Liz, you are correct in thinking that this would need to be revisited once national standards are implemented. Beyond this, the command to BCPS teachers to use AIM now, for every child, for every subject, will only serve to divert attention away from careful consideration of a child's development and providing meaningful feedback. The incredible amount of work related to the system will take attention away from the important work of educating children. A very sad aspect of implementing AIM is that is does not do what it purports to do in giving better information to parents. How should parents interpret A, I, and M? A report card and a conference with the teacher who works with my child provides the information I need. I am stunned that a few who jump to the defense of AIM know so little about it. This is intentional. I wish the board would take time to be informed by those who really know what AIM entails, rather than accept self-promotion. Bottom line...this is not what is best for our students and will not move our system forward.

I am a teacher in BCPS, and I have been teaching for almost 10 years. I spend an enormous amount of time grading papers with detailed comments to help and improve my students' progress; I meet with parents, e-mail parents, and call parents on a VERY regular basis to discuss student progress and provide suggestions for improvement when needed; I record all the grades in a grade book and then am expected to record them on a data base on the computer for the administration to view and I use that data to improve instruction; I plan and change lessons to improve instruction on a regular basis; I even use my un-paid lunch (approx. 25 minutes once I drop off my kids and use this time to use the bathroom since teachers don't have that luxury throughout the day--we have to take advantage of any chance we get) to do many of these tasks just to make sure it all gets done so that I'm not up until the wee hours of the morning playing "catch-up". All of the things I do are to keep parents informed of their children's progress and to make instruction as affective as possible, and now county officials are expecting me and all teachers to do even more work? This "work" that they are expecting us to do is going to take LOTS of time away from instruction and isn't even going to mean anything to the parents because they don't reflect what the report card will reflect...and the report card is an exact reflection of all the papers we send home daily and weekly and an exact reflection of all our parent-teacher communication. This AIM report is not going to improve instruction or student success in any way at all. It is only going to impair it because teachers will be spending MUCH less time making valuable comments on graded papers, MUCH less time improving lesson plans, MUCH less time sitting with students to help them, etc. We are going to be spending all our time trying to complete page-lengthy reports for EACH student when we are already keeping a grade book and always preparing ourselves for the end-of-the-quarter report cards. This AIM report mandate needs to be stopped IMMEDIATELY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new mandate of using AIM is the most absurd thing that has ever come down from Baltimore County. Teachers work so hard to teach to the students as "idividuals". We have already put so many ways to report achievement and collect data, that it seems that is all we are doing. Does anyone ever take the time to calculate how much time is being taken away from instruction? I'm not sure we will even get to many of the indicators of AIM because all we do is assess!!! AND....when will we have the time to do this? Teachers in the elementary school only get 250 minutes per week of planning time. That is 50 minutes per day. Most of that time is taken up already with responding to parents' notes, emails, phone calls, or filling out daily checklists. Teachers don't mind doing those things, because that is what we do, we love the kids and want to do what is best for them, so we keep parents informed all of the time. AIM is a self proported program that makes no sense to put into practice. There are so many levels on which this program is wrong. Just the mere name of it!!! AIM....the A is the lowest mark. Aren't A's what kids stive for? If children are challenged or haivng trouble meeting with success, just give them a bunch of A's and let the parents figure out what it means!! B.C.P.S., please do what is right and take this off of the radar!!!

AIM is not a useful program whatsoever! I entered the field of teaching because I love children and wanted to help them learn new things that would carry them into the future. I did not enter teaching to sit behind a computer for hours upon hours filling out thousands of indicators that will in no way impact student acheivement. I already spend many hours planning lessons, grading papers, conferencing with parents, and completing report cards. County officials mentioned giving teachers release time to complete the AIM objectives, but there is always work involved in making sub plans and why would I want a substitute to be in my classroom more than I am when I'm the teacher?! As teachers, we also use our free time to attend workshops and college courses to improve instruction and once again AIM would take time away from us doing this. Teachers do not get paid enough as it is for all the hard work and hours that we put into our job, and now Baltimore County is adding something else to our agendas that will take up massive amounts of our time! It's not fair and I know many teachers, including myself, might consider a new career path if a stop is not put to AIM!

It is interesting that this mandate is thrust upon teachers right before a winter break. It appears that the one in charge, supported by the superintendent, hopes to further the use of AIM at the expense of focus on what is right for children and helping every child achieve. The enormous amount of time to complete the checklists which will not serve parents, students, or teachers well is time taken from valuable work that will advance instruction and student achievement in Baltimore County. Please sit down and balance the cost (human resources, time, money, opportunities for professional development and planning using best practices) against the benefits. (What are they?) There are far too many flaws to enumerate in this space, but, I am sure teachers would be happy to enlighten you, if you will take the time. Until now, the public and the board have only been advised by a carefully selected few with an effort to hide the real AIM debacle.

I've been teaching in the Baltimore County system for 15 years and felt like most of their initiatives were positive for our students until they announced their policy for AIM. We as teachers were asked to pilot this with a limited number of students and a limited amount of subject areas. We began this process within the last couple of weeks and it was so disheartening. The objectives are overwhelming and the codes used are not user friendly nor beneficial for parents to understand. The task was so cumbersome that it took 30 minutes just to complete one child and that was in a limited amount of subjects. Now that the county has gone back on their word and demanded that we complete these reports for ALL STUDENTS IN ALL SUBJECTS, it will easily take an hour per student depending on what grade level you teach and how many objectives are in each subject. Teachers get a 50 minute planning period so in essence it will take one planning period per student so if you have a class of 25 you are basically giving up an entire month of planning periods to address AIM and it's demands and that would just be for quarter two. The cycle would then have to be completed again in quarter 3 and 4. What will begin to happen is that instruction will suffer because their will be no time left for teachers to plan quality instruction and try to infuse technology which has been a goal of ours over the last few years. Our students will begin to suffer because their teachers will be so burned out and barely able to keep up with all of the record keeping. We have a report card that we just invested time and money in to completely revamp for the 2009-2010 school year. Why is that not enough? It clearly states student performance in well developed objectives and codes. Teachers cannot possibly handle the workload that will be required to complete the AIM profile AND report card for each student. It needs to be one or the other so that the focus can be shifted back to where it should be...quality instruction for our students to prepare them to be life long learners in society. My fear is that this latest move on Baltimore County's part will drive many teachers out of this system. I myself am looking for alternative ways to use my skill set to return to my home state of Pennsylvania because this decision has taken the joy of teaching away from me and it no longer allows me to put my students first. When that happens, then all is lost and it's time to go. Dr. Hairston has always boasted about our teacher mobility rate being low and our test scores continuing to rise and this is how he shows us his gratitude for our hard work? No thank you Dr. Hairston. This latest decision will most likely be a costly one...to our students and they are the ones that matter most.

Please get the word out! The Articulated Instruction Module(AIM) program is not good for the students, parents, or teachers of BCPS.
The implementation of AIM is purely an economic decision not an instructional or civil rights decision as it is being touted. The maker of the program is searching for Race to the Top money while she sells her copyrighted program to school districts throughout the state and country. Data is needed to show how "well" the students in BCPS did according to AIM. That is probably why we are collecting data from each student in the county.

If I thought that filling out a lengthy, checklist for even one child would improve his/her achievement I would jump to it. It would seem to me,though, that the time I have to put into the task of data entry could be better served instructing my student.
We have gotten away from teaching our students. It's all about testing and collecting the data. Had I wanted a career in data entry, I would have followed a different career path.

There seems to be an atmosphere of fear and resigination in BCPS. No one will speak up to the maker of AIM without fear of retribution. The Board of Education is not getting the complete picture and when questions are asked the answer is spun filled with unintelligible educational jargon that has something to do with BCPS teachers not being able to educate minority students.

We are losing young teachers who are not vested in the county and the veterans who are seriously contemplating retirement.

The timing of this pronouncement was cleverly scheduled with winter vacation just days away. I am sure that the administration thinks we will all go home and forget about it. They have underestimated the teachers of BCPS if they think this is so.

I understand that the purpose of AIM is to solve the disparity between schools and to judge students on what they know and can do. But unfortunately, as the program stands now, we (teachers) will have less time to do our jobs (planning effective lessons, grading and making comments on papers and assignments, instructing and implementing engaging lessons, communicating with parents and colleagues via e-mail, phone calls, and face to face conferences, and building positive relationships with our students). Instead, we will spend hours recording data and completing paperwork which may not accurately assess nor effectively assist the performance of our students any differently than the feedback methods we use now (report cards, interims, tests/ quizzes, short-cycles, benchmarks, progress reports, etc). Less time doing the things that our job requires will ultimately hurt our students in the long-run. We do not have the time nor the appropriate resources to do this effectively. Teachers will become "burnt out" quickly and cease to have the passion they need in order to be engaging instructors.

Reading Carrie's comments makes me feel very sad. It should concern every parent of children in the system. Carrie obviously cares about the children she teaches. She completes her work through careful consideration and thoughtfulness. The presentation of AIM includes little gems such as "it is just five clicks for each student" and "use your opinion." How will this random clicking of boxes serve students? It is scary that AIM is supposed to become part of a student's permanent record when teachers are encouraged to "just click." Has A, I, and M been adequately explained? If teachers are encouraged to put I's until the end of the year....exactly, how is it helpful for parents to know that their children are being Instructed in the objectives of the state curriculum. Don't they already know that? What they want to know is what teachers like Carrie have to say...teachers who know their children and thoughtfully prepare report cards, conferences, e-mails, phone calls, and all other means of communication used by teachers to keep children and parents informed about progress. AIM is not needed and certainly not worth the time and expense given to date. Now, BCPS is asking its teachers to take their eyes off of the goal to teach children in order to check boxes.

I feel totally blind-sided by the mandate that immediate implementation of AIM will be done for every child in every subject by end of second quarter! Has BCPS gone back on their word originally when they said it was voluntary? Yes. Have they gone back on their word when they said to do some of it with only targeted students? Yes.

The majority of our teachers are and will be opposed to the unilateral implementation of AIM progress reports, without taking items away from current workload demands or streamline data demands, without providing appropriate time and compensation, and without putting in necessary provisions/revisions to even see if this can be successful.

Since AIM progress reports hit the landscape, TABCO has been trying to work with BCPS leaders to point out the flaws, redundancy, waste of teacher time and more, to see how we could come to some compromise. TABCO president Cheryl Bost met with Dr. Hairston in September and pledged to collaborate on streamlining data demands and address workload reduction. He even restated that commitment to the Board of Education in September. Since that initial meeting, Dr. Hairston has yet to contact TABCO to discuss the issue. President Bost made several presentations to the Board of Education, provided the Superintendent and Board members with concerns, questions, and ideas, and still no contact with TABCO was made on this issue. It's time for our teachers to obtain options that will address our concerns about AIM with NEA, MSEA, our legal counsel, elected officials, and anyone who will listen!
With so many assessment pieces in our school system, we have more than enough ways to measure student progress. As the wise farmer says,"The more you keep weighing the pig..he ain't gonna gain any weight!" The more time we add to our day with asssessing our students they surely will NOT be gaining the quality instructional planning time they deserve from their teachers!

I am so glad to see that some teachers have taken their time to post a blog. There is so much wrong with AIM that it is really hard to know where to begin!! JR made a great point that teachers do what they do because they love the kids!! Give us the time to teach!!! We have made it through MSPAP, we are now making a good grade with MSA, how many other ways do we need to assess these kids?? I teach 8 year olds!! They take more tests in one grade than I did in all of elementary school. Parents, you should be screaming at the top of your lungs!! This is not helping your children, it is doing exactly what one of the blogs before this one reports......"The implementation of AIM is purely an economic decision not an instructional or civil rights decision as it is being touted. The maker of the program is searching for Race to the Top money while she sells her copyrighted program to school districts throughout the state and country. Data is needed to show how "well" the students in BCPS did according to AIM. That is probably why we are collecting data from each student in the county". This is a crime that anyone would expect teachers to waste their time in this manner. this is not education....it is a dictatorship! People are afraid to speak out for fear of their jobs. This is just like the Emperor's New Clothes. Either you be quiet and agree, or you will be fired because you are unfit or too stupid for your job!! Where has this county gone??

AIM? What are we aiming for??? As a parent and educator, I don't want/need all this for each of my children. I want the teachers to be focused on quality education and the lessons of the day. Teachers are not going to have the time or energy to plan and implement lessons each day-no they'll have been logging their time COMPLETING AIM CHECKLISTS! GIMME A BREAK.Teacher morale is so low now that Dr. H. better think of something fast or we will have classrooms full of substitutes so that teachers can take Mental Health days TO RECOVER FROM THIS.

I have been around long enough to see these kinds of programs come and go and come and go!!! It is sad that we are so desperate to fix a problem that we fall for every program,series,company etc that make big promises and cost alot of money.We never give anything time to work and we keep hiring out of town experts. Get real! Let teachers teach, let parents parent and let overpaid administrators find other jobs.Mostly i am sick of folks who are far removed from the classroom keep piling on impossible amounts of work.This award winning teacher is about to quit!

What is wrong about understanding what skills your students can and cannot master? Isn't that necessary to doing your job?

It is great that you entered teaching because you love children. But without metrics to measure your progress, what is the point?

Please enlighten me thanks,

An innocent bystander

More time on more paperwork and less time planning and teaching quality lessons. This is what this all boils down to. Research the beginnings of this and you will see that the purpose of AIM is to close the gap on minority achievement. Is more record keeping going to close the gap? As a parent of 2 bcps students, I am concerned for the teachers. I received benchmark reports for my children already. Why must I receive an AIM progress report, too? It is extremely redundant!

Though the idea of AIM is a good one, it is not helpful at this point. Currently it breaks down what is on the regular report card so that you can see every objective and how the student has performed on it. There are a number of problems with this system.
First: consistency. What one teacher considers mastery another teacher might not. Secondly: students are inconsistent. Lets say a student gets 100 subtraction facts done in the allotted time frame. That would be mastery. But then down the road when they have to use those subtraction skills within another skill, they perform poorly. Do you then go back and say they didn’t master the skill? Something I see frequently with my students is that they show mastery of a topic and then when it’s brought up again they don’t know what’s going on. Teachers see it on a day to day basis as well as week to week.
Third: special needs classes. Some of them are never going to achieve even half of these objectives. When a student won’t even look at you it is a success just to get them to look at you or the paper. When a student cannot talk, it is a success when you can get them to push a button telling you what they want. How do you expect them to meet these objectives? If they don’t are they failures? No. But that is the message being sent.
In a report on AIM, Dr. Hairston gave this to the Board of Education:

The Articulated Instruction Module (AIM) is an alignment and articulation tool that
documents as well as enhances communication related to student academic progress
for students, parents, educators, schools, and central office staff. The module provides
reports that reinforce alignment with the Voluntary State Curriculum and other
standards as well as affirm the relationship between written, taught, and assessed
curriculum throughout the school system. In addition to the above, the module
includes a component for reporting of student academic progress in specific content,
knowledge, and skill areas. Overall, the Articulated Instruction Module is intended to
enhance the education of all students throughout Baltimore County Public Schools.
This shows that it is according to the state curriculum, not the National Standards. Aside from that, it goes beyond content to specific objectives. The way we write objectives in the county, we tell students what they will be doing and how. As a music teacher I will put something like, “Today we will learn about compound meter by playing instruments and improvising.” Last time I checked, that wasn’t an objective in AIM. The objectives don’t tell you how you’re going to do it. And even if they do give you something, I doubt they ever say, “Today we will practice multiplication by using M&Ms.” Which is something that teachers do.
Another problem is time. They want teachers to write quality plans and teach quality lessons. Teachers already work outside of school writing lesson plans and making materials. As it is, report card time teachers are always staying at school till late in the evening or at night before they head home. Now, we have to nit pick each and every objective which will take countless hours. As a vocal music teacher, assuming there are 25 students in a class and four classes at each grade level, I am looking at 23,400 marks. Which if broken down into four quarters is 5,850 marks a quarter minimum. Then, anytime a student doesn’t master something, it will carry over into next year and will continue to do so until it changes to mastery. I know we don’t want any children left behind, but I am sorry because not everyone is going to master every skill. It just will not happen. That’s the beauty of everyone being different.
My last point is that I want to second the opinion of teachers being scared to talk out for fear of their jobs. Back before it was mandatory for everyone, it was being mandated for part of my school. I said something about arguing or fighting it and was told to be careful because Dr. Desmond is very powerful in the county. Teachers could loose their jobs if they spoke out when one person is allowed to wield so much power. This is a dictatorship built on fear, power and money. How does any of this help our children?

I am very confused and upset about the decision to make AIM mandatory for all teachers to complete for all students in all grades. How did it go from voluntary for 5 students in reading and math to mandatory for all students in all subjects so quickly? I think parents should be outraged and very concerned that their childs teacher will now be spending their school day filling out reports than actually giving their child a quality education. This mandate is completely unreasonable and I feel those responsible for passing this obviously do not spend anytime in the classroom or have a realistic understanding of what teachers do everyday. We already have plenty of useless and subjective assessment systems and progress reports in place, why does every child need a 20 page report every quarter telling them that the A they got means they are doing badly? What I dont understand is why the Board of Ed is not willing to work with TEACHERS, the people whose only opinion should really matter since we are the ones that have to implement the actually program, to revise AIM or even take away another data program on our workload, like make this the only report card. Teachers days are already overloading with grading papers and tests, using Assesstracks, planning instruction, writing objectives, meeting with parents, making copies, checking emails, attending workshops or classes, etc, why add the AIM reports which tell us what we should already know from doiing our jobs each day? I teach 2nd grade with 23 students so I would I will have to fill out 9,269 items on the report per year; that's 2,317 items in each quarter, assuming I only use one objective per quarter, not including that some objectives are taught in more than one quarter, so those numbers would be dramatically increased. Enough is enough, all teachers needs to be involved and make their voice heard, they will do as much as they can get away, I bet if we told those big wigs they had to fill out AIM reports for every teacher is every school, this thing would be stopped big time. Write letters, get mad about this, we have every right to be!!

Steve, there is nothing wrong with wanting to know where each student stands in meeting objectives. Indeed, it is vital! AIM does nothing to advance this cause. I is used to mean instructional...student is being provided instruction on the objective and is neither A (accelerated) or M (mastery). If your child receives an I in an identified math skill...what does that tell you? It has been suggested to use I's until the final quarter and then give an A or M. How is this helpful? Please explain. The report card gives parents a clear idea of how their children are moving toward achieving grade level objectives. Skills and strategies morph with increasing complexity and ability to apply. AIM does not reflect this. It simply does not do what it purports to do and while teachers are wasting precious time completing these checklists, more important goals are being sacrificed. The most important goal is providing every child with a quality education. Thank you Steve, for your honest question. I would never want a member of the community to think that teachers are merely complaining about workload. They are not. They are complaining because they are being thwarted in providing the service to children that is an awesome responsibility and one that teachers take very seriously.

The idea of AIM is ridiculous. This program only adds hours of work to an already packed load that we teachers already have. I am a fourth year teacher and on top of my regular duties I also must attend graduate school. This load is an enormous amount, AIM would only increase this work load and with no real benefit. The report cards cover the information important that is relevent student achievement. The county in addition stated that it would not be required this year and has since gone back on their word, which is not what we try to teach students, is it?

Thanks for your explanation. Having looked into it further, I can now see why you don't think it is a good idea.

Certainly taking time away from teaching is not productive. And from what I have learned in this discussion it appears not to be useful either.

That said, I do stand by my focus on using metrics to measure progress. Thanks.

I find it curious that although teachers must be "highly qualified" and must spend so much time on instruction that in some schools students bring books with them while they wait for their turns for the bathroom that the county would replace that highly-qualified teacher with a substitute just so that the AIM paperwork can be completed. Not only is this detrimental to the students, but it is fiscally irresponsible.
AIM has been controversial from its inception, and it is interesting that The Sun has not investigated the issue before now. Many teachers spent many unpaid hours working on AIM before they were advised to stop unless they would be paid for their efforts. (It's not quite like asking prisoners to dig their graves before they head off to the firing line, but you get the point.). The real stinker, however, is that Ms. Dezmon has copyrighted AIM and had the gall to sell it back to the county! Created on BCPS's time, by a BCPS employee, and on BCPS's DIME! Is the Board of Ed really that stupid? Or is Dr. H. getting a kickback?
After many years teaching in BCPS, I am considering not returning next year. For teachers who must create most of their own materials because county-provided materials do not exist (Would that the county have paid to create useful materials for impoverished departments.) AIM takes away from the already too little time available for planning.
AIM will rob all teachers of precious planning and instruction time. Students will not have the benefit of an experienced instructor who knows the material and student needs (Although most students enjoy the movies or word searches, or busy work provided when there is a sub in the class.).

Many will complain that teachers should quit their complaining because they work only 10 months of the year. I am a career changer and I have never worked so hard in my life. Teachers are told that they are professionals, however, they are asked to do things that no professional in any other area would be asked to do: wiping down lunch tables, making their own copies, directing traffic. All of these tasks take away valuable time that a teacher could use to enhance and fine-tune instruction. AIM just adds to the load.

Parents and taxpayers need to know that AIM in no way will improve student instruction. Nor will it reduce the achievement gap. BCPS is well on the way to reducing the achievement gap by lowering the standards and expectations. Maybe AIM will help do that.

If I were the Teachers I would hold a walk out to protest. I have two kids in BCPS and lets just say AIM is just stupid. Are teachers data entry operators or do they actually need time to plan and instruct?

I am extremely upset with the mandated implementation of AIMS. My grade-level partners and I work very hard during our 50 minute planning time to differentiate instruction and develop new lessons to best help our students. I feel that with AIMS, I will not be able to focus on instruction, rather more on this reporting system. There are already so many requirements for teachers, this is just something else that will take our time away from planning lessons. Honestly, I am considering resigning at the end of the year. I already bring home hours of work every night and on weekends. I do not think that it would be beneficial to my family to bring home more! I have even heard that teachers in many schools will get substitutes to help teachers in completing this monstrous task. Is that really best for the students? As a parent, I do not even think these reports are useful in helping me know about my child's progress. I would much rather see a report card and have constant communication through phone, email and conferences with my child's teacher. Who do we have running our school system? People who do not know much about education?!

Congratulations to all of you that have taken the time to post an entry on here!!! Please spread the word!!! With yet another snow day today, we should be flooding this site!! Contact everyone you know in every school. This is the most important issue that has come up in Baltimore County in years. Usually we all just sit back, grin and bear it, and go on and do our good little jobs. That is what we are told to do. Well, this can not happen this time. We have been lied to and cheated. Unless we stand together and really make it known that we won't take this.....we will be filling out AIM. So keep up the good work.....get everybody going too!!! Let's stick together. There are over 9,000 of us in Baltimore County....Let's make a strong force!!!!

In my opinion AIM September 2009 topic Inside Ed blog. The solution to a successful AIM pilot launching is providing opportunities for parent public workshop training sessions and training staff professional development AIM modules sessions. Most teachers can agree that the AIM system is a great way to communicate very specific information to students, parents and future teachers as student’s progress. The issue at hand is that it has been added to a growing list of assessment and reporting tools. Let’s lose some of the less effective and outdated tools and use better the time saved.

Why would any modern 21st century parent or teacher believe it fashionable to use an obsolete Maryland school district reporting system in the year 2010? This is all about home-school connections and helps parents better support increase children academic achievement and increase classroom teaching and leaning. Any tool which provides teachers, parents and students the information to improve the communication, the quality of parent-student-teacher relations and finally, a way for parents to know what is taught in each subject.

However remember let’s not ignore a critical functional factor the Information Technology Dept (ITD) has a responsibility to provide reliable, capable, and highly functional technology services. However, this may be an additional burden on teachers that are already spending far too much time dealing with reporting data. Prior year, teachers were required to calculate interim report grades each quarter, report card grades and enter data into the AIM module program. This was, in addition to entering student short cycle assessment uploads, student home work uploads, student weekly assignment sheet uploads, student benchmark assessment uploads, and report card grades uploads. Each step in the process requires functional technology that is woefully slow and unreliable.

Sadly Baltimore City Schools has a limited underutilized Parent Portal module one-way dimensional observer only function for parents. The ITD is not being allowed to do more to provide teachers, parents and students the core course resources uploads, core subject classroom academic home work, weekly assignment sheets, core course classroom benchmark test grades, report card uploads information to improve the communication, the quality of parent-student-teacher relations and finally, a way for parents to know what is taught in each subject.

I do not see myself doing this. I will probably just check A in the beginning I in the middle of the year and M at the end of the year. If this replaced report cards and interims maybe I could find the time to take it seriously. I have 300 students. How is this possible.

In response to Interested and Engaged Parent, I would like to respond that most teachers would not agree that AIM is a great way to communicate. It is vague, incomplete, and unhelpful. What you may not know is that parents, administrators, PTA, curriculum and technology specialists, administrators, and teachers collaborated to construct a meaningful report card to reflect achieved objectives and areas of need quarterly. This report was piloted, as required by the system. Feedback was provided and revisions made. The new report card makes use of technology to record and report. Teachers also provide daily feedback on students' work, conduct conferences, and communicate through notes and e-mails. Teachers are thoughtful about the grades and comments made. This report informs parents as to the degree to which the children are successful in achieving grade level skills. AIM - Not so! What does it mean to Master a skill? Does it mean the same to each teacher? I might also add that I do not think colleges would be interested in knowing that a student received an I on an isolated skill....they want to know how successful a student is in achieving the goals of a rigorous curriculum. Try sending pages and pages of an AIM report along with a college application. I appreciate that teachers, students, and parents need to communicate about progress based on many data points...it is not simply a "teacher's opinion" and a series of clicks. We want to work with parents to help each child achieve his or her best...AIM is not the tool to achieve this goal.

I am a new teacher this year. I can't help but be completely overwhelmed with the news that I will have to spend more time completing AIM. I get to school an hour and a half early and usally do not leave until 6 or 7. This much time is needed just to be able to get my lesson plans ready, grade papers and make sure my room is set up for the next day. I work through lunch and planning and when I get home, I work through the evening. I can only imagine the longer hours that I will have to put into my day in order to get this AIM input completed. It seems that it is a lot of useless work and takes us away from what is really important.... planning lessons to help our students grow and learn. How does the county think they are going to keep new teachers when they can't even get their head above water?

The purpose of AIM as a communication tool might be a good one, but it's final delivery and implementation is flawed beyond words. As a very involved parent of 3 children who graduated with honors from Baltimore County schools, I can honestly say that I would NEVER have wanted that much information! There is a point where you can have too much data. I wanted an interim, a report card and an opportunity to conference with my child's teacher at my or his/her request. As a teacher of 18 years in BCPS, I see absolutely no purpose in AIM. Everything in it is already in place: digital curriculum, report cards, assessments, county and state standards. The demands that are already in place to deliver optimum, differentiated and individualized instruction to our students require us to collect and analyze data. This is already being done. Putting AIM in place is not going to "save the urban child" as is being purported. What is going to save every child is teaching that allows for creativity, researched-based practice and a skilled teaching staff. AIM and many other mandates from BCPS leaders stand in our way. We were told that the new directive to implement AIM for all students in all subjects came from the Area Superintendents. Why? Do they fear for their jobs as well?
Finally, as a taxpayer, I am appalled that the county has spent so much money, time and effort on a system that has no research base and is ethically questionable. The Board of Ed needs to take a very long, hard look at this and get input from those of us that are in the classroom everyday.

AIM is of no educational value to the BCPS students. It is being said that is a data tool for parents and teachers.....what data is being used to complete a checklist of A,I or M! As all the other teachers have stated time is precious and AIM will just take time away from planning and implementing lessons that will help us meet AYP! Futhermore, the amount of conferences, phone calls and emails teachers will need to have in order to let parents know that the A in AIM is not the same as the A on the report card and graded papers is out of control. The amount of money that has already been spent on AIM could have been used to help students, not the creater of the program. She used BCPS time and resources to create the program and is now selling it back to the county. Sounds like a conflict of interest! The fact the system put out the mandate a few days before the break is in my opinion sneeky. Why would we want to spend so much time on something that has NO educational value to the students and only confuses parents?

This is a scheme to make some of the higher ups richer. They care nothing about the students! Teachers do, but we are ignored and unappreciated.

In response to I and E City Parent, you are mistaken if you have been led to believe that any of the "obsolete reporting systems" have been removed from BCPS. We continue to assess students,record data in Assesstraxs, calculate grades for interims and end of term report cards. You are right that the technology is slow and at the end of the term I have not been able to get into the grade reprting program because of the increased use. Imagine what will happen when every teacher in BCPS wants to complete a report card and update an AIM report at the same time.
I believe that communication between home and school is an intregal part of a child's education. We use various means of communication at our school from agenda books, email, telephone, and face to face conferences. I spend a great deal of my planning time doing these things. My personal interaction with the parent is much more effective than a copy of a report that confuses the meaning of an "A." When I meet with parents we have a meaningful discussion about the strengths and areas for "acceleration" I provide work samples, assessments and my observations in order to create a plan for each student. Sending home a report which is written in educational language leaves parents in the dark.
I am sorry that your parent portal in the city is not adequate for your purposes. I doubt that an AIM report would give you any more information.

The bottom line is -someone is making money. In the meantime, the children's performance will go downhill. We need increased test scores, but our instruction be less effective due to the time necessary to complete AIM information. It is absolutely pointless. Teachers will not use the lengthy report, parents won't understand it, and the kids will suffer because of it. I, as a teacher, would much rather spend my time planning effective lessons. I believe second grade leads the way with 12,000 items to be scored over the course of a year for a class of 25 kids. ~12,000 ITEMS~ IT IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD! Parents need to understand the time that will be taken away because of this program.

I browsed through previous responses and am not sure if this point was mentioned. If you want to score an objective and have not taught all the sub-topics, you MUST score them or score none. So, is it a true reflection of the current performance? I think not. Also, this is very subjective. Who is to say what an A is (for parents and those unfamiliar to AIM, that is not good) or what an M is?

And it is just coincidence that they brought the news right before break? They knew it was initially optional with a small group. Now it is mandatory for all students, for all subjects, for all quarters. My honest opinion-WASTE OF TIME!!!!
The saddest part, new teachers will drown in the process. Veteran teachers are already talking about early retirements. YOU, BCPS, WILL BE LOSING FANTASTIC TEACHERS. Please, spread the word and let others know how crazy this is!!!!!!!

What is this county's motive?

The Soviet Union is alive and well and lives in Baltimore County Schools. We have unelected Politburo, a.k.a. The Board of Education, select an unelected Premier, a.k.a. Superintendent. These people have no accountability and they operate with impunity. What is hard to believe is not that we have AIM and the 5 Year Plan a.k.a. The Blueprint for Progress (best said with a Russian accent) but that we have a system that as Americans we railed against. We shouted that the USSR was unworkable because it was not a democracy. It is time not just to end AIM etc. but also the hierarchy that spawns it. Critics say that having elected members of the board brings "politics" into education. Let's bring the politics of the Declaration of Independence into the decision making of the most important aspect of our lives, our future.

This has been so exciting. I applaud everyone of you who has responded on the blog. Now I have a challenge. The next Board of Education meeting is Tuesday, January 12, 2010. Come to the meeting. Sign up to speak. Read your blog entry if you wish. They need to hear from us. Also if you have some friends who are not teachers but parents of BCPS students, talk to them, explain the implications of AIM. Bring them to the Board meeting to speak also.Write letters to legislators and BOE members about the use of resources. Get parents to write to legislators and BOE members including the Superintendent also. We can not let this die over winter break. There are approximately 9000 teachers in Baltimore County. Let the Board know that "we are fed up and aren't going to take it any more!"

