I was called to the principal's office today.
He had finally gone through all the TCAP scores from last spring.
He started out with, "I know you had a pretty rough year last year..."
Uh oh. What's coming?
"But I couldn't wait until Friday to share this with you. All those parents who gave you such a hard time... Here is your vindication."
And he put the printout in front of me.
And although I don't yet have a copy of it, so I can't tell you exactly what the results were, I rocked it. For reading, writing, and math, I only had two or three students not make a year's worth of growth. I had about half make a year, and some make two.
"I knew instinctively that this was going to happen before it did... But I want you to know that there's no way you can chalk this up to 'relationships with kids.' This is instruction. This is good instruction. If everyone did this, our school would be in the top 10 percent. This is phenomenal."
Phenomenal.
People don't use that word very often.
Lately I've been contemplating my career. I really enjoy what I do. I've always felt that I was good at it. Two years ago I was working at a school that was on a probationary period due to low test scores. We brought that school up to Performance Level. I left after that year, so I don't know how those students did specifically, but because fifth grade is such a pivotal year for testing, I knew I'd taught those kiddos well.
Today I got my proof.
