AIM is more work dumped on the teachers written by those at the top who have been out of the classroom for way too long.

Since many of the honest and well articulated comments have already been expressed on the other two Sunpaper AIM websites, I'd like to just state that the majority, if not all teachers agree that AIM is a time and money-wasting tool created by one person and promoted by those who have no idea of the real world in the classrooms or in the life of an outstanding teacher. The administrators and board members are merely puppets in the bcps system and only speak when told to speak......only say what they are told to say.... It's so sad to think that these adults jump on the administrative bandwagon because that's what they are told to do! Such obedient good little boys and girls! I guess you have to do what you have to do to keep that big administrative paycheck coming in!
As for the teachers, many have taken the time to express their views, during what is supposed to be their winter break. Instead of enjoying some well-deserved and much needed R&R, those who have written are expressing their outrage, hopefully for the public to realize the truth of what is going on in this tyrannical school system. Those who have not commented, are probably out of town and/or have totally cut all ties with the county for their own personal reasons during the break. Some also fear that anything printed could be traced to them and administrative retaliation will be the result.

The previous comments are exactly right. Why do you think that the information regarding AIM was announced a few days before winter break? As with most decisions in BCPS these days, there is no transparency. Citizens should be outraged at the way taxpayers' money is being spent in the system. Policies and procedures do not apply to some and millions (yes, millions) of dollars are spent with companies that are not made to compete. Stakeholders are not asked to participate in vital decision-making and these programs that benefit adults are imposed on children, teachers, and parents at the expense of providing our students with the best resources. The county council does not involve itself with curricular decisions; however, they should be greatly concerned about the way money is spent and who is making the decisions based on what objective data and collaborative efforts? It is imperative that people look beyond the words of a few individuals who benefit from the use of AIM to seek the truth for the benefit of students. They are the heart of the matter...they matter most. Don't let them down-we serve them... they need people to speak on behalf of their best interests...not the self-serving interests of a few adults and the companies they serve.

Who does Charles Herndon think he is? He thinks we are capable of the task?!? How nice of him. Of course teachers CAN bubble in the thousands of skills listed on AIM. The point here is that it is a terrible, sad use of teachers time. BCPS needs to focus our time and energy on instruction, lesson planning, an working with kids. AIM is useless, completely unhelpful.

The A, I and M mean completely different things depending on what school you are at and the grades are completely subjective. Our current report cards (which we still have to do as well) are objective and give a clear picture of how the students are doing and are a perfect starting point for parent teacher communication.

Some schools are hiring subs so teachers can bubble in uselss info on AIM rather than be in the classroom with children.

Still waiting for the SUN to do some real research into AIM and other recent Baltimore County "mandates" that have wasted millions of dollars, thousands of hours, and countless years of children's lives. By the way, all of these past "mandates" have been discontinued after only a few years.

Charles Herndon thinks that the teachers questioning the effectiveness and usefullness of AIM are a minority? This shows how out of touch this administration really is.

Charles Herndon employs a fairly sophisticated use of situational rhetorical manipulation when he states, "We think [teachers] are capable." This simple phrase sets teachers up to look incompetent if they fail to follow this directive, or fail to complete it on time as a result of virtually no notice, no training, etc. It's a nice way of dodging responsibility for or discussion about the creation and use of what looks to be a hot mess of a program.

It's also a nice way to allow higher-ups to totally ignore criticism: "Oh, the ones who complain are incompetent, poor time managers, unable to see the big picture, unwilling to join the 21st century, etc. No need to respond or take their concerns seriously."

Rhetoric, as many know, is NOT always used to reveal the truth. It is virtually always used to control and manipulate the appearance of the facts, and to take control of the situation by making criticism appear unreasonable.

It does not surprise me that Mr. Herndon emplyed rhetoric rather than responding directly to criticism or suggesting solutions. It has long been an effectivete technique, and is doubtless less awkward than engaging in active discussion.

I will watch to see that my son's education does not suffer as a result of this garbage. And I am grateful to no longer work for BCPS (where I was a successful and respected employee for twelve years), and will not willingly work there again. (Please note that neither statement in this paragraph is rhetorical....)

I feel that that the BCPS leadership is up to the task; I think highly of them and think they are capable. Mr. Charles Herndon believes that "the teachers who have complained are in the minority".

What's that? You say believing doesn't make it so?

Nevermind.

Note: Charles Herndon is a spokesperson for the school system and NOT a spokesperson for the teachers of Baltimore County Public Schools. How about a survey by the Sun?

The minority approves? Thats a joke. It was very strategic or the county to plan to "dump" this on teachers right before a well-deserved winter break. Year after year we address the issue of workload for teachers, and year after year we are handed more paperwork/administrative tasks to handle that take our time away from the students. There is so much data to be collected and organized that some schools get teachers a 1/2 or even a full day substitute to gather all necessary information. That inormation is only for administrators. Now, what does that say? Take me out of the classroom to gather data ans miss a day of instruction. How does that help? Teachers want to be teaching, that is what we are trained to do. We do use data to drive our instruction, but we need to be treated as the professionals that we are educated to be. The higher up officials need to teach again in the classroom, because they have obviously forgotten what it is all about. It's not about numbers, it's about children's lives.

This program is redundant and a waste of time and money.

Several years ago, the school system spent millions of dollars on a system of assessing students via standardized tests that outlined student performance objective by objective. It's called AssessTrax. Any content area teacher in the county is familiar with it. This system already breaks down individual student performance based on indicators and objectives. Why do you think Hairston was recently praised for how he uses data in our county? How do you think he got that data?

Why not allow access to the results of these tests to parents online? Or, why not print individualized reports to send home to parents with each report card?

Why not? Because someone out there stands to make more money with the implementation of AIM. It's not to benefit the students. It's to sell a product. Otherwise, the professional opinion of the county teachers would be taken into consideration and AIM would be dead.

Check it out, Baltimore Sun. Follow the money...

As an elementary school special area teacher, I teach students in grades Kindergarten through 5th. Each class meets with me once a week. My schedule comprise of teaching 5 classes per day with 10mintures between each class to clean up and prepare for the next class. I am have 50 minutes planning time each day that I use to make copies, prepare materials for my classes, go to the bathroom, read and respond to emails, etc. Challenges I face daily consist of students being pulled out of my class for intervention, band, speech, OT, and so on. Instruction is interrupted due to students being late or leaving my class early. Students are not given make up time to complete missed or incomplete assignments. I am very upset to find out 2 days before my winter break that AIM is now mandatory. How on earth am I going to fill out a detailed progress report for each student?

I hear your comments, and agree that this AIM sounds like overkill. Here is another point: AIM reports AND the current report card? TMI!!! Of course we parents and the teachers want to assess and track progress of our children in their education, but an AIM report will probably be multiple pages of minute details, and distributed 4 times a year? The current report card sums up the curriculum nicely and gives parents a strong idea (especially in conjunction with a teacher conference if needed) of how our children are doing in school. As interested as most parents are in their child's progress, I believe they will only gloss over this new 100+ item report, making it ineffective as a communication tool.

I want to thank you, Liz. I appreciate that you have provided an opportunity for teachers and parents to object to implementation of AIM because it will not be helpful for student achievement. It will take time away from instruction, professional development, and time with each student to address strengths and needs. This hastily made edict pronounced right before winter break is an exercise in self promotion. This board has not asked the right questions and the questions they have asked...they addressed to Barbara Dezmon and those she selects to speak on behalf of AIM. This is a dark time in the county. I hope that the light you are shining on this mess will help people to see what AIM really is and whom it will really help. Let's stop it, and move on with the business of educating children.

It boggles the mind that Charles Herndon thinks that teachers opposed to AIM are in the minority! After this very important principals' meeting was held, there was an air of secrecy where no one was allowed to speak about the goings-on. An announcement was made in our school that there was to be an impromptu faculty meeting the next morning before class. We were in the dark, horrified that our administration might be transferred. But after speaking to many other teachers, it became apparent that all schools were affected by this meeting and that it was not good news. If most principals in the county were upset about bringing this AIM mandate to their staff, doesn't that also say that THEY were against this program, as well? It's a shame that the top people in Greenwood are so out of touch with what happens in the classroom. I give all I have to give to my class right now. I know each child and his/her story and adapt my teaching to their needs, delivering the curriculum in ways to which they can relate and retain, as most of my colleagues do. And our MSA scores prove our abilities.
On the morning we were given to complete the reading, language, and math AIM goals, - it took almost 3 hours and this was only for 5 children. I can't imagine having the time to complete each goal for each of my children AND have the time to teach and relate to them the way I do on a daily basis. The designer of this "tool" and the people who expect us to carry it out are NOT thinking of the heart and soul of their teachers. Many of us commute up to 2 hours a day, and after a day of teaching, we go home to our families and have many obligations there, as well as continuing to do school work.
It is sad and disappointing that these people in high places are so CLUELESS as to the impact of their decisions and lack of 2 way conversations about it.

What does Baltimore County want.... well planned out lessons or overworked teachers who are spending time typing in whether or not a student met an objective? I am a current teacher in Baltimore County and I am starting to think I entered into the wrong career. I don't have time for meaningless objectives- I just want to teach engaging lessons so that my students learn.

As others have stated, the AIM program is not worth teachers' time. Parents will get no information out of these confusing and jargon-filled reports that they don't already get simply and clearly by looking at their children's graded work. As an employee of Balt. Co Public Schools, I will do what my bosses tell me to do, but as a highly qualified professional I need to say that this program will not help the students and that taking the time to fill out the reports will mean that other activities (planning, instruction, grading) will have to be given up.

Since this Charles Herndon person thinks teachers are highly capable of creating this arduous data, maybe he should take a moment and create a survey for all teachers to complete regarding their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the AIM system. Then he can publish the findings.

Seems a little absurd that he expects all teachers to spend hours upon hours working on AIM reports, while he gets away with "believing" that only a minority of teachers are complaining. "Believing" means nothing. Doesn't he, of all people, know that it's all about the data?

Educator Outrage
I beg to differ with Mr. Herndon’s opinion that those educators who oppose the implementation of the A.I.M. are in the minority. Dr. Hairston’s surprise pronouncement was delivered to teachers just prior to the holiday break. Mr. Herndon is woefully uninformed if he thinks that the majority of county educators support this initiative! In fact, the majority of my school’s teaching staff vehemently contests this unreasonable exercise in frustration and recognizes that this dictate will rob highly qualified teachers of valuable instructional planning time. Completion of the A.I.M. checklist for all of my students and the county’s new report card would necessitate many long hours spent at home and school filling out forms. I pride myself in writing meaningful individual comments for each of my sixty-seven students’ report cards. There are not enough hours in the day to adequately address both educational instruments. I believe that the A.I.M. is a meaningless and cumbersome record-keeping task that will languish in BCPS cyberspace for the majority of our students. I strongly urge the BCPS administration to reconsider their position for the implementation of this “educational” tool for the entire school population.

A few things are evident....
One, teachers have a lot to say because they are never asked for input. There are concerns shared here that are years old. ( I too am still questioning why top of the line Macs were tossed out and replaced with the cheapest possible PC's, for instance. Noone at Greenwood ever has to answer to any constituency. Ever.)
We are sharing our thoughts on this blog because not even our union has a bulletin board where we can post concerns. So thank you Sun!

Two, the relationship between Greenwood and teachers is apparent to all who read this blog. Not all data is easy to quantify, but here it is...

Three, I already use 3 different programs for student "data", and will soon be using two more. My school room PC is slow enough already. There is already redundancy plus in our current system, and AIM will simply add to it. There is nothing intelligent about the design or use of any of these programs. They are mind-numbing tasks that teachers must do, or else.

Four, the ethical concerns regarding AIM and any proprietary interests it presents need to be resolved.

Five- my community newsletter has added a link to this blog. Parents need to know the behind the scenes activities at Greenwood.

So Dr. Dezmon was appalled after seeing "that some minority students were not receiving the same education in the southwestern area schools as they were in the northern part of the county"? I know that I can speak for all the dedicated, talented, hard-working teachers at all southwestern area schools that we are deeply offended by this comment. We already know that we are providing a BETTER education for the minority students in our school. Perhaps Dr. Dezmon should visit our school just once to see the quality education that ALL students are receiving. We do not need the redundency and unwieldliness of AIM to improve our instructional techniques.

I am hopeful that those who have the power to make this right will hear the voices of teachers and parents and stop this ineffective, unproven, self-serving initiative. While you have heard from many regarding AIM...wait until teachers actually examine and evaluate this product. There are so many problems inherent to AIM that teachers have not even scratched the surface. Why do you think it was mandated? Left to choice, no teacher with a desire to use time wisely to give each student a great education, would choose to use the tool and did not. When all teachers really know what AIM is (teachers in my school are stunned beyond belief) all voices should cry out "STOP THE INSANITY!" Let's get back to why adults get into the field of education...to serve students. They are the ones who will pay the price for one adult's personal gain.

I am in what I believe to be the majority of Baltimore County Teachers who oppose this new bank of data, AIM. The tests that we are required to give our students at the end of every unit cover the indicators and objectives for our courses already. Access to this data would be a better indicator of a student's success or failure to grasp the concepts of a unit than a lengthy list of skills objectives marked with an A,I,orM.
We were told that the superintendents at Greenwood did not want objective data but instead would like each teacher to think about each skill and each student before they recorded the letters. This sounds great in theory but I have decided that I will still need to use a test or another assessment device for each student in order to mark AIM accurately. This will waste instructional time. Please help us discover who will benefit from all of this wasted teacher time. Who is getting paid to promote AIM? Why not use the tools that we already have and the test results to discover which students need increased instruction. Baltimore County has failed at this attempt to help students and in the process they have once again indicated that they don't remember what teaching is all about.

It is quite accurate to describe the administrator’s delivery of this directive to the teachers as “scripted”. When summoned to the emergency meeting with no warning or agenda, the staff believed someone must have died!!! The administrator was nervous and knew exactly how the bombshell would be received and that was with total shock! In reality, we all died a little and the morale hit rock bottom that day! I don’t think I saw one smile on any teacher’s face that entire day. Questions were asked by a few, but no answers were given, except to say we would meet to gather all questions to send to the area superintendent.
The way in which this underhanded directive was given is confirmation that Baltimore County Schools are led by truly dishonest administrators who actually call themselves "leaders". To consistently lie to approx. 9000 highly educated, highly qualified, and very competent teachers, with regards to this tool, is devious and self serving. Hopefully, none of my students will learn from the actions our "leaders" are modeling! Direct communication and cooperation is something I model and teach to my students, especially when they are doing a group activity in which all members are affected and held accountable for the outcomes. Unfortunately, our administrative leaders never "Mastered" those objectives!

AIM is ridiculous. All it's going to do, is take the teachers away from the students. Teachers will now be spending countless hours inputting A, I, or M for thousands of objectives for each student. I bet when test scores start to go down b/c teachers are spending less time teaching and more time collecting data, things will start to change.

Once upon a time in Baltimore County, teachers could teach.

Now we are inundated with mandatory paperwork and planning time is continually taken away.

Teachers, for the most part, are people of talent and caring that given time for INSTRUCTION AND PLANNING can work miracles with children.

The only miracle happening in Baltimore County is that "Accelerated" now means "Remedial" --got to make those ridiculous acronyms work for us!

Here is the question: Who benefits from AIM?

Answer: The county employee who "created" it, on county time, with the help of county employees, using objectives written by other county employees--who now has put a copyright on this material so she can sell it elsewhere.

Hmm.

Dezmon claims that AIM will allow the county to determine where instruction is not effective. Really? I thought that it was so that parents would know what their children have learned and what they still need to learn. If it is the later, far too many variables affect student achievement. To assume that a student hasn't met the mark solely because of inferior instruction is faulty thinking. In fact, I would argue that if an entire class is making progress and two or three students are not, then there are other issues causing those few students to fail. After all, they had the same instructor. If Dezmon/the county is using AIM to determine where instruction teachers need to be remediated, it still is not an effective tool: teachers will create a bell curve of A, I, and M that probably will look like the teachers' grade books anyway.

(For some reason, I thought I ran out of room. This post is more important than the first, so please use this one if you can include only one of my posts. In fact, this was the first part of my letter. Thank you.)

was disheartened by the article on AIM written by Liz Bowie. Hundreds of posts asked her and the Sun to investigate the questionable ethics surrounding the creation of AIM (Barbara Dezmon created this travesty on county time and the county's dime using county employees) and the purchase of the program by BCPS. While I agree with most teachers that AIM does nothing to enhance the quality of teaching and student achievement, considering how it was created, the program should at least be owned and copyrighted by the county. Many, many companies and research universities patent and copyright materials that were discovered and created while on the job and those patents and copyrights are owned by the institutions.

Taxpayers, parents, and teachers deserve to know the back story on AIM. Perhaps fewer teachers would be so angry were AIM a fantastic assessment tool. Teachers might even be proud that AIM was providing additional funds to BCPS coffers. However, AIM benefits no one except Barbara Dezmon. That is a story that needs to be told.

Could it be that Dr. Dezmon does not have enough "data" to convince prospective buyers to purchase AIM that the useless, unwieldy program is now mandatory? If she can't sell the snake oil, then she'll be forced to live on only her handsome county retirement.

My son takes 5 AP courses at THS. I checked his AP Calc course, and his teacher would have to complete 3 pages of indicators for my son and all the other AP Calc students. This is a teacher who already offers help sessions, an interactive site online for the students, and amazing support. I am totally statisfied to see a "B" on the interim and report card. I am a good parent who trusts my child's teachers. I don't need to wade through 3 pages of indicators. I much prefer that my child is getting the support needed from his teacher in order to achieve.

Overall, the idea of AIM is going to benefit all educators who want to see the skill sets that students bring to them in order to modify and pace instruction. Unfortunately, the push without any training or education of the teachers is strictly out of spite for the union's persistence in opposition to AIM. The AIM objectives and KRL's need to be revisited for most subjects- I believe that the objectives written over the summer for SAT and AVID are the only ones with quantifiers- so that measurable progress can accurately be observed. Otherwise, to quote Ricky Ricardo, when I fill out my list it will look like "Ay Ay Ay Ay Ay................!"- I I I I I for those of you too young to remember.

