Teaching in the Twilight Zone
The book every school board member and administrator needs to read
While there is no lack of teaching memoirs out there, it is rare to find one so candid and raw as Teaching in the Twilight Zone. This is no saccharine re-telling of the “teacher-as-saint” narrative. Jeff Mays gives an unflinching account of the reality of teaching. From assiduously kept records, he tells the story of a broken school district overwhelmed by poor leadership, inept administrators, and hidebound bureaucracy. His experiences no doubt mirror that of many teachers frustrated with a system that fails to effectively address why some students seem to never get ahead. Today, we’re seeing many of them leave the classroom altogether. But we never hear their words. Teaching in the Twilight Zone speaks for those whose efforts and outrage have been subverted and silenced.
From HVAC systems that never seem to work to crowded classrooms, pointless meetings, and out-of-touch administrators (including one that even led students in evangelical rallies on the blacktop,) Mays painstakingly lays out his twenty-one years fighting for his students’ right to be educated. Despite the challenge of facing classrooms of 4th-grade students who read at a 1st-grade level, Mays significantly raised reading levels and test scores despite the poor state of his school. Ironically, he did this by adopting his own reading program and purchasing books with his own money. You would think administrators would want to capitalize on such innovation, but these accomplishments only brought admonishment for using materials not officially adopted by the district.
Although he succeeded in raising test scores, Mays still notes the absurdity of state and district officials as they implemented one initiative after another that focused on deference to authority above common-sense solutions. State expectations that ALL students (regardless of IQ or English proficiency) must score at “proficiency” level on state assessments were soon replaced with policies that allowed districts to ignore such expectations if the scores endangered local control. All the while, teacher suggestions for programs and methods that had proven track records were regularly ignored.
After reading Mays’ story, you realize he did one thing wrong, he spoke up and kept on speaking up.
Mays must be given credit for bravely criticizing the golden calves of public education: TOSAs (Teachers on Special Assignment,) pacing guides, “leadership teams”, Smart Boards, and unions. A fly-on-the-wall perspective gives the reader a unique and nuanced explanation of why such darlings of education are often less helpful than intended. Rarely is this take is featured in the media. The feel-good story of the teacher martyr is much more palatable and lets those in power off the hook.
Mays started teaching in the 1990s and resigned after 21 years. And yet the trials and tribulations of the California Department of Education and curricular adoptions continue today. During his tenure, his district (and many others in California) adopted the Open Court reading program, a highly scripted program that many administrators demanded almost a religious fidelity to. A decade later, districts would abandon the controversial program and replace it with another. The California school system even today is trying to get the “right” curriculum while student achievement languishes. But, as Mays illustrates in his book, each school, and group of students is different, and those making text purchasing decisions are not the ones in the classroom. No doubt teachers everywhere are putting in place programs that work, yet the state and district solution is often spending yet again millions of dollars on materials that will be touted as the next great savior of floundering schools. Innovative educators in the meantime are silenced or even suffer retributions for speaking out against an ineffective curriculum. Mays recounts such an incident;
“..their message was always the same — keep doing what all of the elementary schools in Fontana have been doing for the previous eight years or so — have fidelity to the Open Court Reading program. Even though by doing so, the district’s test scores had remained in the toilet year after year. “
Mays, after realizing the failures of the program, resorted to supplementing it with grammar lessons, writing exercises, and a rich library of books (purchased with his own money.) For this, he was reprimanded.
After reading Mays’ story, you realize he did one thing wrong, he spoke up and kept on speaking up. And it was because of his strong sense of ethics and determination that he was censured. Punishments that are legal yet questionable ranged from exclusions from meetings to transfers. Such actions served the valuable purpose of dissuading any other teacher from challenging the system.
Although Teaching in the Twilight Zone sounds astonishing, it is quite similar to the experiences teachers have across the country in schools and districts stymied by malaise, nepotism, and bureaucracy. Every school board member and school administrator needs to read this book. And every teacher who has ever spoken out and felt ostracized and alone will find solace in Mr. May’s story of perseverance and strength. Unfortunately for our students, he is no longer teaching, but his exposé of the Fontana Unified School District will hopefully serve as an agent for change.