As a teacher I have heard the many concerns expressed by the responses above everyday in the hallways of the school I work in. Beyond the information presented above as a tax payer I am concerned about the amount of money being spent on yet another computer program that does not talk to the other programs already established in BCPS. If this was really a program that was meant to help parents and teachers track student learning shouldn't it align with the report cards we already administer. Take out the blotted parts of the program align it with the report cards and establish exactly it in curriculum each indicator is addresses. Then when the short cycle assessments are graded and entered into the computer let that information talk to AIM and automatically mark the achievement level. All the assessment and data should talk to each other so that the data only needs to be entered once. As a tax payer this is yet another waste of money.

It took me 4 hours to record the data that AIM required just for math and reading in the first quarter only. That was on my own time. THEN, I had to do report cards, three hours more, which had absolutely no connection to AIM.

This a boondoggle that BCPS bought into. Parents should be outraged! Tax payers dollars going down the drain once again.

BCPS paid for an audit by a sorority (Delta Kappa Alpha? - not sure which one) a couple of years ago. They found that teachers had far too much data collection going on that did not correlate with report cards back then. What does BCPS do? Hop on another train to no where!

The AIM program was sold to BCPS by Dr. B. Dezmon who also WORKS for BCPS! Isn't this called unethical?!?!? And/or double dipping?

I am a first grade teaher in BCPS. Right now I am spending an entire weekend completing report cards, organizing folders, grading writing folders and checking my grades. Also, I spend two hours each day beyond the normal school hours. The class I am taking is adding to the work load. I am in no way complaining about these extra hours because parents need to be informed of their child's progress and I need to take classes to further my skills as a teacher. I am a motivated and happy teacher after 13 years of teaching first grade. However, we can't continue to add to the plate of teachers without a reasonable compensation or valid reason. Aim is not to be sent home to parents this year. Why do this? Aim is not a replacement for report cards. Why do this? I spent the time this weekend to look over assessments and grade five objectives for five students and this took me five hours. I have counted over five thousand objectives or indicators that I need to complete for this reporting period. We were told about this on Wednesday and have three weeks left to this reporting period. How can BCPS give teachers something to complete for an entire grading period when they are telling them three weeks before the period ends? We were told in September to pick a sub-group and complete only the reading, writing, and math grades for the second quarter. I picked my sub-group in September and have been tracking these grades for four months. Now they are telling me to complete every area for every child three weeks before the quarter is over. This not only displays their uncertainty over the program but it is going to make the grades that are given invalid. This will be due to lack of teacher time, awareness,and planning! AIM is an IEP for each child. If teachers are to be expected to complete a report card for every objective they teach than they should be given a class of six childre This is not feasible and something has to be done!

My name is Homeretta Ayala. I am a parent as well as a library media specialist employed by Baltimore County Public Schools. I have been teaching in Baltimore County for 29 years. In my long career I have taught middle school music, high school music, technology, and library media. My credentials are highly documented and respected. I can't begin to express my concern over the decisions that have been made, or the unprofessional manor in which they have been mandated in terms of the AIMS monitoring process. In the fall, the teachers of Baltimore County were told that there was a new program being suggested by the County. This monitoring process was supposed to be optional to any teacher who would like to use it. The next step came in October when the County then quickly changed to a mandate to certain teachers of specified grade levels/subject areas. On Friday December 18, 2009 we were informed yet again, that the County officials had changed their minds and have now decided that ALL teachers must complete the AIMS monitoring process each term or face repercussions.
I have lived through many mandates in the past 29 years, some good and others done in haste in the attempt to run the system by “the seat of one’s pants.” The newest mandate on AIMS, unfortunately, falls under the latter. If I truly believed that this would help improve student achievement, I would stand by it with full force. The truth is that the child is the last one in the loop. The Library Office has always been proactive in instruction. We do address student achievement every day. AIMS is not helping me help children. It is an abomination of my program. Based on my current assignment of Library Media for grades K-12, I will now be REQUIRED to report on an average of 50 indicators/outcomes for every grade level. That is a total of 300 different indicators per quarter times my teaching assignment of 540 students. That equals a total of 162,000 AIMS entries each quarter or a total 648,000 entries each year. I’m good but anyone can easily see this is insane. In additional to this the new report card has eliminated Library for terms 1 and 3. Does this sound right? I would challenge any parent to truly understand what the AIMS categories mean. In fact, the kindergarten indicators have yet to be identified in AIMS. The public needs to hear why BCPS is not only wasting funds, but is not improving student achievement through AIMS. As a tax payer on multiple properties in Baltimore County I resent this waste. This new mandate will result in students receiving less quality instructional time because teachers are being forced to complete useless progress reports. This needs to be reconsidered immediately.

I am sure most of you, if not all are fully aware of a new procedure that was just mandated by Dr. Hairston to all Baltimore County teachers grades K-12. AIM! I cannot begin to make you understand what a colossal mistake this is to not only the teachers, but to education as a whole. Those also affected are parents, tax payers, and the students. Unless you are in a teaching position, you would never fully understand the ramifications that this horrific program stands to unveil.

I have been teaching for 34 years. I am a mother of two girls that I raised putting them through Baltimore County Schools. I am a Baltimore County taxpayer and a property owner. This mandated program is the most ridiculous, untrusted, untested, waste of time, money, energy.... I think you get my point. I am so absolutely disappointed in this decision that I really don't know where to go!! My only thought is that the people in the higher up positions have no idea what goes on in the classroom or the demands put on teachers, or what is good for the students.

When I graduated from college, I was so excited to go into the field of education. I was going to be in a room with kids that I loved and teach them the things that would be with them for the rest of their lives. Little did I know that 5-6 years before I would retire I would be spending my entire life reading a list of objectives and indicators and marking them with an A, an I, or a M. And.... I sure would have never thought that the A (which all kids strive for) would be the lowest achieving grade!!

Maybe people need to be reminded of the well-written story by Hans Christian Anderson, The Emperor's New Clothes. Here is a little summary of the story.

Many years ago, there lived an emperor who was quite an average fairy tale ruler, with one exception: he cared much about his clothes. One day he heard from two swindlers named Guido and Luigi Farabutto that they could make the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they said, also had the special capability that it was invisible to anyone who was either stupid or not fit for his position.

Being a bit nervous about whether he himself would be able to see the cloth, the emperor first sent two of his trusted men to see it. Of course, neither would admit that they could not see the cloth and so praised it. All the townspeople had also heard of the cloth and were interested to learn how stupid their neighbors were.

The emperor then allowed himself to be dressed in the clothes for a procession through town, never admitting that he was too unfit and stupid to see what he was wearing. He was afraid that the other people would think that he was stupid.

Of course, all the townspeople wildly praised the magnificent clothes of the emperor, afraid to admit that they could not see them, until a small child said:

"But he has nothing on!"

This was whispered from person to person until everyone in the crowd was shouting that the emperor had nothing on. The emperor heard it and felt that they were correct, but he held his head high and finished the procession.

What more is there to say?? The people in charge of the county have surrounded themselves with people who agree with them. They make unpopular decision after unpopular decision. They don't have trust or any belief in the people that are working so hard with the kids. And like Anderson's Emperor, they will march forward, even though they know that they are "naked for all to see" just to keep alive the misbelief that their decisions were wrong and not in the county's interest!!

Listed below are some of the other "points" that come to mind of why this is such a ridiculous practice.

* The time taken from students and instructional planning to provide quality lessons.

* How if teachers are forced to do this they won't do anything else.

* The redundancy of this tool with the report card, progress reports, etc.

* How data collection could be done smarter using technology and tools we already have in place?

* How many of the skills are over a long period of time and not in one year?

* Talk about the actual content of the skills and how they are assessed or not assessed.

* Is it mastery the first time or the 10th time?

* The top down "dictator" approach in BCPS and not giving two cents what the mass of professional teachers and administrators have to say.

* Tell if you actually believe this tool will help student achievement or be one more piece of paper taking time away for true instruction.

* The Emergent Bulletin offers that teachers mark "I" throughout the year and can determine "A" or "M" the last quarter. Isn't that what the report card does? Is that why we have retention conferences in the spring because students are falling behind?

* It was suggested this will allow parents to know what skills to reinforce over the summer. Hmm! Don't most schools give suggested reading lists and other activities that for the most part go undone all summer. For most of the objectives the parents or non-educators really won't know what was to be learned because it's educationese.

* Talk about if a skill isn't mastered in the grade before the expectation is for the next year's teacher to get through their multitude of skills and find time to reteach those not mastered. When? With what resources?

* If we have so many schools in Newsweek and Blue Ribbon schools and part of the number one school system in the country, according to Ed Week, then what is so broken that we need to redirect our focus on filling our useless forms.

* Finally, It was written and devised by a Baltimore County employee on Baltimore County time and then the rights copyrighted...isn't this an point of ethics?

There is just so much wrong with this program that I don't have the time or the space to write it. Just the fact that each teacher would be marking (in addition to the already 4 time a year report card, conferences, emails, phone calls, and daily check lists.) about 10,000 marks per year, should raise a few eyebrows that this should be looked at a little more closely. I would like to know when we have the time to do this. I get 50 minutes per day of "planning" time. That is not time for marking AIM progress reports. Other than my 30 minutes of duty free lunch, that is it. Except of course for the three hours of papers and planning I take home at least three of the five school nights per week.

I thank you for reading this, and hope that you will understand my total frustration with this program. I am a very dedicated teacher and only want what is best for my students. Please help us in getting this mandate overturned.

I've been working for the county for 10 years now. Its hard enough to get parents in to volunteer, or even take an interest in their own kids for some reason. the teachers work so hard to shape these kids for the best possible future, and again the county throws em under the bus! no child left behind....all bull....cant even have field trips like they used to cause all that time is spent on msa prep....bull....kids dont enjoy school like they used to...all politics...lets give the teachers a break, are they gonna be data entry now, i mean the county has em on the computer so much how the heck are they gonna teach and ACTUALLY interact with our kids? how can msa or any other test tell us how and what our kids are learning from teachers when the teachers have to be on pc 4 out of 6 hours a day....oh, and do planning, get materials ready, etc...amoung the 987876654060 other things they do every single day!!...god forbid you have alt msa to do...omg this is rediculous...i say parents flood hairstons bcps email and let him know what we think!...maybe HE cAN COME TO SCHOOL FOR ONE DAY...I'D LIKE TO SEE HIM TRY TO DO WHAT TEACHERS DO!

Did anyone take into consideration the fact that some of us only see our students ONCE a week for anywhere between 30 and 50 minutes?? I am a special area teacher, and the most important thing to me is delivering instruction and seeing that kids are learning! I get 50 minutes once a week to do this with my 4th graders and 30 minutes once a week to do this with my 5th graders. Just delivering instruction in that time frame is sometimes like spinning plates above my head. I believe that we should assess every child and provide meaningful feedback to parents - I just don't think that this EXTENSIVE piece of paper is the best way to do it. I also know that we are trying to combat a huge transient issue with students moving from place to place in the school year - but, again, this is not the way to do it.

I have so much to say about AIM, I don't know where to start. I simply do not have enough hours in a day to do the amount of work needed to do AIM. Parents really want a teacher who cares about their child to take the time to EXPLAIN what their child is doing in school. Parents don't want a edu-lingo check sheet they dont' understand.
Sorry parents, you will not have my full attention this year while I fill out useless paperwork. When you request information, I will refer you to the website and tell you that Dr. Dezmon wants you to use AIM.

Frankly I believe very passionately that everyone in Baltimore County Schools Administration and the Board of Education knows that the Articulation Module will take time away from teaching and parental communications. It is being used to (1) punish the teachers of Baltimore County because our Association won two very important grievances against the School Board over the summer. This is clearly an "I'll show you who is in charge". And (2) it is being used to further the career of Barbara Dezmon - at the expense of parents and teachers.
Who wants to teach under such conditions? Who will repair the damage done in Baltimore County?

I attended a meeting 1 1/2 - 2 yrs. ago where Dr. Dezmon told us in no uncertain terms that AIM was not and would never be mandatory. She had it straight from Dr. Hairston that it was not and would never be mandatory. She had no idea how she could make it any more clear than that--AIM was not and would never be mandatory.

Last week, we were told by our principal that AIM is now mandatory, for every student in every subject area. As a professional, I am angry and demoralized because my bosses lied to me. As a parent, I am alarmed that my children are being educated in a system run by liars.

The system is laborious and time consuming. It is redundant and a wasteful use of time and human, physical, and financial resources. It will cause qualified, experienced teachers to leave, if not the profession, the county system. It takes time away from planning effective lessons and interventions and puts it into clicking literally thousands of little boxes.

I have so much to say about AIM, I don't know where to start. I simply do not have enough hours in a day to do the amount of work needed to do AIM. It won't get done and parents won't care. Parents want a person to EXPLAIN what their child is doing in school, they don't want a edu-lingo check sheet they dont' understand.
Sorry parents, you will not have my full attention this year while I fill out useless paperwork. When you request information, I will refer you to the website and tell you to figure AIM out for yourself. I do have to get some sleep at some point.

Frankly I believe very passionately that everyone in Baltimore County Schools Administration and the Board of Education knows that the Articulation Module will take time away from teaching. It is being used to (1) punish the teachers of Baltimore County because our Association won two very important grievances against the School Board over the summer. This is clearly an "I'll show you who is in charge". And (2) it is being used to further the career of Barbara Desmond.

I am a Kindergarten teacher in BCPS. I have taught second grade. This is my first year teaching K and it is quite overwhelming anytime you have to switch grades. I am a somewhat new teacher, teaching 4 years now. Being a new teacher, I think it's ridiculous how much workload we have already and are not compensated enough for it. We do plenty outside of the classroom to prepare, come in early and stay late and are only paid for 6.5 hours a day. Now they want us to do something else on top of it all? I am also taking classes towards my masters, which adds another stress in my life. I believe that parents need to be informed of their child's progress and I need to take classes to further my skills as a teacher. However, where is the line drawn? Aren't we already providing parents with their child's progress with a report card and conferences? Do we not give them feedback on what a child is doing well and what he/she need to work on to improve? This is a second report card that teachers do not have time to fill out, besides doing it outside of the regularly mandated hours. We can not continue to add to the plate of teachers without a reasonable compensation or valid reason. Aim is not to be sent home to parents this year. Why do this? Aim is not a replacement for report cards. It's in "addition to". This is also subjective and teachers will want to rush through it because it takes so much time in addition to everything else we are supposed to do as highly qualified teachers. Does this make it valid? How can we provide our “highly qualifications” to our students, if we are constantly filling out paperwork? What happens to instruction? AIM is an IEP for each child. If teachers are to be expected to complete a report card for every objective they teach than they should be given a very small classroom size of children. This is not feasible and something has to be done! Are we working to live, or living to work? Sometimes it seems the latter.

Friday was a very disheartening day. First of all we discover that all the information supplied to us earlier about AIM was not true. Don't we deserve honesty! We were all told to try AIM with a small subgroup to get familiar with it. Now halfway through second term we are told that is no longer the expectation. We are to report on our entire class for objectives in every subject area. Is that breaking trust???? Secondly, I spend so much time testing and retesting that teaching is given less time and a much narrower focus. There is so little in the way of creativity allowed in Baltimore County Curriculum. There is no objective to fill in for creativity. The amount of man hours that will be required for this ridiculous data collection will be hours and hours and to the detriment of time spent teaching our students. I have taught in Baltimore County for 21 of my 30 years and this is my last year. I will miss the interaction with children but the wonderment of learning has been destroyed by over testing and over reporting which results in under achievement of students.

I am dismayed at the reports I hear about the latest tact of BCPS to "improve student achievement." AIM is a waste of the most important resource available to improve student achievement: the time of committed educators. If it were not so appalling, I would be able to rejoice that I left this deplorable school system and its dictator, Joe Hairston, two years ago.
I left BCPS to complete a military deployment. While gone, I'd heard the woes of colleagues telling me that special area teachers were pulled from their area of expertise to assist classroom teachers. Ridiculous! Students need to be well rounded in many different disciplines in order to compete in today's marketplace. Yes, we all need to be able to read and write, but we must also relate to our world through art, music, physical movement, etc. I am glad I left!!
Teachers you need to unite your voices and stand together. It is time to develop a real labor union and boycott the ineffective TABCO and its puppet, Ms. Bost. Food for thought: why do you think that Hairston jumped so quickly to adopt this program? Do you think perhaps he may have a personal investment in the company that made it?? Hmmmm....
Teachers, God bless you all and try to have a Merry Christmas!!

Wow! This makes me really wonder what is going on in the county. My children attended BCPS from k-12 and are in college now. I always felt like I had plenty of specific information about their progress, and I know their teachers were working hard.

I looked at the "objectives" with "knowledge and skills indicators" on the BCPS website, and I couldn't say one way or another whether those goals are good are bad - they look fine I suppose.

However, they don't seem very meaningful from a parent's perspective. I always felt like email communication worked fine, and a face-to-face when more serious issues arose.

Some issues I would like to see the Baltimore Sun investigate: 1) Does any parent really want a 30+ page document (can this be true?) to sift through their children's' progress. 2) If BCPS is really purchasing a copyrighted program produced by a full-time employee, then this should raise ethics questions. 3) Is the labor of BCPS teachers being used to collect data for the purpose of marketing the programs to other districts?

I would like to see the Sun "follow the money" on this one and let us know whether decisions regarding AIM seem profit-driven or are, in fact, in the best interest of the kids.

The problem with AIM is that it is not useful for teachers. Randomly giving As, Is and Ms does not help me to understand what the students in my classroom can and can not do. AND if the suggestion is to just put Is until the end of the year, why cant the county simpy put the Is there and not require the teachers to go onto AIM until the end when we should then put As or Ms... even though they still will not mean anything. I challenge anyone to show us teachers HOW this helps the minority students, how does this help me be a better teacher. How can I help the students by looking at the objectives that I already know that I teach and placing a bunch of Is beside those objectives?

Two points:
1. No matter how dedicated a teacher is, it is not possible to work for more than 12 hours a day without the quality of the work, the quality of the teacher's health and the quality of the teacher's life being negatively impacted. AIM will drive many teachers beyond the brink. No one can consistently plan and deliver effective instruction without time to recharge.
2. The development of the AIM program on BCPS' dime (hours and hours of work was done on this by BCPS employees) and the copyrighting and sale of the program by one individual is seriously unethical, if not criminal. Doesn't this program belong to the county? Who is going to investigate this issue?

AIM! What a waste of time, money, resources and energy. As a BCPS teacher, parent of three children in BCPS and a county taxpayer, I am enraged by this! How timely that our administrators forwarded this information to us right before break. Our school was told that we were going to use AIM for math only, in the last quarter. Now we are told we need to be using it now, in all subjects. When I went into teaching 28 years ago, I knew I would be spending many hours of my own, planning , grading, etc. and I was fine with that- still am. However, now I need to identify an endless list of objectives during my work day. When our principal told us about this change in policy last week, my immediate reaction was that I won’t have time to teach, as I’ll have more data entry to do, so my exciting and engaging lessons will now be boring and mundane. It seems I’ll be spending my time being a data entry clerk and not an educator.
I could go on and on about this, but most of the other posters have already said what I feel. I am also angry that the creator of this, Dr. Desmond, is selling this to other districts during her work day. I barely have time to go to the bathroom during mine! Happy Holidays to all teachers- bah humbug to Dr. Hairston!

Steve, what would make you think that a professional teacher who has consistently had students who are successful doesn't know what her students know and don't know. METRICS=ed jargon!!! Period. I know what the kids need. Give me the time and energy to do it. Justify your job some other way.

BCPS teachers - keep in mind that your colleagues in the southwest area had to deal with this mess over a year ago when they were forced to "pilot" the AIM program. Why can't we just focus on good instruction!!

What is Articulated Instructional Module? Sounds fancy doesn’t it! Sounds cutting edge! This Articulated Instructional Module makes Dr. Dezmon and Baltimore County Schools look like they are on the cutting edge by implementing the latest and greatest thing to happen in the educational world. Right? Wrong!
Here is a portion of an article written about AIM in the “Baltimore Sun”;
“It's hard to peg how many school systems nationally are using similar progress reports, but Baltimore County's effort appears to be a rare step toward providing a comprehensive skills inventory that should systematically track a student's progress. Education advocates point to it as an example of what more school systems ought to be doing to ensure that students aren't falling behind.
“Dezmon, a former English teacher, said she began developing the program nearly 20 years ago when she was looking for ways to better communicate with parents, especially those of minority children, and homeless and otherwise transient students. “This makes it easier to do individualized instruction because the teacher knows exactly what a student has or hasn't learned," Dezmon said. "With this, there are no good kids and no bad kids, just children and the skills they should know."
I have one question. How is AIM going to improve instruction and help students to become productive, successful members of our community, country, and world? This is the question parents, teachers, administrators, and community members need to be asking? Where is the proof that this service improves student learning? Where is the documented data to prove that AIM is a worthwhile investment? Telling us that it is a good tool, “to communicate with parents” is not a valid explanation as to why we should be using it for all students. Report cards, progress reports, graded papers, MSA scores, benchmark tests, data collection binders, parent teacher conference, IEP’s, 504 plans, emails, Back to School Nights, PTA meetings, School Improvement Meetings, school newsletters, classroom newsletters, and the list goes on and on, are all tools to communicate with parents.
Should we stop sending home report cards, since, apparently report cards aren’t good enough anymore. When a parent asks for a conference should I say, “Are you sure we really need to meet, didn’t you get your AIM report? Baltimore County said that Articulated Instructional Module was put in place so parents, like yourself, would know exactly what skills your child knows and does not know. Oh, and if you are a minority, homeless, or transient person then you really should be able to read AIM, because this module was made for just for you. If you have questions you will need to contact Dr. Dezmon”
Please, Dr. Dezmon, explain to the public, to the teachers of Baltimore County, how you used AIM to improve your instruction. How did AIM help you teach those minority, homeless and transient children learn the skills that would ultimately lead them to become productive members of society. Please tell!!!
I am sure the county has spent thousands of dollars on AIM. Anyone who pays taxes in Baltimore County should be outraged! Baltimore County Schools has just wasted your taxes dollars creating more meaningless paperwork to be pushed around.
I have been a teacher for almost 10 years and it seems like every year there is a “new” program put in place to supposedly, ensure that all students are successful. This school year it is the Articulated Instructional Module, when will it ever stop? What educational bandwagon are they going to jump onto next school year?
This whole situation makes me sad, because the people who are really impacted by all this ridiculousness are the children. It is completely clear that the people who decided to implement this program forgot about who this module was suppose to benefit, the children of Baltimore County!
It is imperative that all Teachers, Parents, Administrators, Community Members, and Students, take a stand, and say Enough Is Enough. We want our teachers back! We want our teachers to actually TEACH!!!!!

I think it is a sad statement that teachers, including me, are afraid to post our names for fear of retribution by the system for which we work.

I think the AIM system is a significant example of the way that our system is being run by bureaucratically minded - rather than educationally minded - leaders. (A smaller - but equally telling - example is the system's decision to open for a shortened day right before the break, when, I promise you, very little learning will take place - in part because intelligent parents who aren't trying to get the kids out so they can do last minute shopping will keep their children home - but a great deal of money and energy will have spent.) The AIM system was developed by Dr. Barbara Desmond - probably on county time, even though she intends to sell it to other systems crazy enough to buy it - allegedly as a way to ensure equal opportunity learning across races and classes. Yet, like every other bureaucratic invention created to equalize the playing field by measuring learning objectively, it will take a great deal of time each quarter that could actually be spent planning creative instruction or meaningfully assessing meaningful work, like - - for me, as a social studies teacher - writing, which our public schools students do pitifully little of when compared to their private school peers who will outperform them on tests (AP, SAT) that actually mean something. The 2-3 hours I will spend inputting AIMs assessments each quarter is time I could spend grading an essay so that my students will have even a fighting chance against those private school students who are taught to think and write throughout their K-12 education. Our students will be able to answer multiple choice questions. How is this promoting racial and economic equality? One clear thing we humanities teachers could actually do to help our students compete - learn to write - is the one thing they will not get.

Therefore, after 13 years in the county system with a comfortable and unusual part-time position at a well-respected high school where I teach gifted and talented classes (though don't get me started on whether they really are "GT"), I am finally being driven to consider teaching either at a private school, where - though I would have to work harder, in fact -- I would have some intellectual freedom to inspire my students, or in the city, where there seems to be thoughtful, if imperfect, leadership and a great need (not to mention a less energy-guzzling commute). At the risk of tooting my own horn, I am a multiple-Ivy League grad with several teaching commendations under my belt, and I like to think I'm the kind of teacher the county would like to keep. But AIM will drive me - and others like me who have choices about what we do and where we do it - away.

We've known about AIM coming down the pike as yet another mandate from Baltimore County. As an English teacher, with 175 students, teaching 3 grade levels, I wonder exactly when I'm going to find the time to input all of this information? How is this helping our students? We need them to pass the HSAs, so we put them in remedial (bad word in BCPS but I'll use it anyway) classes. We bombard them with the tests, having some students take them 4 times a year just to try to get them to pass. By the time they're seniors, and they still can't pass, they're on to the final option, the Bridge Plan. No wonder the higher-ups are asking us as teachers to do the impossible...the system is completely screwed up. Dr. Dezmon, who is employed by BCPS, wrote AIM, copyrighted it, and now we are all mandated to use it. I would venture a guess that she needs the data in order to be able to sell it to other school systems.

We are bombarded with paperwork, interims, parent conferences, IEP meetings, emails, AssessTrax, online grading to be available to parents, etc. I am sure that any teacher who actually thought sitting down for upwards of 10hrs a quarter to check off A, I or M in a box would benefit his/her students would do it in a heartbeat. A good teacher can't do this job without being motivated by the success of his/her students. As good teachers we would jump through fiery hoops for our students to succeed.

BCPS wants good teachers? They're going to lose them with this one.

Everyone who truly cares about children, and I mean ALL children, should be horribly appalled by this mandate. As a parent of four very successful BCPS graduates (without the benefit of AIM) and a BCPS graduate myself (with a Masters Degree plus) I am very saddened that the system that I credit with my and my children's success has become mired in such a miserable and controversial subject; ineffective and useless reports being generated for the financial benefit of an individual misrepresenting her intentions as honorable .
I would hope that Mrs. Murphy would ask for the state auditors to investigate the ethical issues that have been expressed in other responses. If she does not, she is remiss in her duties; Governor O'Malley should then intervene and call for a full investigation of the use of school system employees in a copyrighted reporting system owned by an employee of that same system. One does not need a Masters Degree, nor a doctorate to know that this is not only unethical, but it is immoral. All of the teachers and school level administrators that I know of in BCPS are extremely dedicated, caring individuals who would jump through hoops if jumping through those hoops would help their students. Unfortunately, the jumping through the hoops of AIM only serves to help one individual with a huge ego who is apparently terrorizing those who she supervises and oversees. Governor O'Malley, are you listening? State of Maryland Auditors, where are you? Joanne Murphy, what are you going to do to repair the reputation of this system? Jim Smith, this is YOUR county, are you listening? and Dr. Hairston, how could you allow this? Where is our LEADERSHIP?

Teachers, you have done a good job of explaining the many, many problems associated with this latest example of "ivory tower," completely out-of-touch, top-down infliction of purposeless policy. My question is: are we only preaching to the choir? These points need to be made to the public and to those who can do something about them. AIM constitutes a new low in Baltimore County. The facts are that its creator is in violation of the ethics code and that the superintendent has chosen to punish all teachers because he is miffed over TABCO's wins in recent arbitrations.
I feel that it is important to remind my colleagues that they are not indentured servants. We have a negotiated work day in our contract. I, for one, will work not one moment over that time to complete this worthless data. My "free" time will be spent continuing to plan lessons that prepare my students to be well-informed, educated critical thinkers...and to know that they are more than a bunch of meaningless marks on a list.
Teachers have been threatened about speaking out against AIM. We must remember our right as citizens to freedom of speech. Apparently, there are no heroes working out there at Greenwood; WE have to spread the word.
Shame on you, BCPS!

I was just reminded of something my principal told us when she passed this on to us last week. DO NOT QUESTION Dr.Dezmond !! I am currently working on the letters I am mailing to the board and elected officials. Do I mention Dr. Dezmond , or not? We have been told that there can be trouble if we question her- this is not fair!

As a teacher in what has been called the "Number One School System in America", I am shocked the county would throw this new program at us. The teachers and the schools in the county are top notch!

After reading and thinking about this AIM program I realized that TIME is going to be the real issue. Instead of taking the TIME to individualize instruction for all of our students we need to fill out more checklists. Instead of taking the TIME to create awesome lessons that will impact our students beyond this school year we are going to need to flip through pages of repeated curriculum objectives. Instead of taking the TIME to meet with students, administration, and collegues to make sure our school is the best it can be we will be printing and sorting hundreds and hundreds of checklists that PARENTS WILL NOT EVEN READ.

We need more time (paid days away from our students) to complete these forms!!!

AIM is just another time-wasting initiative that does not provide ANY useful information to teachers OR parents. It is subjective, there are no real county-wide standards for teachers to use to assess mastery, and it is a HUGE time burden on teachers who already spend countless unpaid hours designing instruction based on daily data collection and observation within their classrooms. Parents of BCPS students, once they understand the program, are not supportive- they understand that this initiative comes at enormous cost; the education of their children. Let's not forget who REALLY profits from AIM- Dr Dezmon, who as a county-taypayer- compensated BCPS employee copyrighted this program to HERSELF and who is lining her pockets as BCPS jumps to her tune. Because it's certainly not the parents and students in Baltimore County.

I'm an elementary special area teacher with over 500 students. Over the course of a year, I would enter almost 24,000 scores in AIM. We were told we could have at least an entire day of substitute coverage to allow us to complete AIM once a quarter, but if we're missing instructional AND planning time, when are we going to be creating and teaching the lessons that AIM is requiring us to measure student achievement for?!?! The whole system is completely backwards. I feel like BCPS is caring less and less about it's teachers.

BOTTOM LINE.....when will it be discussed who owns AIM. Start with the copyright at the bottom of AIM and work from there. Someone mentioned, not to mention Dr. Dezmon....well....maybe she should be mentioned. Why isn't mentioned at the forefront of the AIM discussion who is going to benefit financially from AIM, as well as Research Reading Lab. Tim Tooten needs to get on this.

I am a teacher at Perry Hall High School in Baltimore County, Maryland. I am concerned about the time that the AIM progress report will take away from my students and instructional planning. I think that if we are truly concerned about better instruction, then teachers need more time to plan for better instruction. AIM will just take time from planning in order to fill out a progress report that in the end will mean nothing to students or their parents.

The AIM progress report does not help teachers be better teachers and most of the information on the reports is very subjective and hard to assess. I teach Earth Science to high school students and one of the objectives on AIM states that students should master “use of real-world examples to describe and explain the Coriolis Effect.” I am not sure that I have “mastered” that skill or that even some professional meteorologists have. Can any high school student truly “master” skills that professional meteorologists, geologists, oceanographers, and astronomers spend their entire careers on? How do I determine who of my 130 students even understands this one concept. And what of the other 102 objectives that are similarly written? How do I find time to report all 103 objectives for all 130 students (that is a total of 13,390 objectives to determine by the end of the year or approximately 3347 per quarter)?

Teachers give students report cards that are a better judge of how a student will survive in the outside word. We, as adults, all know that understanding the Coriolis Effect has little to do with how we ultimately work out in the work force or make it through the rigor of college life. If a student can get good grades in high school that shows that the student has a good work ethic and is willing to do what it takes to succeed. Understanding one fact on a list of hundreds does not help anyone be a better student or prepare them for the future.