Dear Dr. Dezmon,

I am already quite capable of communicating to parents what my students know and do not know. I do not need yet another tedious, jargon-filled document to assist me with this task. Thank you anyway.
If you are looking for a way to improve this communication, additional school days set aside for conferencing would be helpful.

Also, I already have numerous tools and assessments allowing me to identify what my students know and don’t know. What I need is more time to plan and implement the instruction that I already know will meet their needs.

Furthermore, my students in the SW area regularly achieve above and beyond what is included in the curriculum. If you are concerned about differences in the education of students in SW Baltimore County, perhaps you should address the issue with the area superintendent who consistently grants SW area teachers little to no input on budgeting, assessment, curricular or school climate issues.

You say the value in the program is in allowing school administrators to review the thousands of pieces of data and find out where the teaching is not effective so they can correct problems. I would argue that:

1. School administrators have all the data they need (and then some) and that many of them do not relish the thought of having thousands more pieces to review each year. AND
2. The data collected will not pinpoint where teaching is ineffective. The only way to determine the effectiveness of teaching is to observe it. Numbers and data can only give a glimpse of teaching effectiveness as they do not take into account student factors such as student mobility, lack of prior knowledge or educational experience, challenging home situations, limited English proficiency , poverty and lack of parental support. Nor do they take into account school-based differences such as materials and supplies, class sizes, support services, and extra-curricular activities.

So thanks, but no thanks.

Sincerely,
SW area teacher and parent

Communication to school system employees states that when using AIM, I's may be used for most objectives and teachers may delay giving A's or M's until the last quarter. Please explain what "up-to-date" information this will give to anyone. If this doesn't show that this is purely an exercise in busy work to take teachers away from teaching or professional development focused on improving student achievement, I don't know what evidence you need. Why can't the LLC/copyright holder just insert the I's and stop pulling teachers from important work to provide meaningless data to support a personal initiative?

To Children First: Perfect suggestion!!!! Excellent comment!

To Children First:
I completely agree! BCPS suggested in a written email that teachers should give all students an I (for Instructional) and then determined if the indicator should be A or M for the last quarter of the school year. WHY??? What is the purpose of marking anything if all the students will receive the same marks until the last quarter. This just proves what a useless, waste of time this "tool" is. I have countless other things I can be doing to help my students besides marking an I in 10,000 slots. (Yes, 10,000 grades ....that is the number that a second grade teacher must give to her class of 23 students. Ridiculous!)

It is a real shame that the leaders of the county school system develop such time cosuming methods to assess student progress. Teachers were informed about this new mandate right after they completed their annual Teacher Perception Survey. Was this a coincidence so that the teachers could not speak their disapproval?
Maybe it is time for a vote of no confidence on Dr. Hairston and the multitude of insane work mandates given over the years. Maybe it is also time for a vote of no confidence on the school board. They seem to be out of touch with the teachers that actually work with the children of Baltimore County. Additionally, since there isn't time to accomplish this task during the regular school day, teachers will again be expected to take the work home to complete. I'll see if I can get to this additional task after finishing my seond job that I have to have because the school system doesn't wish to fairly compensate us for all of the other work we are required to do. Wake up Baltimore County. The system is going down the drain. Can you hear Nero?

So many have said it so well already, but it can't be said enough. AIM is unnecessary and ethically questionable. When I changed careers to teach, I did it for the children. Instead I find myself bogged down in data collection and analysis when I should be planning lessons designed to help students learn. How does a 21 page report for every 4th grader improve student achievement? The adminstrators in the school system have lost sight of our mission.
And then there are the ethics of AIM. Dr. Dezmon created this program while employed by the school system using system employees. How is it that she now is hoping to sell it to other school systems? Doesn't the ethics code state that an employee cannot be compensted for materials created in or for the system? I am not inclined to make myself and my students the "data" she needs to market and sell a flawed program!

I guess I'm in the "minority" or teachers who think that this is yet another waste of money. In a time when everyone is broke and government is supposed to be looking for ways to cut spending, BCPS is in a spending spree. I would rather them extend the school day and have the county pay us more then add on more paper work. I already work 10 hour days - lets add onto the pile!!! I have a masters degree and just recently acquired National Board Certification status - I think I know who my students know and dont know - and as I already spend my time conferencing with parents via email, phone and in person - I think I do a pretty good job communicating with parents how their child is doing. I also believe many other teachers do the same thing. It we were seen as true professionals and given the respect we deserve, AIM would never happen.

My question for Dr. Desmond - what data did she use when she saw that students in the Southwest district were being left behind in comparison to other parts of the county? Did she take into account any other factors in that observation? Did she think about if this tool was for those students - would the parents of the students who are not achieving really look at this report? Students who have parents that are involved in their child's life are successful, parents who arent involved - those students fail. Will a report help those kids?

besides my agreement with all that has been said about workload, the pointlesness of the whole thing i would love to get an answer from Mr. Herndon as to how they are showing respect for teachers by placing more work on teachers with no input or training....would it have anything to do with the fact that Dr. Dezmond and Dr. Hairston plan on selling AIM to other counties when he retires this year??

As a parent, I thank WBAL and Tim Tootin for a great report on the news broadcast this evening highlighting AIM.I urge that everyone visit this link and vote on the AIM implementation plan. http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22092126/detail.html
Thank you SUN for making this blog available for our great teachers and the families that they serve.

Take something off the plate! I will do everything I can when I am on the school system's dime to make sure children are achieving and also give many hours beyond that anyway. BUT, I will not give up family time and personal time for a redundant and uniformational piece of paper such as AIM.

As the parent of a BCPS middle schooler,(Perry Hall Middle) my comment to my son's teachers is...PLEASE do not waste your time doing the AIM checklists for my son. I am very happy with the level of communication that I have with his teachers; emails, phone calls and face to face meetings. I know what he can and cannot do and I know what the teachers are going to do to help him further. When the teachers come back from winter break, they will be getting an email from me with the following message...I DO NOT want a copy of the AIM checklist done for my son. Save yourself some time and do not complete one for my son. I thank you for your dedication to him and his school and this is just one small way that I can thank you.
Please spend the extra time that you have being the wonderfult teachers that I know that you are!!!

I am amazed at how much faith in our superhuman abilities that the county has in us. I will receive training on a new program in January, be expected to evaluate @325 students in two weeks and complete all 325 AIM assessments for students in 3 hours. Anybody willing to volunteer their time?

In response to Children First

Before we all fill in "I" until the fourth quarter shouldn't we decide first whether this vehicle we are being told to use is useful. It is still a subjective assessment and time consuming. Making something easier doesn't make it more palatable, or a good idea. A bad idea is still a bad idea, even when served with ice cream. Many questions need to be answered before we are forced to partake in this activity...let's get some answers. Also, before we are asked/told to do something else how about having something removed from our plates.

Charles Herndon said on WBAL news "county school officials said they can't understand all the fuss over AIM, a program they said will go a long way toward improving student achievement." Give me a break! This is just another example of how the "higher ups" are out of tune with what happens everyday in our classrooms. We all know that as teachers our jobs could be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and now AIM awaits us when we return on January 4. Something has got to give.

The estimate by veteran teachers / department chairpersons in my school is that it will take about 30 minutes per student per grading period to complete the AIM check lists. If you assume that the average ( high school) teacher has 100 students (for most teachers it is actually more) then it will take 3000 minutes (50 hours) of work each grading period to complete AIM. As teachers, BCPS gives us 45 minutes a day for planning/grading. That works out to 2025 minutes (33.75 hours) of time per grading period. This time is already used up with the other duties/grading we do; and now we are asked to add another 50 hours on top of everything else? I can teach in any of the surrounding counties for more pay and not have to do any AIM paperwork.

It seems that BCPS is trying to drive veteran teachers away from the county school system. I guess it would save them lots of money to hire new teachers with no experience. How does this help improve the education of the students???

P.S. I took an "unofficial" poll at my high school and almost 100% of the teachers were "opposed" to AIM.

I so wish that those who were not in the education field could walk one day in our shoes...it's a slap in the face to tell us that AIM should be mandatory without giving us proper pay raises. Seriously, does the county board know what we do in a day? It is not just teaching and grading...to many of these children we are their only disciplinarian, or perhaps a mentor, a parent, a confidant, a counselor, etc....This job does not end when the last bell rings. Now I will admit I did not get into teaching for the paycheck, but I also do not want to be insulted by having to do meaningless very time consuming paperwork. I actually wrote some of the AIM objectives for my subject area and to sit in and listen to all of the teachers who were working with me was comincal. Everyone there was laughing because AIM is a joke. I encourage other teachers to speak out because no one can hear your voice if you don't use it. Take pride in your work and stand up for what you believe in. I, for one, don't believe one ounce in AIM.

Are BCPS teachers required to attend the evening parent-teacher conferences at which we are to discussed AIM with parents? The 1st quarter response was NO from the administration due the case brought to the floor by Lansdowne HS.Neighboring school systems close schools to hold conference days for the stakeholders. Get wise BSPS!

Also hire subs instead of assigning teachers to cover classes and potty duty. Many schools forbid teachers to grade papers or plan while on potty duty. The micromanaged nature of BCPS is stifling.

I disagree with Mrs about AIM being connected to the Federal dollar, MSA data does that job. It is really a self-serving tool that will promote Dr. Dezmon's retirement. She stands to make a substantial profit with data that shows a large school system has made progress. She will take our results as evidence and then sell her tool to other school systems. As a county we have ethics rulings that come out regularly...this is not unethical? In my opinion having teachers go through this is a pointless endeavor. The data collected by this tool is completely useless. As a teacher and a former student in Baltimore County, I can say with all confidence that the data in this AIM system is merely the teacher’s opinion on whether a child has mastered a specific skill. As a sixth grade teacher when I receive my fifth grade students from the elementary I have to tell you I will not use this tool to plan for instruction. My school feeds from seven elementary schools and I do not have the confidence that the data will be anything more than one person's opinion. We all know that students have many factors that impact their ability to learn and retain information. Perhaps the student had a long term sub for fifth grade, maybe there was a tragic event in the child's life, perhaps the student did not 'click' with their former teacher. This is why using report card information, MSA data, Assesstrax data and teacher comments is much more useful. We have standardized our curriculum, created assessments to monitor progress with Assesstrax, we use Cognos, and all of these data points are used to make placement and instructional decisions. Data is a wonderful thing when it is useful, AIM data is not. Charles Herndon is saying what he has to say. He is the spokesman for Baltimore County, that is what he gets paid to do. I do think however that it is time that the board of education analysis the practical usefulness of this tool. Time would be better-spent providing staff development in differentiation and rigorous instruction then on the use of AIM. At my school, we have had to use our last professional development day to learn more about AIM, not the best use of this time. It is appalling to think that it is acceptable to provide subs for teachers so that they can input data. So, we take a certified teacher out of a classroom for a day and leave a sub and busy work, there is a great instructional decision. The timing of this mandate could not have been worse...was the announcement timed because Harriston was out on sick leave and Dezmon was at the reins?, was is to provide teachers with a wonderful holiday gift?, was it to ensure that some new teachers all ready stressed don't return from winter break?, was it to promote retirement for the many teachers and administrators that are eligible? was it to ensure that the focus turns away from instruction and to data processing just before MSA and HSA? This will not help student achievement in any way just Dr. Dezmon's pocketbook.

Let's hope the new year brings a new way of doing business in BCPS. More transparency in decision making, following our own policies, and most important making decisions based on what is best for students and their achievement. The mandate for use of AIM ignores what is right and surely, does not support a blueprint for a successful school system.

I find it amazing that the people who have voiced their opinions against AIM is considered the minority by Herndon. The truth is that everyone in my school has concerns about the notion that in order to complete AIM, teachers will be required to take hours of planning and instruction away from the students so that they can label each child with an A, an I, or an M. I also find it interesting that Dr. Dezmon, who unilaterally created this tool has remained quiet about the program as far as the public is concerned. Instead, she relies on spokespeople to deal with the hard questions about whether it's truly an effective tool to improve student achievement. It seems simple to me that ANYTHING that takes teachers away from planning lessons and preparing for them will not prepare students to do well! The notion that effective teaching improves student achievement seems simple, but the people who work on the hill on Charles Street lack any confidence that their teachers have the ability to provide valuable instruction every day. So instead of offering appropriate training for new programs, mentors for new teachers, and additional resources for students, they spend millions of dollars on programs that take teachers away from the students to fill in bubbles and create checks on a paper.

I hope that once parents understand that Baltimore County Schools is creating programs that keep teachers from taking the necessary time to develop effective lessons and is spending money that could otherwise be used for new technology, teacher training, and other valuable programs, they will also be outraged enough to speak up. The fact is that teachers already work with a program that does exactly what Dr. Dezmon used to make another checklist and one more thing outside of teaching for educators to complete. Assesstrax is much more effective, models the MSA at the end of the school year, and provides results and goals for the teachers and the parents to improve instruction and talk about during conferences. AIM is simply a way for Dr. Dezmon to rationalize the job of her office and the people who work there. As Baltimore County evolves and changes, I think it's time to question whether Dr. Hairston is in over his head at this point and whether there is a better candidate for his position. He seems to rely heavily on other people to make his decisions, which often turn out to be an opportunity for self promotion at the detriment of student learning and instruction.

I agree with the above comments. AIM is a waste of time. When showing this report to parents they are more confused because the language is not parent friendly. Once the parents leave the meeting they seem frustrated and the report ends up in the trash. This is a waste of money, resources, and time. If I could retire I would, but I can transfer and I just might. The county wants to use AIM, a program that is not researched based; this goes against what teachers are taught to use in the classroom. There is nothing saying this program is better than what we have. As a teacher, I feel with AIM that every single child is going to be left behind because they are going to have more substitutes teaching them then their teachers and the instruction that they will be receiving will not be as strong as it could be. There are already so many assessments that teachers have to do and adding this, I feel more like a record keeper than a teacher. I did not sign up for this job, I signed up to educate students. If I would have known that I would be tied down to a computer and typing pages and pages of reports, I would have chosen a different career path were they get paid more money than a teacher to do this.

I am a middle school special area teacher. I see OVER 400 students in a two day time period and I am being asked to fill in pointless objectives for each one of my students. I already teach 6 periods per day and our special area has no real curriculum per say, so I also have to write and plan engaging lessons for all of my classes and maintain a homeroom and school day duties. When am I supposed to fill in these reports? At 12 midnight? In other professions there is an outlet such as a human resources department in which employees can express their opinions about their work environment. In teaching there is no place for us to be heard, admin and the school board don't listen. Most of them haven't been in the classroom for decades. AIM is a completely pointless waste of time and money!!!

A few points:
Chiefly: what happens after the AIM bubbles are filled in and the parents read them? How will things change in the classroom? Is there a program set up to deal with each individual student's report? Unless there is, this is another waste of teacher time, time that could better serve students.
Secondly: The time required for this type of work suggests that, currently, teachers have extra time that they must, in general, be wasting. If not, when hours are added to an employee's already full work schedule, he/she is generally paid more. Is the County prepared to do this? Of course not!
This seems to be a lot of work, a lot of paper, a lot of time which simply will not benefit students, and will make already very hard-working and relatively underpaid teachers more frustrated than so many of them already are.

It is interesting that the icon selected by the LLC for "AIM" is made up of arrows going all directions. There is no goal, no point, no focused direction. That little icon tells the story of AIM. Teachers need to "shield" the students they teach from this product that will do nothing to enhance student achievement.

To the person who made the comment under "Publicschoolsblow". You obviously have no idea what a teacher's workload truly entails. Teachers ARE working professionals who do exactly what you described AND MORE. Just because students are in the building for 7 hours doesn't mean our day begins or ends there. Many teachers work 10-12 hour days, bring home work, juggle the family, maintain a personal life and pursue a higher education. Many also work a second job to supplement what you ignorantly call a "cozy 10 month schedule". True we work only 10 months, however we are only paid for 10 months. We must also work summer school or an alternate job during the summer. You ignorantly claim that we want to do least amount of work- HA! You have NO IDEA. We already work overtime without pay- would you do that at your job and not even ask for a raise? Doubt it. Now the school system is asking us to take on even more work without a pay increase. How is that not worth fighting for? BCPS was the ONLY school system in Maryland that didn't give their teachers a raise in a year and a half. I'm talking about a cost of living raise, mind you, not a lot. We actually got a DECREASE in pay last year because our pension went up but not our salary. Many educators are very dedicated to their students, working long hours way above and beyond what the paycheck dictates. If you think that makes us entitled, that's your opinion. But any hard working citizen who already goes above and beyond their "paid" work and then is asked to take on a double work load
has every right to complain and demand a change. You would do it too if you were in the same situation. Don't judge something that you haven't experienced first-hand.

I encourage all the teachers, parents and Baltimore County taxpayers to express their concerns about AIM to the County Executive and Councilmen on this issue. They can’t make the decision about AIM, and they may respond with such a comment. They can’t mandate decisions but they can inquire about the possible ethics violation, where the funding is coming from for this initiative, and question the Superintendent on his decision to implement a non-research based program using tax dollars when so many educators feel it is totally redundant, meaningless, and a waste of time. The County Executive helped appoint the Board of Education members, so he should have some type of input or at least concern in the decisions they are approving or allowing to occur. It's time for all Baltimore County citizens to stand up and be counted...against AIM!

After reading over some of the comments already listed here, all I can say is that I concur! Not only is it a time-consuming and highly subjective method of data gathering, but AIM is also a pot stirrer. Readers, please, look at what has already been said and see that this is just an incendiary requirement that dredges up old resentments and intends to pile on to the already staggering job load of today's teacher. I hope that by having an ever-strengthening voice in venues such as The Sun we can produce a change.

As a teacher in Baltimore County, I do not understand the need for another progress report to go home to the parents. We as teachers explain to the parents the curriculum that we are teaching and the expectations for the students. When we meet with the parents at conference time we discuss the students progress in class. Also interims and report cards along with progress reports that are teacher generatated are sent to the parents. Why is it necessary for another progress report to be sent home to the parents? There is not enough time in the day to complete a 5-7 page report containing all the objectives and indicators for a subject for at least 150 students that are being taught by one teacher (in a secondary level school).
This is taking away the time that is needed to ensure that the students get the information that is needed in order to master those objectives and indicators. I have enough paper work to complete on and about my students. Since there are those who are on the school board feel that we are making more of this than necessary, I will like for them to come to work in my school for a few days and try to stay on top of the daily paper work that must be completed along with writing meaningful and rigorous lessons as well as the extra work that AIM will entail. Then let us know if we are complaining unncessarily

As a member of the MINORITY, it is interesting to me that I have not read a single comment from the teachers who are supposedly in the MAJORITY. Not a single teacher with whom I work supports AIM. We are advocates for CHILDREN, not useless, redundant, costly, worthless paperwork. At the beginning of this school year, I had no intention of retiring, although I have taught nearly thirty years. This is it. Good-bye, BCPS and good luck. You are going to need it.

