Lisa Elliott, a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT) and 18-year veteran teacher who has devoted her 18-year professional career to the Alhambra Elementary School District — a Title I school district (i.e., having at least 40% of the student population from low-income families) located in the Phoenix/Glendale area — expresses in this video how she refuses to be bullied by her district’s misuse of standardized test scores.
Approximately nine months ago she was asked to resign her teaching position by the district’s interim superintendent – Dr. Michael Rivera – due to her students’ low test scores for the 2013-2014 school year, and despite her students exceeding expectations on other indicators of learning and achievement. She “respectfully declined” submitting her resignation letter because, for a number of reasons, including that her “children are more than a test score.” Unfortunately, however, other excellent teachers in her district just left…
Congratulations to this teacher for fighting back. We desperately need courageous teachers at this time.
Thank you ! We need more teachers like Lisa! Save Public Schools!
never mind. it took me too much time to write this… i won’t bother again. I’m the publisher of http://www.GilbertWatch.com and have been reporting on Common Core for 2 years. I’m not a spammer.
Good job! I hope this motivates others to speak out about this district and how “teachers” are not treated with respect. I know of a teacher who has been in that district for Years and shared how she wrote a letter and mailed it on her vacation last summer( out of state) because she was afraid district would find out it was her? I applaud your courage to not back down !
As a teaching veteran of 45 years, I applaud Lisa Elliot for her courage in speaking up on behalf of Alhambra educators. As a teacher who had the luck to work with this exemplary woman, I KNOW just how outstanding she is as a person, colleague, coach, teacher, and cheerleader to and for her fellow staff members! I am proud of her decision to fight the “request” and to stand up for herself and others. I LOVE the fact that at the beginning of the year she was asked to resign because they thought she wasn’t doing a good enough job, yet toward the end of the year the same persons asked her to be a member of the search team for the new superintendent!!!! And they wonder why teachers are pulling their hair out on a daily basis. Congratulations, Lisa, and keep up the outstanding work as you always have. You make us all proud!