My accounting teacher once told this joke in class:
A CEO was interviewing accounting firms. Each candidate came in and was given books to audit. The first one got to work and an hour later turned in the work. The CEO said, "Thank you." The second candidate spent even more time on the audit and came up with the same answer. "Thank you. I'll be in touch," said the CEO. The third candidate took the ledger, looked at the CEO, and said, "What do you want the bottom line to be?" "You're hired!" said the CEO.

This joke applies to AIM. Whether students achievement really improves, or the achievement gap truly closes isn't the goal. Making it appear so is the goal.

It is shameful to ask teachers to spend precious time on AIM, it is shameful that student instruction will be compromised by AIM, and it is unethical that Dr. Dezmon (and Dr. Hairston, indirectly, I'm sure) should make money on this sham.

The demands on teachers wrought by No Child Left Behind is nothing compared to the damage that will be done by AIM. A friend once told me that NCLB really was NTLS -- No Teacher Left Standing. In BCPS, AIM will mean No Teacher Left.

First I am a parent and was a teacher in Baltimore County and I am ashamed of the behavior of the teachers in the blog and the teachers’ union. Some individuals can attempt to demonize AIM. However, it will not remove one certainty that AIM provides information that is not currently available for students and parents.

Since there was so much talk about this AIM, I looked further into it. AIM is basically used to organize the BCPS curriculum and provide teachers information that they can use to help students progress from year to year. In addition, it gives parents information that they need they will help them communicate with the schools and make decisions. Finally, there is something that puts students, parents and educators on the same page. The system just can’t keep passing children on with some test scores and grades that really don’t tell parents that much. It’s like stamping a child and passing him on. This AIM makes teachers look at the main topics that children are supposed to be learning and tells other teachers in the future, students, and the parents whether or not the child actually showed what he learned. They just can’t give the child a letter and call it quits.

The teachers in the blog talk about how they will not be able to teach effectively if they have to report more information to parents. They try to make themselves look like martyrs with the enemy at the gates. They complain that they won’t be able to do all this work on their planning period. Well, everything can’t be done during their hours in school and shouldn’t be done. Let’s look at the real situation. Baltimore County teachers have some of the shortest work days of any teachers in the state of Maryland. If we want to talk about truth, let’s talk about teachers having to be at work 15 minutes before the school day and 15 minutes after. That means that teachers only have to be in the building for about 7 hours. During that time, they have a period where they have a planning period and lunch, which cuts the actual time with students to about 53/4 to 6 hours. Then teachers have the winter break the spring break all the holidays and the summers off. Wow, that really looks like over work. To add to that, this year, the teachers in Baltimore County got a nice raise.

Other than AIM, teachers haven’t been asked to do one more thing this year that they didn’t do before. But they got a raise. A raise that was given to them by the Superintendent and the Board of Education, the same people that some of the teachers condemn in the blog. The question needs to be asked about who really got the teachers the raise. They would find that it wasn’t the union. As for the raise, teachers’ salaries, I went on the union website and found that teacher salaries now start at $43,000. At 5 years a BCPS teacher earns $45, 538 at 11 years, $57,000. Teacher salaries go all the way to $90,419. Not bad for short work days and many days off and a raise to boot. All this, and after 2 years they get tenure. Not bad. Most taxpayers find it hard to sympathize, especially when you look at some of the unsatisfactory test results for many of the students in the schools. All this while people and teachers in other losing jobs, getting laid off, and furloughed. Then some of the teachers in the blog complain about doing more work to keep parents better informed. They also say that if they have to do the AIM, then the education of our children will suffer. They don’t say that when they are getting these raises at taxpayer expense. Its almost like their saying “You better give us more money and don’t expect more work.” The readers of the blog need to look at all the real messages that the writers are sending us as parents and taxpayers. The teachers in the blog say that the kind of information in AIM is the same as they give parents at parent teacher conferences. That is definitely not true since the information in AIM is much more detailed than any in the past. They say that parents can’t understand some of the language in the reports. But is that any reason not to tell them how their children are doing. I have more trust in parents.

All I can say is that there is something rotten going on here, and I bet it isn’t AIM. I hope the teachers in the blog don’t represent all the teachers in Baltimore County. If so, I fear for the education of our children. I hope the public isn’t that gullible. The school system folks need to speak up. They did the right thing for children with this AIM. They should also learn that keeping quiet when bullies are on the attack, just like with kids, doesn’t help. Most of the time bullies just become bolder. I know that some teachers’ union leaders have been trying to scare the politicians. They have turned into real bullies. They should be careful, because when the truth comes out, they will discover that no one likes a bully.

The Sun gave a lot of space to the rumors about AIM, and the Superintendent and inventor. I hope the other side of the story gets as much space. When I was in Baltimore County we fought, but we fought fair. And adults fought for children, not just for their own convenience.

I decided to go into the teaching profession for the love of children. I have been teaching in Baltimore County for the past 20 years and still love watching children learn new concepts. However, in the past several years, teachers have been forced to focus on "data, data, data". We spend hours placing these grades in our grade book along with inputting the data in the computer for the administration to review. I did not decide to be a teacher so I can spend all of my time on the computer!! I use my 30 minute lunch period to take my class to lunch, go to the bathroom, make copies, grade papers and record these grades. You may think I am a high school teacher, but I am not. I teach first grade and first grade is not much fun for the students with all of the assessing that we already do! I just don't see when we will have time to work on AIM in addition to everything else that we do. Teachers ARE people with lives outside of school. We spend time planning effective instruction to meet the different needs of our students. We speak with parents regularly through phone calls, emails and conferences. They also get a report card with detailed comments explaining how to improve their child's progress at home. Many teachers either come to school early, stay after school or do both. I really don't think Baltimore County or others really understand how dedicated teachers are to their students and how much time we spend away from our own families. AIM is just one more item on our platter. When is something going to be taken off?!

I teach art in middle school and am also expected to do this. I teacher 300 students, and see them every other day. There are 14 objectives with each having 2-3 knowledge skill indicators for each grade. That is 13500 objectives that I have to sit down and fill out. This is not a good idea...the time it takes to make sure you know if the student is A, I or M in each objective on top of the time it takes to actually sit down and get onto the website and select each level for each objective for each student is ridiculous. I will not use my personal time, my family time to complete this, so the only other option would be to make my students do book work or watch a movie so that I can complete these reports. How is that doing my students any good? How are they getting a rigorous education that way?

As a new teacher to BCPS, I will have to maintain my certification by taking classes towards a masters. This process is time consuming, although the benefits for my students will be positive. BCPS just took the wind out of my sails by piling on more unnecessary work for teachers with little benefit to students. I have never worked in a profession where the professionals are not trusted to do the job they were hired to do. This close scrutiny of our profession is quite insulting. When will teachers stand together and simply say, "No?"

My main concern with the AIM framework is that the evaluation of each objective for each student is completely arbitrary. The mandated program does not provide a way in which to connect the objectives to grades. Grades provide a much more tangible means of expressing student achievement because they can be quantified by assessments. AIM provides no assessments to measure student achievement of each objective, which makes the progress reports sent home completely meaningless. Even if county officials set out to write assessments for each objective, several of the objectives are not measurable through use of a formative assessment. Essentially, there is no way to ensure that a teacher does not simple mark each skill as “mastered” for each student because there is no clear connection between the objectives and grades. Finally, training for the program has been brief and ineffective and has, essentially, been left to each school despite the fact that the mandate comes from the county. I simply cannot adequately express my frustration with a county that is more concerned with giving the appearance of being focused on student success, then steps all over teachers in order to “improve instruction.”

I also am amazed that there seems to be nobody at the upper levels of administration that can speak truth to power. The data derived from the AIM program is absolutely meaningless.Nobody has yet neen able to explain what it means when a child recieves a mark of I. How is he/she doing in class? Don't all kids need further instruction? What is meant by M? (master). Can elementary or middle school students really master an indivdual piece of content? In my subject of Social Studies the graded objectives are content based, not skill based. If I give a student an M what does that mean. Can his eleveth grade teacher three years from now assume he knows that content because he supposedly mastered it in eighth grade? Do I give an M because a student guessed right on a multiple choice test? We already have grades, parent confeences, MSA, HSA, Assesstrax, and others ways to gather and use data on our students. AIM does not even add to this list because the data it provides is meaningless. I think people should start asking why we are beng told to do this. I think the answer is pretty easy to find: Follow the money!

The problem I see with AIM is that each teacher must choose the indicators they teach each quarter for each student in each class. As a high school teacher, that boils down to about 20-30 different indicators for each of my 6 classes with a total 120 students EACH QUARTER. That amounts to about 14,400 indicators to fill out each year. I am looking at hours of extra work for not much of a payoff.

I understand that the idea of AIM is for parents to be better informed of their child's progress, but when we break down learning into such small concepts, it makes it more difficult for parents to understand learning. Learning is much too complex to look at the tiny parts of the whole. Learning is global. When we take the ideas presented in class and grade students on each individual topic, we can't judge the overall progress as well.

What will happen is that overworked teachers will simply click on the "instructional" button for each child to avoid making decisions. No child will appear to be "accelerated" or "mastery" level and yet another idea will be tossed to the wayside after so much time and money was spent in development. Furthermore, where are the criteria on how to judge a students progress? While I may believe they are "instructional" my colleague may believe them to be "accelerated" or "mastery." Where is the consistency?

While it is rooted in all good reasons, this is a generally a bad idea and will not work as intended by BCPS. This county already has a serious problem with teacher retention, and AIM will certainly not help with that problem.

I sincerely doubt that RAK was ever a teacher ANYWHERE, let alone in Baltimore County. While it is true that we spend 7 contracted hours a day at school, this is just the tip of the iceberg for most teachers. I (and MANY of my colleagues) spend an additional 2 unpaid hours a night at home grading, creating flip charts, and planning engaging, rigorous instruction for my students - there's no way it can be done in just 50 paid minutes a day. On top of that, I teach the extended year program, 3 additional hours a week, and help with an after school enrichment club for an additional 90 minutes a week. Please don't question my commitment to my students. At report card time alone, I spend at least 5 hours of my own time reporting grades - with AIM this time would TRIPLE. And there is no data to support that AIM enhances student achievement. Go to your local BCPS elementary school, look at what time teachers arrive (many at least an hour early), when they leave (often 2 hours or more later than official "dismissal" time, and the multiple tote bags of papers and planning materials they lug home each night, all of which TRULY benefit students in measurable ways. And then, dare to question the commitment of BCPS teachers to the students they serve.

I can put my reaction to this new program very simply. I am currently a school librarian and used to teach history. When I taught middle school history I had to rewrite lessons so the children could read them, contact parents to keep them updated on achievement and behavior, keep a log of parent contacts, extra credit assignments, after school tutoring and more. Including grading this took over 80 hours most weeks. Adding anything to that workload is intolerable and makes teaching impossible. It is hard enough as it is.

Let's talk about AIM from the perspective of a special education teacher. Not only am I responsible for reporting students' progress to parents using the BCPS report card, but I am also responsible for assessing and reporting on every objective on every student's Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for students receiving special education services (as mandated by IDEA - federal legislation). These Progress Reports are very time consuming and "eat up" countless hours of my personal/family time four times every school year. However, I take pride in sharing a child's progress to a parent through these progress reports, and my comments are supported by student achievement in the classroom on a daily basis. I do not sit in front of my computer and use nonsensical letters (AIM) to inform parents of their child's accomplishments.

So, in light of the horrific announcement made last week by BCPS officials, I am left to wonder a few things:

*How much instructional time will my students lose while I am busy filling out an AIM report for each of them?

*How much time will it take for parents to read the 3-page report card, the 18-page IEP Progress Report, and the 30-page AIM report?

*Where will BCPS find the money to pay for a substitute to cover my class while I'm busy completing reports (because I'm sure many of you know they had a lot of difficulty finding money for teacher raises)?

*Will my students wonder why there is a substitute in my room so often?

*If I don't give my students "busy work", then why are BCPS leaders passing on "busy work" to me?

*Why am I required to use a tool and then just "told" to give all students As or Is? Doesn't sound like I'm truly assessing, does it?

*How long will it take for BCPS to hire replacements for the hundreds of teachers who will leave at the end of the school year (if not before)?

*How much will MY STUDENTS LOSE because of this nonsense?

I hope everyone will help support the students and teachers in BCPS. The decisions being made by our leaders are going to negatively impact our children. Let our voices be heard!

There is one more piece to this that I have not seen mentioned as of yet. Many of us who teach at the middle school or high school level are already determining if the students are meeting objectives and skill indicators through BCPS short cycles (quizzes) and benchmarks (unit tests). This program, Assesstrax, already indicated if a student passed a particular objective or skill indicator, so AIM is redundant. I have already asked and so far I have not heard an answer of why Assesstrax and AIM cannot be tied together. I do not understand why we are going to need to take the time to complete reports on AIM when we are already doing this another way.

In response to Mr. or Ms. ZZTOP. You are misinformed.
I ARRIVE AT SCHOOL ONE AND A HALF HOURS BEFORE STUDENTS.
I LEAVE SCHOOL ONE HOUR AFTER STUDENTS.
I TAKE SCHOOL WORK HOME EVERY NIGHT.
TODAY'S PAYCHECK STILL DOES NOT HAVE A RAISE!

As a parent, I am outraged at a comment that I have seen above. Does AIM seem that beneficial to my child's learning that they are going to pull a teacher out of the room to complete reports on AIM, and have a substitute teach the class instead? Most of the time when my child has a substitute, no new learning is going on in the classroom. As a parent, I want the teacher to be in the classroom, teaching and helping to prepare my child for the future and I don't see how an AIM report is going to help my child do better in school. The teachers already email, make phone calls, and send progress reports, as well as report cards. It all seems very redundant to me. Teachers need the planning periods to plan to make new lessons and contact parents, not to waste time on AIM.

I am fine with using AIM. If it helps the students of BCPS, then it is worth doing. If it doesn't, I trust it will be revised or abandoned. As a teacher, I believe we, particularly the unprofessional and essentially useless TABCO, must stop these preemptive strikes against anything that might possibly translate into more work for us. People in all professions are asked to do things they don't want to do, and they don't start writing the newspapers and calling the networks about it. Most people, instead, roll up their sleeves and do what they're asked to do. This is the price of a paycheck and benefits. We are so very fortunate in these difficult times to have jobs, and I am ashamed at the behavior of the teacher's union, particularly during this holiday season when so many Baltimore County residents will have to do without. The patent unwillingness to do things differently is not only bad for students, but it is terrible for our reputation in the community. We are professionals; it's time we start acting like it.

To RAK: I am so sorry that you feel the way you do. I can tell you that you are one of the few. Please do not try to calculate time and money for teachers. You will not come out ahead. While not reporting to work until 15 minutes before kids come in and leaving 15 minutes after they leave is the "rule". You would be very hard pressed to find a teacher that actually does that. I, myself arrive at least 90 minutes before my kids come in. I stay at least an hour at the end of the day. AND.....there are many people here before me and leave after me. Oh...and by the way, we don't get paid for our "30 minute lunch break". Which, I might add usually turns into about 15 minutes once you make sure your kids get through the line or answer a phone call. AND let's not forget the three hours of work we have at home each night. So please don't go there. You certainly may have any opinion of AIM that you would like. You obviously don't need to fill it out and have not really looked at it. I do, however take offense to you saying that you fear for the education of the children if the teachers in this blog represent the teachers in Baltimore County. I, on the other hand am proud to be a part of such hard working and dedicated teachers. I have been teaching for 34 years and these are the finest people you will find anywhere!!

I find it interesting when I hear one of the arguments about teachers and AIM--that teachers are just complaining about more work. In a way, they are right. No one ever went into the teaching profession thinking that they would not have to take work home or work 10 hour days. Teachers do not have a problem with working more if it is beneficial to the students. Many teachers already spend much time outside of the school day hours as it is said that we work a 32 hour work week. Really! I have never only worked only 32 hours a week as a teacher. I am sure the hours that I already put in are close to 50 hours a week. Teachers volunteer to come to parent nights and many of us at the middle or high school level are already doing 3 to 5 evening/after school duties. Yet, because we care, we come to other events to support our school and students. BCPS already has a teacher retention issue, and I believe that AIM is going to make it worse. AIM is not the answer!

I am all about making sure each and every student receives a quality education and is looked at as an individual when planning for instructional needs, but completing the AIMS data is absurd. Those not in the profession probably view teaching as an easy job: 7 hour days, summers off, lots of holidays, vacations, and snow days in between. But what they don't realize is teachers in Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS) are given 50 minutes to plan and 30 minutes for lunch (lunch includes walking our classes to the lunch room and picking them up). In our planning time we must plan, gather/make materials, make copies, grade, keep data, contact parents, and the list goes on an on. I do not know of any teacher who is able to teach effectively without coming to school early, stay late, or take work home at night. Now that AIM is being required, teachers are going to drown in more data collection and students are going to suffer. Let's look at what is required of first grade teachers...when collecting data for just ONE child in ONE year, the teacher will complete 17 pages of grades (this does not include library media, vocal music, physical education, and art) for a total of 408 grades. If the average class has 25 students and the teacher completes AIM for all four quarters this comes to 10,100 grades. Oh, did I forget to mention this is in addition to the quarterly report cards? Who is really going to read these AIM reports? Does BCPS think the majority of parents are going to sit down and read a 17 page report? Are the next years teachers going to read lengthy reports for each of their students? Can't BCPS find a better way to collect data and ensure students are indeed learning and moving forward?

Directed to RAK - I question why you left the teaching profession. Could it have been for any of the reasons that the teachers have stated here on this blog?

To JH: I really don't feel that I should have to dignify your question. However, I need to point out that it wasn't for any of the selfish reasons listed in this blog. I am proud that I was a teacher and loved my pupils. If it had not been for my developing MS, I would still be in the classroom with them and using AIM or any other tool that would help my children succeed.

As a BCPS high school English teacher, I often find that my colleagues and I are presented with many opportunities to complain about the next "directive" and the new "mandate". It comes from our department heads who say, "Don't blame me, this wasn't my decision." It comes from our administrators who say, "Don't blame me, this isn't my decision." And finally it comes to us in the Superintendent's bulletin with very little explanation for what the hole is that we need to fill. What is broken that AIM will fix? What could use support that we don't already have? Teachers like to be in control. With the arrival of every new and "cutting edge" data-collection process, it feels as though we are being told that we don't know how to do our job; and that's when we become testy.
Yes, data-driven instruction does have its place in every classroom; however, many of us find ourselves processing data and not being able to speak coherently about how our data-driven instruction is making a difference in our students' education.
This is a case of data overload. We are living in the information age, and that's what we like. The more information, the better; however, there can be too much data.
We need to focus on two forms of data collection: subjective and objective. Subjective is what we as teachers report on students' report cards as a record of students' knowledge, as well as the reflection of a student's attitude/work ethic which--like it or not--does affect a student's academic success. On the objective data collection side, AssessTrax has been used as a reliable way to track students' progress via standardized testing. Reports from AssessTrax can and should be printed and monitored. In fact, AssessTrax even has a report for Parent communication. These reports automatically show students' progress broken down to match the goals, indicators, and objectives of the Maryland Voluntary State Curriculum, which can then be linked to the Core Learning Goals, and thus, a variety of objectives as districts see fit.
AIM is a great catch name, because we do want our students to AIM for success; however, for a program that neither maintains objectivity, nor allows for authentic subjective assessment it doesn't hit the mark.

As a second generation and highly qualified teacher in BCPS for many years, and a parent whose grown children received an excelent education in BCPS, I remember when it was a place we were proud to work.. Teachers were partners at the table when decisions were made. Teachers were involved in curriculum writing and the quality was so good it was sold around the nation. We were known for our best practices. All that has gone away and now we are a joke.
AIM is only the latest and most egregious example that has been foisted upon us with no collaboration in its development and no training. The few who attempted to explain its shortcomings in an AIM pilot at a Board of Education meeting on December 1 were silenced when faced with reprisals.
What kind of dictatorial system has BCPS become? Others who contributed to this blog have predicted an exodus of quality teachers from BCPS and are unfortunately correct. At the current time, I would advise any future teachers to look elsewhere in Maryland. Coming from a family who has given many years of service to BCPS, I feel robbed. This is a sad state of affairs. Is it too late for BCPS? That depends on our Board of Education, our county council, our state superintendent, and the governor. Are they listening? They are our only hope.

Like the promoter-in-chief and supposed "creator" of AIM, RAK writes quite a bit of disinformation in his/her rant. It is interesting that he or she brings up the subject of bullies. For the techniques of the bully are what is being used to promote AIM. It certainly is not the truth, the research, the usefulness, the benefits to students...it is pure self-promotion by the real leader in BCPS, the copyright holder of AIM, supported by the superintendent and an uninformed and misinformed board. This is not a struggle about what is good for teachers. It is about what is best for our children. Anyone who has really looked into AIM would not be able to say that it is a reporting tool with any depth or chance of helping improve student achievement. It is purely an exercise in self-promotion and is motivated by personal interests. If the tool is as useful and helpful for students as touted, there would be no shortage of schools/teachers using it...as it stands, very few elect to use it, some are forced, and some praise it because they are friends of the copyright holder or are bullied. Liz, if you decide to look into the veracity of the comments in this blog, I suggest that you broaden the scope of people you talk to...fear and intimidation rule the day in BCPS and often a pretty picture is painted through misinformation while utter chaos is beneath the surface. Let's take an honest look into AIM where all stakeholders are able to question and provide input, as it should be. Let's not be bullied, misinformed, threatened, demeaned, or treated with outright uncivil behavior for asking that we be able to provide every student we teach with the best and rigorous education. AIM will distract teachers from their purpose, to serve and educate children, to serve the self-interests of one individual. The public and public officials should be horrified at the human and capital resources invested in one individual's project. AIM has been accepted and has been forced upon BCPS without benefit of competition. I too, ask that that the Governor, County Executive, County Council, and the public demand to know if protocol and policies have been followed for the enormous amount of money used to produce AIM. The greater question is...What have the children of BCPS given up in instructional time and valuable resources, so that an adult could use BCPS resources to further her own interests? Let's get the focus back on the children. They deserve our best. I appreciate that the teachers on this blog are willing to fight for the kids. Someone should.

If BCPS wants to increase the dialogue between teachers and parents there are several methods that would be more effective and worthwhile than AIM. For example, online grading for all schools, not just those who "find" the money to finance it, would be a great way for parents to stay informed on their child's progress, missing assignments, and project grades. Many other counties in Maryland already have these programs implemented system-wide - WHY NOT BCPS?! This is where our tax dollars need to be spent.

Secondly, the poor attendance on back-to-school night and conference nights needs to be addressed by the school system. BCPS could be planning and implementing programs to get the parents more involved in these face-to-face interactions with teachers. For example, I had 4 parents scheduled for quarter one conference night. Only one showed up. I teach 113 children this year - WHERE ARE ALL THE PARENTS?! Despite indicating a "conference is requested by the teacher" on many interim reports, I only saw one parent that night. Parent involvement in schools is a big problem that the school system needs to take on. This is where our tax dollars need to be spent.

Lastly, each of my major assignments has a rubric which lists criteria that reflects the curriculum indicators and goals of the course. The criteria are written in everyday language, not in “education lingo”. Students can clearly see the link between the directions for the assignment, the grading criteria for the assignment, and the final rubric. Students complete the rubric (they grade themselves) and answer several reflective questions about the unit. I then collect the artwork, grade it according to the criteria, write notes/suggestions/commendations, and return the sheet to the student. Through these detailed rubrics, students and parents can see which skills and concepts they need to improve on and where they are meeting with success. With AIM, the objectives are a direct reflection of the indicators that educators are given for planning and teaching their courses – they are meant for educators, not students and parents. This is why we have rubrics and report cards that are designed to be a communication tool between teachers and parents. Encouraging students and parents to read rubrics, look over assignments when they are returned, and review the notes written by the teachers would be a worthwhile goal for BCPS.

Through rubrics, interim reports, report cards, phone calls, and emails I am spending a significant amount of time giving students and parents feedback on their success and areas of needed improvement. I do not feel that an additional costly program is needed. I hope that the Board of Education, Superintendent, and Baltimore County Residents will listen to the Professional Educators and cancel the implementation of the AIM program.

I am a third grade teacher for Baltimore County Public Schools. I am desperately writing to you to let you know how enforcing AIMS will negatively impact our students, their achievement, and for any teacher-the ability to teach for the kids. What AIMS will force us to become is data driven. I also realize that there is a good chance you will throw away this letter without reading it, but I eagerly ask that you don't. Please hear my voice.

Before I offer my own idea for how we can compromise, I want you to know the statistics, since it appears that data driven teachers is what you want us to become. I also want you to know that I would not have had the time to do this research, unless we had a snow day. Below is data I collected for my students. In second quarter, if you make AIMS mandatory and required for all students for all subjects, I will need to fill out A, I, or M for 4,046 bubbles per quarter.

# of Objectives Per Subject + Number of Skills x #of Students =Total Amount of Data Needed to Inputed

Reading
12+ 53x18= 1170 bubbles needed to be inputted

Written Language
9+33x18=756

Math
6+24x23=690

Science
8+22x26=780

Social Studies
9+16x26=650

Health
NA+NAx26=0

Total Bubbles Needed to Fill Out Per Quarter: 4046
Total Bubbles Needed to Fill Out Per Year: 4046x4= 16,184 bubbles.

4,046 per quarter bubbles might not seem like a lot to you. But let us not forget that to be effective teachers, we already need to collect and analyze daily data from formative and summative assessments, we need to collect data for our students who are part of the SST process and for students who have IEPs. Let us not forget that we currently collect data from Assess Trax, for report cards, from Summative Assessments not found on Assess Trax.

I agree that some data needs to be collected. But I ask you, when is enough, enough? Why do we have at least 3 different forms of data collection? We have STARS for report cards, AIMS for collecting data for meeting objectives and skills, and Assess Trax for entering and analyzing scores on assessments. So I ask you, why are we not able to collect data using the same program? Why are the objectives different on the report cards than on AIMs? When will we have time to analyze and record the data for AIMS?
Forms of Data Collection
Method to Report Data Skills/Objectives
AIMS OSK
Assess Trax VSC
Report Card worded differently from VSC and OSK
Assess Trax allows teachers the ability to view how students perform on certain objectives and skills. Why do we need AIMs? Through assess trax, parents can receive a print out of how well their child performs on various tests. Teachers are able to print out various reports to see how the children are performing compared to previous years, how students are performing amongst their grade level, and how students perform by objective and/or skill. Just recently, I gave my parents a print out of how well they performed on the benchmark. The printout allowed parents, as well as myself to see which objectives the students struggled with and which they excelled with. I tell you this information, because I do not understand the relevance or usefulness of collecting and reporting data through three different programs or forms. Assess Trax has the reports for parents to see how well their child performs with overall objectives and skills. These objectives correlate to the Voluntary State Curriculum. Why are the objectives written in three different ways? Are you aware of how confusing this will be for not only teachers, but also for parents?

So I ask you, when is enough, enough? You revise the curriculum, add the Wide Reading Component, and hesitate to inform us until after the school year begins. You revise the report cards and yet again, neglect to tell us until after school begins. I currently am at school from 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. on most nights. I teach for the children. I come in early to set up the classroom, make materials, and prepare for the day. I stay at least thirty minutes after the required time of 3:45 P.M. to call parents and tidy the classroom. I stay an additional hour every night to analyze data from the day's lessons, input data, and record anecdotal records for students. [Additional time is required to be taken when AIMS data, Report Card input, or Assess Trax data is due] It takes an additional 3 hours (on average) to modify and adapt lessons to meet the needs of my students. This includes making several re-teaching materials and extension activities for those students who either exceeded the lesson and/or struggled with the concepts. The lessons from the Social Studies curriculum are so outdated, we're unable to order more cassettes and most lessons require limited hands on activities. I know of at least 7 teachers at my school who currently teach a 7:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. schedule as well. There are several others that go home and do work. I'm not complaining. I am just stating the facts. Teachers are no longer being asked to just teach. We are also data analysts, leaders, curriculum revisers/lesson writers.

So when you revise the objectives in three different ways and give us three different forms or programs to record data, you require teachers to do unnecessary work and expect teachers and parents to keep up with the different wording of objectives and forms. We already stay late to do all that is asked of us. When will we have time to collect data for OSK objectives (the format listed on AIMS), since they are formatted differently than VSC and the report card?

Keep it simple. Consider writing the objectives in one format-pick one whether VSC, OSK, or use the wording for the report card and keep it that way. Simplify it for teachers and parents. If you must require us to keep separate data; provide teachers skills analysis sheets for all subjects and assessments, similar to those given for Math Unit Assessments.

I want you to know that if you make AIMS mandatory, you will make me become a data analyst. More time will be required to spend on recording and analyzing data [that has already been tracked through report cards, progress reports, and Assess Trax] than on planning and teaching. Have you forgotten I am a teacher? I am not a data analyst. So let me TEACH! I hyperlinked two websites that provide you the salaries of data analysts in case teaching will become obsolete and will be replaced with data. Please reconsider your decision. I left Towson University in 2007 to become a teacher. I'd like to remain a teacher for at least another 30+ years.

Please hear my voice!

Sincerely,
A concerned Teacher

What truly horrifies me is the fluff piece the Baltimore Sun did on AIM a bit ago. They quoted Dr. Dezmon and perhaps the only teachers in the county who don't find AIM redundant and bad for kids. Why didn't the Sun dig a little deeper? A high level administrator using taxpayer money and the time of Baltimore County employees to develop a "tool" that she then copyrights under her own name? Baltimore County's lawyers need to step up their game. I worked in computer programming, and when you signed your contract, you understood that anything you developed was the intellectually property of the COMPANY, not the individual. Congratulations, Maryland taxpayers. You just paid for hundreds of man hours, etc., to develop a fancy way of grading papers and sending them home to Mom. How did the local media miss this? Didn't they ask any questions?

Hello,
The immediate implementation of AIM is wrong and should be stopped. Earlier this year, the program was "optional" and area assistant superintendents could implement it as they wished. Because it was not mandatory, trainings which took place did not encompass entire faculties, but rather select groups which would be affected by the AIM implementation system which their school devised. To now be told it is mandatory and must start this quarter (when there are only four weeks left) is clearly in contradiction to what was stated to the Teacher's Association of Baltimore County and the county leader (principals, assistant superintendents, etc.) You won't see administrators writing on this blog, because too many people have been fired at the administrative levels in BCPS schools for anyone to want to take a risk against speaking out. The timing of the mandate, in and of itself, is circumspect, with winter vacation here and the superintendent out on medical leave. If we truly had the best interest of kids in mind, and if we were truly thinking about what is best for the student achievement, why would we not involve all of the stakeholders (teachers, administrators, PTA groups, etc.) in deciding when would be the best time to implement AIM county-wide? Why would we not pilot the program first, as is county policy that is traditionally practiced? Why require full implementation when, during faculty trainings, teachers cannot even get in the system because of backlogged Internet browsers or the fact that their data is not even there? Shouldn't we be sure to fix these bugs first so that teachers aren't wasting time they could be spending with our students sitting at their computers to complete some mandatory check list? Why require full implementation when the curriculum offices (who were required to enter everything on BCPS time for a program personally owned by a BCPS employee) are not fully ready for the implementation to occur? If we were truly looking out for what is best for kids, and if we truly were looking to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap, we would make sure we piloted the program, we would make sure we talked with TABCO about what is reasonable and fair in terms of expectations of the use of the program, and we would not be changing plans mid-stream, right before a holiday. The entire situation just wreaks of ulterior motives (funding retirements, perhaps?) and the speculation that BCPS are the guinea pigs for any stated or national role-out of AIM would cease if those in power would attempt to make sure we are truly ready for AIM implementation. I am not arguing that this program could not, someday, be beneficial. But we don't even know what we are supposed to do with the information gathered. Furthermore, there is no consistent message to teachers on what represents the "mastery" or "instructional" levels. What I consider mastery could be completely different than my colleague in the same grade down the road from me. What I am saying is that I feel, from my knowledge base and experience, that the teachers and employees of BCPS are being used as guinea pigs for this program so that some people can make a lot of money in their retirements off the program. These same people are hoping to hide behind the "It's what's best for kids" shield, when in fact, if they cared at all about the kids in our system and in our classrooms, they would make sure the program was piloted, edited, revised, and ready to go BEFORE causing teachers needless work, time, energy, and effort.