As a 34 year outstanding, veteran teacher, it is sad for me to think that this unreal expectation and AIM directive will be the final straw which will take me to my unplanned retirement walk out of the bcps door. Completing the amount of work I have been told to do, is a no-win situation for teachers, parents and students. It is not humanly possible to input data on 400+ reports, each over 30 pages for each child, in addition to doing my REAL job of teaching, which has been perfectly articulated in the posted comments on both Sunpaper Blogs and recent News Article websites, as well as on the WBAL News site, where a poll is also currently being taken which shows that the MAJORITY of the population DOES NOT agree with this AIM mandate. Charles Herndon’s PR statement to the press states that AIM is not supported by a “minority” of teachers. His statement is FALSE! Read the comments and let the truth be heard.
I have always been proud to say I teach in Baltimore County. That pride has diminished the longer I stay in this school system. My passion for teaching is why I still go to school and do what I do well, never thinking of it as a "job" until the last few years, when all the new data assessments were added, taking away the daily planning, grading, and communication times. This along with the continual changes the county keeps making, with regards to curriculum, new, improved “fix it strategies”, and a reading program purchased that costs millions of dollars, which according to school board minutes, was added to the bcps budget expense because “Initial implementation data indicates success with the RRL substantially increasing the reading levels of many students involved in the program.”. No data was stated with regards to actual numbers and no proof was presented or questioned. This teacher questions the motives of this approved 3.4 million dollar federal fund expenditure.
This constant jump from one program to the next, or one publisher to the next, or one data tool to the next, without the necessary training, piloting, discussion and evaluation of each, seems to depend on which office under the superintendent has the most to offer with its proposal of change. Personal, professional and/or financial gain to select individuals is highly probable and absolutely needs to be investigated. Note: As you may or may not know, the creator and promoter of AIM also happens to be connected to the same office which purchased the Rdg. Program mentioned above. I understand that a former BCPS school board president also works for the company from which the program was purchased, or so I've been told. Interesting??? (Of course, the superintendent and school board members already KNOW that!)
Taxpayers need to know where their money is being spent and into whose pockets it is really going.
Investigations need to be made of the Baltimore County School system's spending, especially of federal money. Budget sheets are made public BUT where the money really goes is not known by anyone except those doing the spending and collecting of personal dollars.
I also have realized that no dollar amount has been published for the cost and use of AIM. Could that be because the local schools will be paying for the paper, ink, and pc repairs due to overload? I've already been told our school has a paper shortage! Where will the money come from to pay for this worthless, expensive tool? School principals need to speak up, even if done anonymously! They don't support AIM any more than the teachers or parents.

Aim sucks! Follow the money!

Comment in support of Kim: many people think the 10month thing is some sort of cushy cake walk. I would defy most people with this perception to do what teachers do. Prior to teaching I was in the corporate world, and if you had told me that I had to lead 5 different meetings every day and actively evaluate the results of each meeting in order to effectively plan for the following day's meeting, I would have said NO! Can't do it. But that's what teacher's do...

Really-- why is it that almost every negative experience I have with teaching comes not from the kids, but from dealing with admin that has lost touch with the classroom!

As a parent and a teacher, I just want my child to learn from the most qualified and passionate teachers. The county is sucking the energy out of its teachers with these useless mandates. AIM is insanity! A 29 page report for a forth grader's progress. Whatever happened to the word elementary?

Every teacher in Baltimore County would support a program that "would go a long way in improving student performance." AIM is not it. Don't try to make it look like we can't see the difference and muddy the water by making disparaging comments about the ablilites and dedication of BCPS teachers, Mr. Herndon.

In a way I feel sorry for Charles Herndon. He is a spokesperson who has to, in order to keep his job, try to put a spin on a program that has had so much negative press. I wonder if he would have been supportive of this obviously flawed program if he was a classroom teacher, if he actually ever was. I wonder why we are not hearing from Joe Hairston, Barbara Dezmon, the Board of Education or the "majority " of the teachers who feel AIM has a purpose?

All incoming BCPS freshmen will now be enrolled in Honors/GT/AP classes in English & Social Studies classes. How can Eng. & SocSt teachers mark A for Acceleration without implicating their professional skills as the cause for the remediation?
What is the support program provided by the school system for those students in the lower levels of other disciplines who do not meet with success? Does each teacher have to submit a plan to assist the Acceleration student?

If I had a child, I wouldn't enroll them in BCPS. This county is not, and has not been, concerned with educating children. Those who make decision regarding such either haven't done it at all, or it's been 20 years since they have.

This isn't the straw that's going to break my back; but they are adding up. Howard County pays great these days...

Specifically regarding AIM...well, I think there is some futility in all of this. The County could care less about what we have to say. They've demonstrated this time and time again. All I can say is, the DVD player in my room works great; that'll keep the kids busy while I click "I" for each student without even reading what the objective says. If you think we are going to give this any greater degree of thought than you have given us in this process, you're more out of touch than I thought; which is difficult to imagine.

As for Herndon, shame on him. You sir, are a hack. You've no data to back up the assertion that teachers like myself are in the minority (while you are busy advocating a data-driven program...laugh...). Furthermore, you should be ashamed of yourself for referencing my capacity and capability in all of this. I'm glad you think I'm capable to doing the toilsome, mindless work that goes on at the central office each day. I'm better than that, which is why I teach...or do whatever you'd call what we're doing these days.

This is a giant step backwards; arguments to the contrary are absent for a reason.

Like all the teachers who have posted above, I do not know of ONE teacher who is in support of AIM. Coming from teaching in other school districts, it has been surprising that the work load for teachers continues to increase in BCPS without any additional time to do the work. Simply put, there is not enough time to do AIM.

As a parent, I think AIM is absurd and a waste of teacher time and taxpayer money. It is unrealistic to expect this type of report for individual students. This type of assessment can only be managed if there was a very small class size. It is unrealistic to expect this when teachers have large class sizes. Some of the Baltimore County administrators need to go back into the classroom to see what is practical and what is not.
Tests, quizzes, written assignments are all assessments that already evaluate students mastery of the objectives for a particular discipline.

"Schools spokesman Charles Herndon told reporter Liz Bowie that he believes that the teachers who have complained are in the minority. “We feel our teachers are up to the task. We think very highly of the teachers; we think they are capable,” he said. "

We are capable of doing this, yes. But if we do this, we won't be doing real teaching.

Minority? I dare him to send out a survey which would keep identities anonymous. Then we'll see who's in the minority.

As a clinical professor, having reviewed the assessment criteria for AIM, the evaluation is based not on quanitative data, but qualitative data, that is, subjective opinions of teachers which can be clouded by other variables when assessing my child. My question is this; how do I have my child removed from the AIM module? This should not be a part of her record in any way, shape or form.

Although I haven't been in the system as long as many other commenters, I have seen initiatives come and go (such as Language!--the program which would solve all of our students' literacy deficits).
In several years, AIM, too, will be forgotten, because it will not have done what its developer said it could do.
In the meantime, teachers' time will have been wasted and teachers' morale will have been lowered. Some students may have gotten a form of the "middle of the road" assessment, even though they didn't deserve it. The AIM website admonishes us teachers to "Proceed with care," as these marks remain on a child's record--but, after the 5000th bubble, might someone not say, "Who cares?"

I have just spent several hours sending communications to the Board of Education members, county executive, and county council members in Baltimore County. I worry that I have wasted my time and that nothing will change. I hope that people in the decision making arena will take an honest look at the value of this initiative. How much is it costing? Who is it benefiting? I agree with others who have stated that it will mainly benefit one individual and this is wrong. Interesting to note also that this has all occurred during the health leave of the superintendent. While the news articles indicated that he is in agreement, would it have happened if he were at the helm? This manner of decision making is unsettling. Were we to make decisions like this in our classrooms every day, we would be taken to task for it. It also amazes me that 160 administrators cannot seem to take a stand for what they know is right. Would they really fire all of them? The whole situation is unbelievable and has had a negative impact on morale. Whereas I would look at returning to school on January 4th as a fresh start, now I look at is as a return to turmoil and increased workload.

In order for teachers to plan and deliver rigorous, engaging, meaningful lessons on a daily basis teachers have to be given time to focus on instruction and not on AIM. AIM is redundant and a waste of time. In order for teachers to get the bubbles filled in on the thousands of objectives each quarter, teachers are going to be given time in the day. This is NO solution. Not only is it a hassle to due sub plans but it is a disservice for students to constantly have substitute teachers instructing. In Baltimore County substitute teachers are not trained in the education field, many of them do not have college degrees, they have very little, if any background in child development. Many substitute teachers are wonderful people, love children and do the best they can, however they should not be teaching when the classroom teacher is busy doing AIM progress reports. Teachers are already pulled out of the classrooms each month for grade level meetings, School Leadership Team meetings, SST and IEP meetings. Enough is enough. The children of Baltimore County Public Schools deserve to be taught by their classroom teachers on a regular basis.

It is time to focus on instruction. The Baltimore county Public School system just rolled out new report cards this year. There are more objectives and they seem to be more standards based. How about letting teachers and parents get used to this new assessment tool before jumping on another bandwagon.

Baltimore County Public Schools should really think things through and realize what AIM really means to teachers, students, and parents. It's truly an ineffective means of tracking student progress. It is SO subjective!

I am a teacher of 34+ years in the Baltimore County Public School System and I am completely against the AIM program for a number of reasons. Time is probably the number one concern. I already spend an inordinate amount of time grading, planning, researching,and inputing test scores and grades, creating interim and report card reports for my students, as well as departmental duties and administrative reports, etc all of which leaves me very little time for anything outside of teaching now. AIM will add dramatically to that already time intensive work load.
Every teacher in the BCPS already has access to and must use Assesstrax which is a very thorough reporting tool to let parents and students know of their progress in each academic and special areas class. We teach our curriculum and administer the Short Cycle and Benchmark Assessments through Assesstrax to every student. This is a county paid for and sponsored assessment tool that is vertically alligned with the BCPS curriculum and the MSDE content indicators and objectives ('voluntary state curriculum'). This reporting piece is already in place and makes the AIM program redundant. Have any of the Sun reporters investigated the taxpayer cost of adding the AIM program to the BCPS and the possible copyright infringements involved since all BCPS curriculum is teacher written and not the property of any one Central Office staff member? AIM is a non-research based program. Who is benefitting financially from this program and are tax payer dollars being used for this redundant assessment tool? Another concern that I have about this program is that it is unfair to those parents who do not have access to computers and the internet and also to those parents who come home from work and are faced with the daunting task of looking at hundreds of objectives for each of possibly 5 to 7 classes and trying to figure out the status of their child's progress. It seems that the Sun as well as the BCPS School Board. the County Executive, and the County Council are all taking Dr. Barbara Dezmon and Dr. Hairston at face value instead of doing some investigative research to really find out about the demands,legality, and value of the AIM program. The program will have a definite negative impact on the teacher workload and no real proof of educational value for students.

I am sad to hear that yet another veteran teacher may not return to teaching at BCPS next year.
I imagine that Greenwood personnel are looking forward to filling positions with "new" teachers.
Problem is, veteran teachers are the ones who are most capable of continuing to actually teach with this additional data entry workload. I am so glad that when I began teaching almost 20 years ago, I had some spare time (9 pm-?? and weekends) to create interesting/purposeful/rich and student-centered lessons...and that type of task seems to fit the description of how professional educators should be spending at least some of their time.
A new teacher today has no time EVEN AFTER THE SCHOOL DAY ENDS to do any task which requires intelligence or creativity...and will have no memories of trying to be an "excellent teacher" in a supportive, vibrant community....
I hope that BCPS will at least jettison their "wellness" "risk management" and "human relations" departments!
If I am forced to spend hours sitting at a PC performing repetitive tasks then I really don't want to receive any "we care about you" literature in my mailbox at work.
I hope that parents county-wide will support teachers in saying NO to this latest abuse of power and evident lack of intelligent leadership in BCPS.

AIM is definitely a tool to measure a students skill level whether a pass or a fail; however how will this data be used? will this evaluate the productivity of our schools or our teachers when administrative assessments are met? Is this another tool like MSPAP that turned out to be a horror for teachers who were still challenged to teach content curriculums as well as introduce those skills? I believe that AIM can be a measurable tool for some students but not all. The interims and report cards should possibly be revised to reflect the assessments' measured.

At the present time I am planning daily lessons for a large reading group, 2 - 3 small reading groups, a math class, 1 small group math lesson, science, social studies, language, and spelling, By my count that is 10 lessons per day. This does not count the papers that need to be graded for 29 students, the data that needs to be collected from short cycle assessments, reading assessments for every story,and benchmark assessents. Not to mention that all the data needs to be analyzed daily so that I can plan which students need to be placed in small groups for remediation or acceleration. And let's not forget that interims need to be sent home for every student as well as completing report cards. Where are you going to find the time in my day for this new data to be entered for every student each quarter and who is going to pay for the paper required to print all of these extra forms? I do not mind giving my all for my students and I have been doing so for 38 years, but believe me I don't think I will have anything left to give if this program is put into effect.

someone needs to investigate how and why dr. dezmond is being allowed to SELL aim back to the county after being paid to create it

AIM, unfair, inappropriate, no validity, time-consuming, repetitive, overwhelming, ridiculous. It is so ironic how someone can create an assessment tool for educators on assessing their students who haven't been in a classroom in years, maybe even decades. The powers that be have no clue of what goes on inside the classroom, in particularly my classroom. I teach in a school that have a high transient student population, behavior issues, scheduling issues and other concerns that are too crucial to mention in this blog. Since the AIM program have been mandated for Baltimore County teachers I can't explain how angry, disappointed and furious I am! The AIM program because will effect my planning time to prepare rigorous effective content, instructional activities and assessments for a variety of students who are all at different levels of comprehension. Now I have to spend more time clicking and saving assessment items over several pages of irrelevant assessment items. I teach six classes daily. My smallest class consist of 23 students and my largest class consist of 38 students. The majority of my students are dumped in to my class because I'm not a core subject area teacher but a related-arts instructor whose area is used to fill out a student's schedule. The school doesn't have enough electives or teachers of electives to help eleviate the problem Why? Because the district/adminstration must choose between core subject area teachers versus enough related-arts subject teachers. Having more related-arts teachers and core subject area teachers will give students more choices regarding electives, not forcing them to sit in elective subjects that they really don't want or feel successful in. So how do I grade/assess these students fairly according to the 100 plus AIM items per student! It will be virtually impossible! All I want to do is teach and enjoy teaching and imparting knowledge to students who desire to be in my classroom and hungry for what I have to offer them. Unfortunately the BCPS district is currently and strategically taking that joy away from me and other educators like me by implementing the many online assessment tools, benchmarks, evaluations, grading programs, test taking initiatives, test assimilations, and surveys that are again, time consuming and repetitive in nature in many instances. What makes it even more frustrating is that the BCPS's server can't always handle the many programs that are dowloaded on it's website. So what happens when I'm tracking the progress of my 175+ students while my colleagues around the county are doing the same? One can only assume! Major system crash! Lost information! Disgruntal employess! Frustration personified!

If we are going to talk about AIM and the complicated issues surrounding it, let's talk straight and not be afraid to post on blogs or write letters to the editors using our real names. Teachers are real people, with real names. We have real families and real students who will all be impacted by the mandatory implementation of AIM.
BCPS teachers work countless hours to provide meaningful instruction to students, and because of the huge work OVER-load facing teachers, these hours are often uncompensated for and occurring at the expense of teachers' families. It’s time that we find a way to “work smarter, not harder”.
In addition to the existing report cards, teacher-made tests, county final exams, and the MSA, teachers also give Benchmark Assessments and Short Cycle tests which are given at frequent intervals. These tests are already aligned to the curriculum objectives and the MSA. Teachers must score these tests and upload the data to AssessTrax, a database that tracks this information. AssessTrax has the capability of printing out detailed reports for parents, however, teachers are discouraged from printing these reports because of the heavy toll it would put on printer ink cartridges and the school paper supply.
We currently are giving assessments that can provide data which is aligned to the learning objectives. Why is AIM needed in addition to all of our existing assessments and ways that we already share that assessment information with parents? With the money and training BCPS puts into technology integration, why can't we create a system where parents can access online the data that already exists?
And if we are going to do this, let's make the data useful for parents. It is rather misleading to tell parents of underachieving students that their child's mark of an "A" on AIM stands for "accelerated". For non-educators, the connotation of "accelerated" is far from "remedial" or "unsatisfactory" which is the true meaning of an "A" in AIM. The Sun article states that Dr. Barbara Dezmon “acknowledges that some of the items are in jargon, but says teachers and administrators should explain them so that parents understand.” When and how will this explaining occur? In this economy, hard-working parents, many of whom are single parents, are unable to come to school during school hours to conference with teachers because they don’t want to jeopardize their jobs. It isn’t that parents don’t care; they are often just struggling to provide for their families, while trying to send their children to school prepared with supplies, signed school forms, completed homework, packed lunches, and signed homework agendas. As a full-time teacher, wife of a teacher, and working mother of a school-aged child, I can say that it is just as stressful being a BCPS parent as it is being a BCPS teacher. Will AIM be helpful to parents, or just one more thing they have to decipher?
Although Baltimore County Public Schools doesn’t have a great track record of listening to the concerns of teachers and TABCO, does the school system have a plan in place to address the PARENT concerns that will inevitably arise? When a student receives an “A”, parents will want to know how the "acceleration" will be provided to students? What if a teacher notes "mastery" on a student's AIM report and that student then fails a course or an HSA exam? Every time an IEP student masters an AIM objective in a modified program will a meeting need to be scheduled to revise his/her IEP? There are too many questions about AIM, and too few answers.
I guess I can consider myself to be lucky. I teach in a BCPS school, with great administrators who will do all that they can do ease the burden that AIM will cause our staff. I work with a staff that will handle this professionally, in spite of their stress level, and still try to educate and inspire students. I send my son to a BCPS school with teachers who will also rise to this new challenge, and continue to make school enjoyable for him. If I am REALLY lucky, my students’ parents will be understanding when I return from Winter Break with too few graded papers, because of the time I had to spend blogging, writing to school board members, and protesting the Articulated Instruction Module.

