Data, data, data, data, data.

As a teacher, I want to teach. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. Not only am I supposed to teach, but the NYC Department of Education wants data. Now, let me be clear about my opinion of data. I have no problem with using data to modify curricula or even evaluate teacher performance. I DO have a problem with ONLY using test scores as data. That is one incredibly narrow measure of how a student performs in a classroom and how a teacher teaches in a classroom.

But as a teacher soon learns working for the NYCDOE, they put up the hoops and we jump through over and over and over. Here is the problem though. Administrators want so much data, that the time spent entering that data begins to encroach on the time spent preparing meaningful lessons or giving students individual attention. I don't blame administrators as they are just doing what their told from their bosses. I enter data on Snapgrades (an online grade tracking system). I enter grades into spreadsheets (literally every answer for every student for every test needs to be entered and analyzed manually in a spreadsheet). I enter different lab data on a different spreadsheet (which is also entered on Snapgrades). I enter data using BUBBLE SHEETS (what is is, 1998!?) for attendance every period of every day (which is also entered into Snapgrades). I enter scores at the end of marking periods in a different spreadsheet (the same scores I enter on Snapgrades). Let's review. Data is entered on:

Snapgrades
Bubble sheets
Lab Spreadsheet
Test Tracking Spreadsheet
Marking period spreadsheets



With around 160 students throughout the entire day multiplied by the amount of data that needs to be entered for each one, clearly the amounts of data increase exponentially. Doing a bit of rough math, this works out to be somewhere around 80,000 pieces of data entered per teacher per semester. This data entry is just ONE aspect of teaching and really, it's not even teaching. Other tasks include:

Planning Lessons
Calling Parents
Emailing Parents
Managing Behavior
Getting students into class
Documenting Incidents
Dealing with students' personal issues
Preparing labs
Grading labs
Grading papers

Oh and all of this is supposed to happen in the 7.5 hours during the workday, four of which are used active teaching and lunch would fit in there somewhere.

I would love to see the morons from Wisconsin trying to strip teachers of their collective bargaining rights teach just one class of real students. They would not survive for a picosecond.

I am not a data entry specialist.
I am not a social worker.
I am not a police officer.
I am not a baby sitter.
I am not a lab technician.
I am a teacher. Please let me teach.