By Braden Currey
Contributing Editor
Despite new efforts from the administration to crack down on “teacher shopping,” selecting a teacher based on perceived difficulty, students still attempt to manipulate their schedules by choosing electives that force them into the “easy” teacher’s class.
One proposed solution proposed to fix this issue is the standardization of homework and expectations across all sections of a class taught by multiple teachers. Not only will this proposed solution hamper teacher creativity and independence, it will not adequately prepare students for the realities of college classes.
Teachers – especially AP teachers, who have a much more structured curriculum – already spend time collaborating and brainstorming assignment ideas and course schedules. Expectations are already relatively constant across courses: all AP English students, for example, are expected to produce a timed writing roughly once a week, regardless of their teacher. English teachers pull curriculum from the same pool of core reading books, but the coursework and exact books discussed may vary between sections.
A top-down approach to regulating coursework will only stifle a teacher’s ability to teach an engaging class. Reducing their autonomy means denying them the ability to teach according to their individual style. A teacher should be able to chose where he prefers a lecture-heavy class with less expectation of outside work, or a class that is more activity-focused with the bulk of the work outside of school. Both styles of teaching will be encountered in college, an environment where there relatively is minimal coordination between professors teaching the same section. Besides, teachers will only perform at their best when they are free from micromanagement.
There are better ways to avoid teacher shopping than mandating a standardization of coursework. More strict action by the guidance counselors – perhaps forcing an equal distribution of students between classes during schedule changes – will do more to fix the issue teacher shopping causes: inefficient distribution of students. If one class is over capacity and another is under-filled, teachers aren’t being used effectively. Students, teachers and the district will suffer.
The negative effects of curriculum standardization far outweigh the damage done by teacher shopping. A student imbalance between classes only minority inconveniences those in the full class; reduced teacher performance affects everyone. Teacher shopping is an issue that might need to be addressed in the future, as Costa’s student capacity becomes more and more strained; however, for now it’s best to leave things as they are.
Leave a Reply