I want to thank Liz for opening up the dialogue and trying to provide opportunities for debate that will allow parents to be informed and participate. Do not stop...finally, someone from the press is willing to shed light on what is really happening in BC. Keep digging...there are stories yet to be told. Be careful that you are not deceived into refocusing on some "shiny" story to distract you from reavealing the whole truth.

AIM is just another form of data. However, teachers already record and collect numerous forms of data which include pre assessments, post assessments, short cycles, benchmarks, unit tests, unit quizes, performance tasks, reading data (Dibbles, fluency), etc. Teachers can use this data to view student mastery in current and other grades. Therefore, we are already collecting data that is like AIM. Are teachers really going to look at a large document like AIM??

To BCPS Parents,

I am begging you to help BCPS teachers advocate for your sons and daughters. The intent of AIM sounds great but you must ask more questions about the reality of AIM.

I have to wonder how you, as a parent, would feel if your child (along with every other BCPS students) was automatically given a C in every subject on their report cards for the first three marking periods? How would you feel if it wasn’t until the end of the year that your child’s teachers added actual achievement grades to his/her final report card? This scenario sounds insane, doesn’t it?

Now just imagine that this report card is almost 30 pages long and it takes your child’s teacher several days to mindlessly and automatically fill in the thousands of required C’s. Imagine that while your child’s teacher is hunched over a computer in the school technology lab, while your child is working in the classroom with yet another substitute teacher on busy work, uhmm, I mean “review” assignments.

Now imagine its report card day and both you and your children are excited to find out what progress they have made and what skills each should work on in the future. Unfortunately, each of your 2 or 3 children has comes home with this 30 page report card filled with straight I’s, sorry I mean C’s. Don’t worry, at the end of the school year, as your child’s final fourth report, the teacher will let you and the students know what your children have mastered and/or what they needs to continue working on in the next grade level.

Sounds too ridiculous to be true, right? No, but it’s true. This is AIM.

Many parents appear to believe that AIM will offer a more thoughtful and detailed reflection of their child's strengths and weaknesses. This is simply not the case. In fact, BCPS teachers were actually given the following directive in our 12/18/09 Emergent Superintendent's Bulletin - “objectives may be designated at the Instruction (I) level during the year, and educators may delay judgments of Acceleration (A) or Mastery (M) until the last quarter or period in the marking term.”

Yesterday I printed out a third grade AIM progress report for the third graders that I teach. It is literally 30 pages long (including GT math and ESOL service). OK, if your child is not in the GT program or receiving ESOL services, then your report is just 25 pages. In either case, each page has about 20 grades teachers need to enter. My co-teacher and I work with 39 students this year. The ultimate math is mind-blowing.

I love to teach. I love to work with students. I love to read with my students and help them become excited about great literature. I love to create and plan exciting lessons that highlight how students can apply language arts skills to real life applications.

I am begging BCPS parents to help their sons and daughters by making sure that I simply have time to teach.

Over 200 blog postings, mostly repeating the same issues, but no concrete responses from anyone in the BCPS administration and no serious investigative reporting on the part of the Sun! What gives? The AIM situation is so wrong for so many reasons. Also, the BCPS system is on no list of top school systems! Saying it does not make it so! Dezman, Harriston, Sun...spesk out!

I also don't understand how this AIM thing is considered at all innovative. Dr. Dezmon said she started developing the idea 20 years ago. I don't get it. Its just a super long list of skills and objectives, which she did not make up, they are loosely from national standards and curriculum already created. All she did with AIm is put them on a computer screen with bubbles for A, I , M. Not at all innovative, and even worse, a completel waste of time with no new, helpful, or objective info for anyone involved, except maybe her business partners.

AIM is Dr. Dezmon's golden parachute and Dr. Hairston clearly disrespects teachers. This redundant unwieldy report will not improve instruction or inform parents about what their kids know and can do.
The public needs to hear the truth.

The implementation of the AIM model was not well thought out or tested. This decision is demoralizing to teachers and will most likely have negative impact on student performance. As a third year teacher in the BCPS system I have found time and again a sad disconnect between school system administration and teachers. It isn’t hard to make ideas sound good, but it is often a different story when you step into schools and see that idea panned out. I have just barely begun getting parents to understand the NEW 4 page elementary report card and now we have a 20 page progress report called AIM. Baltimore County suffers from a retention problem with its teachers and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see why. How much more can be piled on before it’s too much? What happened to the importance of good instruction? When did we start valuing mountains of paperwork over evidence of learning? Valuable teaching and instructional planning time are in jeopardy. Let teachers do their jobs. Let them TEACH!

i don't understand how a new method can be implemented all of a sudden, without our input, knowledge, or without even extensive training. whenever a new curriculum or program is being implemented, there are usually staff meetings, multiple trainings, etc. this is being shoved down teachers' throats without any hesitation. it's very "big-brother-ish" to me. i have no idea how to do this. how will they even know if i'm even making the correct assessments? i teach a special area, not math or reading or language arts, and they have a hard enough time understanding what i do in the first place. this is a waste of my professional time, and if i don't have time to do this, then so be it. i have a family too and although i used to take work home, i stopped doing that. just pile more work onto an already overloaded employee, why don't you? that will get the job done. ugh.

AIM will detract from instruction and students will suffer. This is another stunt by the county in which high paid school officials dictate what should go on in the classrooms which they rarely visit. This is a time consuming program that will only distract teachers from creating meaningful instruction, and will deter teachers from any involvement in extracurricular activities. Teachers are already overextended and this program will push many to leave teaching or to water down instruction in order to be able to meet the needs of this pointless program.

As a husband of a BCPS teacher, I, for one, know that almost all teachers that I have discussed AIM with are against the program completely. Many teachers and administrators, called the "minority" are afraid to speak out for fear of their jobs and are left to post comments on the blog to express their displeasure. IT seems to me that the School Board prefers a system of autocracy, instead of one of open debate and discussion. IT put an additional heavy burden on our teachers and will effect their abillity to provide quality instruction. Education of a child is a parternship between the parents, the student, and the teachers. I understand the aim of AIM, however; teachers are completely overworked and underpaid, and there is not enough time in the day for a teacher to possibly learn AIM, implement it, and provide instruction and grade. If anything, instruction will suffer because teachers can not escape the other three. Another puzzling aspect is that fact that teachers are required to implement this program without any instruction or training. IT all seems very last minute and rushed, which convinces me that this was not a well-thought out program. Why in the middle of the year? It sounds fishy. The teachers have a right to be up in arms over AIM. Parents should be too.

The comments everyone makes are valid. When AIM goes through, we all know that it's not "if" it goes through, then I expect a monetary compensation towards time spent using the program or I will leave the profession. Teaching is a wonderful job and very rewarding; however, we already take enough work home. It's not right to give teachers more work and I can honestly say this will interfere with the time spent with my wife (BCPS teacher) and children. Ridculous.

It boggles my mind that intelligent and educated indicivuals can possibly believe intheir hearts that AIM can in any way be an effective tool for monitoring student progress. I entered the field of education because I believe in the future of our children, not because I want to spend an inordinate amount of time and energy plugging in useless data that will NOT help our children. Give teachers the credit they deserve; we are in this business because we CARE about the children; let us do our jobs, preparing quality lessons and providing quality instruction for our students instead of pushing pencils and completing worthless paper work!

AIM is another way that teachers validate the paychecks of those who have been out of the classroom for way too long. What looks good on paper is not necessarily what works in the classroom.

I hope that all of you are sharing the excellent points and serious concerns that have been written in to this blog with County Executive Jim Smith, members of the county council, members of the board of education, the Baltimore County PTA council, and parents in your local PTAs. Otherwise, we are just "preaching to the choir." Copies of your opinions, some envelopes, some stamps and a little time are worth it to get the word out to those who can actually do something to change things. You can find email or home addresses online or on the TABCO website. They have to hear from ALL of us!

I hope that Charles Herndon, Dr. Dezmon, and maybe even Dr. Hairston will note how many teachers have taken the personal time to write their comments about this nonsensical new requirement.

As many others have already commented, there is simply no time to comply with this new reporting system, even if it did make sense, which it does not. Its major acheivement is to justify Dr. Dezmon's continued employment in BCPS at a salary which is double if not triple an average teacher's salary.

AIM provides no new information. It does not provide any benefit in return for its tremendous cost in time and effort for training and implementation.

I am told that I will be considered insubordinate and in danger of losing my job if I refuse to comply with this mandate.

I have no idea how I am to find the time to comply. Perhaps J R Rowling can provide each BCPS teacher with a "time turner" like Hermione used to take an extraordinary number of classes in one Harry Potter novel.

I agree with many of the already stated comments regarding the redundancy of AIM and the unfortunate political and financial gain it seems to give those pushing for its hasty implementation.

I am very disappointed in the representation of teachers by members of the county council and the board of education. Recently Dr. Hairston refused to honor his promise of negotiation with teacher representation with regards to AIM implementation. Yet, there was no voice of contest from the area council members or the board.

The implementation of AIM will drastically reduce the amount of time teachers have to plan and reflect on instruction. After five years of teaching, I am considering my employment options in other fields, not because I am tired of teaching, but because I am tired of feeling unappreciated. I did not enter teaching for financial profit or personal recognition. I wish I could say the same for our leadership and representation. Teaching is not a business; students are not products. Adding more business-like practices to our workload without financial or monetary compensation, especially without thoroughly piloting the program and analyzing the results, is unfair and detrimental to students.

It is moves like this that make me question my future with BCPS. I enjoy helping students learn-- AIM will significantly reduce my ability to do that. My time, energy, and patience will be severely compromised, to what end? Generating yet another report that in most cases will go unread. Come to a back to school or parent conference night some time. At the HS level, we are lucky to have much less than 10% of the parents show. How many parents will look at this? Exactly who is this for?
If BCPS wants to do something truly useful w/ its money I recommend finding better ways to support teachers and students by reducing class sizes and working with them (teachers AND students) to improve the relevancy and efficacy of our schools. BCPS' implementation of AIM will undermine this and by signaling its preference for bureaucracy over efficacy will likely drive those who value learning and engaging educational environments away from BCPS...

I sat down the other evening (during the winter break) and began bubbling circles in the AIM program. Being a special area teacher with 21 classes to enter report card grades for and now AIM bubbles, I wanted to get a real idea of what I am up against.
I began with a second grade class and found that in most of the objectives my students are at the acceleration level. Why? Probably because I take time in my classroom to have fun and spend several class sessions teaching/reinforcing the same objectives when my students need more time.
To complete objectives for 2 terms and accurately showing where my students were on December 23, I spent 2 1/2 hours on 27 students. To be true to the task, all of the students must be reevaluated after each lesson and some of the bubbles changed. So I will need to spend more time every week for all 21 classes to update the students' progress.
So, what did I learn about my students? Nothing that I didn't already know.
What did I learn about myself? I will not be able to deliver my entire curriculum so that all of my students reach the mastery level by the end of the year since I see each class only once a week, if I'm lucky. No, wait, I already knew that!
What did I learn about AIM? The program is monitoring MY progress, not the progress of my students.
I agree with everyone who has posted here and most who have posted on the other site about AIM. This is a tremendous waste of time that we do not have. It is important that everyone affected by this program take the time to take our message to the school board. They need to hear from the minority!

One of my concerns about AIM is related to the lack of standardization. I am one of the people responsible for training others in my school to use AIM. The training materials I received focused on the many different reports that AIM provides, but nothing on what constitutes an “A”, what constitutes a “I” and what constitutes an ‘M’. When I looked at the training materials on the BCPS website and clicked on User Manual the response was that the user manual is “under construction”. It seems to be up to the individual teacher to determine what constitutes mastery. Does mastery mean satisfactory or outstanding? Grading is always subjective to some extent, but if there is no common understanding for what A, I and M mean then the progress reports are totally meaningless. Students will suffer as teachers spend the time they would normally use for planning and grading to fill out progress reports that provide little or no useful information.

My understanding was that AIM was to be piloted this year with a few teachers at each school so that the program could be evaluated. It is irresponsible for the school system to mandate a program like this county-wide without a thoroughly evaluated pilot. The fact that the program is being put into practice before a user manual is even available is disturbing.

"Dezmon said she created the tool after she saw that some minority students were not receiving the same education in southwestern area schools as they were in the northern part of the county."

As an African-American teacher with experience in Baltimore City and a current assignment in the SW area, I find it incredibly demoralizing that while Dezmon claims to be working for minority students, she is actually sabotaging them.

After 8 years of teaching I have noticed that the classroom teacher with the most struggling students is clearly the teacher AIM will HURT the most. First, this teacher is already pulled out of the classroom several times a week to attend student IEP, SST or BST meetings. Next, this teacher is already required to sacrifice precious lesson planning time to the collection/recording of data (behavior checklists, remedial assessments, ABC logs, anecdotal records, team progress reports). Finally, this teacher loses even more precious instructional time as various needy students are pulled out of the classroom for services like speech, ESOL, academic intervention groups, or counseling services. So what do we do to help this teacher and her students?

Throw AIM at her. So this teacher is pulled out of the classroom for several more days. This teacher loses more lesson planning time to writing sub plans and filling in “A” bubbles. Ultimately, the student Dr. Dezmon is so concerned about is wondering why she has a substitute teacher AGAIN.

No thanks, from this SW teacher!

One more question? Will AIM help my minority students who aren’t African American? Will BCPS provide me with Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu or Yoruba interpreters to fully explain AIM’s educational jargon to ALL my interested parents?

When would Herndon like for the teachers to teach. I thought the best way to boost learning was to actually instruct students? I guess I was incorrect, because the top administrators believe that students will be more successful the more paperwork the teachers need to complete! I teach three grade levels of science, carry a caseload of 13 students that need to be tested for IEP's and complete report cards and quarterly reports. Oh...did I mention that I get 20 minutes for lunch, and get 45 minutes on a day that I don't recieve coverage to complete planning and case management responsibilites? Please tell me when I will have time to fill out paperwork that NO ONE will ever use nor read!

I must agree with an earlier blog. I am a special area teacher with the same time constraints as EMS. I love my job and do not want to leave this profession but I also have a family of my own. Doing the extra work for AIM will not only take away from my family it will limit the amount of time I have to devote to my lessons and student needs. I have also been a classroom teacher and I can not imagine how a teacher in any position will be able to do his or her best work in the classroom with this additional paper work of AIM hanging over their heads. We all work best when we are not stressed out or overworked. AIM is stressful and will add to our already busy work load. In reference to Mr. Herndon's comment that not many teachers are opposed to AIM, I was never asked by the school board what my opinion was or if I was opposed to doing the additional work required for AIM progress reports. I do not know how he can say not many are opposed when most were not asked their opinion. It is a shame that a county so large as BCPS would allow so few to make decisions that will affect so many with out having more input from the stakeholders.

HMMMMM, every single time that I hear a supporter of AIM (Dezmon, Hairston, Herndon, or a spokesman for the "powers that be") speak about AIM there is some other "reason" that is given for its implementation. Almost as if - no one is really sure WHAT good is going to supposedly come from it. Kind of like grasping at straws if you really look at it. And, what if, by the end of the year, students still haven't mastered everything on that wonderful list??? What is going to happen then? What does this mean? And, maybe the most important question - WHO CARES? Where does this data go? Who is evaluating the overall data?
And --- as it is, I work in a school where heaven forbid - you use one extra sheet of paper (in the copier or printer). Every sheet used is counted - and teachers only get a certain number of sheets for usage... Many can't even make enough copies for actual instruction - but, we will have enough paper for THIS??? What is really more important? If only parents and taxpayers knew all the crazy things like this that go on in BCPS.....
Let's hope this blows the top off many silly little things....

I completely agree with all others who have commented. AIM was put together by people who have not been in the classroom for a long time. How would this redundent paperwork be meeting the needs of our students??!? They should be our #1 priority, not AIM!!!

I copied a post from a talk forum by Notboilingfrog that one one of the more interesting comments about this

...This thread concerned a complaint by a public school teacher related to new student assessment activity that the poster proposed as ineffectual and a waste of time. The poster (hst2) is 100% correct. In addition, hst2 cited the corporatist flavor of the assessment activity and related administrative mandates. Again, the poster is correct. Education is the latest victim of a longstanding move toward the application of so-called “free market” economic principles in all aspects of American society. In education, this movement has taken the form of the application of “business principles” to education as witnessed by the Bush administration’s creation of the “No Child Left Behind Act.” Like the introduction of NAFTA and the repeal of the Glass-Stegall Act, this act had bipartisan support. In this model, teachers are “service providers” and school principals are “management.” Management is charged with creating efficiency metrics, increasing throughput, and insuring that the new standards are measured and documented properly. Since teachers are merely service providers, they are largely kept out of the picture in terms of decision-making in the effort. Business buzzwords such as “accountability,” “transparency,” and “valued-added” are bandied about by school management. Large, for-profit corporate educational providers are at the forefront of this movement. Ultimately, these mandates dis-empower teachers at a time when they should have increased powers in the classroom. The activity questioned by HST involves the creation of a set of “rubrics” for course subject matter. Rubrics are detailed measures for each subject. For example, student understanding of geography might consist of separate measures related to knowledge of Europe, South America, Asia, etc. Values for these measures can be obtained from quizzes, exercises, etc. This is what is being sold by Barbara Dezmon’s company- Dezmon Educational Strategies, LLC whose trademark registration can be found at-
http://electronics.zibb.com/trademark/dezmon/30173945
Note that there are a number of spellings of her last name- Desmond, Dezmond, and Desmon.

Even if Dr. Dezmon has given BCPS the right to use her system at no cost, there is still a clear conflict of interest and a probable procedural violation since its presence on the BCPS publicly accessible web site constitutes a form of endorsement and advertising of her firm’s product. The implicit endorsement gives her a market advantage in selling the idea to other school systems.