First, I made no comments on the amount of time teachers spend in school. When I taught high school, I arrived at 7 for a 7:45 class and sometimes left after 6 p.m. when I was free to leave at 2:30

And to RAK, as far as informing parents on what students are expected to learn, that information was until recently posted on the website. And I gladly gave any parent a copy of the curriculum when asked.

AIM being mandatory is completely ridiculous! Teachers are already required to record data using access trax and other assessments! AIM is just extra work! If Baltimore County wants teachers to communicate with parents more, put report cards and grade books online! The amount of papers that teachers are going to be filled in are even too much for us to print out to parents! I am shocked that any county would waste such money and require teachers to use it! I know many teachers that are now rethinking about thier teaching careers because of this awful new requirement!

I believe that any new initiative should address one simple question - Will it increase student achievement? The answer to this question as applied to AIM is a resounding, "NO!" How can I be so sure? I have piloted AIM in my classroom for the last 3 months. I focused on 4 students whose MSA scores were Basic. Not only did I complete the online progress charts for these students, but I, along with the reading specialist, provided extra small group interventions focused on areas of need. My data shows no improvement for 3 of the students and very minimal improvement for the other one.The time I spent with these students also caused me to take time away from other students in my class. I was forced to give the others additional seatwork in order to make time for the targeted students. The bottom line - I was not able to increase student achievement with this model.
In addition, the so called "pilot" has been ignored by the powers that be. No one has asked to see my AIM recording-keeping and no one has asked for my feedback. To call what I did a pilot is a joke if no one followed through with it before a system-wide decision was made.
I am a very experienced teacher and I have an excellent track record of students who make gains in my classes - that is until I have been handcuffed by AIM. Given the same 4 students and my own time-tested methods, I feel they would have demonstrated some improvement by now.
Time is not an issue for me. If AIM was a proven tool to improve student achievement, I would suck it up and spend the time to use it; however, what AIM tells me, I already know and am already working on - in my own way.
Please - let the teachers plan and teach and do what we do best - stimulate students to be lifelong learners and productive members of our country.

I am taking of my teacher's cap and responding to AIM as a parent. If I were to receive the AIM report on my children's progress i would be furious that the county would pass off some of the achievements as skills. Whether a child can clap out the number of syllables in a word is not a skill. Clapping out the syllables may be the method of teaching children to identify syllables, but that ability doesn't need to be measured. The objective or goal is that the student will know the number of syllables in a spoken or written word.

I caution my fellow BCPS teachers to keep the focus on how flawed the AIM is, how it does not benefit the students, and its creation and then sale to BCPS is unethical and criminal. While the arguments that AIM heaps additional work on teachers is certainly true, the public does not really understand how much time and effort goes into teaching children. We do not want to appear to not want to do more work. More and more instructional time is being chipped away by data gathering and reporting and other activities like AIM, but it appears that we do not want to take on more work. We really want to do the work that benefits the students. We want to teach.

As far as shame on TABCO for opposing AIM, I thank them for the support they have given me individually in fighting AIM. My grandfathers did very dangerous jobs when first came to the United States. The unions saved their lives and the lives of many others. In most schools, teaching is not that dangerous. However, imagine how frighten we would be by the administration at Greenwood if we didn't have TABCO.

SUN REPORTERS: Please do some research about AIm and other policies of BCPS. We are going downhill very fast and our students are suffering. The public does not know about any of it. BCPS is getting ridiculous, and AIm is just one piece of evidence supporting this claim.

Education is about money now, not children. Look at the textbooks that our children learn with. Look at the "technology" the county now approves for school use. Like everything in education, someone is making a lot of money and bullet points for the resume (Dr. Dezmon) at the expense of someone else (students, parents, teachers of all schools).

If AIM was so wonderful, wouldn't everyone do it? Everyone meets with parents because it works. Everyone grades papers because it works. Everyone does not spend hours on paperwork because it doesn't work. There is no magic bullet to help every kid, and that is what Baltimore County thinks AIM is. Every child is different, learns different and succeeds differently. Filling out a report about that does not help that child's learning.

My worst days as a teacher are around report card time. Why? Because that is when I have worked the hardest and am the most exhausted. I not a 21 year old with unlimited energy but have a family I like to see from time to time with my own life.

Want me to work like a doctor? Then pay me like a doctor. AND I get my own secretary and set my own hours.

AIM is worthless. The County administration knows that it is worthless. The program developed as the hobby of of an administrator and was not subject to review by parents and teachers before it was mandated to be used. IF AIM WERE NOT WORTHLESS, IT WOULD NOT BE AN EXTRA DUTY FOR TEACHERS, IT WOULD REPLACE REPORT CARDS AND COLLEGE RECOMMENDATIONS. I would suggest to the high school teachers of Baltimore County Public Schools that they print out copies of the AIM reports and send them instead of the usual letters of recommendation. Send these alternative AIM recommendation forms to the parents of 12th graders trying to get into schools like Yale and Duke. If the parents wish them to be forwarded to the colleges, then we'll know AIM has more value than I believe it has. My guess is that this little experiment will produce some irate parents. The reason they aren't angry now is that they don't know anything about AIM. What they need to know is that AIM is a scam.

It is very sad to hear some of the comments of the person known as RAK. I by no means intend to attack you on your educational opinions and you do in fact have the freedom of speech to air your thoughts, but I expressed my concerns earlier in this blog in a very respectful way and to hear you say things like "act like bullies" and " we should care about students rather than convenience" is truly disrespectful. Baltimore County teachers work very hard and we do not appreciate the name calling. As a former Baltimore County teacher I'm sure you frowned upon that kind of behavior with your own students. I'm not sure when you retired and that is your own business but there are many data collection tools already in place including a revamped report card which I assume you are unfamiliar with because it just went into place in 2009 that shows objectives that are taught and the progress that is made. We also use benchmarks and Assess Trax. There truly can be too much information and then that clouds the picture when parents have so many documents in front of them that they begin to wonder what to do with it all. I'm sure as a retired teacher you can see the value of looking at all the current tools used and the need to streamline the process. That is what needs to be done and I am sorry but I am currently using AIM and you are not and I have to respectfully disagree with the value of it. It is too subjective and when I can click a mouse to fill in a circle and not have anywhere to put supported comments in place...I have a big problem with that. I have always felt that I could clarify on the report card in my comments section and parents have often reflected on how those comments helped them connect their child's progress and areas of improvement based on the objectives under each subject area. If I were a parent choosing which source gave me the clearest picture of my child's learning, it would not be AIM.

I have to protest this regressive means of assessment called AIM not because it is redundant or time consuming even though it is both. I have to protest it because I am a human being and I only have a finite amount of energy. If I were a machine I wouldn’t have a problem entering 2,000 pieces of data a quarter. Because I am simply human, I have to make a lot of choices about how to use my time and I do not want to waste it with a lot of meaningless clicking on a machine. The decision I have made is to use my time to be with the students that I work for and in planning for instruction that will benefit them. Sometimes my students don’t meet the objectives that have been set for them and sometimes my students just can’t express what they really know. Sometimes they learn things that weren’t stated in the objective. If, as a society, we get so caught up in measuring our children’s every move, we are going to miss out on the real experience of teaching, learning from our children and their real growth. They may exceed our expectations. Sometimes they wildly surpass the objective that was set for them. So my question is: where is the button to express that? Since this AIM clearly doesn’t benefit our children and as a parent I can’t see the benefit (I could write an essay on it from the parental view) my next question would be who does it benefit?

If RAK was a teacher (I suspect, it was really Dr. Dezmon who wrote that entry) s/he must have been a terrible teacher who should not have been tenured--those teachers exist, but in the minority. No teacher who cares about students works a 6.5 hour day. Even the so called "vacations" are spent grading and doing school related activities. In 30 + years in the classroom I never had a vacation or evening where I didn't spend part of it grading or planning or doing professional development or taking classes. Good teachers who care about their students devote their lives to it. If AIM was good for students, teachers would be behind it 100% regardless of the time. The bottom line is that it is not good for students and is a waste of valuable time. I loved the analogy that an earlier writer made to communism. There was one mistake--the dictator is Dr. Dezmon and Dr. Hairston is the puppet. It's true that no one in high positions at BCPS will speak out against Dr. Dezmon for fear of losing their jobs. The Board of Education should question why so many high positions have turned over in the past several years. They should question why people are reluctant to apply for these positions. Most of all they should question the power that Dr. Dezmon has over Dr. Hairston. That is a question that many BCPS employees have been wondering for several years.

With the holidays here I should be enjoying the time spent with family not thinking about what lies ahead when I return! Hopefully the Baltimore Sun will dig much deeper into this issue. BCPS wants us to implement this redundant (as compared to the report card) program, but when are they giving us the hours to do so? Certainly not during my limited planning period or my unpaid lunch break, or maybe they want me to do it during the one time a day I get to run to the bathroom! Maybe they'll take away my already unpaid summer break (in which I do have to get a job to continue to make ends meet, for those who think I just kick back on the beach!). I'm glad Dr. Dezmon will be enjoying her holiday with the extra paycheck she received for this program! Obviously, BCPS doesn't believe we're capable professionals who take the time to teach our students because we care. No instead they'd prefer to test more than for us to teach. Eventually it'll come to a point where we are testing them on testing, because they won't actually be getting any quality education. BCPS says one of the reasons they're doing this so the parents can be more informed, but maybe they should fix the issue of parent involvement first! Someone earlier mentioned the low attendance at Back to School Nights and Parent Teacher Conference days. My parents barely read the report cards, let alone understand the MSA reports, so you're really gonna tell me that giving them a lengthy report with more letters (A, I, M) for them to confuse is going to be of any benefit?! BCPS obviously likes to have numbers to try to have pretty data with curvy lines and lots of colored bar graphs, while perhaps they should look at their numbers next year in terms of teacher retention!

Baltimore County teachers are already overwhelmed with the amount of data that they are required to record. Every year it seems that the county finds more work for the teachers to do. This excessive work load will end up taking time away from the main thing that every teacher needs time to do...and that is plan good quality lessons for the students.

Did you notice that the 2 posts which favored AIM were written by a parent, who will not have to do the work to complete check lists for classes of students and an anonymous posting which I suspect is not a classroom teacher.
Secondly, they blamed the union for the ills of the county. I certainly hope that when the anonymous teacher gets the raise in January that he/ she returns it to the county. I certainly hope that the next time the anonymous teacher in favor of AIM goes to the doctor, that he/she offers to pay the insurance company a higher percentage of the cost of the bill. I certainly hope that the next time planning time is taken by the administration that he/she gives it gladly. These are the things that will happen without the help of the union.

I am a 12 year vetern of BCPS. I have seen many programs come and go. I have seen the ones that benefitted the children and the ones we later learned needed some work. However, I have never been so concerned as I am with the implementation of AIM. I love working with my students. I love getting to know my students and connecting with them and their families. I love supporting them, and finding out ways to motivate them. I love planning lessons that are fun, interactive, and meaningful. However, as the data collection has increased, the time I have to create and implement these lessons as decreased. Now with AIM being mandated, I wonder what time I will have to think about new lessons. I will be spending planning time, plus countless personal time imputing data, not focusing on instruction. As a teacher I am in constant contact with parents. My parents know their child's strengths and weaknesses and how to support them at home. For parents to spend time pouring over pages of educational jargon is less meaningful than face to face contact and support.
Furthermore, it is my understanding that one of the goals of BCPS is to create a more "green" county. If AIM is to be used at parent conferences, then pages and pages of indicators will be printed, a wasted use of paper and ink! I am extemely concerned about the negative impact this mandate will have on the effectiveness of instruction. Not only are teachers' going to be unable to plan meaningfully, but many are considering retirement or resignation. How sad for the students to be losing wonderful teachers because of a poorly made decision.

BCPS teachers and administrators were told at the beginning of the school year that AIM progress reports would not be mandatory. However, on December 18, the Superintendent sent out an emergent bulletin stating its “decision to fully implement the progress reporting function of AIM at this time.” As you can imagine, this left many teacher and administrators feeling stunned and angered that our concerns had not been heard.

If you are wondering why teachers are so outraged about this new mandate, I want you to consider all the demands teachers already face including planning creative and rigorous lessons, meeting the needs of special education students, communicating with parents, and grading papers. Most of the teachers I work with instruct 120-150 students daily. To highlight how much data on average would have to be entered, I will calculate totals for a teacher imagining he/she teaches 8th grade America’s Past, and teaches 135 students. This curriculum has 128 total indicators that teachers would be required to enter for each student. This would average to 32 objectives a quarter, totaling 4,320 items of input each quarter. By the end of the year, this same teacher would have input a total of 17,280 items into the AIM progress reports!

Of the many concerns that I have with the mandate, my biggest is the negative impact it could potentially have on the children. I worry that the amount of time that teachers would spend entering and collecting data would ultimately take away from time teachers spend planning quality lessons, working with students, meeting with parents, and facilitating extracurricular activities. These face-to-face interactions are the things that make the biggest difference in a child’s education, not spending hours entering data into a computer. These are also the activities that make teaching enjoyable and rewarding, which is what keeps many teachers from walking away from the profession regardless of the challenges that come with it.

Overall, I wonder what the ultimate purpose of requiring teachers to input outrageous amounts of information into AIM is. The Emergent Superintendent’s Bulletin on 12/18 states that, “The AIM progress report is intended to provide educational professionals, students, and parents with up-to-date student achievement information.” I thought teachers already did this by grading student work, maintaining an updated grade book, completing interim reports, and providing report card grades. I have a college degree, am certified, and trained to do just that- provide educational feedback on student achievement. Considering this, entering data into AIM student progress reports is not only time consuming, it is unnecessary.

Hopefully this letter gives you greater insight as to why teachers are so outraged about the entering of data into the AIM program. I have heard many teachers talk about how this would be a breaking point for them, as it truly impacts their occupational “quality of life.” Baltimore County Schools should be very concerned that they may loose these quality teachers due to the many unnecessary demands they face.

Within the span of several days I received two things from BCPS. The first, my annual Declaration of Teaching Intention form, which must be completed and returned to my school principal by the end of January outlining my plans to either retire, resign, request a transfer or continue teaching in my current assignment, was no surprise. Days later BCPS staff members also received a surprise mandate to implement AIM (which had first been touted as a voluntary and targeted student progress reporting system) across the board with every student, in every objective, across every subject. What does this mean to me as a highly qualified third grade language arts teacher? Well, in addition to daily grading, quarterly report cards, quarterly interim reports, short-cycle assessment reports, benchmark reports, objective analysis intervention checklists, SST documentation, DIBELS data, I am now expected to assign a “grade” of Mastery, Instructional, or Accelerated for the approximately 114 objectives/indicators for each of my 35 students per quarter.
I would be lying if I didn’t acknowledge my dismay at the additional burden to an already overextended workload. But I would probably have taken this holiday break to vent, decompress and ultimately figure out one more way to squeeze 8-9 hours of work from a 6 and a half hour work day. But ultimately how much longer can I overlook the fact that what is constantly getting squeezed out of my profession is the TEACH in teacher. Do you want a data analyst or a teacher? I can test my students to find out what they don’t know. I can then record that data so my administrators know what my kids don’t know. I can even create reports to tell my student’s parents what their kids don’t know. But when do I plan the engaging, differentiated lessons that will TEACH my students what they don’t know?
This highly qualified educator hasn’t completed her annual intent form yet. If BCPS won’t put the best interests of its students first, I’ve got a lot of thinking to do about my future.

As a teacher who has been forced to work on the creation of AIM for the last 3 years, I am so happy to see teachers speaking out againgst this ridiculous initiative. We have been berated by Dezmon, accused of being racist, and told we don't know how to teach. I would love to see her go in and teach an elementary lesson. Kids need explicit instruction not more checklists that are not reflective of any true data. Does she have a degree in elementary ed, early childhood, or curriculum?? The answer would be NO, yet she rules the roost and has been allowed to make sweeping changes to our curriculum, schedules, and work load. WHY and how did she get so much power? All of our excellent leadership has been run off because of her. Whoever comes in to take over the county is going to have a huge mess to clean up and a lot of firing/hiring to do in order to get BCPS back in shape. I know the first one who needs to go....

am a teacher at an elementary school in Baltimore County. I currently teach 22 students, almost half of which have IEPs, and most of the other half are performing below grade level in Reading and/or Math. In addition to academics, I have a number of difficult behaviors to manage. This year I am struggling to have enough time plan my instruction, because so much of it is differentiated. Besides daily lesson plans, I also have papers to grade, behavior plans to implement, etc. We have new report cards this year, which are more detailed (and aligned with the curriculum) than the old ones. I do not know how I am going to complete the AIM reports, which seem to be redundant as we have the new report cards, and since I tend to write detailed comments for my students, which relay their strengths and weaknesses to parents, in language that they can understand. It is most likely going to come at the expense of my students' learning because there are so many hours in the day. Unfortunately, unless BCPS gives teachers a day or two (Professional Days) each quarter in which to complete them, student learning is going to suffer. Honestly, most of my students' parents will most likely not even read the reports, or fully understand their purpose. AIM is one more thing has been thrown on our plate (for no extra money, taken from our PERSONAL time) without proper training or clear directions. If AIM truly becomes mandatory for all students in all subjects, then it may be one more reason for me (and many other teachers) to look for other careers, despite of our love for helping children learn.

There is nothing I can add to what so many teachers have already posted on this blog. I am a veteran teacher with 23 years of experience. I teach middle school and have 140 students. The amount of time I will need to implement AIM will be overwhelming. I'm already putting in 9-10 hours at school each day and fortunately my years of experience enable me to plan lessons quickly. That's the last thing I think about. Yes, we get 50 minutes per day in planning time. It takes me that long to put away materials, respond to emails and calls from parents and, possibly, run a few worksheets. Then comes the data entry, grading assessments, tutoring students at lunch or after school. I am willing to do anything that will help my students achieve. AIM will not. Teachers at a county middle school who voiced concerns at a recent Board of Ed meeting were reprimanded by their administration. Do you wonder why so many of us are not giving our names when we voice our opinions? My heart aches for new, inexperienced teachers. It's hard enough to retain the ones we have. This is just another reason we will lose them.

In interesting side bar. I looked at my AIM objectives last week and they would have been six pages long. They are now down to one. Perhaps Dezmon and her cronies are gearing up for a fight and are reducing the amount of objectives to make us teachers look like liars! Dezmon must know the stuff is about to the hit fan and she is taking a defensive postion. Other colleagues have also noticed that not all of their classes are listed. So, we are being asked to complete an evaluation of students and the powers that be don't even have it all figured out yet. Here is my plan, an I for all kids passing and an M for those not passing. Afterall, aren't we all lifelong learners who can always learn more. In addition, I will no longer be planning any lessons at home or doing any school work on a computer from home. As far as the county is concerned I don't own a computer at home. Oh, what fun this is going to be. Hopefully I will see all of you at the next board meeting and the one after that, and the one after that.............

Here is the bottom line for me--we already have methods set up to get the SAME data! We get this each and everytime we use Assesstrax for the short cycle and benchmark tests. What is the point of having to do the same thing twice?

I agree with what everyone is saying about AIM. The sad truth is that no matter how many people blog or send letters nothing will change! We need parents and other stakeholders to scream as well and worry more about the quality of instruction, rather than filling out more paperwork.

I believe that this is time we could spend planning instruction. I teach a self contained special education program and the AIM model is very repetative because all of my students have progress reports. I talk to my parents on a regular basis and feel this program does not help my parents, the progress reports are to inform parents of the weaknesses and strengths that their child has. My students also have a lot of behavior issues that I have to handle and spend a lot of my time planning and thinking of new ways to promote good behavior and the this time is being taken away from me because the AIM model is very time consuming.

I love how the people that are the biggest supporters of AIM are the people that dont have to do it! Make no mistake, teachers are not complaining, we are standing up for what is fair. I would love for the people who think AIM is so great to do what we do all day and do it well along with the AIM. I bust my butt for my students every single day because thats why I'm paid to do; Im paid to teach, not fill out checklist. I dont need a 20 page report telling what I know from daily observations, checking papers, tests, etc that we already do. Use what we have in place and revise that, why add another program that will probably be replaced with something else in another 2 years? If I was a parent, I would want my child being taught, not being checked off a list all day. Any information a parent wants on their child academic progress can be shown through tests, class work, writing samples, exit slips, homework, report cards, progress reports, etc. How about if parents actually communicated with their child' teacher on a regular basis and took an interest in their education by calling the school, writing notes, sending emails, coming in for conferences, we wouldnt need these checklists. What would parents do with the AIM data anyway? Im sure it goes right in the trash with all the other papers we send home, Im tired of people making it seem teachers are to blame when their child is failing or its something that we are not doing thats the problem. I can go home everynight and sleep knowing that I have done all I can to provide each child in my class with a great education every single day, not all children learn the same or perform the same and I would hope that former teachers, esp in the BCPS would know and understand that. If parents arent happy with how things are being down in school, two words: home school

RAK - you have clearly been out of the system too long... or taught in a time when things were different for teachers.

I have been teaching for nearly 10 years. We didn't have a detailed report card when I began teaching - it was a HAND WRITTEN one page report! Now it is a fully developed 4 page report that is done via the computer.

When I began teaching - we didn't even have a MATH GRID! Now... we have a grid we are suppose to follow with time lines indicated for assessment dates that MUST be given!

When I began teaching, I only had to keep a grade book and communicate with parents - MAYBE inform my administrator of those really struggling so we could find other ways of helping those individuals. NOW... we have assesstrax (which I am learning is only required for SOME schools?) and BENCHMARKS - TWO a year in addition to unit tests and MSA! ALL of which (aside from MSA) need to be entered into the computer for the STATE WIDE COLLECTION of data!!!! And if we take more time BECAUSE THE STUDENTS NEED MORE TIME and cannot assess within the DATE the COUNTY has given us... WE GET IN TROUBLE!

Now... in the SAME year as our new 4 page report card card - we have AIM... which (AND THIS IS WHAT I THINK HAS THE TEACHERS SO UPSET) we were TOLD one thing and then last minutely surprised with another! They went back on their word and implemented something that we feel needs more time for investigation and refinement!

WE AS TEACHERS KNOW THE KIDS AND WHAT WILL WORK AND NOT WORK THE BEST!

The people who make these decisions DO NOT work DAY IN AND DAY OUT with the students! They are not on the front line taking on the extra hours! THEY REALLY HAVE NO CLUE! They are government officials who are only out for themselves.

IF EVERY TEACH WORKED TO RULE, TO OUR CONTRACT, NOTHING WOULD GET DONE!
GRADES would NOT be put into the grade book.
PAPERS would NOT be graded.
LESSONS WOULD NOT BE PLANNED!

Much of the above I DO ON MY OWN TIME after TEACHING AND INSTRUCTING ALL DAY.

Teachers always go above and beyond and we never say ENOUGH is ENOUGH.

AND don't say we have the summers off! WE END UP WORKING OVER THE SUMMERS BECAUSE WE DON'T GET PAID...

And I've been teaching for nearly 10 years and have yet to hit 50K without OVERTIME or anything to compensate for all the extra time AND MONEY (for supplies) that I have put in!!!!

Should have gone into marketing like my father advised when I was in college... But, I went into teaching TO HELP CHILDREN!

BUT WHEN YOU WORK FOR A SYSTEM THAT DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE CHILDREN it is difficult to stay in that field because of conflicting priorities with your boss!

AIM is pointless. THREE letters A-I-M! CAN WE GET ANY MORE VAGUE!?!?

And how many parents will just toss this in the trash because IT IS TOO MUCH TO READ and not in EVERYDAY LANGUAGE but in "the language of indicators and objectives"

I mean really? What does every parent really want??? An email from their teacher or a straight up answer! NOT one they have to have someone sit down and interpret for them.

Ok... I'm done my rant now :)
People just need to know!

I have read several comments throughout this blog about the concern that parents will not read or respond to this AIM...

THIS IS NOT A KNOCK ON PARENTS.

I'm a parent AND a teacher.
I work very hard.
When we come home... it's clean up, make dinner, do homework, baths, bedtime. On a good night, we can do something fun together like play a game or watch a movie...
THAT IS IF I DON'T HAVE A STACK OF PAPERS TO GRADE or GRAD CLASS WORK (that is REQUIRED by my school system to take) to do.

I'm a good parent... but, half the crap we send home TO THE PARENTS is pointless. I can't even begin to tell you the amount of paper I have to throw away from my kids' folders each time they bring home communication from school... I scan over most of it and throw it in the recycle bin!

When I get the report card... I look over it - see their letter grades... look below for their weaknesses and put it away!

As a parent AND A GOOD ONE - I would not be the slightest bit concerned for a multipage report WITH the report card. I mean, you CANNOT get a clear understanding with an A an I or an M.
Who cares! Did my kid get an A a B or a C? Are they failing? (In which cases, I would have known about that by now) and if they are getting a low grade because of something - what can I do to help them boost that grade... if it's even necessary! A's B's even C's are all successful grades!

I don't know. From a parent's perspective - NOT A TEACHER's - I would most likely toss it as it would have little or no value to me in understanding my child's progress in school. A letter grade with a quick conference from school would suffice. Call me or email me if you see anything specific - don't burden me with more paper to read and throw away!

This is the fourth time I've attempted to make time to add my blog comment regarding the AIM issue. I had originally written so many of the same comments that appear in this blog and included the same data, I felt it was necessary to omit these pieces but would like to state that all data reported is accurate. It appears that the comments made are right on the money with regards to every single aspect of this outrageous, so-called "fix the system" tool. As a 34 year outstanding, veteran teacher, it is sad for me to think that this unreal expectation and directive will be the cause of my final walk out of the bcps door. Completing the amount of work I have been told to do, is a no-win situation and an extremely unrealistic expectation. The only time left in my already packed day, nights, and weekends, is to input data instead of doing what I am being paid to do, and that is to teach. It is an entire waste of teaching time. It would serve no purpose except to show that teachers can input letters which mean absolutely nothing to them, their students, and especially the parents.
The cost of AIM is extremely high. Besides the amount of extra paper and printer ink which would have to be purchased, it has been mentioned that substitutes would/could be paid to take over classes so teachers could have possibly a few hours to perform this task of inputting thousands of worthless marks for no reason at all. Needless to say, teachers would have to additionally write the substitute lesson plans and directions for implementation, gather all of the materials needed for the lessons, and prepare handouts for the substitute in order for them to actually do the “waste of time” lessons they are being paid to do. This would involve planning for “reviews” or “practice” of an already taught lesson. This is not new learning and again, a total waste of teaching time. Hiring substitutes is just one more piece of work added to the teachers’ plate and it would not help at all to accomplish the unrealistic task we have been directed to perform.
I have always been proud to say I teach in Baltimore County. That pride has diminished the longer I stay in the 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 which cost 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 this teacher questions the motive of this 3.4 million dollar budget approval, as well.
This constant jump from one program to the next, or one publisher to the next, without the necessary data to prove the programs actually work, 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. In one PA County, the public finally investigated corrupt behaviors of school board members and politicians and now they are finally prosecuting and sending some to jail as a result of the waste of taxpayer money, unethical behaviors and embezzlement. If only the governor would step up to the plate and realize a totally appointed school board is a very risky and politically dangerous situation. If only the public could actually see the final destination of their taxpayer dollars, AIM would not even exist!
As stated above in another comment, Baltimore County will lose many 1-5 year teachers, without a doubt, as a result of AIM implementation. This group of teachers is probably the highest in numbers to leave our school system each year. Others, like me, with 30 years and over, have been let down by the system hundreds of times but we've always done our best no matter what we were told to do. AIM, is an impossible task, not able to be met by anyone human. As a matter of fact, I would love for anyone who has supported this directive to actually teach 400+ students, plan for each lesson, create assessments, grade the assessments, turn in reports, checklists, letters and calls to parents and read and incorporate all new curriculum and strategies into the lessons already proven to advance achievement and let them show us how it’s at all humanly possible. Oh, and don’t forget, if one brave board member or administrator does take this challenge, don’t forget to wear your mittens in the cold classrooms and leave your suit jacket at home when the non air conditioned rooms allow your soul to melt in the spring, along with the students.

I would like to thank you, Lisa, for allowing the teachers in Baltimore County to let the public know what sad shape this school system is in right now. I have never seen teachers as outraged as this. If it was legal to strike in this county, there is not a doubt in my mind that it would happen.

It is very unfortunate that I feel the need to sign as “anonymous”, but due to the fact that school administrators have the total power to subjectively rate and can single handedly tear down a person’s will to succeed, it is in my best interest to remain unknown. I have witnessed outstanding teachers disappear mid year many times, as a result of administrative target practice. These teachers, too many to count, have transferred out of the system, resigned and sought a new field of employment or have had emotional breakdowns and have never been seen or heard from again. I do not wish to have the arrows “AIMED” at me.

I’d like to close with a quote shared with me by a very wise man, who teaches personality analysis for the FBI……
“Neither Knowledge or Competence, nor Leadership, nor Respect is intrinsic to power and authority.”

To RAK: I respect your opinion about AIM and while the way you explain sounds great, the premise of AIM is great, parents should be as informed as they can about their childs academic progress, sadly implementing AIM will not be beneficial to children in the long run and its disappointing that a former teacher who does not have to complete AIM or seem to know all that it entails and who should know all that we do in our job does not seem to understand how useless and wasteful it is at this time. So lets say we do AIM and you have your 20 page report for you child, great! Now, how are you as a parent going to use that data? Lets see how the teacher has to get the data. Let me remind you that as a former teacher, you should know that you have more than 1 child in your class, so lets say 23. Teachers have to fill out an AIM report for every child in every subject. So a teachers planning which is supposed to be for planning lessons, checking papers, returning phone calls and emails is out, there is lunch time but teachers actually eat during their lunch time and maybe use the bathroom, not to mention time it takes to pick your class up, at least at the elementary level where I teach, and get them where they need to be, that time is gone. We do have before and after school, but we are not paid for that time and besides that, I think most teachers have families, spouses, and other obligations outside of the classroom. There is home where teachers do work that they cant already get finished during the day, but I dont feel selfish or I am not as dedicated a teacher if I want to take time to actually live my life and do things not school related outside of school. So in all this, how as the teacher, am I supposed to find the time in my already fast paced and jam packed day to actually teach your child the skills that they are deficit in? Well I would be doing the AIM reports for the other 22 students whose parents also want a detailed report of how their own child is doing, so while we know what they are struggling in and what they need to work on, Im actually not going to be able to do help them with it because Im doing the AIM report telling you about it. So while it sounds nice in theory, actually implementing and making it work is a whole other issue. I wouldn't have even responded to your comment if it had not been for the bully comparison. As a former teacher, key word, former, who Im pretty sure has no idea of what is happening in schools across the county everyday right now, teachers and administrators are being threatend with being fired and insubordination for merely expressing their constitutionally protected right to freely speak their mind about AIM. And we are the bullies? No, we have grinned and beared it for every new data system and assessment program because we are told that its whats best for the students and honestly if AIM was truly beneficial for students, why would so many teachers object to using it? Teachers do not get into teaching for money (even though we did get a raise, let me remind you of how much money teachers spend out of pocket buying things for the class room during the school year) and most certainly because we are selfish people who are lazy and dont want to do our jobs. We arent martyrs nor do we claim or want to be, we are teachers and we want to be able to do our jobs as effectively as possible. I welcome anything that will help me better meet my students needs but AIM as it stands, does not. And as a former teacher RAK, you should understand why we feel the way we do.

