everything else this year? Is there some secret meeting that they hold special for only promotion/retention season that provides every loophole in the history of loopholes?"

Then comes the answer you've really been looking for since this whole charade started..."We want to get through as many of these kiddos as we can!"

Out of this whole thing you wonder why did I collect the data saying they shouldn't be promoted if all along you were going to promote them anyway?