The point of my comment is to disabuse posters who think that this is a “big government” initiative when it really is yet another attempt to apply a “big corporate” model to a government service and is a legacy of the failed privatization “for-profit” movement. “Big Corporate” is behind “Big Government” and that’s the link that most people miss.

When are the higher-ups in the county going to get a clue??? They have no concept of what teachers do everyday in their jobs. We work very hard because we LOVE to teach children. If they want us to fill in 18-20 pages of unnecessary, redundant paperwork just for their own glory and money, then THEY can do it.

This is complete and udder disregard for the people who are in the trenches everyday. They do not respect us at all. This is a complete joke...it's ALL for money and copyright. Don't let them fool you when they say it's for the children and the parents. I am disgusted by bcps right now. WE are the educators, not them!

Why should it matter if the "powers that be" hear from 100 or 1000 teachers complaining about AIM? Don't they realize how time consumming and redundant the pogram is? Do they really believe teacher's have so much extra time on their hands that requiring them to analyze and complete 100+objectives for each of their 150 (in middle school) students at least 2 times a quarter (interm time and end of quarter) won't put any strain on their planning time? How will county officials react when either teachers refuse to complete their AIM requirements or student issues such as grading, planning, mentoring, etc are "neglected" because the teachers don't have the time due to completing AIM?

I would like the "powers that be" to come in and do a time study of any teacher in the county to prove that there is time to complete AIM within the school day without taking away impacting negatively on the classroom.

The posted comments resonate with me and they reflect the outrage I have heard from my fellow teachers. One concern I have is that this "tool" is not scientifically based. Dr. Dezmon has not created research-based assessments that align with AIM objectives, which also were not created by her yet are integral to her copyrighted product. The ethical breaches of a county employing standing to gain financially with potential sales are wrong in so many ways.

As a professional, I am reluctant to assign graded designations if I am expected to defend that I have taught and assessed each objective for each student. A casual legal observation has suggested that a teacher cannot accurately indicate "I" for objectives which were only partially addressed during a marking period or when a student was absent. Potential legal issues should motivate BCPS to move extremely cautiously in implementing any program of this magnitude without field-testing, data collection, editing, and extensive school-based training.

Further, as the parent of a family of successful BCPS graduates, I would have had no need for teachers to "micromanage" or "microassess" my kids' learning. If my child were struggling, my issues would have included how much he/she was studying, whether he/she needed extra help, his/her classroom behavior, etc. Assessments with hundreds of indicators would not have enlightened me in any meaningful way. In fact, they would have likely fogged the critical issues and led to a less amiable home-school working relationship.

The BCPS leadership needs to listen and apply what its teaching workforce thinks and feels. We are the viable practitioners who help children grow, learn and prepare to be contributing members of society. Children's education should be more essential than what is reflected by this obsession with measurement and mastery of thousands of objectives on their way through our curriculums. We assess children enough, ..."enough already".

How interesting that we say we want the best for our children, but the very experts who are to deliver the instruction and assessments have no say in how it best be accomplished. Teachers have gone into this profession not for monetary rewards, not for great working hours (even though folks not doing the job think the hours are terrific and forget to factor in the hours involved in actually doing the job), not for glory, but for the idea that they can make a difference in the life of a child. Over time that has become more and more difficult to do. This AIM program will take up so much time for each individual teacher that instructional planning will suffer, student learning will suffer, and individual life learning will take a back seat to number crunching and real reform. The sad fact is it will add almost no new meaningful knowledge for teachers and parents alike.
The real problem is that real lasting reform is expensive. It takes many more dollars to pay for the numbers of personnel needed to really reach all of the children. Smaller class sizes, extra guidance counselors, pupil personnel workers, etc. come at a high price, but that price is insignificant compared to the cost of not finally doing it right and allowing teachers to educate whole children who will be successful learners throughout their lives.

Mark me tired of the same old thing!

Okay policy makers - You have two choices... We, as teachers, can spend all of our "extra time" inside and outside of school preparing for lessons, differentiating to meet the needs of all learners, communicating with parents, etc., as we normally do, OR we can ignore everything that we know about teaching and throw all of our time into AIM. You decide. Would you rather have “data” or students actually receiving appropriate instruction, because, I’m sorry, I am not Wonder Woman, I cannot do everything in the allotted time you provide us!

P.S. Since we all feel so strongly against implementing AIM, do you REALLY think you are going to get authentic data? I can pretty much guarantee that if I am not given the appropriate amount of time to complete the reports, the scores that I give my children will probably not be authentic.

*I absolutely love teaching and truly feel like it was my calling. Unfortunately, this is just one of the many reasons why I have considered the possibility of getting out of the teaching profession – I just don’t get to TEACH anymore. 

First of all, it is absurd that it is portrayed that the MINORITY of educators are upset with the AIM initiative that is to be mandatory for all Baltimore County Educators. My job as an educator is to provide the best possible education for our children. Initiatives such as AIM certainly will not assist in this endeavor. The enormous amont of data that I would be required to enter into the system would total over 4,000 entries PER QUARTER!!!! That is time that will be taken away from lesson planning, implementation development, and grading of student work. It is an unrealistic and daunting task! I take my role as an educator seriously. Without enetering this rediculous amount of data, I promise you that I could tell any board member, superintendent, parent, other teacher, administrator, etc., which of my students are meeting with content objective success, those that are struggling, and those that are failing. That is what a good educator, THE MAJORITY of us do! I highly object to and protest this initiative to the highest degree!

Secondly, every year, educatores are asked to do more and more and we receive laughable pay raises, and have nothing removed from our plates. If we are REQUIRED to do these things that will REQUIRE us to work further outside of our contractual work hours, then it is high time those requirements become REFLECTIVE IN OUR SALARIES! I hardly think that any other professional would do what we are being asked to do without receiving fair and appropriate compensation. Our last few salary increases have been a joke! If you expect more, then be ready and willing to pay us for what we do!

I don't understand why we are being forced to take instruction and planning time to put the same data in so many different places. The new Assesstrax system records student acheivement data by objective already. I really feel all this new data collection is a crime against the students. It takes my energy away from my students and focuses it on number crunching. It's ridiculous! I know my students and want to spend my lunches and after school time helping them, not hunched over a computer. I wish BCPS had more faith in my capabilities and the record keeping that we already have in place and forget about AIM. If they really think we need AIM, I'll be happy to oblige if they build more assessement days into the school calendar. I would think I'd need at least an extra full day per quarter for all that work.

I am a teacher in SW Baltimore County. I have effectively communicated student performance with parents and guardians for 10 years. I do not need AIM to do this. Teachers would need two extra planning periods per day to accomplish this waste of time. I have talked with scores of teachers throughout the County, and I have yet to hear one teacher in favor of this program. As is typically the case, AIM was written by an individual who has been out of the classroom for many, many years, and may be looking for promotion or to make money!

It is agreed that MOST teachers and other school staff feel that AIM is an absolutely unnecessary tool for data. It WILL take away teachers' time from planning for students. It WILL take away teachers' time from creating exciting and motivating lessons for students. It WILL increase teachers' workload with no benefit to students. It does NOT have the best interest of the students in mind. In addition to benchmarks, assessments, report cards, daily data sheets (both behavioral and educational), Special Education data, and more, AIM will eat so much of teachers' time to complete, there will be little time, if any, for teachers to collaborate with each other and plan. AIM has no purpose.

AIM is indeed just another supposed accountability measure that will actually decrease student achievement because it will take teacher time away from planning meaningful and effective instruction. AIM is just repetitive and meaningless paperwork and is a total waste of time, talent, and energy.

What is not realized by those who are mandating the use of AIM is that the tool is based on how the teacher FEELS a student is progressing in each area. This WILL NOT be a valuable tool as teachers are going to become tired of all the ridiculous paperwork and simply mark that the students are instructional. Time and effort will not be put into thinking about student progress because we want to focus on rigorous, meaningful, and engaging lessons...the TRUE way to teach students. Not to mention as a parent, I feel it is too much to read when receiving a report card. In addition, special education students already receive up to 12 plus extra pages of IEP progress reports. Our teachers do a wonderful job responding to parent concerns and provide meaningful comments on report cards to help parents understand where students are struggling. Adding more paperwork only takes precious time away from teachers who are already overworked and underpaid....did I mention, Baltimore County doesn't want to give teachers raises, but is more than willing to shell out money for a program that will make its top officials a lot of money once they leave our school system? Yet the teachers are the ones expected to do all the extra work? I know that as a teacher, I will be looking for a job in another county!

I just have two question: Will colleges and universities request students' A.I.M. reports as part of their transcripts? If not, wouldn't our time be better spent on preparing our students for this next crucial phase of their education?

A Baltimore County High School Teacher

As a 15 year, I think that this unreal expectation of the AIM directive . The amount of work that I’ll have to compile and complete for each of my forty-two Pre-Kindergarteners is ridiculous. Not to mention that my students are selected for the program based on them being “at risk.” These students will be at the instructional level for every objective listed. I would be a much more effective teacher working with these students on these objectives instead of spending countless hours filling out checklists.

On my way in to work today I calculated even if you only spend 5 minutes entering each kid and you only teach 120 kids that is an entire 40 hour work week over the course of the year. That is without comments, without an explanation of what the indicators mean in plain english to the parents, and without using your gradebook at hand to accurately account for each detail. They could simply do all of this at the high school level automatically by linking it to the created benchmark exams -- why not if it has to be done and the point is kids passing the state tests make it linked to just that the tests and let assesstrax to the hours of labor more accurately so that the teachers being so wrongly accused of not teaching children can plan and teach. Oh thats right then people would have to subscribe to two services one of which wasn't created by Baltimore County's people to be sold.

I don't even have time to write this message ... how do I have time for AIM?

Dear BCPS Teachers,

I have followed this story closely in the local media and online blogs. I am not a BCPS teacher, but I am a parent and county taxpayer (I think the county would call me a "Stakeholder"), and I support the teachers on this issue.

I hope you can all stand together and refuse this mandate altogether. Fill out NO AIM report until your concerns are addressed honestly and openly by the administration and the board.

You can force them to address your concerns if you are united. No school system would or could dispense with all of its faculty. Get the answers you need and make them include you in the decision-making!

I stand with you and will send my own letter to the board, and to county council members.

The reason why more teachers don't speak out is because they are afraid of what will happen if they do. AIM is adding another 4+ pages of reporting on top of the 4 pages of report cards. I have 112 students. We are expected to do both at the same time? I can't work 24 hours a day. This will take away time from instruction. I already do stay for 2 hours after school, and take plenty of work home. This is not about my dedication to teaching/my students, or my ability to meet this challenge. This is about the fact that it is a waste of time to do two report cards. There is simply not enough time to make this a meaningful activity. It is very disrespectful to people you say you think so highly of to continue to add to our workload, and to refuse to listen to what we are saying. Also, schools will now be responsible for the paper and ink used to print these multiple page reports. This will cost schools a lot of money at a time when budgets are already stretched to the breaking point. It is so discouraging to work as hard as I do only to be told that I am not doing enough and that I should stop complaining.

Excellent comments by all, but as a current employee who has worked at ESS in the past, let me suggest that BCPS is like an onion. My suggestion to the Sun, keep peeling! There are many more similar stories out there. For those of you paying Baltimore County taxes, if you think we aren't headed the way of the city, you are fooling yourselves.

AIM is just another thing for teachers to add to their ever-growing paper work. I thought teaching was to help children, not to continuously fill out paper-work. Maybe the people at the top need to join us teachers in the classroom again!!!

BCPS teachers need time to prepare
lessons, grade papers and complete reports. We do not need another "tool" to assess our students. If I were a young teacher, I would be looking at other counties for employment.
Retirement from BCPS is sounding sweeter each day!

As a teacher in Baltimore County for the past 14 years, I have serious concerns about the amount of planning time that will be wasted on AIM. The information gathered by AIM is subjective, unlike report card grades which have a more objective basis.

Contrary to what Mr. Herndon suggests, I know that my opinion of AIM is definitely not in the minority in my school. I have not spoken to any teacher who feels that AIM is going to benefit our students. At best it is a waste of time. I'm afraid that in some cases, the excess burden that AIM places on teachers' limited time resources may ultimately have a negative impact on our students.

Today at my school, we had a presentation on how to complete the AIM progress reports. Imagine my amazement when I learned these reports will NOT be printed out. They will be kept on file and shared with parents at parent/teacher conferences IF the parent requests to see them. Over the past year, I have never had more than 1-2 parents attend quarterly conference night in order to meet with me. Some quarters, I have had no parents at all. (Note: my student load is over 100 students.) If this is the case, why invest the time in this reporting system? A letter grade already gives the same information: An A means the student mastered the content taught; a C means the student is progressing but needs more instruction to master it; a D or E means the student needs accelerated instruction to master the content.

A couple of years ago, Dr. Hairston's "theme" for the school year was "Common Sense." Let's think about it...

Does it make "Common Sense" to hastily implement a program where little to no training has been given as to how to use an extensive and complex database?

Does it make "Common Sense" to add to teacher's already burdened work load so that they can take time from instruction to add more data?

Does it make "Common Sense" to insist that they do not have enough money i to give teachers a "Cost of Living" raise yet spend lots of taxpayer money to implement a program that the majority is opposed to and agrees that it does not help or enhance instruction or student performance?

Does it make "Common Sense" for teachers to evaluate students on units/indicators that they will only teach once and then pass onto a grade level that does not even cover the same content with the expectation that the next teacher will help the student to master the content that is not even covered in their curriculum?

In answer to these questions, NO, it does not make "Common Sense" UNLESS somebody is receiving some sort of benefit or monetary kickback from this program.

Perhaps it would make more "Common Sense" for our County Representatives to start looking at how the higher ups are choosing to spend money that they claim they do not have to give teacher's raises.

It is noteworthy that the county public relations spokesperson announces that those opposing AIM are in the minority. Noteworthy because the teachers have never been asked for input. In fact, this entire mess is being promoted for the benefit of one self-serving adult...there was no diverse pilot, no honest feedback, no competition between companies that may provide a reporting service, if indeed we need another one, no following of policies and most importantly, no consideration of how this will affect the students. Parents need to be informed so that they may advocate for their children. I am a teacher who knows the ineffectiveness of the tool and I am a parent who is saying "No, thank-you" to pages of I's. Give me the report card, make comments, call me, e-mail me, provide feedback on my child's daily work...Talk to me about my child's progress. Additionally, why are my taxes being used to support Dezmon, Education Strategies, LLC? To the board and elected officials: Hold leadership responsible for ethical and sound decision making with a focus on what is best for kids. Stop trying to please one self-serving adult at my child's expense.

As a parent of two students attending a Baltimore County School, I am very concerned about the amount of time this new directive is going to take away from my children's education. My children have wonderful teachers who work with them all day long. They use what little planning time they have to do other required tasks. I know that they are doing planning and grading at home in the evening. WHEN will they be doing all of this new paperwork? I certainly do not expect them to do it for free in the evening! That means that they will need to accomplish these tasks during the school day, when they would otherwise be teaching my children. It disappoints me that the Baltimore County School system does not respect and value their teachers.

I just got home 1/2 hour ago (3 hours after school let out). This is after getting into school 1 1/2 hours before school was in session. I didn't even touch AIM. Instead, I met with children, responded to parent e-mails, and planned lessons for my classes. I haven't even graded the daily math assessments for my 70 + students yet. Where does AIM fit in and to what purpose?

As a client of Baltimore County Public Schools I can honestly say that I see the system becoming one of mediocrity. Good schools are so-so. Stuggling schools are getting worse. And now teachers are being asked to fill out hundreds of "bubbles" to identify if my child is mastering concepts. What happened to the day when an A on a report card meant my child was doing well? Now, from what I read, an A means that my child is not getting it and needs remediation. Who thinks of this garbage? My guess is someone who quickly moved up the ranks without ever really being a successful teacher. Hmmm....could that be this Dezmon that I see referred to so many times in this blog? Too many teachers are pointing their fingers at one person. I happen to believe the fingers should be pointed at Dr. Hairston. It is ultimately his decision, isn't it? Or, is he simply the figure head and someone else calls the shots? Something to think about...

One final note - I will be selling my house this spring and moving out of Baltimore County. I want my children in a school system that focuses on quality teaching. It's just not happening in BCPS anymore. In fact, I would have to say the last 8 years have been a downward spiral.

Didn't Dr. Hairston pay PDK to do an audit a few years back? I do recall one item in that report commenting on how BCPS has too much data and does not use it well.

As a parent, I don't have time to read through pages and pages of indicators for my child. My child takes 7 classes a day. If each course has 3 pages of indicators to review, how am I going to be able to fully digest and understand it? And I have more than just 1 child. I can't even imagine! This is just terrible. Just terrible. Everyone needs to speak up against this before our teachers are weighted down with this task rather than planning quality lessons.

As I sat and listened to my department chair begrudgingly mumble through the instructions for AIM, I could feel the swell of anxiety start to pound the Dell brand computers our school was forced to purchase (at above market prices, I might add). My colleagues were full of questions, fears, and sorrow. My department chair recommended that we simply assign every category a letter “I” to indicate that “the student needs further Instruction or reinforcement with the teacher assistance in specific skill/knowledge/concept area” (www.bcps.org). Her logic was simple: this assessment doesn’t raise any red flags. Students never truly “master” the objectives. To be honest, many of the objectives are still relevant for me. We all nodded and smiled. We had our shortcut.

And isn’t that exactly what AIM is? It’s BCPS’s shortcut. If anyone were to challenge our efforts to teach the children of Baltimore County, the powers-that-be can point to AIM and say, “SEE! We have data!”

And more importantly, my fellow teachers, BCPS will have its scapegoat. As the school system continues to deteriorate, the leaders can point to the AIM reports and ask the teacher, “Why hasn’t Johnny mastered analyzing characters’ motivations, actions, and development as they relate to the experiences, emotions, moral dilemmas and ambiguities in a work of literature? Hmmmm? Well?”

I work at a school where the achievement gap between African American and white students is heart-breaking. This is a school where students routinely disregard rules and manners, and the administration tip-toes because they know how little support they have from the layer of administrators just above them. Several years ago we were forced to cancel our summer reading program because a single parent called the superintendent’s office to complain that her son “didn’t have time” to read books over the summer. Now we have a recommended summer reading list (and by “recommended” I mean “just kidding”). I teach students who are on the road to failure, but finding Osama Bin Ladden would be easier than tracking down their parents. I sat alone in my room on back to school night. I sat alone in my room on parent teacher conference night (both times). I know… I know, “with all of that ‘alone’ time, why are you complaining about AIM?”

