vindicated n stuff

what is unfortunate for teachers at my old school is that the principal must make a decision whether to rehire them in february while the results of the teacher's hard work aren't released until sometime like october.

case in point: me. YOU'RE WELCOME!

the other day i wondered about my school's report card. every school gets one. it outlines the demographics, financial info, and test scores for the previous years.

so now i have graphic, empirical evidence that I DID A GREAT JOB WITH MY THIRD GRADERS LAST YEAR!

there are two tests that students take in IL - one is the ISAT, which native english speakers take, and the other is the IMAGE, which those whose native language is not english must take. i had only six students take the ISAT while the rest took the IMAGE.

what the report card shows is that IMAGE-takers had much higher improvement than ISAT-takers.

i find that quite funny, seeing that two of three teachers who had the majority of students take IMAGE were on provisional certificates - ie, did not come from a background in education, yet had their students improve more than did the mainstream teachers.

perhaps it's of little importance to the average reader of this blog but to me it's a big deal. now i can write letters to the editor, i can write a "you're welcome, bitch" note to the old Principal, and i have raw evidence that the principal didn't know what she was doing when she didn't renew my contract. in other words, i can say my contract didn't get renewed because of my credentials, but i have evidence that i did a good job regardless.

i brag to the other teachers: "wanna see something?!"

have not yet shared this information with the principal, but maybe that's not necessary, as personally i've had a gigantic psychic load taken off my shoulders.