Liz, I want to thank you for providing BCPS parents and teachers with the opportunity to air their concerns about the recent mandate to use AIM for every student, in every subject. There have been no other opportunities provided to teachers or parents to participate in a real and honest review of the usefulness of such a product. It has been made clear that any comments that do not support the product will result in retaliation or reprimand of some sort. When has the county ever instituted something so intrusive to teaching without stakeholders' review? The board has relied on the word of AIM's "owner" and LLC business and a few selected friends. There has never been an effort to use the existing process and policies for contract/business comparisons and bidding and piloting of the best systems (if indeed this is a product completed by one business-which it is not); opportunities for teachers, parents, PTA, students, and other stakeholders to preview and/or review the product; and finally, there has been no consideration about the incredible resources and investment of county taxpayers' money being used for the cause of the product. It makes no sense that one person can wield such power, unchecked and unbalanced. Worst of all, and I can not emphasize this enough, AIM will not improve instruction or even reporting mechanisms...OUR children will need to give up instructional time and pay a price in addition to the time and resources already paid to further an LLC.

First, a thank you to all of my fellow colleagues who have already artfully articulated the serious problems with AIM.
And second, I would very much like to know which teachers our esteemed superintendent consulted before demanding that this program be implemented? I believe that these bureaucrats live and work in an isolated, self-congratulatory bubble in which their "AIM" or hope is to be able to assess student progress without having to actually leave their comfortable offices. This way the entire blame can be focused on those hard-working teachers who start their days at 4:30 am and end them at 11:00 pm.
Thank you, teachers, for your hard work and tireless efforts each day!

Re: Posted by: zztop | December 23, 2009 1:22 PM

I find it very hard to believe you were actually ever a teacher given your comments. First of all, the salary scale is completely reasonable given that teachers are required to have a B.S. in education and pass a battery of tests to rate as "highly qualified." We are also required to continue our education and have deadlines for acquiring new certifications and degrees. We make about as much as other public servants. And, honestly - $40K a year isn't like living in the lap of luxury considering the educational debt I took on to become a teacher. Second, our raise was given in exchange for foregoing a raise last year. It doesn't take effect until January, so it's more like a half-raise. Third, those "summers off" are unpaid. Fourth, I don't know ANY (GOOD) teacher who lounges about on their planning time. That 50 minutes per day is used to create materials, clean the classroom, file, perform data entry, set up for lessons, grade papers, meet with administration, call parents, respond to emails. As a vocal music teacher, I also use that time for instrument repair/maintenance/tuning. The idea that teachers shouldn't complain because they get so much free time is ridiculous.

First of all I am a teacher, and a proud member of my local teachers association (teachers union to some). AIM is going to require me to take time away from my students because to accurately record the data I will need to evaluate my students in te performance of a skill. Some of the skills that are part of my curriculum relate to a curriculum that is n the pilot stage and I am not a pilot school. I was told that I have to cover every objective before the end of the year. I am a special area teacher and there are classes that I see a reduced number of times because of holidays. As a special area teacher I only see each class once a week for 50 minutes. An example is that my Monday classes are already three weeks behind yet I am still expected to complete the curriculum by the end of the year. In June these classes will be xix weeks behind the other classes. However I must mark all the objectives even if I have not even taught them. Each objective is taught only once and yet I have to decide if the students are A (acceleration), I (instruction), or M (mastery). If I only teach the skill one time then how would I be able to say anything other than instruction. In fact some of the objectives are the same for each grade. What is the difference between grades as to what should be expected.

TABCO has consistently said that the county needs to make a decision to whether we will be doing AIM reports, report cards and interims, or AssessTrax.

I am hearing more and more teachers say this is going to make them look for employment in other school systems. It is not that they don't want to be held accountable, but there needs to be something taken from the plate of the teacher.

If Dr. Hairston isn't careful he will be known as the superintendent of Baltimore County that caused the school system to decline as Baltimore City did years ago.

The Board of Education and the superintendent have continually shown that they don't respect their frontline workers the teachers. Only select "yes" teachers are providing guidance to them because they want to appear that they got teacher input, however the school system has no intention of working with teachers as equal partners for the benefit of the students. Instead all they want to do is make the teachers resent them. At some point this pattern of disrespect of the teachers is going to effect student achievement.

My New Year's wish is that there is a change in the attitude toward the teachers from the Board of Education and superintendent.

AIM is requiring theteachers to do double thework. I am excited to be getting thepress recognition forthis so that parents know what their student's teachersare being required to do. AIM takes time away from planning lessons and modifying lessons.

I am an elementary media specialist in the BCPS system. I have enjoyed teaching students for approximately 30 years. As a veteran educator, I have spent my adult life pursuing a profession that enriches children and enables them to be productive citizens in the future. Teaching is not a job to me; rather it defines my philosophy of contributing to society. I am dedicated to educating our youth.

This established, I wish to address a mandate that has been given to BCPS teachers - AIM. Elementary media specialists teach every child in the school building (grades K-5); consequently, I am responsible for the data management of thousands of grades quarterly. While the theory of evaluating 600 students on paper for every AIM objective taught all year may appear valid to some, the feasibility and practicality of implementing such a program simply is not.

Media specialists have numerous responsibilities in a school building. In order for us to provide the best possible program for our school community, our job demands not only our time but our energy, commitment and dedication. Consider the overwhelming burden AIM would place on elementary media specialists who already assess each child quarterly for effort and every semester for academics. Consider the impact imlementing AIM would have on the morale of those elementary librarians who teach 5,6,7, and yes 800 children in a school building. Reason demands AIM not be mandated under such extreme circumstances.

I want is besy for the children of BCPS. There has to be another way

As a physical eductaion and health teacher in BCPS, I am dedicated to the emotional and physical well-being of our youth. To this end, I have coached a variety of sports after school for BCPS students and conducted a weight training program, also held after school hours. Presently, I teach approximately 225 students. My schedule has often included instructing six classes daily where I move constantly from the playing fields to the locker room and the gymnasium, plus attending to lavatory and or lunch duty. It is important that you be given a clear picture of my daily professional duties and activities so that you can understand the concerns I have with AIM, the new BCPS instructional mandate.

The logistics of implementing the AIM program under my present teaching schedule and after school activities is apparent. Whether I choose to teach a specific objective from the AIM initiatives and complete the assessments for each student on a day to day basis, or choose to complete the assessments for these objectives at the end of each quarter, the problem remains the same - the feasibility of managing such a time consuming and cumbersome program with my other numerous responsibilities.

Assessing students is part of the educational process that all teachers take seriously. Report cards in physical education classes include many different criteria, objectives and skills. Students are assessed quarterly, and grades are reflective of a pupil's ability to succeed in a range of activities. In this manner, a student's progress is monitored fairly and accurately in the BCPS system without creating a data management nightmare for the teachers of one of the largest public school systems in the country. Therefore, it is vital that the AIM program not be implemented.

Unless you are a teacher in BCPS, you can't really understand why AIM is so useless and harmful. Some are suggesting teachers are only complaining because it is more work, and unfortunately there are a ton of teachers, supported by TABCO, that suck and don't put much effort into the job.

I am not one of those teachers. I love and breath my teaching job, and yet I agree that AIM is the last straw in a string of blind mandates that look and sound good on paper, but in actuality are a detriment to our children. No longer does BCPS talk about teaching, instruction, lesson plans, strategies to use with kids, etc. We only talk about collecting data, assessing and repeating those over and over. BCPS pushes testing like its their job, and often force "testing calendars" down teachers' throats. Many conversations at our school last year were about cutting out deeper learning so we can give unit tests by certain dates. Not once did the powers that be ask if the children were ready for the test, or whether they knew the material well. We were only ordered to give the test, and cut stuff out so that we could keep with the testing calendar.

AIM is just another report card, one that lists every objective (although they are in random order, not matching the curriculum at all currently). The "grades" on AIM are A, I, M...A being the lowest on this report, not the highest as most are used to. "I" means different things to different shools currentlly. At our school, we have been instructed to give an "I" to any student with a C or B average, a span ranging over 15 percentage points. At other schools "I" means something else. It is not at all uniform, rendering the score useless and meaningless. We have also been told to give "I" for anything we haven;t yet taught to the kids, which is a complete lie and inconsistent with the meaning of "I". An "M" means Mastered...yet at our school the kids only needs to earn in the mid 80's for us to claim he/she "Mastered" the skill.

Besides the fact that AIM makes no sense, it is just another report card that takes 50 times the amount of time to fill out but actually is less helpful about how students are doing in a subject. It is an attempt to make everyone feel okay about their ability, but not actually give real information.

The time AIM takes to administer is insane, and takes even more time away from teachers and their instruction. Some schools have offered to get substitutes for teachers so they an go to a comptuer and enter AIM scores...which means the county would rather the students sit with substitutes doing busy work.

BCPS no longer cares about instruction, lessons, or reaching students daily. They only care about collecting data, and attempting to look like they are doing something to help, when in fact they are only making things worse for our students. learning takes place in the classroom, on a local, indidivual level, and BCPS is making decisions that disregard that principle.

The SUn desperately needs to look into BCPS policies as of late and how little attention is given to actual teaching now. Dr. Hairston's regime has done well to make him look innovative, yet he has actually been a detriment to our classrooms. No one is asking the right questions, and therefore our parents and community have been kept blind about what is going on in our classrooms.

As a 24 year veteran elementary teacher with outstanding MSA student scores in 4th grade, I am greatly disappointed in the County. In no way will this AIM program improve instruction in any of the academic areas. The County does not have a curriculum that requires mastery. To quote them, "our curriculum is spiral...the students continue revisit the skills throughout their entire education." My typical work day consists of one plus hour before school, and one plus hour after school with between one and two hours of work at home every day. ALL of this work is related directly to instruction-checking, planning, creating worksheets for students working below grade level whose needs are ignored by the County, and researching content. The 45 minutes of planning time within my school day is used to phone parents, bathroom break, organizing for the next group or lesson, or checking work/inputting grades. THERE IS NOT ONE SECOND OF TIME TO SPEND ON THIS UNNECESSARY, SUBJECTIVE AIM PROGRAM that in no way improves the education of the students. It is a waste of money to ask every teacher in the county to sit in front of a computer, review seven pages of objectives, pick the "ones" that have been taught for this semester, for this student, in this subject times 100 students. I would guess that would be an hour for every student, every semester. Is anyone counting the hours wasted by the professional staff in every school in every grade for every student and then asking where is this time coming from in the teacher's schedule? The County is being irresponsible to the students and taxpayers as well as the professional staff. As a veteran teacher, the only way that I will be able to do 100 hours of work for my 100 students in reading, math, science, social studies, and language is to have a substitute teach for those hours. Somebody must be making a bundle of money on this pilot program in Baltimore County. Shame on the Board of Education and Dr. Hairston.

I am a first year teacher struggling to keep my head above water! I am truly not exaggerating when I say I work, on average, 15 hour days!! AIM WILL make it impossible for me to effectively plan, grade, etc., while leaving enough time for me to eat, sleep, and maintain my sanity! I am speaking from the heart when I say this new program will make it VERY difficult for BCPS to attract and maintain qualified new teachers!!!

When will the Sun finally assign an investigative reporter to look into the corruption in the leadership of Baltimore County Public Schools? AIM is just the latest in series of programs that have done nothing for our students but have lined the pockets of certain leaders that are on the Boards of some of these companies. AIM is about Race to the Top dollars and they are using BCPS teachers and students to collect data to sell the program. The program is worthless and any classroom teacher will tell you so. There is a major story to uncover here. hopefully the Sun will write it.

AIM is all about Race to the Top dollars. I wish the Sunpapers would assign an investigative reporter to follow the money. Classroom teachers and parents know how useless this program is. The only reason for the County to renig on its promise on the day before Winter break to make AIM mandatory, is to try to collect data to help sell this program to other jurisdictions before the truth comes out. This is a race for the money plain and simple

As a current BCPS educator it is extremely frustrating to encounter such a constant borage of misinformation. It’s increasingly clear that we, as educators, must now tackle the task of teaching BCPS parents and other stakeholders much more about the basic principles of assessment.

Many parents (perhaps even on this blog) 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 employees were actually given the following directive in our 12/18/09 Emergent Superintendent's Bulletin - “As far as completion of progress reports by teachers, many 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.”

If the superintendent believes judgment should be delayed until the end of the school year why spend hours bubbling in I’s for the first three quarters? Why send out 20-30 pages of a progress report to each child in addition to our newly revised report cards?
I beg parents to ask more questions.

What are the AIM standards?
How will teachers determine mastery of a skill?
Is there a standard assessment for each objective or indicator?
Is there technology available to link a teacher’s grading system to the AIM program?
Will different teachers create their own varied assessments?
Do students need to score 100%, 80% or 70% to demonstrate mastery?
How are teachers to assess my child in the middle of the year on objectives/skills that are not scheduled to be taught until the end of the year?
Are students really able to master skills that will be extended and taught again at repeated grade levels?
What happens when the language arts teacher says my child needs acceleration of a skill but the librarian (who may be assessing the same objective/skill) believes she’s at an instructional level?
Will my child’s next teacher place complete trust in AIM reports or still end up utilizing pre-assessments/assessments to reflect his/her own expectations of academic rigor.
How does an AIM report differ from current AssessTrax parent reports which track student performance on county-wide assessments (more level playing field) and VSC objectives?
If teachers require additional planning time to fill out thousands of bubbles a quarter will my child have a substitute teacher more often?
How much will these progress reports cost (program copyright, technology support, materials, substitutes) and could these funds be better served as infrastructure or instructional technology improvements?
Could I see an actual AIM report of all subject areas?
Could I see examples of current parent reporting options (like AssessTrax parent reports, revamped report cards etc…) to decide which offers me the most concise and relevant feedback?

Many BCPS teachers have already asked these questions. Far to many of us just don’t believe AIM is the answer? This fight is not about working less, but working smarter. My students deserve no less.

I can’t tell you whether AIM is good or bad, but I can tell you it is the most poorly presented and implemented program to be instituted in the Baltimore County Public Schools in all the years I have taught here. That is saying a lot since I started in BCPS in 1961 and have been here most of the years since. First, we spent two useless mornings learning about it. On the first, the program was inaccessible from the computer. On the second, we were told it was only for the classroom teachers and only for a small select group of students. Suddenly, we were told the forms had to be done for every student in every grade in every subject. In addition, it would be retroactive until the second quarter which we are already deeply in.
From what I see of AIM, it is a cross between a report card and an IEP, both of which we already have. So I don’t understand the purpose. In addition, I don’t understand the logistics. My students are all pulled out of other classes. Which teacher selects the goals? Which teacher fills in the reports? How do I get into the reports of the other teachers?
We already have very new report cards in elementary school with very detailed areas to be reported and we have IEPS. We have test grades, daily marks, records of small group instruction on each student and lesson plans to document what instruction the students are receiving. What else do we need and what is the unprecedented rush for implementation? Of course, another big question is, where do we find time to keep all these records and still plan lessons to meet the needs of our students?

If the Baltimore Sun would like to learn more about Maryland's public schools, I urge you to review the the data collected via the TELL Maryland Survey last March. The Tell Maryland Survey was conducted by the NEW TEACHER CENTER in conjunction with MSEA, Governor Martin O'Malley's Office, The Maryland State Department of education and other education stakeholder groups. More than 43,000 educators satewide,(62% of those eligible),responded, and the initial results are in.

Some pieces of the the survey that directly coincide with BCPS teachers' concerns with AIM are:

* More educators(four in ten)argue having more time to plan and work with colleagues is the most important condition in supporting student learning.

*More than half believe teachers have little or no role in determining the content of professional development programs, which, according to the survey, translates into less support and training in other areas they need to be more effective at their jobs.

*While two thirds of respondents agree that assessment results are available in time to be useful for instruction--and almost nine out of ten said they use formative assessments to adjust classroom instruction--less than six out of ten believe assessments are useful for improving student learning.

AIM, as it relates to it's usefulness in improving student learning has never been evaluated by those who have the greatest stake in the outcome: teachers and their students.
What is needed most in our public schools? Supportive school leaders. Time for planning and collaboration. Staff input in decision-making that affects instruction. These are conditions that will continue to be lacking if AIM is inserted into the day to day regimen of BCPS educators. And research clearly shows that these conditions are critical to retaining high-quality teachers and staff and raising the student achievement in public schools!

My sympathies go out ot the BCPS teachers who find themselves facing yet another unanticipated demand on their time in order to meet unclear goals that will most likely benefit very few. If I understand this correctly, an enormous amount of energy and time will be poured into this ridiculous program. Perhaps this is the time to "work to rule"? I recall that in the past many teachers have failed to do so, citing the potential harm to their students as a reason. In this case, however, working to rule might in fact benefit students. Plan/grde during planning, eat lunch during lunch, and complete AIM during the fifteen minutes before and after instructional time (assuming you are not assigned to duties in the AM or PM). Be sure to ask your Principal/area supervisor to arrange for a single day off with pay, without any impact on your accrued leave time, and with a substitute provided to enable you to meet these new, unanticipated data collection demands. (Just put it in writing and be polite.)

My child attends a BCPS school, and I completely support teachers in this matter. Please continue to teach my child -- do not turn him into an object to be "data crunched" on his (or my) account.

In response to Mary, I don't have the 15 minutes before/after instructional time. By contract, my day is 9am-4pm. My children arrive in the classroom at 9 and the last ones leave at 4 (sometimes even a few minutes later). This is noninstructional time, but very difficult to get much done with a room full of children. So in my case, I can barely get the boards cleaned and prepped for the next day in those 15 minutes, I certainly can't think about AIM then. And in the morning! You must be kidding, collecting money, taking attendance, reading notes from parents. My day is instructional from the minute my kids enter the room- whether BCPS realizes it or not!

I am a third year teacher and am upset about the new AIM model. The release time that I will be given to complete the 26 page per child report will be one half day (3 hours) per quarter. As stated earlier in this, it takes about 50 minutes to complete one report. So in my release time, I'll be lucky to get 4 kids' reports finished.
I am at a complete loss about how to balance my data collection, my lesson planning, grading, and actual teaching along with my family life. Something has to change with the AIM model so it will not hurt my personal time with my family!

The AIM model and our newly designed report cards are overlapping in so many ways that if someone were to sit down and review each, they could be combined.

I am another new teacher who is more than a full plate. I was under the impression that the County-written assessments/ curriculum are meant to assess a student's knowledge. Why then do we need AIM? I already provide the County with student achievement data.

All I can say is that instruction will suffer when AIM is implemented. I suppose I will find the time to complete the hours and hours of unnecessary data entry. But the cost will be well planned, developed and engaging lessons for my students. My students will probably miss the next day feedback they frequently receive after taking a test or completing a written assignment. They will certainly miss the enthusiasm I usually have when I am teaching them. They will miss the rigorous instruction they recieve from my colleagues and myself when we are replaced by substitutes so that we can complete AIM checklists. Over the years I have tried to manage the amount of time spent on assessments, data collection, entry and analysis so that I get the work done while still doing what is best for children first and foremost. I am afraid that I will no longer be able to do that. I am disheartend and saddened. Baltimore County students are getting cheated by AIM. What happened to teaching the "whole" child and to developing life-long learners? What happened to "doing what's best for kids"?

COMPLETION OF AIM IS NOT PHYSICALLY POSSIBLE unless teachers allow fear and intimidation to convince them to GIVE their personal time to something in which they do not believe and which has no value for student achievement.
To those who've made negative comments about TABCO: Who do you think has been fighting this thing from the beginning? If not for TABCO, AIM would have been on our backs at least a year earlier. Joe Hairston has no regard for your workload, nor for your working environment. If TABCO did not exist, you would be blogging about many more insane infringements of your rights as a worker. Whether we like it or not, we are subject to the whims of management, except as we are protected by TABCO. How about joining TABCO's efforts to fight this thing, instead of turning on your own organization? United we stand...and you know the alternative.
Every faculty needs to figure out a plan to respond to this thing. Administrators can do nothing--they can be fired on the spot--unlike teachers, who, thankfully, have a contract and a union to represent them.

Ray --

I teach as well, and I completely understand. I arrive early and stay late, and I have a student under my supervision virtually every second of the day (often including lunch, of course). I was just trying to think of what could be demanded of you contractually. You know that whatever can be demanded WILL be demanded, regardless of the reality of your position.

I taught for BCPS for twelve years, and I feel I left for another school system just in the nick of time .... though I truly struggled with the decision to leave. I have no doubt that you are just like many of my colleagues -- grossly overworked, largely under-appreciated, and totally dedicated despite the lack of respect you get regularly.

Thank you for all you do. My son has learned to read, to write, to use numbers effectively, and to think critically under the watchful eye and guidance of people like you.

We, as teachers, are not treated as professionals and do not even get paid for 40 hours a week. I, as well as most of my colleagues, work more than 50 hours a week and get paid less than 37 hours a week. What other job do you know that expects you to take home mounds of paperwork and complete it on your own time.

Also, if we are sick we still have to have everything copied and planned for the day. Again, what other job requires you to plan for when you are sick? We are walked on and kicked to the curb constantly and no one really cares for us. Hmmm, and yet we are to educate the future citizens with a positive attitude everyday.

AIM is a ridiculous amount of paperwork, added to our pile tha most teachers complete at home because there is NOT ENOUGH TIME IN THE DAY. I ask you, as a parent, do you want your child actively learning or doing busy book work so that teachers can complete AIM reports on your child? Will the reports make any sense to you?

I am an almost 10 year veteran with BCPS and although I love teaching and I love my kids I have always had the same complaint about teaching. It is not about the kids with BCPS! Political moves are always being made with no regard to the effects on the students and teachers and learning.
A few years back, our Multimedia and Graphics programs were required to discard all of our Macs (Apple Machintosh) computers and replace with PCs (Personal Computers-Dells to be exact), using our Baltimore County taxpayer funds. The Macs worked great and were purchased through Perkins (federal) funds. This was done just as AIM has been done. It was a predetermined move with no regard to the fact that it would severely impact our teaching and our students learning. As everyone in our fields know, Macs are and have always been the most effective teaching tool for our programs. They are used extensively and universally (in the companies that our students will eventually be working for) because they are designed for our use. Years later we are still having daily issues trying to teach on the Dells, taking away our already limited and precious time. They are not designed for our programs!!!
Sorry, to get off task there a bit, but my message is this, just like the Mac to PC conversion, AIM is an abomination with no regard to real teacher and student learning and effectiveness. Just more headaches and less time to do what we are hired to do...teach!
Please, please, put a stop to AIM!!

I have two questions...

"Articulated Instruction Module"

First, what about this new initiative is Instructional? It sounds like it is simply another grading system overlaid on top of the existing grading system. Perhaps Greatly Articulated Grading (GAG) would be a better fit.

It sounds like this is yet another form of assessment, not instruction. And it sounds like it is a very inefficient form of assessment, given that there are already standardized tests that can do this laborious job, and which would leave more time for teachers to instruct.

If detailed assessment is the goal, perhaps the leadership at BCPS needs to step back and figure out how to integrate their new concept into the existing grading system (ie, more-detailed report cards), and allow teachers to reasonably spread out assessments throughout the year, unit-by-unit as they teach--and as they are in a realistic position to assess each student's work, rather than heap onto these teachers a half-baked, stand-alone, time-suck.

Is there anyone outside the leadership of BCPS--parents and teachers in particular--who believe that this assessment tool will be accurate the way it is currently conceived? You know what they say: crud in, crud out.

Second, once all the grading has been painstakingly recorded, what next? As a parent of Balto. Co. students, when I receive this report, how will it help me? If I was previously concerned that my child had received a C grade in Language Arts and now I have a detailed report that tells me the she is mightily struggling to apply phonics skills to decode words with hard and soft consonants and 2-letter initial consonant blends, what in the the wide-world am I supposed to do with this information? Will I receive materials to provide extra instruction to my child at home in the areas where she is lacking? Will AIM really provide teachers with Articulated Instructional materials that my daughter's teacher will be able to employ in the classroom to improve her lacking skills? Is the plan for teachers to find more time to assess, and then find even more time for Articulated Instruction?

I don't understand how this translates into better learning for my kids.

I have written all of the Board members and tried to articulate how I feel about the absurd implementation of the AIM Module.
Here are my thoughts:
1. The task is too time consuming and many parents will not even read the marks.
2. Most parents do not know what an indicator or performance factor is and how we use these tools in our teaching.
3. Like many of you, I teach large classes, over 140 each semester,and I will simply not have time to enter check marks for all the indicators in my curriculum. We already have interim reports and report cards plus emails, phone calls and conferences.
4. I suggested that the each member of the Broad "practice" being a parent and try to decipher the information. How long did it take to look at one child's report? Did you understand each indicator?
5. While I support Dr. Dezmon's desire to help minorities succeed, this is simply not the way to do it. Achievement begins at home.
6. This task is crazy and very disrespectful to teachers.

This whole program seems a little curious to me. We were told one directive about AIM and suddenly minds change. The program is not a completed product and is changing on a daily basis. The ultimate goal of AIM is to be aligned with Assesstrax, Stars, and our classroom Easy Grade Pro; however none of this has been mentioned or even started. With all of these loose ends it is difficult for me to accept that someone somewhere isn't trying to make money off of this program, that someone somewhere isn't trying to pilot a program that they AIM to sell for a large profit, that someone somewhere could care less about teacher's time rather they want to line their own wallet. Even with all of the outrage, questions are still left unanswered. In Baltimore County the teachers are being treated as machine and the students are being treated as numbers. When will the county realize that we are both humans with valid and useful ideas? When teachers are this upset and the county representatives refuse to listen or respond, there must be something fishy going on...

i am a special area teacher in balto county. i don't understand how this new implementation can be mandated when teachers haven't even been trained on it, there have been no discussions or any input from us, the ones who have to do it. i feel like i live in a labor camp, because it's all about the test scores, teaching to the test, without any real teaching going on. we are supposed to get a 1/2 day to put aim into the computer. a 1/2 day?! this all seems so shady and underhanded. i'd like to know the person who will be reading all of these scores to make sure "we're doing this right". how long will that take? this is another baltimore county big brother episode. stay tuned for more. this is why teachers leave. they're burned out from ridiculous things like this.

For those of you that have not seen the paper today, (Sun 12/27) Liz put an article in about AIM. Please read it and continue to commcnt on it. You can comment here or right where the article is. We have got to continue to show that we do not feel that this is a fair practice!! Please read the article and respond the way you feel about it!! Liz, thank you for the coverage you are giving this. I would love to see a little more research done on the whole Dr. Dezmon ethics issue.

To see the AIMs document follow this path:
1st Go to the Baltimore County School System web site
2nd Type "articulated instruction module" in the search box.
3rd Click on the second document in the list titled Curriculum Objectives.
By observing this document, you will have concrete evidence of how cumbersome, time consuming and impractical it is.

Notice what Ms. Dezmon said. AIM will tell where effective teaching is taking place. Explain to me how this will be done. If I have too many A's I am deemed ineffective? If I have all M's I am teacher of the year? The determination of the letters is done by teacher judgement. Would I be so foolish as to label my students A if someone in Greenwood is going to use that and only that to determine my effectiveness as a teacher?
If I have a student who comes to me reading 3 years behind grade level and I am able to move him/her ahead 2 grade levels but still in need of acceleration am I an eneffective teacher? According to AIM I would be. Just like these parent reports will explain little, the teacher report read by administrators at Greenwood will tell little.

Also if you go into the BCPS intranet and look for activities and test questions for many courses they are nonexistant. The ones that do exist are taken from the BCPS curriculum as it is written now. So why do we need AIM? It might be said that the activities are categorized as an A, I or M activity. Is there one teaching professional who can not figure that out without the categorization? Besides that the professionals could probably come up with better activities than those listed.

Finally what about Ms. Dezmon's Linguistics Program? Anyone read it? It is all AIM based. Another example of top down mandate that is ill advised.

Instead of complaining, we can all take action and simply refuse to do it. What are they going to do if we ALL refuse - hire all new teachers? I have 150 plus students altogether, and there is no way I'm going to go through a ridiculous list and check off A I or M on each. It would take forever, which I do not have. I'm not doing it at home and I'm not doing it at school. I have far more important things to do - teaching children - which is why I went into teaching in the first place. AIM does not truly have the best interest of the students in mind, so it should not be done.

Reasons why we can’t currently support the implementation of AIM.

1. Is AIM an appropriate use of technology? We are so eager to exclaim that we are pushing forward to a 21st Century educational model and yet we are undermining that effort by inappropriately using technology. The fundamental purpose of technology is to ease the work burden and make the employee more productive. The teacher’s time requirement in completing an AIM for each student is both labor intensive and time consuming. At the very least it will take away even further instructional time, time that is already being consumed by the increased testing mandates.
2. To what aim is AIM directed? Only a few parents of the few who actually read the overwhelming amount of data generated will actually understand what that data means. I’m taking a guess here, but I’m willing to bet the children of those few parents who have taken the time to read through and understand the data are already well on their way to mastery. What is the cost-benefit versus cost-loss for implementing an unsupported program which few will actually benefit from? If it is about increasing the quality of instruction, wouldn’t the money be better spent increasing the quality of Professional development teachers receive? Isn’t that something all parents will agree is beneficial to their students? Especially with our neediest populations, because isn’t that who this effort is targeted? As far as the data indicates, we are already successful in reaching the other populations.
3. Is AIM supported by research data? What data reviewed by an outside party says that the AIM program actually increases or improves anything? Haven spoken to several teachers in the pilot areas, they have seen little too no increase in student performance or parent involvement. They have mentioned the negative impact on teacher morale. They also mentioned that they were instructionally behind because they were getting so bogged down providing remedial instruction? Are we holding students back so that other students can get caught up? How is that raising the educational ceiling and creating more relevant and rigorous classroom instruction? I’m not suggesting that we don’t remediate those students, (though many these students sabotaged the teachers efforts to have them learn it in the first place,) but not at the educational cost to the remainder of the students. There needs to be indicator specific on-line remedial instruction provided to those students to bring them up to proficiency, not class time at the expense of advancing the learning of other students.
4. Further examining data, excessive paperwork and intrusions on instructional time are two of the top five reasons that new teachers (those with less than 5 yrs of experience) cite for leaving the profession. Is Baltimore County so well situated with new teachers that it can afford to implement this intrusive labor intensive protocol? Perhaps all of the baby boomers on the brink of retirement will stay on a few more years to help implement AIM, or maybe like two of the teachers I work with said “I’m out this year.” Two other experienced teachers I work with are calling this the last straw and are seeking employment in a surrounding county. Perhaps they won’t leave, maybe they’re just ventilating, maybe.
5. Could AIM be a beneficial? Perhaps, but for now it is premature. The technology needs to tie in more closely with on-line testing, so that objectively generated testing data can be automatically correlated into the AIM indicators, creating a 21st Century report while requiring less teacher labor and time spent entering data and instead focused on increasing the quality of instruction. There is the Theory X and Theory Y of management, the AIM program initially introduced as a voluntary program is now being forced upon the unwilling masses of BC educators, so according to Theory X what the employees will do is sabotage the effectiveness of the initiative until management sees no cost benefit in continued implementation. Think of all the other special interest programs introduced in BC in the past decade, of the millions of dollars spent, to what end? If the people who are to implement the program don’t support it, it will not be successful in achieving its goals. The message I am hearing from the front office to the teacher next door is “Just put something in AIM, mark them all at mastery and get back to teaching.” Is this how we want our tax dollars spent?
6. Is the overall philosophy of AIM is misaligned with actually improving learning? For example a teacher marks, based on a test score or assignment, that a student is say at “M” or mastery. Cognitive science says it takes 6 months to a year to actually learn something. So Johnny is “M” today, but what about tomorrow? Are we measuring learning or simply short-term memory, which rapidly fades?