BCPS wants me to help them cover up the crime. They want me to check a series of boxes so that they can wash their hands. Our students are failing and falling behind, and BCPS’s solution is an expensive oversized facebook poll.

Our students need us. They are calling out for our backbones and our direct presence. They want lessons that matter. They need instruction and assessment that is authentic. Timely feedback. Honest criticism. Heartfelt praise. These should be the AIM of every teacher, every administrator, and every superintendent. Instead, our students are going to get weaker lessons and a string of “I”s.

China, the title of world’s greatest superpower is yours. We’re throwing in the towel.

I have nothing new to add to the comments that my fellow educators and concerned parents have not already stated more eloquently than I possibly could. I think, however, the importance of this issue cannot be underestimated. Since the No Child Left Behind Act was put into place (the only good thing about it is its name), schools have become the scapegoats for society's ills. I entered teaching because I wanted to share my passion for reading, literature,and sharing ideas with others. The task currently before me with all the additional expectations is slowly burying me. I struggle to maintain a positive attitude, to enthusiastically prepare lessons my students can enjoy but I feel that the rules of the game are changing faster than I can keep up. I am definitely working in an environment of fear and that comes from the top down. Administrators push mandates which they don't believe in, teachers are afraid to voice objections, even these blogs have very few people signing their own names. The public needs to know, really know, all that is entailed in the job of a teacher. The idea that it is a cushy 7-hour a day job with two months off in the summer has to be addressed. I suggest someone from the SUN follow a teacher around for a day, learning about the work that is over and above a simple lesson plan. They need to know that even a simple lesson plan must meet the needs of many different levels of learners with different learning styles. This is really a critical point in time. I am nearing retirement but I feel great empathy for the young teachers who are just beginning. I can't imagine why they would stay.

Baltimore County English Teacher

I would like to know who AIM is really taking "aim " at? How does filling out another massive "subjective" report on each student in my already over crowed classrooms ever improve student achievement? When did student achievement become the sole responsibility of "the classroom teacher"? What about the parents? Do you really think that parents are REALLY going to read these massive reports? Are they REALLY going to understand the reports? You must have better luck than I even getting parents to attend a parent/teacher conference. Even after requesting conferences formally via phone calls, emails, interim reports and on the report card itself, I find it difficult to get my parents in to talk to me. Will AIM improve parent attendance at conference time? What about our students? When are students going to take responsibility for their learning? Will more paperwork give them a greater incentive to learn? Will AIM make my classroom more engaging? Where is the student's vested interest in all of this? And what about the kids who do care? Whoops, we forgot about them. Why? Because they are doing what they should be doing. And guess what - these are the parents I see at conference time. Do these parents need AIM? AND TO MY STUDENTS I DEEPLY CARE FOR:- I guess I am going to have to quit helping you during my "duty free" lunch - and BTW I guess I am going to have to stop helping you after school. Why? I been mandated to fill out another document. Oh and I am sorry Club Members - I won't have time for you now either. I guess this experiment called AIM is much more important than you. I am very sorry kids - very sorry - it appears that AIM is really taking "aim" at both of us. It looks like we will both have to suffer.

Teachers put in many, many extra hours to make sure that their students are happy and successful. It is very upsetting that their voices are not being heard when they say that AIM will not help them help their students and students' parents. It is even more upsetting that there has been no good reason why this voluntary program has become mandatory all of a sudden.

As a teacher for BCPS for 25 years I have experienced teacher angst over decisions concerning curriculum expectations and our salaries many times before. Over twenty years ago, I remember teacher upset over curriculum analysis. Teachers got angry but ultimately, that exercise was for our students’ benefit, so the anger came and went and we moved forward. Next came MSPAP, which was flawed in what it tested, but, as teachers, we soldiered on for the benefit of our students. We knew MSPAP was a flawed test, but we truly embraced the concept of holding our students to a higher standard, and wanted them to achieve at a higher level. As the economy fluctuated, we knew we were not being paid accordingly for all the work we do. We worked to rule for a short period, and most, if not all determined we couldn’t sell our children short of our best teaching efforts over our salaries. We chose to teach because we wanted to make our charges achieve to their highest potential. Yes, we may not have been as valued by our leaders, but why make our students suffer?
I am concerned with this AIM initiative, because the vast majority of teachers are not buying into the statement that this will benefit the students. This effort may be the first time in my 25 years in the BCPS system where teachers may actually have to work to rule, because an initiative may not have been mandated to help our students. Yes, the initiative appears to be designed to create data which can be creatively spun to show successes, but actually will be time consuming and show nothing more than data teachers already generate and analyze accordingly.

I am a Baltimore County elementary classroom teacher, and the parent of a Baltimore County student. I am vehemently opposed to AIM. I already work 12+ hours each day and barely keep my nose above water.

Now that this useless AIM has been mandated, I can tell you that for my very needy students, there will be NO MORE:
individualized home fluency program;
individualized sight word program;
worksheets redesigned (by me!) to be more developmentally appropriate;
math manipulative kits assembled (by me!) for at-home study;
handwritten notes of encouragement;
personal comments on assessments ("Please make your diagrams neater." or, "Your handwriting is looking much better. Good job!");
carefully crafted substitute plans for the multiple IEP Team meetings I must attend and the for days I call out sick to work on AIM--it'll all be busywork: easy to find and make a bunch of copies!

That's just for starters. For the record, I am really bad at "slacking off." (For me, going home at 6pm is slacking off.) However, if I work at it, I might get really good at doing the bare minimum. I might realize how nice it is to see my husband and daughter in the daylight--while they are still awake!

I know that my daughter's teachers are just as pressed and overwhelmed as I am, and certainly they, too, will have to make hard choices regarding how they spend their precious planning--and personal!!--time from now on. I can't say I blame them.

I believe Dr. Dezmon created AIM on BCPS time, with BCPS resources, and--since it is copyrighted in her name--will use it to fund her retirement. BCPS students and teachers are her guinea pigs. If she can force us to use AIM--including using our complaints to modify/revise it--she can retire from BCPS and sell it to PG County, or Montgomery County, or some out-of-state district.

I have been teaching in this county for 15 years. I love teaching, I like the benefits, and I like the 10-month schedule. However, I also like cocktail waitressing--and at 46 years old, I am seriously considering going back to it. I wonder how long Dr. Hairston thinks he can hang on to all the young (under-30) teachers with this kind of treatment?

Don't believe for a second that teachers who are opposed to AIM are in the minority. Not only is it an enormous chunk of extra work, it's an enormous chunk of extra work that doesn't match the Voluntary State Curriculum, doesn't match the report card, and is full of meaningless jargon. It is data for data's sake.

Dr. Dezmon should be run out of town. Perhaps Dr. Hairston and the rest of Dr. Dezmon's minions can accompany her on her one-way trip.

This may well be the proverbial straw.

Looks like alot of unnecessary work. Glad I am a retired BCPS teacher.

I have been teaching in Baltimore County for 4 years now and am VERY dissatisfied with the teaching profession here. I am nothing more than a glorified babysitter. Most of my time is spent on tasks that are not directly associated with instruction: disciplinary actions, useless redundant paperwork, pointless "professional development". I am NOT treated as a professional; am NOT compensated PROFESSIONALLY for the time and effort I spend on this job. Every year I have been here, more and more required tasks are added to the plate, without being given more time to complete those tasks. AIM is just the next requirement in this line-up. I am NOT planning on continuing teaching as a life-long career because of this lack of professionalism. AIM is the last straw!

To give the public an idea of the requirements of this new mandate: I have received e-mails and links indicating half a DOZEN training modules that are supposed to teach me, the teacher, HOW to complete the AIM progress reports. They are not intiutive. If I have to go through intense training to learn how to use and implement AIM, what are we expecting parents to do? They will be required to go through training in order to understand their child's PROGRESS REPORT?

AIMs is unfair!

Yes, we are capable. There is no question where that is concerned. What he has neglected to address on is ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS here: Teachers already put in way over our 6.5 paid hours to plan rigorous, meaningful instruction. This will just take away from that time. Not only do I find his comment insulting (thinking teachers are mad because they feel they are not capable), but I find it hard to believe that deep down, these county office folk think that data entry is more important than what we already do. By the way, Charles Herndon's job title is "Communications Specialist". How can he really make judgements about how teachers should be spending their time?!!

Also, for teachers on facebook, please join the End AIM Now!! group and voice your opinions there, too. Our voices must be heard everywhere!

For the parents and teachers who have blogged and are so opposed to AIM...

I hope you'll be at the Board Meeting on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Greenwood ESS building. We need to show EVERYONE INVOLVED that we're not the minority and that AIM is a huge waste of our time, effort, and money.

The bottom line is that the board is only hearing from a selected group of schools... those that have principals whose job is on the line. They are singing the praises of all that is AIM and making the rest of us look like we're whiny teachers.

It's not the case. AIM is wrong for our students and is wrong for BCPS. We cannot be expected to complete these indicators for each student four times per year.

So...
Let's pack the ESS building on Tuesday and make our voices heard on this very important issue!

I agree with all that I have read here.
I am a current BCPS teacher, and in our faculty meeting yesterday to receive "training" on how to use AIM, when we went to the user manual for help, we were greeted with the message: "user manual is under construction". I'm sorry, but if Balt. Co. is in such a hurry to implement this compltetely useless "tool", then shouldn't the product at least be completed?!?

I also would like to address the way in which this mandate was presented to us. Never have I felt so bad for someone as I did for our principal the day she had to set up a same-day after school meeting for people who wanted to attend. She was not allowed to say anything before this meeting, so the rumors around school were flying fast and furious. Once we got to the meeting, it became a "shoot the messenger" type of deal, as all of us were made aware, only a few days before winter break, that AIM was now mandatory and would be required to be finished for second quarter. Our principal took the brunt of a lot of anger and frustration that day, and she didn't deserve that. Obviously, this was something that the powers that be KNEW would be received this way, hence the underhanded way in which the news was delivered to us.

In closing, I have to restate what so many have so eloquently said...this is a complete waste of time that could otherwise be spent in planning quality lessons and giving attention to the students.

I am one person. I (along with so many others) have 25 students in my class. I can not plan quality lessons, teach those lessons to reach all my students, grade papers, return phone calls and e-mails, plan with my grade-level team, have meetings with my administration, and, oh, I don't know, go to the BATHROOM at some point during my day if I am going to be expected to check in hundreds of objectives for each student in each subject. The fact that this "tool" is not even going to be seen by parents unless it is requested at a conference, but is still being touted as a "communication tool" is laughable.

Teachers in opposition to this mandate are NOT the minority. The MAJORITY of us can see how this will negatively impact our instruction and our students' chances to achieve to their potential. The students are the sole reason we are here...requiring us to spend valuable time on a useless, redundant form is removing us more and more from our primary responsibility--the students.

This program has not been piloted to ensure it's improvement on student performance. Teachers already have to complete work on much of their own time that they do not get paid for. This is not humanly possible for teachers to complete report cards as well as complete the several pages in AIM for each student. As a teacher we already spend hours before and after school working because you cannot possibly do all the work on your one fifty minute planning period a day. Are teachers supposed to stop eating and sleeping to get all of this done? What a joke! How much more work do they think one person can do? I'm all for helping students to learn. Most teachers became teachers so they could teach students not to become data processors. The students are the ones who will suffer here if teachers don't speak out now. Let teachers teach and help the students. There are not enough hours in the day to complete any more work than what we are doing now. Someone needs to rethink this idea!

As of 1:10pm on Tuesday January 5th, 2010... On the WBAL survey; of the 2117 people surveyed... 2009 people or 95% voted does not agree with AIM; 48 people or 2% does agree with AIM; 60 people or 3%believe it has not been tested enough to agree or disagree with.
The minority is who?????

As I sat in my schools faculty meeting yester day and watched as the rest of my colleagues find out about what AIM actually is and the amount of work that will take to do it, a fire began to grow in me. As I read the posts and see other teachers reaction i feel a little more comfortable sharing my disgust with the leader ship, and I loosely use that word when describing the BCPS. Redundancy is a killer no matter where it is found and that’s just what AIM is. It is a tool developed by a person most likely with a PhD in who knows what, clearly it isn’t education or the degree should be torn to shreds. That on paper sounds great, actually I like what the idea is, however the idea is clearly lost in translation. The how to is one problem, but my faculty wants to know when will we have time to do it? We got a kick out of the presenters comment “you can do it at home now” which struck us as funny seeing how we barely have enough time to do our jobs during the day.. During my average day I have to prep for 3 different lessons at the high school, which means 3 different lesson plans, I need to make a teacher product which can take from a class period to 2 days. I need to make an assessment tool, an objective, and procedures for the class to follow, and that is before the kids arrive in the room. All this in a total of 45 minuets a day, now mix in grades and now AIM and you can see where I am going. My only other gripe is our so called spokes person, Charles Herndon. Mr. Herndon saying that he believes that the teachers who have complained are in the minority. “We feel our teachers are up to the task. We think very highly of the teachers; we think they are capable,” Mr. Herndon is clearly delusional because I am in touch with reality and 98 percent of the teachers I have spoken to are appalled, angered, frustrated, and fed up. The quality of education in Baltimore County is high only because of the teachers that already go above and beyond our meager salaries’ and our sacrifices to our families with out extra time spent in schools. And now we are asked to spend more time working on something that every teacher that has seen, cannot stand behind. The bottom line is teachers will complain no matter what however if it is something that we believe in and we know will do well for our students than we will back it. AIM is not something we are willing to stand behind, because it is a severely flawed system implemented by empty suits that are out of touch with class room teachers.

Teachers, like any employees in any business, have a finite amount of time for which they are paid. So, if teachers are required to complete the time-consuming AIM assessment process, something else must go. Perhaps, since the AIM documents are such wonderful and accurate assessments of student progress, colleges will accept them in lieu of college recommendation letters. Would students, parents, and colleges find these multi-page documents to be acceptable subsitutes for the letters? I doubt I will have time to write any college recommendation letters since I will be so busy completing the AIM requirements.

Hi, I'm one of the parents who wrote the letter against AIM published in the Sun today. We are trying to contact other parents in the County and encourage them to state their views on AIM, particularly those in the southwest area of the County. In Liz Bowie's article of Dec. 27, Barbara Dezmon stated that she created AIM after "she saw that some minority students were not receiving the same education in southwestern area schools as they were in the northern part of the county."

Please contact any teachers or parents you may know in the Southwest area of the County and ask them to share their views about AIM. We do not see how AIM serves any child well anywhere in the County, but we need all views to be heard.

Dezmon also stated in the Dec. 27 article that "teachers and administrators should explain them [AIM objectives written in jargon] so that parents understand." Any program where the learning outcome objectives are not comprehensible to parents from the outset is a program with serious problems. The problems with understanding AIM lie in the program itself, not with parents or teachers.

We need parents from all over the County to come to the Board of Education meeting on January 12 to express their views about AIM, either in testimony, by petition (you can start one!), or by speaking to the news media. You may also join the new Facebook group, "End AIM Now," formed 3 days ago, which already has 382 members.

If you want teachers to teach your children instead of spending 100-150 hours a year entering data, you need to protest against this program.

Please also contact your County Councilman and the County Executive about the problems with AIM.

Please all parents and teachers in Baltimore county UNITE against this mandate that will NOT put children first but will only cause more paper work for teachers and be useless data dictated by people who are NOT putting children first.It is the students of Baltimore County Schools who will be once again be losing out in this mandate. We really need the ALL the public and ALL the parents to get involved and stop this terrible waste of taxpayer money. Please speak out on this issue and stop the madness! - A dedicated county teacher who puts children First!

As a special areas teacher, I see 350 different students. At approximately 5 minutes per AIM report, you do the math. I'd rather be teaching what I love to those that matter most- the students! The language on AIM is so jargony, I'm not sure that this will be any benefit to parents. The time could be better spent planning for instruction. Period.

I resent that my tax dollars are used to advance the personal pursuits of selected adults rather than be used to advance student success. Where is the oversight of how resources are used in Baltimore County Public Schools? Parents and all taxpayers should be outraged!!!! I am confused as to why Joe Hairston would want to conclude ten years as the Superintendent in Baltimore County as the one who brought the mess-AIM, disrespected teachers, dismissed parental concerns, and most importantly, short-changed our students. I know that's how I will remember his impact on BCPS.

Heres a slogan-
"Ill tell you where to AIM it!"

I think if teachers are committed to these, then each person above teachers should be required to fill AIM reports quarterly on EVERY employee under them on a list of "objectives" for the appropriate position. Oh! Wait, don't forget, these AIM reports DO NOT count as teacher/position evaluations and they have absolutely no impact on an employees future employment

I am both a BCPS teacher and parent, not to mention taxpayer. I DO NOT need to see another useless paper report on any of my 3 kids- a simple grade is fine with me. I DO NOT have the time to fill out the paperwork for AIM for the 70 kids I try to teach each day. ( I say "try" because before AIM was already drowning in data.) If I wanted to analyze data, I would have become an actuary!Is anyone listening? How much does Dr. Dezmon get for her program? Could she come into one of our classrooms and do some AIM reports with us?

Some comments from a veteran (35 yr) teacher:
1) With AIM I foresee the quality of daily instruction suffering
2) There is too much data being collected to make good decisions and help fix problems
3) All previous bloggers are right on target with their figures concerning hours AIM will take
4) So much is now asked of teachers that even those who have been so diligent and faithful to the requirements of the job will find there is no time for anything else once AIM is implemented
5) I know this has been stated before, but we all know the end result of this additional, unnecessary and time-consuming endeavor is that it will HURT STUDENTS in many ways.

AIM should stand for Absolutely Incredible Misuse - of teachers' time, parents' tax dollars and, most of all, students' learning. The time it will take teachers to complete this meaningless task is incredible. The expense to print reports which are more than 5 pages per student are a waste of precious taxpayer dollars at a time when our school budgets are being trimmed to the max. Saddest of all, the students will be the ones who suffer because teachers will be spending less time preparing engaging lessons. Teachers will be too busy filling in endless boxes with useless data. This teacher is disappointed in our superintendent's poor decision.