AIM may have instructional merit, but it is being prematurely implemented on a resistant (perhaps even hostile) group of educational professionals. We talk about how teachers deserve more respect. Is the forced implementation of countywide program where teachers (beyond those hand selected) were not even brought in as stakeholders in examining this program (they will be responsible for implementing) a sign of respect?

I've been reading all of the blog comments and there are enormous amounts of unanswered questions about this so called “tool”. Many have asked some extremely important questions regarding its impact on students along with the obvious impact and probable mass exodus of teachers.
I would love to know why there is such an urgency to immediately input data by the second semester, as was quoted in the School Board approved minutes on Sept. 22nd of this year. When Dr. Desmond was asked when AIM would be implemented, THAT was her reply. If, in fact the board knew this would occur, why weren’t teachers aware of the directive then? Why weren’t all teachers trained, if all teachers are required to do the work? The select few who were trained have told me the training consisted of a 15 minute video, which was more of a PR blurb.
If, in fact, the board knew this second semester implementation would occur, why then were teachers told to “get their feet wet with the tool” in the beginning of the year and to chose a select group to "see how it works"???? How underhanded and devious is this? This is pretty shameful, to say the least. Actually, this strategy was very underhanded and not something I would teach or model as acceptable “values” to students as they become “lifelong learners”!

In Dr. Hairston’s address to the schools in August, he closes his “performance” with the following statement: “Our charge now is to embrace THEIR (students’) future as we take individual responsibility, through our values, our decisions, and our actions, to continue moving this school system toward greatness. Our destiny and the destinies of our students are in our hands.”

Did I read this correctly? Values? It does not appear that our assistant superintendents, who were given the task to mandate AIM by Dr. Hairston, nor school board members who won’t even allow the public to speak at their public meetings every other month, even know the meaning of the word values! Yet, we, as teachers, are expected to model and teach values of respect and honesty all the time.

In this year’s Board of Education Mission Statement, it states:
The Board of Education of Baltimore County is committed to providing a quality education for all students in safe and orderly schools by developing and implementing policies reflective of global conditions and community values while also ensuring the efficient and effective use of fiscal and human resources.

As seen in teachers’ comments in this blog, this mission is obviously a failure since community values are not being considered or even heard and human resources (teachers) are not capable of performing the AIM task without taking away valuable instructional time.

In the same Mission Statement Document, the Performance Goals from the Baltimore County Blueprint for Progress includes the following:
Performance Goal 7: Involve principals, teachers, staff, stakeholders, and parents/guardians in the decision-making process.

What a joke to see that in print! Yes, I’ve attended board meetings where a few people have spoken in favor of AIM but it was obvious these people were “plants” placed in the audience by Dr. Desmond!
I have not yet seen the actual cost bcps is willing to spend on AIM and from which pot the money will be coming? Will this be taken from federal funds, county funds, district funds, or local school funds? Will each school purchase their own additional paper and printer ink supplies and provide for substitute funds? From which line items will they be charged? If Baltimore County has no money for anything else, as the teachers are always told, from where is this money coming?

In an earlier blog, someone mentioned that we are obviously not asking the right questions and I totally agree.

I will continue to discourage all former students and anyone I know looking at a teaching career, to seek employment in surrounding counties, private schools or across state lines. Maybe honesty, respect, and responsibility to employees and the public are actually practiced and modeled in other places, instead of just worn as hypocritical masks.

After reading the article in today's paper on AIM (page 2) I am ready to scream! BCPS admin is quoted as saying that "THOSE TEACHERS WHO DO NOT SUPPORT AIM ARE IN THE MINORITY". To show this is NOT the case, everyone who is unhappy with AIM should say so here -- and at the next meeting of the Board of Education. Silence gives consent, so tell everyone you know it is time to speak up!

Liz,
I think it is funny that in your article printed today, you write that dozens of teachers opposed AIM, yet as of right now you have about 140 comments that are almost all negative to AIM here on the blog. Please dont help them to act like it is a small number of teachers complaining about AIM. It is not that we can not do AIM, it is simply that AIM is not a good use of our time. We have been told to "just put Is beside each objective" REALLY, how does that help the parents??? As a parent, let me just tell my kids' teachers now. .. dont bother to print that out for me... I will just know that everything is an I! Dont waste the tons of paper that will go to printing these useless reports to the parents. And do you know in some schools teachers are rationed out paper, now suddenly there is enough money for us all to print these reports that go home??

Ms. Bowie, thank you for the article in Sunday's paper. Please do not let go. You need to dig deeper to find truth. Mr. Herndon is misinformed if he believes that only a minority of teachers are disturbed, even frightened, by this horrible intrusion into providing a quality education for each of our students in BCPS. You see, noone is permitted to speak truth to power in this system. There are no checks and balances, only tyranny. I cannot trust any quotes(you may note that it is always the same few who are either friends of the LLC or speak from fear) in the article. PLEASE, help. Our students cannot afford for this misguided experiment to further one adult's personal goals at the expense of a quality education that each student deserves.

I really can't add much to all that has been said. AIM is just another attempt by a person working at Greenwood to justify her job. Teachers who have been working in the era of No Child Left Behind have been overwhelmed by testing, teaching to the tests, and fads like AIM and assesstrax. Good teachers analyze their incoming data all the time, and don't need these time-consuming yet worthless tasks to tell them which of their students are progressing and which are not. After 30 plus years of regular additions to my job with very little ever taken away, I'm absolutely sick of the fact that students from homes that don't value education take up the most time of all staff members in the building, and low performance by these same students cause bureaucrats to come up with trends like this that take time from all students. I love my job and I care deeply for my students. I'll work hard to see that they all succeed. However, I won't comply with this directive. I think we all need to think about that. Now there's a job action that will have an impact.

I can only hope and pray somebody reads these truths of the impossible, unrealistic truths about the worthless tool called AIM and then investigates the realities of WHY it is being pushed down teachers' throats by the superintendent of Baltimore County Schools and with such urgency!
I agree with the ethics questions being raised along with the money concerns in the development/ownership and promotions of AIM and other programs mentioned, specifically those bought from the American Reading Company. For a system who always cries "poor" during budget hearings, it sure seems they have a tons of taxpayer money to throw into somebody's pockets! I wonder who else may have their hands in the cookie jars? No bids for any of these programs???? Why not?
Since it is not humanly possible do the work I am directed to do, will that make me insubordinate when the marks are not recorded? Will I be terminated if the thousands of checks are not recorded because I am busy planning differentiated lessons,teaching, assessing, recording report card grades, communicating with parents, planning new lessons, filling out behavioral checklists, writing anecdotal reports for TEAM meetings; preparing worksheets,reading cumulative folders to further diagnose problematic situations, going to graduate classes, studying for my own exams, writing my own research papers, etc...
The only question remaining for me is do I walk out next week or try to stick it out until June?!?! Private Schools, here I come!

I read the most recent article in the Baltimore Sun and found some points interesting.
Point 1: Charles Herndon stated that only a few teachers were upset about AIM, and that the majority were on board. Please, please let's not confuse nonresponsiveness with being on board. Many, including myself learned about this initiative just before break. The message was read to us by our principal. Prior to this we had a two hour "training" meeting where the computers weren't all working and the system kept dumping people out. Initially, we were told to enter data for five students; okay I'll play. Now I must enter it for over 70 students.
The new initiative states that it will start in the second quarter. Please know you must backtrack and enter items that were taught/covered/learned in the first quarter. All indicators must be checked by the end of the year. I am not complaining about the time, as much as the use of time. I currently offer two math clubs to my students, before and after school. I also meet with students who have been absent or need more help before, after, and during lunch. I feel that this is a valuable use of my time. I do believe in data mining, but I think we need to know what we are mining for before we tear up the land.
Point 2: Ms. Desmond stated that it is up to teachers to explain the A, I, and M to parents. What does she think we do now? I am in constant contact with the parents of my students about not only the grades on the report cards and interims, but also about every topic covered. There is no data program that is going to replace "good teaching practices", and I am concerned that this is how the AIM program is being sold.

Much has been written about the time teachers currently spend (without adding AIMs into the mix)on reports. I don't think non-teachers often realize just how much of our lives is spent on this one requirement. Here is a simple example.

My last benchmark required me to scan 130 pages into assesstrax, then hand-score about 1200 items, almost 1/3 of which were short paragraphs that needed to be read to assign a grade ranging from 0 to 4. After grading these I then needed to enter the scores individually for each student into the computer.

While doing these tasks I also needed to find time to give the make-ups to about 15 students who were absent when they were originally given over two class periods--thus using time before or after school or at lunchtime for this task.

After grading all of these, one would think that I should use the print-outs available to see where my students showed weaknesses and remediate them. Remediate?--but somehow the county thinks I should be able to both remediate and keep these same students on time to complete the entire curriculumm for the year. If not, then I look like a "failing" teacher because my students were not as successful on the next benchmark because I was using time to remediate skills from the previous benchmark.

Meanwhile, who was planning the lessons and grading the daily papers that I was generating for the entire week that it took me before, during, and after school to complete the benchmarks?

After all the benchmark grading is completed, I looked for a little extra time in the evenings to catch up and, lo and behold, interim grades were due next week--one for each of the 130 students including not only their current grade (that doesn't include the benchmark) but also a meaningful comment for each child.

Then came the e-mails and the requests for conferences from parents as a result of the interims.

AIMS? When?

My suggestion?--Have Dr Hairston, Ms.Dezmon, the area superintendents, and the supervisors of all of the subjects taught in BCPS actually teach an average or remedial class in their area of expertise one semester out of every four--with no clerical help to plan their lessons, grade their papers, etc. I think only then would we have our bosses understand the ridiculous demands on our time for even more reports that sit on someone's shelf to justify what a wonderful job they are doing.

Why does BCPS require teachers to become highly qualified? Why did I spend years taking classes to make me a Master in my subject area? Why doesn't BCPS trust that I can make sound educational decisions about my students based on assessments already in place. If more parent communication is needed why isn't parent involvement mandated. I can't tell you how many grade reports/warnings I have sent home that have never even been responded to.
I am very lucky to work in a very high performing school with tons of parent support. I have also worked in poor performing schools with nonexistent parental support. I have never heard a complaint from a parent that I wasn't communicating about their child's progress enough, if I had I would meet with that parent to develop a way that would be meaningful to them and myself.
I would like to speak about the issue with inequities in schools that is a concern for BCPS. For a variety of reasons many parents don't have the time to practice skills with their children at home, either working two jobs, commuting too far to be home, too busy with their own lives, the list goes on and on. When a teacher creates this AIM report for the students living in this type of household what happens to it? Will the parents suddenly decide to quit their job to work on these skills? Will they find tutors? Will the parents even understand what the ed jargon means in each indicator?
The fact of the matter is.... no matter how many hours teachers put into our jobs, kids only see us for a limited ammount of time each day. We can hold tutoring sessions every day of the week, if nothing is reinforced at home no county wide program is going to make that child make progress. AIM is not an instructional tool it's an evealuation/opinion tool. If I have a student not mastering a skill set this year, those indicators are supposed to be addressed the following year, somehow at the same time new indicators are supposed to be addressed. Then those indicators roll on to the next year.
Does BCPS have a plan of action for the students who are not meeting the objectives? Maybe another BCPS employee can create a copyrighted program to address that.
Let's ignore the "advertising" campaign being displayed by BCPS officials and break apart the effectivness of this program or the lack there of. How will this program help our underachieving students? What will it do for our overachieving students? With all of the trainings and presentations I have attended about this program I haven't heard one thing that leads me to believe this will help students achieve more in school. If it would I'd advertise it myself.

Just a short note to first thank the parent, who wrote in this blog not to bother to print reports for her child. If only all parents would request us to do the same, via board of education and Dr. Hairston snail mail! Don't bother to email these officials, however, because the emails are only deleted and unread anyway! My email options prove this is true! Second, thank you concerned teacher for asking the question as to what will happen if all teachers do not complete this absurd assignment? It's pretty obvious the board wants the veteran teachers gone, since it is cost effective for them to hire two rookies for what the vets are paid...AND rookies won't question ridiculous and time wasting directives. They'll do as their told and become PUPPETS of a school system, which is now probably on its way to becoming the same as Baltimore City, with regards to quality education!
I guess we'll find out what happens if the grades are not completed, unless some decide to use their personal, family time to punch in the numbers at home. What about the teachers whose computer has crashed, as mine has???? (Using my neighbor's pc to type this!) I certainly don't have the funds to purchase a new one, so therefore can not do the work at home. If I attempt to do the work after school hours in school, I better take a cot, toiletries, and expect to camp out for at least a few weeks. I'll just have to make arrangements for someone else to take care of my family and pets!!!

My "few clicks" for just one student took me twelve minutes for a single subject. I teach three subjects to approximately 60 students every year. I'll do the math for you: 60 students X 12 minutes X 3 subjects = 2,160 minutes. 2160 divided by 60 = 36 hours per quarter spent on redundant and meaningless busy work. For many people, 36 hours equals an entire week of work!
I cannot just "point and click" to document a student's progress; I must look up the skill in my records and determine whether sufficient progress had been made and determine to what level the child has mastered that skill. I already have documentation of this nature that I complete during a unit and at the close of a unit. That data lets me know how to form small groups for reteaching or acceleration, practice or enrichment. It lets me know what skills must be retaught to the majority of the class and what skills should be the focus of before and after school tutoring and lunchtime work/study sessions.
I already collect data to direct instruction...as does every teacher worth their salt! If a teacher is not doing the job, deal with that teacher! Let the rest of us do our jobs, which we do well and with our whole hearts. If Dr. Dezmon is so interested in the achievement of minority students in Baltimore County schools, she should get herself into classrooms in those schools and she should spend her time -- which is really Baltimore County's time -- doing her research and developing programs targeted to students of minority groups.

Just Plain Overwhelmed with Reporting has it exactly right - When do we do everything and, if we humanly can find the time, when do we get to teach? As a teacher and a parent in BCPS, I continued to be appalled with the absurdity of AIM. As a teacher I already know what my students need. As a parent, I am getting lots of feedback from teachers, and, if I want more, I can contact them with a specific question.
I would heartily invite any Board member to my classroom - not for a dog and pony show - but to shadow me from the time I arrive to the time I leave. Then, come home with me and see what I do there. I am sure you would be amazed.....

I APPLAUD ALL OF THE BRAVE TEACHERS WHO HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS BLOG!!!My child is graduating from BCPS in June, and I'm very thankful that we will be finished with this school system after this year. My husband and I are both BCPS graduates, and up until this point, we have been EXTREMELY PLEASED with the education our child has received. After reading the AIM article in this week's SUN and reading this blog's comments, I felt compelled to write myself.There are many points that strike me as needing some serious follow up by our legislators and the Board of Education. All have been previously mentioned, such as: (1) The ETHICS issue? (2) Not trusting teachers to TEACH! - They ARE specialists in education, after all! (3) Tyrannical practices by people who are paid by OUR tax dollars! It greatly disturbs me that our teachers are afraid to speak their mind in advocating for the students. (4) MORE data entry that doesn't even appear to "talk" to the existing data collections already in place within BCPS (5) TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT FOR OUR DEDICATED TEACHERS!!! (6) Forcing teachers to do more, more, more, and more! (7) AIM's goal seems to be geared toward the minority students vs. "majority?" students (My child has always been in a diversely populated school, so the minorities are receiving the same instruction as everyone else. I've always said that people get OUT of something what they PUT INTO it.) (8) Always making excuses for parents who do not take an interest in their child's education. (9) Give TABCO credit. It looks like they are the only ones trying to help the teachers. Without reiterating all of the details the teachers expressed in posts above mine, I would like to give a parent's view of things. My husband and I have always taken an active role in our child's education, from those fun August trips to buy school clothes and supplies; attending Back-To-School Night EVERY year since Kindergarten and American Education Week in November. We always requested a teacher conference or emailed the teachers if we noticed things even slipping a little bit. Our experience has been a POSITIVE one from the day our child set foot in a BCPS school in elementary school. Occasionally, our child would hit a small stumbling block here & there, but with parent, teacher, and student cooperation, everything always worked out well. We have volunteered in all of our child's schools and developed good working relationships with the teachers. We know how much of a workload they all have to juggle. The BCPS teachers we have encountered have all been MORE than willing to do anything they can for the students' successes. Teachers always seem to wonder why attendance at parent-teacher conference is so low, and there are only a handful of parents at Back-To-School Night. THEY ARE DOING THEIR PART! The parents need to take more of an active role in their child's education, in my opinion. I understand everyone is busy, but email is a great communication tool. Use it! From what I understand, students will usually step up to the plate to do their part when properly motivated. That motivation starts at home. (Enough of that!) I think our President made it clear in his speech to students earlier in this school year that they are accountable for their own actions. Teachers are in the schools to teach and develop future leaders. We MUST ALLOW TEACHERS TO DO THEIR JOBS!! As one person mentioned earlier, they are not data analysts! It seems like quite enough quality data is being gathered in BCPS without this new AIM system. Even though I always carefully look at data sent home for my child regarding regular assessments, MSA's, HSA's, ACT, and SAT tests and the like, this AIM data is simply TOO CUMBERSOME! I looked at it on the BCPS website, and it's simply too much information that seems like it could change at any time from grade to grade and teacher to teacher. I think if this is implemented, the teachers will end up entering bogus data just to get the report done. What good does that do ANYONE? Especially the children. Let's keep the communication lines open between schools and families and dispense with this AIM nonsense. I, for one, will NOT consider this a valid reflection of my child's work and understanding of his subjects.If this whole thing is truly to line the pockets of an administrator who has been a BCPS employee for many years, it seems to me the program belongs to BCPS. ALL of the teachers work way beyond the time limits of their contracts, from what I have always understood about the teaching profession. What makes this case special?From what I understand, the curriculum is the same all through the county. Why are certain school areas falling below the achievement line? If there is a gap, taking the teachers OUT of the CLASSROOM to fill out more useless reports seems like a riduculous way to solve the problem of the achievement gap!I urge all teachers to spread the word about this blog to all of their co-workers in the county. You simply cannot cave into this pressure. Our children need YOU, not more and more data! Please stick together and form a united front. Someone mentioned attending the next Board meeting. That sounds like a perfect plan to me! Keep the media involved, too. You can't let this be swept under the rug.I'm very upset that you all were bombarded with this mandate right before your much-deserved holiday break, too. Hearing about that action by itself tells me volumes about how you are being treated on a regular basis. TEACHERS....I thank you all for the wonderful work you do on a daily basis! It does not go unnoticed by many parents. You make a huge impact our our children, but it's not your job to mold the entire child. Again, that starts at home!I'm sure many parents on your side, so please spread the word about this situation to parents, if you are able. I'm sure you wil receive a lot of support from them. It's a shame that your administrators must be intimidated or lose their jobs. This is a sad state of affairs, indeed!

"I believe the children are the future, teach them well and let them lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside..." Do you know this song? Gone are the days where we teach the children to love learning? I personally feel like we spend way more time testing and entering data to please administrators than we do having fun with learning. We need some data to drive instruction, but lately this has become the big "BUZZ" in education. Why??? I can not get necessary books and materials needed to teach in my classroom, and yet we spend all this money on someone's personal profitable idea that has not even proven to be successful. Let the teachers teach!

As a parent of a BCPS 8th grader, I can not thank the teachers and staff at SMMS for everything they have done and continue to do for the students. I do not need the teachers to waste time filling out AIM for my child. I get sufficient information from my son's teachers regarding his progress. I want the teachers in the classroom doing what they do best-teaching. How about all concerned parents contact their child's principal and request to opt out of the AIM passport for their child.

Well, I just finished printing my letter- professionally and respectfully written. They are going in the mail today to all of the school board members and being emailed to the Baltimore County Council. I encourage all teaches and parents to do the same.

I can't tell you whether AIM is good or bad, but I can tell you it is
the most poorly presented and implemented program to be instituted in
the Baltimore County Public Schools in all the years I have taught here.
That is saying a lot since I started in BCPS in 1961 and have been here
most of the years since. First, we spent two useless mornings learning
about it. On the first, the program was inaccessible from the computer.
On the second, we were told it was only for the classroom teachers and
only for a small select group of students. Then, all of a sudden, we were told the
forms had to be done for every student in every grade in every subject.
In addition, the grading will be retroactive to the beginning of the second quarter which we
are already deeply in.
From what I see of AIM, it is a cross between a report card and an IEP,
both of which we already have. So I don't understand the purpose. In
addition, I don*t understand the logistics. My students are all
pulled out of other classes. Which teacher selects the goals? Which
teacher fills in the reports? How do I get into the reports of the
other teachers?
We already have very new report cards in elementary school with very
detailed areas to be reported and we have IEPS. We have test grades,
daily marks, records of small group instruction on each student and
lesson plans to document what instruction the students are receiving.
What else do we need and what is the unprecedented rush for
implementation? Barbara Dezmond was quoted as saying she saw a problem in the Southwest Area of the county. So why are we in the Northeast trying to correct the problem in the Southwest. Of course, the biggest question is, where do we find
time to keep all these records and still plan lessons to meet the needs
of our students?

When will the Sun investigate in a meaningful way the ethical issues surrounding the use of school system and county tax payer resources to field test the program which an employee developed while on the County payroll and on which she holds a patent and will eventually profit. Huge questions here, and the Sun, for whatever reason, chooses to ignore them.

I am a very dedicated teacher who has been teaching for the past 18 years. There is nothing new that I can add to the information that others have already posted to this blog, however, I wanted my voice to be heard. I would do anything to help my students be successful in school. I feel that taking me out of the classroom to complete additional record keeping is not in their best interest. The hours outside of the classroom spent on Assesstrax, grading papers, progress reports, report cards, parent conferences, etc. seem to be adequate in keeping parents informed about their child's progress. With so much new technology today, I would rather spend the extra hours after teaching all day on adding to, and improving the lessons I present to the students, rather than completing more clerical work.

I am writing the Sun Paper to express my concerns for the madatory directive of every teacher in every subject completing the AIM progress report. Every teacher currently does Interim reports and report cards for all students twice each quarter. We are now being required to do AIM. This is not only redundant, but it takes hours to do the AIM report. The amount of time that BCPS teachers will be spending on this intiative is ridiculous. The amount of time taken away from instruction to do this will actually lower student achievement not enhance it. This directive has and will destroy teacher moral and effort across the county. Professionals who are not in the classroom everyday designed AIM. Teachers spend hours of their own time doing great things across the county to engage and encourage student learning. AIM will most certainly detract from all the successful things this county has done for the students for the sole purpose of selling an idea to other school districts across the country. AIM provides no educational benefit to teachers, students, or parents. All of this for a data tool that is redundant and time consuming. Please support the teachers of Baltimore County and stop this before it ruins one of the top school systems in the country.

Veteran of 28 years.

Last year, I had an encounter with the AIM checklists. While not mandatory, I was encouraged to complete them since they were requested by a parent. I was compelled to complete the checklists because of the possibility that I would be required to complete them at a later date should the parent choose to contact other school administrators outside of my school. I can tell you that these checklists already encompass most of the indicators that already exist on the Kindergarten progress report. In addition, many of the indicators are repeated throughout the checklist. Beside the kindergarten progress report, I am required by the State of Maryland to complete an assessment that analyzes each students' kindergarten readiness--Maryland Model for School Readiness. This checklist serves to inform school officials and those involved in budgeting offices about areas of need for children who enter school. It helps determine where curriculum and/or resources might be lacking. The progress report has one rating scale, MMSR has a different rating scale and now AIM has yet another rating scale. In addition to this is the DIBELS standardized test that is administered to determine which students might be at risk at a later time for reading fluency and comprehension. This test has yet another way of indicating progress. Is this how we give parents a clear idea about how their children are performing in school? It does not. In addition, it is so time consuming to complete these checklists. I already spend many unpaid hours working at home or before my contractual day begins so that I am prepared to teach my students each day. This is just one more thing to do. No additional planning time is being provided, so when shall I complete these checklists? Shouldn't our time, energy and resources be spent reducing class sizes and teacher workload so that teachers can effectively teach? I have 24 kindergartners with no full time Instructional Assistant. A class of 24 cannot learn as effectively as a class of 18 or less! When do I have time to give my students some individual attention? Why do we need three to four different tools that tell essentially the same information?

I am not on board with AIM. Period.
-BCPS Teacher

I would like to remind everyone to write letters to the board, as well. They need to know our opinions on this matter. We have the daily interaction with the students and parents.

I am an elementary Vocal music teacher. I see more than 600 students, K-5, so I will have around 24,000 marks to make in a year. I just can't imagine when I will do this!

Someone earlier posted about the Mission Statement and the goal to "Involve principals, teachers, staff, stakeholders, parents/guardians in the decision-making process." I just don't see how that was done in this case. This program was developed by one person (who has been out of the classroom for years), barely field-tested (a small pilot), not reviewed by "experts" within or outside of the county. This is completely inappropriate. Who, then, ensured that this was a worthwhile venture? One person cannot speak to the needs of so many students and teachers.

What is the point of AIM, if everyone "just indicates I" until the last quarter? Couldn't we just give the parents a list of all the indicators that are meant to be covered in a year (or quarter) and they can assume their child is "I" unless they hear otherwise. It's the exact same information.

It scares me that people fear they'll lose their jobs if they speak up about this program. Charles Herndon should consider that when he declares that the majority of the teachers are on board.

Please, please, everyone, don't limit your comments to this forum. Get the word out there. Tell your Board and your elected officials how you feel!

AS a dedicated teacher I see AIM as one more thing to take time away from the important task of teaching our children. I've been teaching for 24 years and spend many hours above and beyond the school day to plan and individualize my program to meet the needs of my students and now this. Teachers already plan for the needs of their students, do extensive testing, and report progress to parents and administration, what more does AIM bring to the table but MORE paperwork! Teachers need to take a stand. Time AIM is taking away from our students will make a negative difference. Doesn't BC see this - you are stretching good teachers too thin.

As a teacher we are told to meet the individual needs of all of our students. If we are forced to sit in front of a computer it is going to take away from our time to meet our students needs. We were already told that AIM will not go out with report cards because it will waste to much paper. Well what about wasteing teachers time. Our time is already spent grading papers and writing lesson plans. If more paper work is required then our lessons are going to suffer and as a result so will student learning. We were also told that we might get time during the day to work on this. Well thats great but that then requires us to write sub plans and who knows the students better a sub or their teacher. If we are out of the classroom then the students learning is being impacted again negatively. I've also been told by a teacher who went to a workshop on AIM that it takes one hour per student per subject to complete AIM!

Is it a coincidence or unintentional that our Intent forms for 2010-2011 were delivered the same week as the AIM mandatory directive?

Having seen changes both positive and negative in almost 40 years in the education field, AIM comes at a time when bcps teachers are overwhelmed with tests, data collection and a massive amount of other paperwork. Actual teaching time has been severely cut into by the testing and paperwork deemed necessary by the powers that be. Planning time now must be used for data collection and logging of data on the computer along with parent conferences, one on one student conferences regarding work and behavior and of course the attempt to plan. Can 50 minutes per day really suffice to cover these activities? Absolutely not! Children are being short-changed by busywork so teachers can complete so much of this paperwork without staying late into the afternoon and evening. Planning becomes less effective as the amount of time and energy decreases. AIM will only serve to make planning time an almost non-existant activity - who will really suffer from this?? There's only one answer - the children. I truly believe that the only way to put a stop to this and get the schools back on track is to have parents realize what is happening to their children's education and take a stand against this initiative.

As a parent and a teacher in BCPS, I agree with Jay. Parents need to evaluate AIM and decide whether it is relevant to educating our children. It will take community involvement to direct the doctors' decisions whose salaries we pay. I can think of a zillion different ways to invest the money being thrown at AIM to actually educate our children. I was not afforded the opportunity to provide professional input although my hard earned taxes are being thrown at something that offers no empirical evidence to support student learning. If I ran my classroom this way, I would be out of a job.

I'll sum up my thoughts simply... it took my a full hour to complete AIM for ONE student with only some objectives in Reading and Math. ONE student in an hour, times 24 students, and don't forget the other subjects I need to add - Science, Social Studies, Written Language, Health. It's simply too much. There isn't enough time in a day to be a good teacher at work and a good parent at home with AIM.

I have been teaching for close to 30 years in two different school systems, and have experienced many, many changes. Some have been wonderful, others not so much, but none have been as exasperating, misguided, or wasteful (time, energy, money) as AIM. The frustrating points that have been eloquently identified and repeated in this blog represent the maddening emotion being experienced by dedicated teachers at all grade levels, in all subject areas, and across age and experience ranges.

Any parent who receives the information shared in an AIM report and who has questions would still most likely contact the teacher for additional information/clarification and suggestions. This reflects parental behavior that has been going on since the inception of report cards, which have been ever changing toward achieving the goal of being the most parent friendly reflection of student progress. The comment section on the report cards can further address specific, individual concerns as necessary and appropriate along with a parent conference. If for some reason that isn’t working for a teacher or parent, it is an isolated issue that should be addressed as such – not with a sweeping, overwhelming plan that negatively affects parties who are successful and satisfied with the current BCPS report card format.

AIM is missing the mark.

I am writing to express my concern about the rapid implementation of the AIMS project. I have been teaching for 23 years in Baltimore County schools. This year, I was reassigned to teach 1st grade at my school after having taught 2nd grade for 15 years. Even as a “Highly Qualified” experienced teacher, I am finding it overwhelming to learn all new curriculum well enough to teach my eager 1st graders, implement a new Report Card grading system, a new writing program and new computer equipment with new software. I arrive at school by 7:30 AM each day and usually don’t leave until 6:00 PM. At home, I work until I fall asleep.
This year in addition to the new items listed above we are being told that we need implement the new AIM program for all of our children. We already have very specific new report cards to share with parents. WE also have parent conferences during which we can really talk to parents about their child’s progress and how we can work together to help each child reach their full potential. AIMS is just a more complicated and repetitious way of doing what we already do on our new report cards. The grading system for AIMS is very confusing! ”A” is the lowest grade. I don’t see how this additional system will help parents understand their child’s progress.
The time needed to implement this program for every student is unbelievable! 112 separate Language grades for my 20 - 1st graders 4 times each year = 8960 entries just for Language. This is not counting the Math, Science, Social Studies and Health grades and would be done in addition to report card grades each term! Our Special Area teachers are required to complete long reports for the entire school! I do not understand how we are to find the time to teach our class well and be expected to complete this, too!
At present, it is a misuse of our time that would be better spent helping our students prepare for their future.
Each year brings more and more unnecessary paperwork and less and less time to spend on the most important part of my job - teaching my class.
Thank you for considering my thoughts on this pressing matter.
Peg Bossemeyer, 1st Grade Teacher Jacksonville Elementary School

I feel for the teachers in Baltimore County. After many years of dealing with BCPS' bureaucracy I switched counties and couldn't be happier. I went on the BCPS website to examine AIM. I was thinking, how could I even remember if each individual student mastered the objectives if I already handed back their work. Good luck my former colleagues--go get 'em!