On tonight's Channel 11 Newscast, Joe Hairston claims this is a "MANUFACTURED CRISIS". WHAT IS HE THINKING????He also states, "... he's not pleased at how the AIM student progress program has been portrayed in the public and believes teachers are simply being misled." Mislead, HOW? It's all in black and white on the AIM pages on the BCPS website. Already, I'm hearing that one of my child's teachers is having them use instructional classroom time just doing extra reading. Taxpayers pay for their children to be TAUGHT in the classroom, not to be given busy work!Every parent should be outraged at this unethical use of our teachers' time in promoting AIM for one person's retirement fund. Students used to receive better educations before the teachers were required to do all of this data collection. I've written on these blogs in the past weeks, and I'm simply stunned at how the "LEADER" of the Baltimore County Schools can boldly say on television that this is a manufactured crisis. I don't think teachers and parents alike would be taking their time to continue to follow this story if there are not legitimate concerns. I also urge everyone to converge on the next Board Meeting.This is not about teachers "whining" about having too much work to do (although it's almost humanly impossible to do and still maintain some sort of commitment to their families.) It's about common sense and respecting the concerns of teachers, parents, and students. I thought school officials were supposed to put student success at the top of the priority list. Evidently NOT! Shame on you, Dr. Hairston and Dr. Dezmon!

As a first year “dual special educator and general educator” my 168 hours a week are already full to the brim. Of course, some overwhelmed feelings are guaranteed to accompany any new teacher, but this is excessive.

As a special educator, I am already doing quarterly progress reports on EVERY IEP goal of each student on my almost 20 student caseload. This means that I have to give numerical data and explanations on the progress made on over 100 individual goals for students that I may or may not teach. This task requires me to hassle almost 100 general educators who teach my students for work samples and information on their individual goals. This task requires a great amount of time from them and me, but is federally mandated so it is done.

On top of this, I am preparing monthly 3rd party billing documentation that could be audited up to 6 years later, formally and informally assessing students on my caseload for teams, submitting reports for team that compile progress reports and feedback from my students’ teachers, writing IEPS (which have now changed so they are more like AIM), monitoring student progress and attempting to keep them on track to graduate, co-planning/co-teaching several class, organizing my students’ 5+ inch thick files in the BCPS format in preparation to be audited, corresponding with parents, etc.

However, as a general educator, I also teach several classes on my own. As all teachers know, this includes creating differentiated lesson plans for high school students whose ability levels could be around a second grade level, recreating a modified version of the previously created lesson plan for diploma-bound students who are MOD candidates, providing rigorous, meaningful instruction, staying on track with county assessments and entering those scores into AssessTrax, preparing students for HSAs, entering interim and quarterly report card grades for all of my students, completing teacher reports for students on other caseloads, filling out reports for students suspended to the Board, developing professionally, integrating technology, grading papers, increasing parent involvement, chaperoning school events, etc.

Now, in the midst of barely finding time to bathe regularly and consider possibly sleeping, I am required to report on countless goals/objectives for ALL of my students thanks to AIM!? And to think that in a year or two I also have to find time to earn at least a Master’s degree! How is creating an IEP for ALL students not going to lead to a floodgate of parent litigation? The legal constraints and required documentation is already nearly impossible for students who receive special education services, but now I have to keep documentation and justification for how every individual objective is rated for all students!? What happens when students in high school have still not mastered early elementary school objectives? Will they have hundreds or even thousands of objectives following them around in AIM? I am not sure that I see the benefits of AIM or how it can physically be implemented on top of everything else teachers do. I am already at school 12 hours a day and can barely pay my bills. What more can I possibly give to the education system and how long do they expect me to last under these conditions?

In reference to the new mandate that teachers complete AIM for all students. I believe it will take valuable teacher time to complete the reports with little value to the students. I see the teachers in my high school working countless hours planning lessons, helping students, grading papers, recording grades, tracking student attendance and communicating with parents. In addition they serve on various School improvement committees, sponsor clubs and coach teams. They spend time creating and copying worksheets for their students. They attend meetings related to school improvement, professional development, IEP meetings, conferences with parents and administrators. They chaperone dances, collect money at sporting events, monitor hallways, and various other extra duty assignments after school hours. Some teachers have determined they would spend at the very least 12 to 15 hours each marking period to complete the reports in the AIM program. Where are these hours to be found? I anticipate the addition of AIM will result in less time for teachers to devote to the needs of their students.
My other concern related to the implementation of this program is an exodus of qualified teachers from the ranks. I have heard a number of teachers close to retirement considering leaving sooner than later. Younger teachers are exploring other options outside of Baltimore County. As a resident of the county I am very concerned about the state of our system. I am seeing some disturbing trends that will impact us all in the very near future. Our schools are important for the stability of our community. Having good teachers is an integral part of that stability.

AIM is totally redundant and a waste of time and money, money that could be spent on more teachers.

Since it was dropped on teachers just before break, I have heard no fewer than a dozen teachers that are already looking for other systems and/or careers. It was already hard enough to hold on to veteran teachers with salaries and retirement benefits that don't compete with other nearby systems, now this!

One of the best tools that I have seen for genuinely keeping parents informed of their child's progress is to give parents access to achievement data through an online gradebook. This gives parents information that they can actually use! Parents want to know if their child failed a test or didn't turn in any homework, not if they are considered an "A" (not even addressing how confusing this reverse meaning for "A" is) on a course indicator written in eduspeak.

What are the actual numbers? How much money has been spent on AIM already? How much more will it cost over the next five years? All for a redundant, hard for parents to understand, waste of precious teacher time.

My wife is a teacher and we have been discussing the extreme amount of work AIM is going to require for no real purpose. The reports are not going home to parents this year. The teachers are doing them to pass on to next year's teachers. Well, these teachers teach different classes, but the objectives are supposed to carry over. So, please explain how the science teachers are to meet the objectives of the previous year's teacher when they do not teach the same curriculum? None of this makes sense. The underlying question is, who is making money from it and is it really legal to have someone making money on the backs of teachers who receive so little in the first place?

Please consider these statistcis when thinking about the implications of AIM on teachers and students:

One AIM report/student is estimated to take about 10 minutes (possibly more) x 28 students/class = 280 min (4.6hr) x 6 classes/teacher = 1680 min (28hr) x 4 quarters/year = 6720 min (112hr)

For a 40 hour work week this adds up to nearly three weeks of uncompensated additional work. This would be like BCPS extending the school year until July 9th without paying teachers!

Teachers will be expected to complete AIM reports ON TOP OF:
-completing report cards and interim reports,
-planning an effective curriculum and planning cooperatively with department members,
-having coach class and preparing students to pass HSA tests,
-grading papers, managing grades and attendance on Edline and managing attendance on SWIPE,
-filling out teacher reports and completing referrals and other disciplinary matters,
-checking, reading and responding to the ever-growing number of emails,
-communicating with parents through phone and email, meeting with parents in conferences,
-and much, much more...
-NOW ADD AIM

Are we expected to do ALL of this in a 45 minute planning period!!?? THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE!

We already work MANY additional unpaid hours outside of the school day because the 45 minute planning period is NOT enough.

Let’s look at this financially: A teacher with MA30 on step 7 makes $2,289.61 biweekly. Implementing AIM is like making this teacher do the equivalent of $3,434.41 worth of additional work without the pay! Even if we were being compensated adequately AND there was proof that AIM is effective (there is NO proof of this, we are the FIRST school district to EVER use AIM) it is simply not possible for a teacher to complete all of work above and the burdensome AIM reports in a normal work week!!

Would the Superintendent be willing to work three works unpaid each year???

I agree with the person who posted that their principal took the brunt of the staff's anger. Thank goodness my staff didn't take out their anger on the administration. It is clear our administrators are doing all they can to help teachers comply to a mandate that is not in the best interest of any of the school stakeholders. Our administrators support every teacher, every child, and every parent. It was clear that when our principal delivered the message, she had lost many hours of sleep the night before. And teachers support their administrators in our building. At least teachers are backed by TABCO- principals and assistant principals serve at the will of the superintendent with no protection whatsoever. There is an aura of fear resonating within BCPS. How sad is it that we are in a system, in AMERICA, in 2010, where people are too afraid to say or do the right thing for fear of retribution? How sad the timing of this correlates to one of the worst recessions in recent history, almost holding us all prisoners.
This is all shameful - Where is the Equity and Assurance in this?

Ready, AIM, fire…and I’ve been hit. And so have all of my students.
I teach Physical Education for BCPS. I coach two out of three seasons. I run after-school intramurals. I plan field trips that give students fun, safe activities to participate in after school. And all of that is in addition to my regular teaching schedule which includes teaching 5/7 periods a day, a morning duty every day, a lunch duty, and an after school duty. I have two 45-minute blocks of “free time” daily. That is spent organizing and fixing equipment, setting up activities on the soccer field farthest from the building and in the hallway where I teach 35+ students, monitoring the locker rooms, and more. It is already almost impossible to eat lunch, plan a safe and successful lesson, go to the bathroom, contact parents and respond to emails in the time I have left. And I still enjoy my job and my students…I can’t possibly imagine completing non-researched based, waste of money, redundant, and meaningless AIM paperwork on top of everything else.

I have a solution! I’m going to forget about my students and start filling out AIM every chance I get – I only have about 250 of them to assess on at least 24 objectives every quarter. I’m sure that parents would rather see this ridiculously faulty AIM progress report instead of having their student actually engaged in learning and instruction.

I’m ashamed at how BCPS is taking the time I spend trying to be a good teacher and filling it with useless paperwork that hurts my students much more than it helps. Mr. Herndon, please tell me how to manage my time better so I am “capable” of doing even more. I must have my priorities mixed up.

Well... After seeing this program up close and personal I conclude that AIM has many uses in the field of education if:
1. You sit in air conditioned offices.
2. Seek ways to justify one's job and pay scale during these tough economic times where one needs a job.
3. Have been out of the classroom too long and forget where the true acceleration, instruction, and mastery occurs.
4. Your paid work day does not start 15 minutes before your clients arrive and concludes 15 minutes after the quitting tone sounds.
5. The premium in purpose and functionality in instruction is low on the totum pole of priorities in your preparation for the daily work day.

All of this being said, I have come to the conclusion that the profession has hit a recession in common sense when it comes to all of our (educators, administrators, and the BCPS board of education's)ONLY purpose for cashing those bi-weekly checks. That purpose is to educate the students, not line the pockets of the creator of the next big educational philosophy/program.

More importantly, time is of the essence. Some schools must invest the time it would take to complete AIM's tedious process to address the critical areas of need that our students have. Clicking in circles and boxes will never replace investing time in the children.

A new computer mouse... $20.
Old fashion plan book... $15.
PHD medium ball point pen... $7
Time invested in planning effective lessons for children and not in the useless next "big thing" in education... $0.
Remembering who we are really in those buildings all of the countless hours beyond the end of the school day... Priceless.

AIM and its application... USELESS!!!

My Class C license... Coming soon!

Stay focused BCPS. Stay focused!

How and When? These are two questions that should have been thoroughly thought out by Dr. Hairston and Dr. Dezmon before they made this mandatory with a month to actually put in place. When do they expect us to get this done? How do they expect us to determine whether a student is A, I, or M? If we are required to do this shouldn't we have time to train that doesn't involve us having to make sub plans or lose planning time to learn how to successfully implement the program and then lose hours upon hours of more planning time again to enter data that won't benefit anyone. Interims and report cards when well thought out with comments take a few hours to complete when you have 80-100 students. This is just having to click a few spots and write a few words. AIM is way more involved and it is not going to help anyone. It will just make more work and what you will find is teachers showing movies and not instructing if they are required to complete this extensive assignment. Teachers, Parents, and Administrtators shouldn't be happy about this because this will severely impact instruction in each and every class negatively. Morale will go down throughout the entire county and we have Dr. Hairston and Dr. Dezmon to personally thank for that decreased morale.

I STRONGLY encourage all to re-read Aimless in Catonsville’s post (copied below), the reporters have yet to scratch the surface on this story...

Excellent comments by all, but as a current employee who has worked at ESS in the past, let me suggest that BCPS is like an onion. My suggestion to the Sun, keep peeling! There are many more similar stories out there. For those of you paying Baltimore County taxes, if you think we aren't headed the way of the city, you are fooling yourselves.

I went into teaching because I love my content area and I want to impart that passion onto the students; however, very little of my chosen career is teaching but rather paper pushing for no purpose.

Hairston's interview this evening on WBAL (http://www.wbaltv.com/education/22142640/detail.html), he said "I think it's (AIM)a manufactured crisis. This is no different than what has transpired in Baltimore County for the last 10 years with every new initiative that we have implemented"...well Dr. Hairston why do you think that is? As teachers, do we enjoy implementing bogus, money-wasting programs just to be told in three years time that they are not valid,(i.e., Language! program for High School English)? The fact of the matter is the initiatives are not in the best interest of the students, parents or teachers, but rather bureaucrats that have lost touch with the day-to-day complexities of the classroom, not only for minority children but all children.

In regards to informing parents...do they honestly care about another confusing data report? In reality, most parents in our area are not involved in school and half the time you can't get a hold of them to inform them of HSA requirements for graduation let alone to talk about their child's progress. We have 1600 students and you would be lucky to see 200 on Back-to-School night. Conference night (which teachers work for free) is like a ghost town with more no shows than parents. I would be lucky to see 3-4 parents out of 100 students ... granted some are working but the reality is most in our school are not involved.

So Dr. Hairston, I invite you to partake in a day, week or month teaching responsibilities within lower socioeconomic schools. In your 50 minutes of daily planning you will need to plan, modify, copy, type, call, email, grade, conference, and complete the other pieces of evaluation, such as AssessTrax, interims, report cards, and STARS...oh and I forgot you also have to cover classes, bus duty, lunch duty (which includes picking up trash), hall duty, and be the occasional handyman with our quality physical facilities. You should also have plenty of time to complete AIM during school hours because we never have to take stuff home because as you can obviously tell, we are given ample time during the day to do our job... that is if our computer is actually working.

The reality is we teach because we love to teach not because we wanted to be statisticians, which by the way make twice our salary. I am a certified mathematics teacher with a BA in Mathematics and a MA as a Technology Leader, and very honestly, decisions such as AIM, as well as the arbitration salary issues last year, are making it very easy to consider other avenues...and you will be missing out on one dedicated edcuator. Let us teach or leave us alone!

AIM is absolutely ridiculous. The more I learn about it, the more daunting it seems. More work or not, the main thing is that it is pointless work. I cannot imagine how it will help improve instruction more than grade books, report cards, and other the piles of data teachers already keep. When are teachers able to set aside hours of time to fill out pointless checklists? And then what do we do with them? Are we going to actually take double that time to look over each objective and sub-objective to drive our instruction? No. We have other, tested means to analyze meaningful assessments. I already check, double check, and have someone else review my comments before sending out report cards. I want to make sure the information is accurate and clear. I can’t imagine going back over hundreds of papers each quarter to check the accuracy of meaningless checklists. How accurate are these things going to be when completed by overwhelmed teachers who don’t see the point?

I'd already had more than enough of the condescending remarks from Barbara Dezmon and Charles Herndon, and then tonight on WBAL News: "...teachers should not fear a new student progress report..." "...teachers are simply being misled..." "...it's a manufactured crisis." "...perception, anxiety and imagination can run wild..." After hearing all those patronizing comments direct from Joe Hairston's mouth on WBAL-TV tonight, I had an epiphany. Even if he and his minions suddenly decide to eliminate AIM, it is too little, too late. Dr. Hairston and all of his cronies and mouthpieces have permanently lost my respect and my trust. Even without AIM, we are way overloaded with too much work and too little time.

From the posts I've read here and on the WBAL website, I'd say the dragon has been awakened. And it has a hellacious case of morning breath.

REGARDING THE DECISION TO POSTPONE FULL IMPLEMENTATION OF AIM: So he "blamed the outcry on some ill-informed teachers who were blowing the issue out of proportion and wanting to create a controversy where there was none"?? I expected this kind of remark aimed (no pun intended) at my fellow educators. We in the rank-and-file understand clearly what AIM is all about, and we dared to speak out about it. Promoting the fallacy that this program is a way to ensure that minority groups receive equivalent education is nonsense. Teachers know why some students succeed and others do not, and it has nothing to do with curriculum or this time consuming Articulated Instruction Module. I think that we need to address the real reasons that students perform well academically. The question is, how do we change the motivation that comes from homes and/or the importance that the community places in education?

Dr. Hairston has announced that the AIM mandate is "on hold" but we all have to still be vigilant in our response to this statement.This issue is not dead yet and the public, parents and teachers still need to voice their opinions and unite in opposition to this mandate. We all need to continue to make our voices heard and contact the county officials and need to attend the Board of Education meeting that is coming up- the masses need to be involved! - A vigilant citizen of Baltimore County

AIM is just another useless tool that consumes teachers' planning time. Why is it that those people who sit on the hill develop such useless tools as AIM and all of the other ones we have seen come and go over the years? I believe they are so disconnected from the art of teaching and they are so so so bored. They need to visit more schools and not just the blue ribbon schools, but those that are being restructered or doing poorly so as to truely get an idea of what is going on. They need take the blinders off.

If Baltimore County really wanted to create a paradigm shift in grading policies, why not form a committee of current teachers, active in the classroom, to design a quality program that would support our current system?

As it stands, AIM is the avarice of one individual. An individual who has a copyright on the initiative and plans to shop their brainchild around the district?? Really, Baltimore County? Educational Monopoly...pass go, collect $200, and let the other players go bankrupt. That's what AIM has become: a game. A competition with only one winner. But in this game, the same person wins every time and we always, always, always will lose. And ultimately, so do our children.

In aiming to "better the system", they are stifling capablility, quality and even trust in our system and the real educators, who toil day in and day out already. This measure is a thoughtless and greedy...of our time, our tax dollars, and our motivation.

This is not what we signed up for when we picked "teacher" as our profession.