What about the fact that this was created by a BCPS employee? BCPS gets to use it for free, but the creator will probably try to sell it to other counties. Isn't this a HUGE conflict of interest? Is the creator of the program trying to state that they created this entirely on their own time, therefore it is there property? Take a look at the copyright on the program. How is it that anything I create for the county, even on my own time, post to the BCPS website, can become property of BCPS and they can sell it and make money?

As a teacher, I would love to know the degree of proficiency of each of my students as they enter my classroom. So often I have found that students come to me unprepared and not having been taught all of the prerequisite skills and concepts because the prior year's teacher "didn't get to it." There is a lot of misinformation being fed into this blog to be certain teachers are not inconvenienced - what about the children??? As a teacher I am advantaged by knowing which students will need additional support, and those that will quickly demonstrate mastery. AIM will help me in the fall because I will finally have historical data regarding skills and concepts that were or were not addressed in the prior year. This will allow me to be more efficient in planning for differentiated instruction, thereby providing a richer learning environment for my students.

I have been teaching in BCPS for six years, and recently went home to see my family over vacation. I am always the first one to talk about how much I love my job, however, one family friend commented that I already looked and sounded worn out. I have learned there are many different types of data collection, some which are used to improve instruction, while others are a means of collecting information. Teachers should be focusing on analyzing real data from formative and summative assessments, not spending hours checking off boxes which will have no direct impact on student learning. No one has even clarified on how to determine on which level a student is performing. So basically the scoring is up to every individual teacher and can vary greatly. If the county is asking me to give up all of my planning to AIM there needs to be uniformity.

Next, as most of the previous bloggers have already mentioned, time is a major factor. I do not need to repeat all that is required and asked of me above and beyond planning and grading papers, however, I will reinforce that I spend hours of my weeknights and weekends completing my work, all of which helps my students. I can not bring myself to give up anymore of my personal life to an initiative that has not been thought through and can not improve instruction.

During these tough times, I need to get a second job to prepare for the future. Many people say teachers get paid what they deserve, however I have two degrees and am supposed to be considered a professional and I can not start a family without getting a second job. If the county wants me to work 50-60 hours a week I need to be compensated for my time.

Even if we are compensated for the time spent on AIM, I would not feel my time would be used effectively. I became a teacher to help students learn, not to be abused by a system.

Over fifty-percent of teachers leave the profession in five years. The longer a teachers stays, the more effective they can be in the classroom. The county is going to lose it's valuable teachers and students will continue to suffer.

I am a second-grade teacher with 10 years experience. I am dismayed with how BCPS has decided to proceed with the Articulated Instruction Model, while disregarding what the teachers have to say about how they think it will impact the learning process. With Baltimore County's implementation of AIM, I will be responsible for completing nearly 3,000 tally marks a quarter (12,000 a year) to ensure that I am keeping my students' parents up-to-date on their progress.
I frequently work a 12-hour day, arriving to school more than an hour before the official reporting time for teachers and staying at least 3 hours after the official release time. After a 30 minute commute and a quick dinner, it is not unusual for me to return home to grade papers, research ideas using my home computer with fast and easy access, plan lessons, and return emails to parents and colleagues that I wasn't able to finish during the "actual school day." I still do not have all the time I need to get my work accomplished. Did I mention that I am paid for a 32 and a half hour work week?
At my school, I have no aide, assistant or parent-helper. In fact, I am lucky enough to be at a school where one of my parents volunteers to do some of my copying for me on an occasional basis. Other than that, I am on my own.
During conference time, in order to meet with all my parents, allow for their work schedules, and plan enough time to coherently talk in-depth about each child's needs/strengths/weaknesses, etc... I block out hours of time the week before the county's actual conference day. As a firm believer in a partnership in education, I believe that it is imperative to include families in their child's education process and parent-teacher conferences are crucial to satisfying that mean. Since there are only so many hours in a day, I am concerned that now that AIM is mandatory, one of the areas that I may need to cut back on is the time I spend conferencing with families.
I also spend my weekends writing a bi-weekly newsletter that highlights my class's academic happenings, previews material that we are about to cover, gives parents tips on how they can help their students at home, suggests websites and resources, and reminds parents of important dates and policies. I guess I will have to cut back on the newsletters as well if AIM is truly mandated to take importance.
Please don't think I am "the minority", as some may have you believe. Many of my colleagues do the same thing every day because we know that putting students first is our top priority and we will do whatever it takes to get the job done.
But moreover, I am not against being held accountable. When our grade-level was told after another county mandate that we would use DIBELS (a reading and language assessment) to help identify students with struggling needs, I jumped at the chance to learn the DIBELS assessment, administer it to my children on a one-on-one basis, analyze the results and prepare lessons that addressed gaps or learning needs that were presented. After only a few years of implementation, this year my grade-level has been told that DIBELS is not an appropriate assessment tool to use anymore for my students. However, the county didn't offer an alternative assessment, so I had to create my own. That has taken time, but I feel it is important for me to know where my students are academically so that I can plan lessons that take them to a higher-level and also be able to communicate accurate information to their parents about their progress. Unfortunately, even though AIM was designed as a communication tool, the assessments needed to gather the information also take a great amount of time. I am concerned that I am going to have to sacrifice using quality assessments to make sure that I get all of the 3,000 boxes marked in AIM quarterly.
Furthermore, I appreciated the time, effort, and resources that the county used to develop the newly clarified report cards. The new report cards are much more closely aligned to the specific standards that I am charged to teach, which makes me wonder why the county is insisting on providing two family reports (report cards and AIM) each quarter. Isn't this redundant? Why isn't one tool sufficient? The Board has only set aside one school day for "assessment". It is my understanding that most schools (as my school does) use this day for 1/2 day professional development and 1/2 day for actual "assessments." It would be impossible to complete 25 report cards with personalized comments, as well as completing 3,000 tally marks in 3 hours. I guess I could check Instruction (I) for all of my students and "delay judgments of Acceleration (A) or Mastery (M) until the last quarter or period in the marking term." But I ask, what is the point of just checking any box, if AIM is truly designed to communicate accurate, real-time information with the parents?

As a transplant to the Baltimore area, I have had the opportunity to work in two other school districts in another state, prior to working with BCPS. In my career I have never seen such mandates come from a school board. AIM is one of those mandates that masquerades as "being good for children", but in the end it will only negatively impact the very students that it boasts it protects by adding to teachers' already over-whelming work load, usurping teachers' time from other critical tasks, and creating redundancy and confusion.
If you feel the same way, please let your voice be heard! As the practitioners and ones who will be ultimately held responsible for the academic achievement of our students, please tell the Board how AIM is not the right tool for the job!

This is so sad. It's obvious that we don't become teachers for the money. We all have degrees that could get us a much higher paying job but we are here, nonetheless. Why? Because we love what we do. Talk to any teacher and they will tell you how with each year we are burdened with more administrative tasks, assessments, and data collection. I understand that the purpose is to help the children, but it's not! Why again? Because with all of the new tasks, there are no new positions added to complete these tasks, so the tasks are added to the teachers' plates. The time has to come from somewhere, so it will be planning, instruction, and the time we use to contact parents. Where else could it come from? Are we expected to stay even later at school? We already take our work home with us and cut into our own family and personal time. I've been teaching 10 years and each year I see how my tasks are getting further and further away from the classroom, where I'm needed the most. AIM isn't just a small task...it's hugely tedious and cumbersome. As a high school teacher, I have 140 students each quarter and I'm sure others have even more. I'm overwhelmed by the mere numbers. I love teaching, not AIM, but if AIM is implemented, it will become my new job and teaching will have to come second. The reason why is that the higher ups will not be looking at what I do in the classroom, but they will certainly look at my AIM objectives.... which is just plain wrong. The focus is no longer on instruction, which is what the students need the most. I know AIM will keep me from being the best teacher I can be and that concerns me the most.

I have browsed all of these comments and feel a tremendous sense of sadness for Baltimore County schools. I'd like to make a couple of comments about the bigger picture:

1. I think every top administrator should have to periodically return to the classroom for a year. Classrooms and expectations of teachers have changed enormously and I don't think they can really understand unless they live it.
2. BCPS has incredibly talented people who work in the Research, Data office but (as "20 years of experience" said in an earlier post) they have to work with countless data systems that don't talk to each other - all of which were extremely expensive and required extensive staff development.
3. BCPS has incredibly talented and dedicated teachers but the current administration does not enlist their expertise and wisdom when making instructional and assessment decisions.
4. Decisions are made by Dr. Hairston and a small group of advisors, none of whom have been in the classroom for many years. They purchase massive programs and implement major changes in ways that seem arbitrary to those in the schools. Implementation is always immediate rather than phased in. Have we talked about the Language! implementation that happened a couple of years ago? It caused major changes in the middle school and high school program, many of which we are still coping with and the person in English who objected was removed from her job.
5. That leads to me to the discussion about the fear factor. Curricular leaders, principals, even area assistant superintendents know that disagreement results in job loss. I don't understand why the media has not pursued some of the incredibly talented leaders who have left Baltimore County or talked off-the-record to some of the people still here. The public deserves to know why we have lost so much talent. The negative climate that eminates from Greenwood is not healthy or productive for our children. AIM is not an isolated case. It is the latest bad decision. Teachers cannot handle any more and if this decision stands, morale will drop off the charts.

Despite all of that, teachers and students are resilient. They have done an amazing job of absorbing changes and making the best of situations. Learning happens every day in every school and I want to add my personal thanks to the thousands of teachers who make that happen.

Thank you to the members of the public who are reading these posts, asking questions, and coming to the defense of teachers. We need you to spread the word!

As Carrie (12/21/09 post) indicated it will take a high school teacher about 50 hours a grading period to complete the AIM checklists. BCPS gives us 33.75 hours for planning/grading each grading period. All of the things we do outside of the classroom take a lot longer than 33+ hours. This means that AIM is another weeks work added to our schedule. Dr Herndon has commented that most teachers support AIM. How many of you thing that most teachers support having to work another 6+ days without pay????

As a veteran (10+ years) teacher I can work in any of the surrounding counties for more money. It seems like AIM is just another attempt by the BCPS administration to drive veteran teachers from the system. How is replacing veteran teachers with inexperienced ones going to help the education of Baltimore County students?

I also was curious about the intellectual property of AIM. What a great to market your baby? Glad to know I'm not the only cynic.

Ditto for all the previous comments by fellow BCPS teachers. Has anyone thought about getting into AIM at the end of a term? Inputting grades on STARS is slow enough, but 6,000+ teachers logging onto a system sounds like major overload/crash to me. Wait!! Maybe they expect us to do this at home on our own time? Not happening. Already too busy grading papers and planning lessons.

I am a parent in Baltimore County with two elementary age children. We chose to send them to private school because our local public school was ridiculously overcrowded. Now I read about this AIM system that is being forced on the teachers, ostensibly to give the parents more information about how their kids are doing. Aren't report cards and teacher conferences sufficient? I bet if you asked most parents, they'd say yes. Furthermore, the Aim system sounds like a complete nightmare. Literally. It's the kind of bad dream an overworked teacher might have - being forced by a data-obsessed bureaucrat to do meaningless and tedious busywork for hours on end, every term for the rest of your teaching career! Oh, do you want to actually spend some time teaching? TOO BAD. WE WILL HAVE OUR POUND OF DATA IF IT KILLS YOU! Seriously, this whole development just reeks. I hope it can be stopped. If I was thinking of returning my kids to public school, now that a new school is being built, I'm reconsidering, seeing the county do something so boneheaded, which will obviously have a negative effect on teaching.

I was disappointed in the shallowness of the article written by Ms. Bowie. If I were reading the article from an outsider's point of view, I would think that the teachers were complaining again because they were lazy.

There is so much more to AIM that is being shared through the comments that have been posted. AIM is a monstrous reporting tool that is being added to the report card, as well as AssessTrax whic many teachers of core subjects are using.

As a music teacher with 21 classes to assess, the completion of AIM is unimaginable. All of the objectives contain skills that are taught throughout the year, so I cannot in good conscience enter M (mastery)for any objective for any student until the end of the year when I have taught the curriculum. This translates to over 66,000 entries that I will be making.

Unfortunately MOST, NOT some, as the article states, special area teachers see our students once a week, giving us a maximum of 40 sessions to teach our students. If you do some simple math and deduct the 4 sessions that are needed to assess and equalize instruction at the beginning of the year, at least 2 sessions for days when school is closed and 2 at the end of the year, plus 2 for other missed sessions, a special area teacher is left with 30 instructional periods in which to teach the entire curriculum. I don't know of any subject that can be taught in 30 fifty-minute sessions. How can I claim, with a clear conscience, that my students have mastered all of the skills in the curriculum? After maintaining high standards throughout my 34 years of teaching, I am not about to lower my standards to make my workload lighter.

So, my students don't master the skills? Under the AIM program, the skills will continue to be assessed until everything is mastered. As a result, my 66,000 entries grow.

On the surface it does appear that teachers are complaining about the amount of time that AIM takes, which is true, but that is not our biggest concern. According to Ms. Bowie's article, Dr. Dezmon created this tool because "some minority students were not receiving the same education in southwestern area schools as they were in the northern part of the county." Have we looked at why the students are not receiving the same education? Are non-minority students receiving a different education? I don't think so. Could it possibly be that the teachers ARE teaching, and the students are either not attending class, sleeping, not paying attention? Or, are discipline problems interfering with the teachers' ability to devote class time to teaching?

So, what is the real purpose of AIM? Quite simply, it is being used to make sure that teachers are teaching. No matter what AIM shows, teachers are teaching. Students in BCPS, no matter what their ethnicity might be or where they live in the county, are succeeding. With drive from within, support from teachers and parents, students will succeed. Please, let the teachers teach. The administrators will continue to observe and monitor teacher performance. With a little less data reporting, great things will happen. And, if you have a little time, watch "The Blind Side" and see what can be achieved.

I am a dept chair in a high school with several new teachers to the county. They are learning other things like HSA, Edline, AssessTrax, etc. Adding AIM onto their plate will make them think twice as to why they entered the profession of teaching. I have already had one teacher tell me that if AIM goes through, he might transfer to a different county. I agree that AIM could have a good impact on our students, but when added to the many other things our teachers do, it's just too much. Especially if they want it to be done prior to the close of 2nd quarter. Now if every teacher had a secretary, it might be possible.
As someone wrote earlier, each person's definition of mastery is different. So how could this progess report be equal throughout the county amongst the large number of teachers. It's just not fair to the teachers or the students.

It is distressing that this day in age, we teach in what boils down to a dictatorship. Bad policies are handed down from on high and then no one who has better ideas can say anything for fear of losing their job. When pilot programs turn out to be terrible and county workers try to point this out, they are fired or demoted. When school principals want to stand up for their teachers or want to implement a better way of doing things, they fired for disagreeing with THE COUNTY. Big Whigs spend their days lining their pockets by supporting bad programs or buying worthless software while teachers struggle day in and day out to teach well in a county that doesn't actually seem to want good teachers. Good teachers are innovative problem solvers, and Baltimore County doesn't want to hear it. We live in a democracy, and yet, we have no voice or power when it comes to the leadership of the school system. Shouldn't we be able to vote our leaders in AND out?

While it is so apparent that many wonderful, hardworking BCPS teachers are commenting on the topic of AIM, and giving wonderful, real-life reasons why it is ridiculous.....it might be a good idea for the Mental Health Department for BCPS teachers to hire additional people.....I think there is going to be a large influx of teachers needing to be seen before they have a major break down!!!! Hang in there everyone....we are all in this together. We need to be heard!!!

After just reading the last comment regarding leadership being voted in and out, I've decided to write my next letter to the Governor. Since he appointed this tyrannical superintendent and its board, HE should be aware of this fiasco created by the appointed "kings" and "queens" in the Baltimore County School Systems. Already having written to the County Council members and Attorney General, a letter to the Governor is deinitely in order.
I also plan to continue to educate every parent I encounter over the rest of this winter break. It's been shown that the Board of Education does NOT hear one word out of a teacher's mouth, but when parents speak, they at least listen! Parents need to attend the board meeting and write letters of disapproval. They need to tell the leadership they don't want this cumbersome, meaningless report and they also should demand accountability for their taxdollars being spent on such monstrosities.

I am wondering what will happen when my AIM reports are not done. Will I be written up? If I refuse to do an impossible, inhumane task, is that still
"insubordination"?

While we are searching for the money trail, look for the people in BCPS who have publicly stood up against AIM and other unilateral decisions made by Barbara Dezmon with the support of Joe Hairston. You will have to look in other school systems, other states and if they are still employed by BCPS they are in offices so far from the everyday workings of BCPS you would need a GPS to find them. Then look at the people Dezmon and Hairston have surrounded themselves with. They are either so thankful to be taken out of the classroom, incompetent or afraid.

After reading the BCPS ethics code, "Conflict of Interest" documentation, anything is ethical if deemed so by the Board, or the employee's supervisor. This includes holding a position of influence in a company that does business with the Board of Ed, AND compiling data available through his or her position, for commercial purposes.
We receive code of ethics rulings fairly often in BCPS, and due to the trivial nature of the matters investigated, we feel comforted. No conflict of interests allowed. HA!

As a teacher and parent in BaltoCo, I decided to send my children to religious schools because the community is cohesive in teaching/inspiring the students to become independent life-long learners. In the past 9 years in this county I have seen the lowering of the bar in the implementation of the curricula so that every child will meet with success. What success will be realized by the student once he has left this enabling community?

1. HS students write brochures on the environment and the product earns service hours.

2, HS students refuse to carry textbooks to class because...so teachers have to generate reams of classwork assignments to implement the curriculum.

3. Honor-level students are those who "generally" complete homework. The incoming freshmen will all be honors/GT/AP in English & Soc.St.

4. HS assignments are usually completed in cooperative group and graded for completion to boost the class average.

5. Teachers adjust test % to improve class averages.

AIM will only guarantee more of the same. It will not encourage students to become productive community members.

Let's hope and work to make this new year a wonderful and productive one for the students we teach. Step 1: Do not implement AIM! Step 2: Let's focus on the things that will help all students achieve (NOT AIM!) Step 3: Parents, teachers, and administrators work together in the best interests of students (Not the personal gains of an adult). Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope its a new beginning for BCPS.

This is all so sadly true about our school system. Decidated teachers teaching and higher up administrators not going into classrooms to see how they can assist teachers or what they need. Instead, sitting at their desks creating new data tools. Why doesn't anyone even consult with the teachers in the classrooms? When you are not in it; you lose much sight of what is going on. This will be a great time waster when parents already believe they are informed about their child's progress. What do they want us doing? Should we teach or complete checklists? Happy New Year? I don't think so...frustrating!!!

What a shame to add this meaningless, time-consuming task to teachers' plates. I spend countless hours enchancing the BCPS curriculum to make the lessons more meaningful, engaging, and differentiated for my students. With different group dynamics and individuals each year, this is on-going and important. To add this unnecessary and useless information (i.e. AIM) to my list of duties will take away from the only place it can- preparing good lessons and meeting the needs of my kids in the best way possible. I've taught for 5 years, 3 different grades and had to prepare almost from scratch for each grade change. Most people who are not teachers have no idea how time consuming preparing regular report cards is. I take a lot of time to write careful comments on each student's card to help parents understand their needs and strengths & how to help their child when they're not in school. To add this useless list of checks is just a waste of time that could be used to help students and parents in a real way. At this time I am seriously thinking of changing counties or careers. It's too frustrating to not be able to TEACH. And the other part that is equally shameful, once Dr. Desmond leaves to take this mess on the road and tries to sell it to other states, it will eventually fall by the wayside here just as the other snake oils have.

Some parents have already requested that AIM NOT be printed and sent home, since it is useless information to them and will end up in the trash. The only people who want this information are the superintendent and his staff. This teacher highly questions their true motives. I do not, for one minute, believe that AIM has anything to do with the raising of student achievement, or for the purpose of informing parents, since the ed jargon in the tool can not even be interpreted by most outside of the educational field, but rather for the personal and monetary gains of a select few individuals.

In this year’s Board of Education Mission Statement, the Performance Goals from the Baltimore County Blueprint for Progress includes the following:
Performance Goal 7: Involve principals, teachers, staff, stakeholders, and parents/guardians in the decision-making process.
The superintendent and his staff have failed miserably with this goal! Communication has been attempted with the superintendent and the school board regarding AIM but they choose NOT to listen. They appear to be misinformed and are jumping on bandwagons with no clear destination, except to keep their appointed seats.
I have not yet seen the actual cost bcps is willing to spend on AIM and from which pot the money will be coming? Will this be taken from federal funds, specifically Title I, county funds, district funds, or local school funds? Will each school purchase their own additional paper and printer ink supplies and provide for substitute funds? From which line items will they be charged? If Baltimore County has no money for anything else, as the teachers are always told, from where is this money coming?
The superintendent, his staff, and school board members are not listening to the teachers, the experts in the field, who have been hired by them to teach. Parents, concerned citizens, and political officials need to step in and make it clear this is a detrimental directive to BCPS. MAYBE they will at least listen to them!

Readers should be aware that the mandate to implement AIM by the end of the second quarter for all students in all subjects came from the area assistant superintendents' office. Dr. Hairston is on medical leave as he recovers from surgery and may not have been aware of this mandate before it was delivered to principals. When the cats away...
Perhaps cooler heads will prevail when we return to work next week, and the mandate will either be rescinded or revised.

Very cool, Yvonne. I haven't seen them in soooo many years. This brought a smile to my face. :-)

I have been with BCPS for 35 years and in the last five years I have seen a tremendous increase in the amount of recordkeeping, reports, and documentation required. Now AIM is here.

I have 45 minutes daily for planning in which I am to plan, contact parents, prepare reports, attend review meetings, plan for committees, grade/record papers, etc. I arrive 30 minutes early and am often after school for another one and half to two hours at least three days a week to get done what needs to be done for the next day or didn't get done earlier. That doesn't include time used to help students who stay after for assistance or for the club I co-sponsor or for the faculty, department or committee meetings that are required.

Where will I find the time to complete the AIM checklist for 105 students by the end of the quarter--especially with final/mid-term exams and grades and preparing for two new classes?

For the last four years my thoughts about retiring have been on a year-to-year basis. If AIM is to be mandated and take up time that I don't have time to give, that retirement may come much sooner.

My daughter is currently a 6th grader at PMS and I just had to write to commend the teachers on all that they have done to help keep my child interested in learning, focused and engaged. She is an "A/B" students and I have always been informed about the areas that she needs to work on to maintain her grade standards. As a parent, it is my responsiblity to make sure that I know how she is doing and that I communicate with her teachers on a regular basis. This so called method for keeping parents more aware of their children's needs, when not all of it is written in non educator jargon, which the teachers would have to explain to those parents who don't understand anyway, seems to be the most ridiculous waste of teacher time and energy. Mandating another ineffective "tool" that serves no different purpose is insulting. I know how hard her teachers work and the demands on their time, as they have access to my email account to keep me constantly informed. As a teacher with City Schools, I have first hand knowledge of the insane and pointless demands on teacher time, knowing how many sacrfices teachers make for families to prepare quality lesson plans and keep grade books current. It seems to me that the powers that be within BCPS, City Schools, as well as the other counties in the state, should really spend a week, preferably during benchmark assessments, to realize how this new program really serves no purpose other than to further jade and distance the outstanding teachers who serve on the front lines of instruction. The article states that there has been "minimal" negative feedback regarding the implementation of AIMS but it is my belief that not enough teachers were asked their opinion. For critics who say that teachers only work 6 hours a day and have the summers off, I suggest they get to know a teacher personally and find out how false that really is. How wonderful it would be if there was something that parents could do to understand the endless paperwork and be more proactive in helping teachers do what many of us signed on to do-TEACH! Instead of increasing the amount of paperwork that the teachers are told to complete, perhaps we should hold more parents accountable for meeting with teachers and personally discussing what matters most-not the VSC, not the score on the last benchmark, but how prepared my child will be when she has to go to the bank to apply for a mortage loan that pays 6.25 interest and understanding how to figure out what her payment will be or going into the Target and knowing what 35% off of the newest "New Moon" book will mean for her as she tries to decide if it is too costly for her before she gets to the checkout counter or going into the Safeway and trying to decide if it is cheaper to by one gallon of oj for $3.69 of 2 for $7.Perhaps Mr. Hairston needs to hear from more parents and teachers at the next board meeting...

The engine that could--CAN'T ANYMORE. There are many excellent teachers who will become poor teaches. Why? Because you can not have a motivated teaching staff who is over worked and demorialized being successful. Having them work hours and hours on something that that has NO VALUE to the quality of their lesson planning. Remember about the last straw on the camels back--this is it.

The engine that could--CAN'T ANYMORE. There are many excellent teachers who will become poor teaches. Why? Because you can not have a motivated teaching staff who is over worked and demorialized. Having them work hours and hours on something that that has NO VALUE to the quality of their lesson planning. Remember about the last straw on the camels back--this is it. My Principal apologized to the faculty and was very sad to give us the mandate of AIM. "I'm asking you to work hard so that we can make AYP and now I have to give you this". The Administrators in the buildingS don't believe in this and the TEACHERS DON'T EITHER.

I posted a comment earlier about AIM and decided to spend some of my winter break getting to know this monster. I just finished spending 2 hours entering information for my subject into AIM for 27 second graders. I only have 3 more classes of this grade to enter, and then 5 more grade levels. Woohoo!

What am I learning about me? I am learning that I am going to present an awful lot of information to the students before the end of the year.

What am I learning about my students? They are probably not going to look very good. Some of the skills that my students are required to master involve several levels of understanding. I don't see how I can consider my students at the mastery level after only one presentation of the material, but there isn't much time for more than that. If I spend time really helping my students to understand what is being presented I will fall behind schedule.

So, here is my question. Which is more important, my students' education or my need to look good by lowering my standards and saying that everyone is at the mastery level in everything?

I am a parent whose child attends a Baltimore County school. I have worked with my child's teachers for years to help her succeed in school. As a parent volunteer, I have seen how much time they invest in their students. They work hard during working hours as well as on their own time. I know that their dedication and passion for teaching my child has helped put her where she is today. I am angry as a parent knowing that my child and all the other children will now be at a disadvantage. I am confused with the decisions that have been made.

Here we go again! As a 40 year plus veteran teacher in Baltimore County, I have been through it all: Whole Language, inventive spelling, teaching only metrics, removing commas from large numbers, etc. Most were found, after a time, not to be in the best interests of kids' learning.I have never failed to implement a program for Baltimore County, even if I felt it might not be the best learning tool for students.I gave the program a chance. However, I feel differently about AIM. It is just another reporting tool to add to the ones we have already.As teachers have mentioned, I write notes home, email parents, send interims, complete report cards, call and meet with parents. All of this, of course,takes time.AIM will add nothing to these methods. It will NOT help the achievement of students.It will NOT help parents to better understand the achievement of their children. It WILL take away from my precious time of differentiating my lessons for my students.I agree with the teacher who said that taxpayers should be up in arms that their hard-earned money has been spent on a useless program written by someone who has not been in the classroom for a very long time; a program that will NOT help the learning of their child.Teachers should also be vocal about their disapproval of a program that takes time away from their planning of innovative lessons. I am there, in the classroom, dealing with the daily problems that occur, I KNOW--Aim is not the program to raise student achievement!

It is amazing how we are so advanced with our education yet we have so much data to keep up with. You can't supply every school in the county with the technology of the world today but you can certainly make us complete progress reports on each student to show the many categories of learning; which is already done in report cards, conferencing, etc... I am all for always jumping in and trying something or putting my best foot forward but have to say this is ridiculous. If we are such wonderful and fabulous teachers of Baltimore County, why not let us keep doing what we know works best? I am a new mother returning to work after maternity leave and now I will have to take away more time- that is already taken away from the work load to AIMS. I surely hope my child knows who I am as well as my husband.
Really, what does this show? Parents should be more actively involved in their child's education rather us giving them more jargon to learn. We should start holding more accountability to the parents. Maybe I should consider a new county to teach for... With these leaders who think AIMS is really a beneficial learning tool, they don't have to teach a full day with grading papers, planning lessons, fill out AIMS reports and oh yeah- leave the work at school and go home to your family. They get to leave their work at work and go home. Must be nice!

I have been reading , writing and emailing about this all during my break. I JUST decided to go online and take a look at AIM for my specific students. FIRST, I have to choose the objectives for the quarter from a huge list. Do you think the powers that be could do that for us. What happens when school A chooses some objectives and school B chooses different ones. In the community where I teach, the 4 elementary schools are very competitive with each other from the parent's point of view. What will this do now? After I spend my hours of choosing objectives, THEN I need to assess all of my students. Or maybe, I just choose a few objectives to make my job easier, or just make up the grades, or skip my very personal report card comments or put in for a medical leave or not teach, jsut grade or.... This is what Dr. Hairston and Dr. Desmond has made us have to choose. I am not looking forward to Monday!

To the person who posted this: As a teacher, I would love to know the degree of proficiency of each of my students as they enter my classroom. So often I have found that students come to me unprepared and not having been taught all of the prerequisite skills and concepts because the prior year's teacher "didn't get to it." There is a lot of misinformation being fed into this blog to be certain teachers are not inconvenienced - what about the children??? As a teacher I am advantaged by knowing which students will need additional support, and those that will quickly demonstrate mastery. AIM will help me in the fall because I will finally have historical data regarding skills and concepts that were or were not addressed in the prior year. This will allow me to be more efficient in planning for differentiated instruction, thereby providing a richer learning environment for my students.

THAT'S WHAT PRE-ASSESSING ON A REGULAR BASIS IS FOR!

One report of an A - I - or M WILL NOT help me better teach or instruct. It is THREE letters - basically meaning... needs a lot of help, doing pretty good, or independent. I'm sorry, but the report card does just as good a job as that! Do you actually mean to tell me that you are going to look over EVERY students' AIM report prior to starting the year???? Do you look at EVERY students' report card card? Do you think this is a manageable task for those teachers who teach 100+ students???? Really!? Especially when objectives change from year to year... in the case of teachers who teach after 3rd grade... many of the intermediate skills are NEW! 3rd grade is an expected "mastery" year!

As good teachers the way we teach the best is by CONSTANTLY assessing daily to see how the students are learning from lesson to lesson... unit to unit!

To add to this... AIM doesn't represent retention! How about those many skills that students may demonstrate mastery on - but, over the course of the long 8 week summer - may forget! The AIM report will be useless!

Really? As a good teacher we should be using our own DAILY assessments to help drive instruction... and assessments that are going to be more concrete then a vague A - I- M which I'm sure most teachers are going to go... hmmm.... average: I, below average: A and above average: M.

OR ... maybe we should just use our 3 hours/full day given to us for report cards and when the day is up and the many reports aren't finished... just send them home blank! :)

I am opposed to the AIM initiative simply for the reason that it will detract from my efforts to provide a quality education for my students. It is well known that our superintendent is surrounded by supporters - since non-supporters are quickly replaced. During Dr. Hairston's term, the county's graduation rate has slowly declined year after year - with minimal exception. The Board of Education, along with our Governor, should be considering an early "retirement" package for this boss - not leader - who is causing this downward spiral with a low morale among teachers, burdensome constraints on our students and wasted tax dollars. In a recent article, Hairston is quoted as saying "...So the best way to change the culture is to have those sets of standards in terms of what is expected. But more importantly, you have to involve the people who have to be part of the change." Dr. Hairston - uphold your own words, if indeed they ever meant anything to you.

When is someone going to investigate why this is the property of Dezmond and not BCPS when this was made on BCPS time?

In August at our professional development day, AIM was hailed as the greatest new teaching tool since textbooks. Just before my winter break, I was told that it is in fact another responsibility added to the already long list, that special educators face daily. As a co-teacher, this is the 2nd new documentation system introduced to my responsibilities within the last 30 days. After spending much time and money to become highly qualified in my content area (I have a double certification), I am now more motivated than ever to not just leave special education, but to leave the public school system. General educators sometimes do not fully understand special educators' roles as case managers, service providers, and teachers. AIM insures that all students receive a special education; this is admirable, but should not be the role of teachers. Case managment is a full time job. There should be educators designated to do just case management. If the trend to demand more and more from educators continues, the public school system will lose and cease to attract highly qualified candidates.

It is a sad fact that when we return to school, this dialogue will stop. Fear of retribution, and being charged with "insubordination" will cause teachers to complete AIM no matter what. Please, my colleagues, it is time to take a stand. I will retire very soon, but some of you are just starting out. This is not why we became teachers! I will be there on January 12. What about you?

I"m ready for a walk out!!! If AIM is not pulled off the table then let's walk!!

The BCPS spokesman says that the majority of teachers support AIM and willingly participate in it.

However, originally BCPS administration asked that teachers participate in the program using two classes and for two marking periods. No teacher that I know of took them up on the request. A month or so later, a demand came down saying that all teachers must participate for all classes and for all grading periods.

It seems to me that if teachers were so willing to do it, the request would not have become a demand.

The punitive approach that the administration has taken on this should trouble anyone interested in a professional environment at BCPS.

AIM is a waste of time. This information can be seen by teachers and parents on the report cards and assess trax reports. Teachers should be dedicating their time to instruction and school-home communications, not this redundant practice. Will it matter whether or not the students have mastered the objectives if the teachers don't have time to call home to communicate with parents regarding progress and behavior?

A lot of people are posting about how AIM will take a lot of time and I agree. Let us look at the numbers: a special areas teacher has to fill out objectives for approximately 300 students. Depending on how many (pages of) objectives there are in that field, it could take an hour per student. That is 300 hours of paperwork time OUTSIDE the necessary teaching, planning, grading that already takes place. Does anyone know how many hours are in a week? 168. So if this special areas teacher doesn't sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, teach, or do ANYTHING other then fill out objectives, it will take almost 2 complete weeks. Even if you only took half the amount of time, that is still 150 hours! What about a classroom teacher that may not have 300 students (yet), but has 25? I am sure that it will take at least an hour per subject - and there is reading, math, written language, science, social studies to name a few. 25 students, about 5 hours per student = 125 hours. That whole week or 2 that the teacher didn't do his/her job because of paperwork (along with eat, sleep, use the restroom) will be a waste of time because AIM provides an information overload to teachers and parents, who will not know what to do with so much information. What happens when a person has reached their max? The eyes glaze over and the head rolls to one side. And this is just ADDITIONAL information! There will still be report cards, parent calls/letters, interim reports, and progress reports to give information to parents. What happens to the teachers that need to use so much of their lives to complete AIM? Well if they somehow survive the 2 weeks without food or water, they will have worn themselves down and will become sick. This makes me wonder why the county would enforce something that is unhealthy for their employees? Were teachers considered at all when making this poor decision? The message that is sent to teachers is that they are uncared for and meaningless. It is a slap in the face and degrading. Not only does it send a negative message to teachers, but it also sends a negative message to students. Because of the pressure to reach all objectives on time, the teacher will not be able to really teach, just expose the students to the ideas and concepts. That is ok for students that naturally "get it", but what about the students with special needs that need to have things repeated 100 times before starting to understand? What about an educational system that values the individual child? By forcing a teacher to cover an abundance of objectives, there isn't time (remember, the students are only in school about 6 1/2 hours a day and to develop properly they shouldn't be in school ALL day) to allow students to learn. That is a shame. AIM will do more harm than good to teachers and students in Baltimore County. The county should focus on taking care of the teachers and students within it. Just like a bad business will go under because it did not provide what the employees and customers needed, so to will the county if it can not provide adequate care and understanding to teachers and students.

I feel so let down by BCPS. I thought that the focus would be on improving instruction for the children, but I see that it is not. I have been heavily thinking about leaving the profession entirely because of AIM, all of the constant assessing and the constant blame that teachers get whenever students don't perform well on MSA. It seems that no matter how hard we work, it is never hard enough for people so far removed from the classroom that they are clueless about the amount of time it takes to plan 4-5 lessons a day with only a 50 minute planning period. How can you empower teachers when you overwhelm and drain them of all of their energy and time, constantly piling loads of paperwork obligations onto their plates? I want to teach! I'm an educator-not a secretary. This is going to hurt our children, not help them. How will it hurt them? By taking away the already limited time from their teachers. We spend so much time writing about what is needed that there is hardly enough time in a day to make the materials and execute our ideas. Leave us alone and let us teach. We have proven ourselves in college and graduate school. Don't you trust us to want to do the best we can to ensure that our students are educated properly? It's bad enough we have to give all of those assessments througout the year, grade them, and do data entry. That alone takes an entire planning period. Our planning periods need to be spent on tasks that support daily instruction, not with useless, time consuming resposibilities like AIM. You guys don't even PAY US what we are worth! You're going to lose good teachers and prevent young adults from even wanting to get into this field. If they learn about AIM and all of the other countless responsibilities placed on teachers, look for your turn over rate to increase and your teacher applicants to decrease.

I want to kiss Kay Wilson for her wonderfully written letter to the paper this past Sat. (1/1/10). I couldn't have said it better.

To the author of the article earlier in the week, I was disappointed that you stated that only dozens of teachers were upset with the AIM proposal. I think that there are many more than dozens who don't want to be burdened and taken from their teaching duties.

I agree with all of the teachers comments regarding the AIM program. I have been teaching remedial children for several years now and have done a fine job without the AIM program. I get to personally know each child and their academic abilties including their performance with particular skills without spending extra hours completing an addition program that will serve no useful purpose. I am concerned that impleting this program in addition to the extensive report cards will burn teachers out or out of our county.

This response is for RAK. I am so very tired of people telling me not to complain about my work load because I only teach 10 months out of the year and don't have to work on holidays. Yes, that's correct. I also only get paid for 10 months of work. I'll gladly work for 12 months for 20% more salary. We are contracted to work for 190 days and that's what we get paid for.

As for your views on teachers' work days and workloads....I'm not sure what fantasy world you're living in where teachers arrive 15 minutes before school starts and leave 15 minutes after the students do. Any teachers who does that is taking a lot of work home with him or her. I would question when RAK last taught. Obviously he or she hasn't been in a classroom in a long time.

The bottom line is that AIM is not going to improve instruction or help the students. If it would I would be behind it 100%. If we teachers are forced to do this we will have less time to spend preparing meaningful, well-planned lessons and the losers will be the children. The only person who will profit from this will be Dr. Dezmon.

Like many others, I've been in the profession long enough to see many things come and go and the pendulum swing back and forth many times. When non-educators ridicule eduaction, I usually point to initiatives like AIM.
What's wrong with education? People who have never taught (i.e. legislators) make ridiculous laws like NCLB and central office people too long removed from the classroom, dictate policies and initiatives without including all of the stakeholders' input.
Most of the comments have already brought forth the most pressing points. What I don't understand is why no one- our Board of Ed, our news media, and our elected officials have questioned the ethics of this particular initiative. There have been previous Coordinators and Supervisors who have written nationally acclaimed textbooks and yet BCPS could never purchase them because of the ethics. Now I understand that Dr. Desmon has gotten around this by 'giving' it to the school system, but the computer interface has her as the copyright holder. And here are BCPS students and teachers being used to field test her product.

Next, let's consider the money that has been poured into it. It is my understanding that the programming of the interface was done in-house. Countless curriculum workshops were held to provide resources and lesson plans for the implementation. And how much has been expended in training?

What's wrong with education? Teachers don't have the chance to teach anymore. We test children,assess children, and record their progress. Next the legislators will extend the school day so there is more time for instruction. We have a huge data warehouse in BCPS. I've yet to see too many people using the data to improve instruction. We just seem to collect it. What education really needs is for teachers to actually have time to teach!

AIM artificial intelligence monitor. How do we continue to make our teachers less human? Well, this is one of them. We continue to spoon feed our children and their parents. This is yet another way to break down relationships and put them onto paper rather than a personal outreach. Parents do not speak to their kids nor the teachers and will come rely (or throw out) the AIM papers.

How can TABCO sit by and watch (write letters, make phone calls, etc) rather than saying to the teacher UNITE and DO NOT fill out the AIM papers.

I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been said but I do want my voice to be heard as well as the others on here.

I am in my seventh year as an elementary school teacher. When AIM was announced as being mandatory, I immediately began thinking about my career in teaching. I am young enough and early enough in my teaching career that I could make a switch. Is this what the next 23 years of my career are going to look like? Spending hours and hours filling 12,000 indicators out per school year for the 25+ students in my classroom. I can't think of anything that is a bigger waste of my time.

What happened to the lessons that I teach being the focus instead of data collection? If I believed that AIM was a helpful tool for schools and parents then I would be all for the extra work. I just don't believe that the parents in my school will know what to do with pages and pages of data. How much extra time will be spent trying to explain a tool to parents that is full of educational jargon? The report cards were just revised and parents are just getting used to them. Now we're going to throw another "tool" at them. I feel like many parents are going to glance at it and then get rid of it without even knowing how much time and effort went into completing these AIM progress reports.

The whole thing is a giant waste of time, effort, and money. Let's use the tools we have in place to communicate to parents their child's progress, needs, and strengths instead of continuing to add more and more to teachers and parents plates.

This is a bad idea for BCPS and I hope that for once they'll listen to the teachers.

I have only been teaching for three years. If not for the wonderful people I teach with, I would've jumped ship within month 2. I thought my mother, a veteran of 20+ years was joking when she said I had no idea what I was getting into. She was right. The requirements of teachers are unbelievable. I am expected to grade papers from 133 students (classwork and homework) sometime within the school day each day, give homework every night (because I teach math), and make sure each and every parent of a D and E tudent is contacted regularly, just in case a report card or interim doesn't make it home. That part I don't mind. I don't mind taking my work home with me. But THEN I have to make sure ALL of my lessons are engaging, on top of differentiated to meet every different learner in my classes, have a project for my kids every quarter. Make sure I am reviewing for the MSA, because if we don't make AYP we're on radar. AND I SHOULD be making it through every single lesson and assessing at the end, because if I don't get to my assessment, I have to do my observation all over again. Luckily, I don't have to turn in my lesson plans weeks ahead of time like some schools do, but that isn't even EVERYTHING I have to do. I've left some things out like promptly answering parent emails, and coach class, and Benchmarks, and meetings, etc. Honestly, I don't mind some of that stuff. It's my job, I get it. And I don't complain about my pay, because I don't think ANYONE would teach for the paycheck, let's be honest. I'm here because I love teaching, and nothing feels better than watching that light bulb go off above a child's head when they GET IT. It's an awesome feeling. I walk to my car in the dark feeling good. But to then ask me to identify objectives for all of my kids, and then go through them one by one filling them in to send home a progres report a parent may not even read, and get a subtitute for my class so I can go DO my checklists?? Absolutely not. My students will not suffer and fall behind because of yet another requirement my school system is putting on me. And if I don't do it, I get a letter in my file. I don't get BCPS, I really don't. I'm at a loss about this whole thing. But what I do know, is that they won't stop until we all quit and go to another school system or profession. If that's their goal, they're doing an amazing job at least at that because they are running good teachers out one by one.

BTW, I love the suggestion that in addition to following the money in this AIM debacle, the board and elected officials should also go looking for the talented, smart, creative people with integrity that are no longer working for Dr. Hairston. You are correct that positions have been filled with "yes" people who fear speaking truth to power or reorganized or left unfilled. Only those who admire "the emperor's clothes" are permitted to speak. I implore the board and public officials to investigate and speak the truth. The morale of BCPS is at the lowest I've seen in more than 25 years. It is indeed time for change.

Do you want to know why AIM is being pushed on Baltimore County Schools? It's simple..read Dr. Hairston's own words to the board:
... Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in all of
their recent remarks about education, have stressed the need for data systems that
link students to teachers and help school leaders identify strengths and
weaknesses. Governor Martin O’Malley, too, is talking about aligning data and
tracking individual student learning. We have that and more in AIM. Our tool also
provides parents with what they need to know about instructional expectations for
their children and their children’s progress.
The problem: AIM does not do any of this. It interferes with productive and meaningful communication with parents. It is a confusing document that lacks clarity about strengths and weaknesses (unless giving an "I" to a student for "managing to maintain a passing grade in weekly binder checks" (I kid you not...this is a KSI) gives parents some deep understanding of their child's progress beyond the grades they are supposed to maintain..really, does this make any sense?} and gives less information than current means of communication. It is a hot mess! It is clear that the whole exercise is a means to a profitable end for Dezmon's LLC, the copyright holder of AIM. They are looking for those "Race to the Top Dollars." (taxpayers' money) to further their own self-interest. It is so frustrating to watch adults mislead and misinform to sell a product, claiming it's for the children when it is obvious it is a personal endeavor of an adult, with no evidence that it will do anything to improve student achievement. This is a sad time for BCPS. I am hoping that parents will not let their children be used in this manner. Demand the best for your children. Expect elected officials from Martin O'Malley to the County Executive to Senators to Council Members to Representatives to ask that our county put children first and act honestly. We owe it to them. Is anyone else confused by Dr. Hairston's use of the pronoun, our? The copyright owner has made it perfectly clear that AIM is hers no matter how many BCPS resources were used to produce it.

Can parents opt out of this for their children? I don't want a report to come home with "I" all throughout it because the teacher hasn't taught that particular concept yet. "I" is another symbol for "middle of the road", "C"...

It's confusing, ridiculous, and I don't want to see this kind of report coming home for my children. Just give me a report card and a conference.

No way, no how, no AIM!

I left our faculty meeting today demoralized, defeated, and disgusted. I am an almost 20 year veteran teacher in Baltimore County, and I am once again incredulous at the cavalier way in which it operates. Not only has the report card changed,(but still no alignment with actual curriculum taught),there is a new language/grammar curriculum (written but not piloted and guess what?; not even available!), and now, half way through the year, a program presented as "voluntary" is being forced upon us. What, pray tell, is the purpose of the report card, if not to report progress? Do we really need to put a "grade" on hundreds of specific items for each student 4 times each year? Each of these is a component of the "reading process", or the "written language component", or the myriad number of math skills needed to progress to the next level. If we are micromanaging each child's progress to this extent; deciding if a chld needs remediation (A), working well, but could make some improvements (I), or has mastered the skills (M), do we need the redundancy of a report card? this county must choose. Do they want a steady stream of meaningless data for each child, or do they want instruction? One cannot do both!In my primary classroom at present, I collcet phonics data for DIBELS, data for Primary Talent, data for PACE activities (reading & math), data for report card grades, and NOW, data for AIM.In addition, I need to send data for each reading theme comprehension skill test, and each unit math test.Not one of these includes any teaching...just assessing! Who will plan and execute the lessons? In the business world, there are diagnosticians, statisticians, and data entry people. Where are they for teachers? Our job is to teach. We used to do it well. Now, we don't have the time.

Well, I did hear a bit of good news today from our school administrators. We, the teachers, are able to access AIM from home!!! That means if we run out of time during school hours (which we will), we can spend countless hours working from our home computers and ignoring our families. Doesn't that sound like a lovely solution???

AIMS will take away from much needed planning time. It is a duplicate of much work that we already do. It does not tell anything differently then a Progress Report or a Report Card.Why the extra work?! Parents need to contact the Board to support us!

I am a library media specialist in a Baltimore County elementary school. I have been an educator for 35+ years. Recently, just before the winter break, all educators were informed about the "mandatory, immediate implementation" of AIM Progress Reports. Reports are to be done for every student in every subject. In Library Media there are 64 AIM marks for each 1st and 2nd grader, 63 AIM marks for each 3rd grader, 70 AIM marks for each 4th grader, and 71 AIM marks for each 5th grader. There are currently no AIM marks for kindergarten students, but I'm sure there will be in the future.This year I see 353 students in grades 1 through 5. The grand total of AIM marks for Library Media is 24,080. Of course, I am also expected to put AIM marks for any objectives not mastered in previous grades. Plus interim reports. Plus report card grades. Plus behavior checklists. Plus TEAM reports. If I have to devote so much extra time toward collecting data for AIM, how much time will be spent away from instruction? How many costly substitute hours must be provided to allow educators coverage so that this redundant data collection can be completed? How much money for paper, ink, and payments to copier companies must be spent to accomplish this task?

AIM will cause Baltimore County to lose teachers. I know of several right now that will be intervewing in surrounding counties because of the mandatory implementation of this "program".

First let me say that, as a self proclaimed optimist, I feel AIM is good intended. We all want parents to be informed and kids to succeed. Unlike some others, I do feel that through using the program good information is given to parents and teachers that teach the child in the future.

The system, however, has a major downfall: It is not a realistic program today's classroom. There is an incredible amount of consequence, that I feel, far outweighs the benefits. If teachers are spending their day filling out this detailed information about each student then that means they are not in the classroom teaching students. They are not spending their time enhancing their lessons to make them engaging and fun. They are not differentiating to meet the needs of diverse populations such as ESL and special education students. The reality is students are gaining more information about progress but, as a consequence, losing good instruction itself. I predict that when this program goes into place the reports on progress will not be favorable in most areas because teachers will be completing paperwork instead of spending their day developing and teaching the best lessons possible for their students.

It has been mentioned that teachers may be given time during the day away from the students to fill out information for AIM. I don't want time away from my students. I want to be with my students as much as possible. How can I do my job properly if I am not in the classroom teaching my students! Taking teachers out of the classroom to fill out progress data is an incredibly silly idea.

As I stated earlier, I understand the intentions and I believe the intentions are good. But we all know what road is paved with good intentions . . .

AIM is a waste of time! It takes learning time away from children! It focuses on redundant data collection that does not matter! Teachers should not have to worry about making these absurd assessments! Teachers need to focus their time on students! Teachers barely make enough money as is... and now they're expected to add another SENSELESS duty? It is unfair to not only the teachers, but the students too! Clearly Baltimore County just loves wasting everyone's time. Why don't they ask the teachers if it is worth it? They would know better. They are the ones actually in the classrooms, libraries, etc. teaching the kids!

As a Baltimore County resident and tax payer I am appalled by what I've read here and elsewhere about implementing AIM progress reporting. As the parent of children who attend Baltimore County Schools I am outraged. Given the controversy surrounding this initiative and the purported impact it will have on teachers' ability/time to teach, I believe that the Board of Education is obligated to provide a full public description of the program, including assessment of the additional burden placed on teachers to comply with the mandatory reporting and the value of adding this assessment tool. Further I believe the Board must report the findings of its assessment of the costs and benefits of implementing this system with particular regard to its direct impact on teachers' abilities to educate our children. If no such assessment was done I would like to understand the deliberative process that lead to this decision.

To Whomever this may concern;

I am writing in reference to the AIM (Articulaed Module ) that the leaders in the Baltimore County Public System have recently mandated that we complete for the next 3 reporting terms, in addition to the regular report cards that are due at the end of the marking period.

I have been a special area (Music) teacher in Baltimore County for the past 38 years, and this, without a doubt is the most senseless piece of wasted time that we , as teachers, have had to put up with. I have seen many changes in this system over all these years. This AIM thing takes the cake for an absolute waste of the Taxpayers money. I have 450 students that I have to make marks for on this AIM system. Do you realize how many thousands of marks I will have to make to satisfy the MANDATE that we were given, after the Supt. of Schools committed previously that only a small segment of voluntary schools would do this. I estimate that I will have to spend 27.5 Hrs each term making marks for each of the 500 students that I teach. This is up and over the time it takes to do the regular report cards.

The person to whom this Articulated Module belongs to is Dr. Barbara Desmond. It has been copyrighted and I believe that we in Balto. County are being used as the test market for this MODULE> before it can be sold to the rest of the country. Using a large Urban school system for the TEST would be very beneficial to Dr. Desmond in furthering the marketing of this MODULE to the rest of the country.

The teachers in Baltimore County deserve better than this. We are hard working and give up hundreds of hrs. of uncompensated time to what we do because we choose to. This extraordinary Useless burden that is being thrust upon us is a slap in the face to this profession. It is counter productive and the general public will not be able to make any sense of it because it is written in the educational jargon that I cannot understand myself and I have been in this profession 39 years. Teachers in this county are burdened enough with useless data entries already. Am I going to be compensated for the 27 hrs. it will take me to mark all my 500 students. I do not think so. The data is already available in other data through out the county. The objectives are way out of line with the actual reality of seeing my children once a week in Vocal Music. I believe maybe a music student at the Peabody Conservatory Prep. department may be able to achieve some of the unrealistic objectives.

I implore your office or your agency to take a good close look at this Articulated Instruction Module and the burden that is being MANDATED by the leadership of the Baltimore County Schools. Because of this burden, retirement is looking very very good to me. Thank you for your time and I hope you will take a closer look at what burden is being placed on the public tax dollar and the teachers of Baltimore County.

Sincerely,

Mark H Hughes

Dear zztop:
When were you a teacher in Baltimore County? How long were you a teacher? When did you leave teaching? Why did you leave teaching? Where did you teach? What did you teach? Surely, you don't believe that teachers have a short workday, that they only work for 15 minutes before students arrive and 15 minutes after they leave? Surely, you don't believe that all teachers have their summers off? Don't you recall getting paid for 10 months of employment? Don't you recall having to work summer jobs to make ends meet? Don't you recall having to take graduate courses during the summer? Don't you remember the substantial 1% and 2% raises which often did not occur till mid-year? Don't you recall the joys of making less take-home pay than the previous year, even when the previous year's take-home pay was less than the prior year's pay? Come on, share all the details. Inquiring educators want to know.

IF our respective building principals are unable/unwilling, to flatly refuse to further burden their already "burning out, with ongoing data entry," classroom teachers, with the sheer "TIME DEMANDS!" of AIM, would any of the supervisors of "special areas," ever risk that refusal?? (C'mon, art, p.e., music, media, etc.!!) I meet with slightly under 400 individual students each week, in my content area. After more than 30, pretty GREAT, years with BCPS, AIM is what will force me out........."data entry"........."Mission (so) Impossible."
Goodbye and Good Luck, "a' tutti."

I heartedly agree with the questions for zztop! If this job was so "cushy", why did he leave? Hmmmmmm, maybe with that short work day, summers without any continuing education, and evenings free to pursue other interests, he wasn't asked to return? Might that be it?

First and for most I would like to say that all teachers DO NOT HAVE OFF DURING THE SUMMER. We are one of the few professions who are required to continue to build upon our education. We must take graduate classes for the rest of our teaching careers, yes even after our masters' degrees. If we are not attending college classes we may be attending meetings or teaching summer school because the pay we receive is so little. Secondly, teachers are not just paper passers. We our most of our childrens' parents, therapist, nurses, supporters, etc. Finally, I would like to share a day in the life of a teacher does not start and stop at a certain time...the pay does, but WE DO NOT!!! O and at home guess what everyone, we are working as well!!!!

While I can appreciate that Dr. Dezmond has spent 20 years working on this sprawling and blunt tool to assess skills which are already assessed in many other ways, I would ask the Doctor to ask the question: WHAT IS THIS DOING TO IMPROVE INSTRUCTION IN THE CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT?

As a teacher in BCPS, I teach, I tutor, I advise a very active after-school program, I hold several parent conferences a week, I plan and I grade. My work week is approximately 70 hours long and I am happy to do it because all of my work actively contributes to INSTRUCTION and DIRECT STUDENT SUPPORT.

Please do not waste my time, or the time of other professional educators, in filling out mindless surveys for hours on end.

If Dr. Dezmond wants to create an effective tool for measuring student progress, I believe that the standards that apply to creating engaging, concise, relevant lessons should apply to the Doctor's pursuit as well.

To: "wise educator" - I would suggest that you do some research into the AIM system before you attempt to oversimplify the issue. If it is too complicated for you to understand the problem, ask a teacher in your school whom you believe to be a student advocate to explain it to you.
PS: No one belives that you are actually a teacher.

Now that Doc Hairston has announced to BCPS employees today in the Superintendent's Bulletin that, "A committee is at work to review and streamline AIM. The results of its work will be shared at the Board Work Session at 6:30 p.m., on Tuesday, January 26, 2010, in the ESS Building, on the Greenwood Campus", one might wonder, again, why there will be no teacher input or collaboration. If you know about the copyright Dr. Dezmon holds on AIM, it's easy to connect the dots. Once any other professional has contributed to AIM, Dr. Dezmon would have to share the fruits of her labor (money she will make when it is marketed) with others. So of course there will be no working together with teachers in the process. Of course, we also know that the current BCPS administration has demonstrated time and again they are not interested in collaboration with teachers and do not respect teachers.

In creating AIM, while Dr. Dezmon claims it as hers alone one might also wonder about all the time and effort expended by BCPS employees in the Department of Technology to package it into a software program. This is a questionable use of BCPS resources if the purpose is really for personal gain.

Furthermore, the time left after Jan. 26 is short if teachers should have to implement AIM.

Drs Hairston and Dezmon, give it up.

AIM is an insult to teachers & a complete waste of time. Two summers ago, teachers were paid to quickly slap down some objectives into Dr. D's product - the joke then was how confusing a report parents would receive. How do you educate the public that straight A's now means that your child is failing everything? The county is top heavy with people who need to justify their jobs.

ANd now they won't let us have our union president represent teachers on the AIM review committee...what is up with that? Joe, you are diappointing us in a BIG way. This is not what is best for our students. DOn't lose sight of what it is all about. It's not numbers, it's kids!

I am grateful that teachers, parents, citizens, and taxpayers are speaking up and holding the superintendent accountable. Statements like "I am the superintendent" "this is a manufactured crisis" "minority of teachers" "I was out" "What superintendent gets involved in these details?" and his actions that show his lack of concern regarding stake holders' input or questions and his total disrespect for teachers, as well as his decision to allow one person to run many aspects of the county system when it is not her job to do so...speaks volumes about the superintendent of BCPS. Board of Education...wake up....listen...and act on behalf of Baltimore County citizens. Enough is enough. Begin the search. We need a leader in BCPS. Maybe length of tenure gains him some recognition; however, how he led will tarnish his legacy. Ten years is enough.

No matter how this AIM debacle is resolved (let's hope they do away with this untested, faulty, redundant tool) the superintendent has broken faith with the people he is supposed to serve. He has demonstrated a clear lack of respect and stubbornly refuses to really consider all stake holders. Still, meetings are held in secret...members are unknown...and there is a climate of fear to speak the truth to the person who holds your job in his hands. It is certain that the superintendent wants his assistant to achieve personal goals at the expense of the system goals. The superintendent may want to read his own blueprint. What a way to end ten years in service...Let's hope ten is the limit. We need and deserve a leader in BCPS.

I am a second year teacher at BCPS and my mother is a veteran teacher. I believe that this will be a HUGE waste of time to both the teachers and the adminstration. If a parent wants a full report so be it, but when I am required to do AIM reports for up to 120 students and that is NOT including my normal grading, lesson planning, modifiying, TEAM meetings, content meetings, committee meetings, non-tenured observations as well as everyday class room set-up. How can we encourage a LRE when we are being restricted in how much time we can spend on making creative, thought-provoking lessons? I am willing to do the extra work to help my students hence the reason I became a teacher, BUT I am not willing to sacrifice the time spent on making more effective and engaging lesson plans.

As a parent of a middle school student, I am worried about what happens to my son's coach time that is generously provided by his teachers. How will they have time to teach and tutor their students if they are spending so much extra time entering data on outdated computers (crashing continually).
The cost of AIM has been conservatively estimated at about $4,000 per teacher- hmmm that could be 1 trip to Biztown, 1 Smart Slate, 1 Laptop, 1 LCD Projector and 1 63" Whiteboard- priceless- tools to teach and fully engage my BCPS child and 27 of his friends!
Let teachers teach!

I can not believe that the board has not acted...what more do you need to hear? Please do something.

What jumps out at me, reading these posts, is how many teachers must anonymously state their opinions about AIM, no doubt for fear of retribution. The stories I hear from my teacher child about the waste of time and resources in the BCPS system would curl your toes -- from the endless meetings (after school hours, of course) to the waste of taxpayers' money in the number of textbooks that are still shrink-wrapped and hidden away in closets, going unused and unread because a newer, better textbook came out, most likely written and copyrighted by a published friend of the BCPS School Board.

As Deep Throat said to Bob Woodward -- "Follow the money..."

@Student Advocate- Following is what I posted. I am fully against AIM and wonder what you thought I was saying. Over many years, I have seen many useles,yet labor intensive mandates come and go. I see AIM as another one of those. That is all I was saying. Let teachers teach and do the great jobs that most do. You probably owe me an apology. You are very wrong. Not only am I a teacher but also an administrator, teacher of the year, and many other awards. I fully admire teachers and am most surely opposed to AIM.

I have been around long enough to see programs come and go and come and go!!! It is sad that we are so desperate to fix a problem that we fall for every program,series,company etc that make big promises and cost alot of money.We never give anything time to work and we keep hiring out of town experts. Get real! Let teachers teach, let parents parent and let overpaid administrators find other jobs.Mostly I am sick of folks who are far removed from the classroom piling on impossible amounts of work on teachers.This award winning teacher is about to quit!

Posted by: wise educator | December 21, 2009 7:52 PM

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding. It is sad that you needed to stoop to calling me a liar and hurling insults. Your attitude will not help the cause. Maybe you could get a job with Dezmon? Civility goes a long way.

@ Student Advocate-You stated:
"PS: No one belives that you are actually a teacher."

When Sara was still on staff many of the regular posters met one another in various forums. We know each other. Please speak for yourself. I know quite a few of the REGULAR bloggers. So, who is this no one you refer to? I feel sorry for you that you have so little information to share that you feel the need to insult a sincere person and posting.You are an example of how I teach my students not to behave.

Previous comment stated that is was all about Race to the Top money and low and behold...Liz Bowie's blog on January 27 states AIM is connected to Race to the Top funds. This is insane. Why is AIM still in Baltimore County in any form to any degree? It is all about the money and personal recognition and it was never about the kids. Dr. Hairston's comments at the meeting gave insight into his primary motivation for recognition. AIM, the superintendent, and assistent to the superintendent...TEN YEARS IS ENOUGH! BCPS cannot afford this any longer. Governor O'Malley, please carefully select board members. We need members who are armed with complete knowledge and act with courage and integrity. Think about the choices carefully as this system will be paying for the decisions of this board for years to come.

The cloud of questionable behavior surrounding AIM should end it entirely and forever. It is ruining the reputation of our school system. It is not needed, not wanted, and not useful. Let's get back to educating children.

Dr. Hairston’s most recent show of force, the firing of Dr. Lawrence, the NW Area Superintendent was done to send a strong message to principals and teachers… fully support the AIM initiative, or else! Curious how Dr. Lawrence's successor comes from a school that has fully implemented AIM! Again, Dr. Hairston shows his true colors.