I retired from Industry & took up teaching as a way of sharing my knowledge & experiences with young people. I love my job & am told I do a bang up job & my classes are now at capacity. (over 150 & still growing) I am asked every year if I am going to retire again & my answer is always the same. "I am here for my kids as long as my health holds up." That said, if this plan goes through, I will leave BCPS along with a lot of other teachers either through retirement or relocation to other school systems.
Many of our faculty are concerned that Dr.Hairston will attempt to divide & conquer by implementing AIM only for the core subject teachers, thus dividing the resistance in half. We will not allow this to happen.
From my business perspective, this has been a typical polical & bureaucratic nightmare that is self serving only for Dr. Dezmon & Dr. Hairston. Dr. Hairston is now performing the political two-step that he is so capable of. We teachers are waiting to see how long it takes before he believes that the furor has died down before the other shoe falls. The message is, AIM IS A TOTALLY UNNECESSARY & DESTRUCTIVE IDEA!

I would like to thank all of the parents who wrote in supporting the teachers on this AIM issue. As a teacher, I know what a useless tool AIM would be--every teacher that I've talked to agrees. But it's nice to know that we aren't the only ones who value our time and our children's education.

I am a teacher and parent of a student in Baltimore County. I am writing because of my concern for AIM. I am not someone who complains just to complain. I am writing because I think this program will overwork teachers and hurt the students. I just finished an instruction lesson on AIM. Though the intention may be good this system has serious flaws. My co-worker just calculated that he would have to input 15,000 clicks to complete information for 120 students. If this system is allowed I will have to:

1. Give up coaching high school football. I am at school from 6:30am until 7:30pm during the week and that does not include Friday night games or Saturday afternoon games.

2. I will have no time to sponsor the two clubs that I have at school.

3. I will have no time for letters of recommendations for students.

4. I will have no time to meet with students who are having difficulties.

5. I will have no time for my family. My son is a Baltimore County student and I will have no time to help him with his homework.

6. I will have to drop out of the School Improvement team at my school.

An example of one flaw is if a student has an accelerated grade in an objective in World History, the U.S. History teacher is supposed to help them the following year even though the subjects are entirely different. If a student did not understand the Renaissance in the 10th grade the U.S. teacher is supposed to help the following year even though U.S. History teachers do not teach about the Renaissance at all.

I barely have enough time to plan, grade, coach, sponsor my clubs, meet with students, and fill out letters of recommendation right now . There has to be a better way. Oh yeah there is one, it's called a report card.

It's very encouraging that Dr. Hairston has decided to put the implementation of AIM "on hold". But the reality is not so encouraging. The reality is this: Dr. Hairston has announced publicly that AIM is "on hold". However, he refuses to back that up in writing. Therefore, even though he says he's placed AIM "on hold", teachers are still being required to leave their students in the charge of substitute teachers to attend AIM training sessions.

Dr. Hairston needs to put the pen to the paper and PROVE that he is SERIOUS!

The reason teachers had not complained about AIM before the end of December is because most teachers did not know much about it until then.

At the beginning of the school year, principals were told to devise a plan to implement AIM at their school. Most principals had plans that were very limited, and did not really embrace AIM. These plans were supposedly approved by the area superintendents. Sometime in December, someone in Hairston's inner circle discovered that most schools were not incorporating AIM to a satisfactory level, and made a rash decision to require all teachers to complete it. This decision is what caused teachers to begin looking into what AIM was comprised of, and how it worked.

It seems that this decision has back-fired, and now things are getting messy.

I know that I want my kids taught by their teacher. I know that I will not gather any more information from the AIM information that I can't already gather from reviewing the work that comes home on a regular basis. For shame that we are yet again putting the burden of education on our teacher's and not viewing it as a team process. How dare we expect parent's to be an active member of their child's education, review their work, help when needed, and ask for conferences when further details are needed. Stop micromanaging and start asking for a team approach.

AIM is another example of the search for the magic bullet that will fix all problems. In my 30 years of teaching I have seen many such programs come and go. AIM is one of the worst. It takes too much time to input data that is already available through ACCESSTRAX. We are asked to gather more and more data in many different forms but nothing is done with the data. Curriculums are not rewritten in a timely fashion to address areas of weakness. No one discusses the data at county wide meetings that would help teachers help students. What use is the data???? If this system helped me to help my students I would be happy to spend the extra time on it but it does not. It is a useless series of mouse clicks that takes hours to input. And what exactly does mastery mean???? If a student answers a multiple choice question one time on a bench mark or a county wide final exam does that mean the objective is mastered???? This data entry is extremely subjective and there can be no validity to the results. I would rather spend my time planning rigorous lessons, evaluating student work, sitting with students that need help, contacting and working with parents, developing interventions for at risk students, meeting IEP requirements and meeting the dozens of other responsibilities I am required to meet.
This new program looks impressive on the surface but the nuts and bolts of its implementation are cumbersome and useless. It shows yet again that our time is not valued and we as teachers are not valued for the work that we do with students.
The employees in Greenwood need to get out of their offices and spend some time shadowing teachers in real schools to reacquaint themselves with the real world. They are out of touch. I am particularly upset by Dr. Hairston's comments on the news basically telling teachers we are over reacting and should be thankful that we have a job. He clearly does not value us or he would be more supportive and sensitive to our concerns.

Are you listening Board of Education? Do you hear the anger, frustration, and hopelessness in the many comments of your employees? You should be outraged by the leadership demonstrated by your chosen man and his assistant. When will you open your eyes? I hope that you accepted your positions on the board to make the system strong and because you cared about the children of Baltimore County. It is now time to use your positions to do what the rest of us cannot...hold Joe Hairston and Barbara Dezmon responsible for their behaviors. Their dismissal of teacher concerns and their single mindedness to further their projects and personal interests as well as their friends (Think AIM and American Reading Company) instead of remaining focused on the the stated goals of the Blueprint for Progress is a poor example of leadership. Do something. As a child in Sunday School, I used to sing "The foolish man built his house upon the sand and the walls came a tumbling down." The blueprint may be exceptional but the "house" is built on sand. Let's pray it comes tumbling down sooner rather than later, for all our sakes.

Baltimore teachers are one of the most dedicated teachers that I know. The saying goes,"kids don't care what you know, until they know that you care" applies to the teachers at BCPS. BCPS teachers truly show that they care for their students everyday. Dedication means being the best you can at school and at home.
Teachers need time for themselves and their personal lives at home with their loved ones in order to prepare their minds mentally and physically for being with students everyday in the way that they need to be.
People do have lives outside of their jobs and teachers are people.
Adding such a huge demand on BCPS teachers will not be healthy because it will prove to be very stressful on both students and teachers alike.
We do not want to add unecessary extra stress to our lives.

Baltimore County School Board-
TAKE ACTION, insist that your selected man at the top act responsibly, ethically, collaboratively... Tell him that if he is not going to attend to the details, hire someone who will. The voice he is hearing now will drag his reputation down and the reputation of the county along with it. No wonder the position of Assist. Super. is like a revolving door and is currently still vacant. Ethical, and smart people either leave because of the bullying behaviors of the two at the top or God Help Them, if they think they will come in and really have input into moving the system forward. This board should be ashamed of the way they have represented their community. I am begging this board to act on behalf of ALL of the students, parents, and citizens of Balt. Co. But, I am not encouraged when I recall the board meeting when the copyright owner of AIM disrespected one of your own and not one of you stopped the inappropriate behavior. If you won't stand up for one another, I suppose you can't stand up for the students or teachers. What a disappointment. O'Malley and Smith...think and choose carefully. We need brave people on this board. It will be a long road to recovery if this county continues on its current course.

A few days ago, "FedUpinSW" posted the following:

"After 8 years of teaching I have noticed that the classroom teacher with the most struggling students is clearly the teacher AIM will HURT the most. First, this teacher is already pulled out of the classroom several times a week to attend student IEP, SST or BST meetings. Next, this teacher is already required to sacrifice precious lesson planning time to the collection/recording of data (behavior checklists, remedial assessments, ABC logs, anecdotal records, team progress reports). Finally, this teacher loses even more precious instructional time as various needy students are pulled out of the classroom for services like speech, ESOL, academic intervention groups, or counseling services. So what do we do to help this teacher and her students?

Throw AIM at her. So this teacher is pulled out of the classroom for several more days. This teacher loses more lesson planning time to writing sub plans and filling in “A” bubbles. Ultimately, the student Dr. Dezmon is so concerned about is wondering why she has a substitute teacher AGAIN.

No thanks, from this SW teacher!

One more question? Will AIM help my minority students who aren’t African American? Will BCPS provide me with Spanish, Vietnamese, Urdu or Yoruba interpreters to fully explain AIM’s educational jargon to ALL my interested parents?"

Thank you, FedUpInSW. I felt like you were talking about me and my classroom. I already spend several hours per month, out of the classroom, in either IEP or SST meetings. During that time, my class, which has a lot of special needs, does not get my instruction. The kids are always asking me if I have another meeting. AIM will either take me out of the classroom again, in order to give me time to complete pages of information that most of my kids' parents will never read (or cannot read because they won't be printed in their native language)... or it will be the icing on the cake that drives me out of the classroom for good, pursuing another line of work. I know there must be dozens of other teachers out there, in the southwest area alone, who are in my same situation. We come to work every day because we care about the kids... and for many of them, we provide the safest environment that they know. They are the ones who are going to suffer. Interesting that the whole thing has been stirred up by the person in charge of equity for minorities.

Liz, if you plan on gathering more information about AIM; please be aware that administrators in the schools and in central offices are NOT permitted to speak about the way they really feel. This would mean certain retribution. Mandates go out and heaven help the one who may try to act with integrity and speak the truth. Further, those names that will be given to you or those with whom you will be able to speak to "on the record" will be those that have been drafted to sing the praises of AIM. I would guess that those with whom you speak will be selected by those who have a personal interest in advancing the cause of AIM. The bottom line is that given a choice....the majority says no to AIM. This is why they had to go to mandate. The poor schools in the southwest are always forced to carry out these useless dictates and then, to add insult to injury, they must praise the things they know in their hearts have not made a difference. The problem is that giving the appearance of "following orders" takes them away from the real work of educating students. It is disgraceful. Those they have trotted in front of the board to "sell" this product have little credibility when you actually know how AIM has been used and with how many students. Have any teachers been paid to input AIM data? How have they determined the A's, I's and M's? How has it impacted instruction? The whole story is much more devious than is presented in public. Keep digging. The teaching force in Baltimore County needs someone who has nothing to fear from those who have everything to gain personally to speak the truth that they cannot. It is clear that this board does not feel that they represent the people of Baltimore County and their children...it seems that it is far more important for them to stand with two adults. I just don't get it! Where have all the great leaders gone? Far, far away from Baltimore County. Top positions go through BCPS like a revolving door...some are just left unfilled. Those that stay merely hold the position until it is time for someone to take the fall for the mistakes of the man at the top. The buck never stops there...

This is a great source of information. Thank you so much!

If Dr. Dezmon owns the copyright to the AIM list of skills, then the AIM list was not developed by the BCPS curriculum office. Doesn't that imply that the list is irrelevant to the curriculum? How can one person displace the entire office of curriculum?

Liz, thank you for taking the truth to the public. They deserve to know the real workings of the bcps system. It is very true that Dr. Haiston only surrounds himself with "yes" people. This has been known "in house" for years and it's all finally coming out thanks to you! I only hope the media keeps asking the right questions with regards to the unethical practices and the money trails......and NOT just for AIM! There is so much the public still needs to know.

In Soviet Union,only a minority did not like the system, same in BCPS with AIM. In Soviet Union, way to keep real reform out was to exclude certain reformers. IN BCPS, exclude teachers and especially TABCO president from meeting to discuss reform of AIM.
When will the general public demand the end of the Soviet style of school administration with all the nepotism, corruption, deceipt and double talk inherent in this paradigm? There might be a place for a demand of blind obedience of the "workers" and deliberate misleading of the public, but not in Baltimore County. On this birthday of the man who had a dream of people being judged by their character, let us judge Dr. Hairston by his character in this regard. I think we all know what Martin Luther King would say in the matter.

Board of Education....DO SOMETHING! Start the search for a new superintendent. The citizens of Baltimore County and taxpayers deserve the best, and it has become obvious that it is not Joe Hairston.

I can't state the following any better myself, so I am quoting from Jim Beam, the founder of the Facebook page for teachers against AIM. The next step is a board meeting at which there is supposed to be a teacher representative. Our TABCO president, Cheryl Bost, was flatly denied entrance into the meeting. Here's Jim's report. How sad for all of us teachers. Closed, clandestine meetings now seem to be a regular part of Baltimore County's Board of Education.

"On 1/12/10 Cheryl Bost was invited by the BCPS school board president JoAnne Murphy, I will assume acting on behalf or at least with the consent of Dr. Hairston, to ask one teacher to be present to the “AIM committee meeting” at 2:30pm on 1/14/10 (yesterday). Now, any teacher asked to attend this meeting would naturally assume that their role in this meeting would be to stand in for the teachers of the county and negotiate how much of this program we are willing to take part in for the wages that we are afforded. This is a DE FACTO labor negotiation. According to the Master Agreement the legitimate bargaining unit for the Baltimore County Public School Teachers is TABCO, the duly elected person to represent that body is Cheryl Bost. If any teacher should enter into that committee meeting that teacher should be Cheryl. Cheryl was correct on choosing herself as the teacher to attend that meeting.

Yesterday, another agent of Dr. Hairston, Dan Capozzi, told Cheryl that it could be any teacher/TABCO member but Cheryl to attend the committee meeting. This is a direct refusal to negotiate with the proper negotiator and an insistence at attempting to hold a labor negotiation with another teacher that is not the one chose by the labor force as their representative. This is a denial of the TABCO membership’s right to choose its negotiator. Essentially, Hairston is asserting upon himself a right to veto the negotiator. He is of course vetoing the negotiator who deliberately is not paid by the school board for their services to put the negotiation on a level playing field and asserts that the negotiator must be an a paid employee of BCPS schools who falls under him in the chain of command, who he can sanction, and ultimately threaten to fire if the negotiations fail to go his way. This is a total usurpation of the safeguards to fair negotiating that are built into the relationship between BCPS and TABCO.

Cheryl asserted herself as the proper negotiator for the teachers of BCPS again by arriving at the ESS Building for the committee meeting at 2:32 yesterday. At that time Rita Fromm, another agent of Dr. Hairston, indicated to Cheryl that it was Dr. Hairston’s goal not to have a union leader at the committee meeting. This is a clear statement that the rightful negotiator on behalf of the BCPS teachers would be blocked from what is a DE FACTO labor negotiation. This negotiation according to Dr. Hairston’s agent would only be conducted if someone other than the correct labor negotiator did the negotiating. This is more than a cover up it is creating a situation where Dr. Hairston is deliberately denying the teachers of Baltimore County their right to bargain collectively using an agent that is independent of the Board of Education. We have been told that we may only bargain on this issue if our representative is a BCPS employee who is subject to censure and ultimately can have their employment terminated by the Dr. Hairston himself.

Dr. Hairston did not simply bar Cheryl from a committee meeting as a means of avoiding conflict here. He ran rough shod over the entire body of teacher’s rights to bargain collectively and on a level playing field with those in power. This is a violation of our rights as workers.

I suspect that this move is also outside the law. I am not a lawyer, but I would like to conclude my remarks this morning by asking the TABCO members among us to encourage their leadership to seek legal counsel on this matter with great haste. It seems to me that there is a case here and it needs to be looked into as soon as possible.

We have a right to be on equal footing with our employer when negotiating the delicate balance between workload and compensation for work. What was called a committee meeting was really a labor negotiation and what appears to be a tantrum was really a power play to undermine one of the fundamental rights of workers."

Thank you so much, Jim, for all the hard work you're doing.

It is an unbelievable sight to see how frustrated the teachers are over being stepped on again and again. The Board members need to stand firm and listen to the teahers. The teachiersare on the front lines in the classroom every day, and they KNOW what works. Listen to them. One teacher to be on the AIM review board out of 9,000 teachers!?!? oh my...how hard is this to see?

How embarrassing to have our TABCO president banned from the AIM committee. This alone should have BCPS teachers, members and non-members alike, furious! It makes Dr. Hairston look petty, immature and incapable of operating in a fair and confident manner. Perhaps Dr. Hairston should consider stepping down as Superintendent if he is so blatantly opposed to fair negotiation. I know I have had enough of this talking head!

As a BCPS biology teacher required by my principal to complete these reports, I can say that they are useless, time consuming, not aligned to the curriculum, and poorly designed. My colleagues and I work 70-80 hours a week and are paid for half that and all we ask in return is that our efforts have purpose. Morale is very low as a result of this, and several veteran teachers are applying to other neighboring school districts.

The BCPS board must act to restore ethical and smart decision-making in their roles to consider all stake holders and different voices in order to make the best decisions for the children of Baltimore County. It seems that they have abdicated this responsibility in favor of becoming "yes" people to the superintendent and his assistant.

Wow! I just returned home from the BCPS budget meeting and I have to say I was moved by the passion and dedication of BCPS teachers and parents. It was very clear that the opposition to AIM has little to do with people concerned about too much work. It was all about a plea for the board and the superintendent to listen to and be responsive to those who truly desire that we all work together to provide the best education for all of our students. I walked away from the meeting knowing that if the superintendent moves forward with this ill-conceived mandate to force AIM on teachers, parents, and students without consideration for what is best for those students, what will be most beneficial for moving the system forward, and being respectful of budgetary concerns during these tight times, there is something very wrong in BCPS. It most certainly will be time to begin a search for a new superintendent. One that will act ethically, morally, respectfully, thoughtfully, and collaboratively. The days of taking care of friends and consideration of personal interests before consideration of what is best for children need to end. If this board will not act responsibly, then O'Malley and Smith need to take note and choose board members who will act with courage to do the right thing by our students.

Yes, the teachers are up to the task and they are capable (to quote Charles Herndon). The point is, why should they have to spend hours on a task that does not benefit the students?
Baltimore County is again jumping into a new program without looking into it fully. Instead, they are trying to insult teachers by saying that the opposition is in the minority. Nothing could be further from the truth. If this program was in the students' best interest, then teachers would stand behind it, and implementing it would be a non-issue.

I think it is important to know that curriculum offices are still spending their valuable time working on AIM. I sat in a meeting this past week to help make programmatic decisions for our teachers and students. At the end of the meeting it became very evident that we weren't talking about curriculum, we were talking about AIM. I'm so disappointed my time was spent on AIM - - unknowingly spent on AIM. AND...I was volunteering my time! NEVER AGAIN!

good!