The Attendance Requirement of the Teacher Evaluation System... and the dirty little secret your teacher isn't telling you

This year was the first year that the Michigan Teacher Evaluation System added an attendance requirement to the teacher rating system.  The teacher rating system is a set of standards by which your child's teacher is judged to be one of 4 ratings: ineffective, minimally effective, effective, and highly effective.  So far the rating scale includes student growth data, a series of goals set for your child's class by the teacher with the hopes of improving performance.  It's like a series of mini research projects using strategies to assist your child in performing better in the classroom.  Good right?  There are also 2 or more observations per year on your child's teacher to see how s/he actually teaches.  In our district, you have to hit a series of talking points (based on research) during your evaluations, nerve racking but also good.  In addition, there is an overall rating rubric with standards of good teaching against which you are measured.  Now there is the attendance policy.  In order to receive a highly effective rating in this area, you can miss no more than 3 days of school.  Again, good right?  After all, teachers don't even work year round.  And while that's true, 3 days is hardly anything.  Case in point, I am a mother of 2 so my kids get sick at least once a year...each.  That's probably 2 days each kid for each illness.  That already puts me over the limit on days.  Don't you have someone to watch them when their sick?  Well, I used to, but my parents and mother in law are in their seventies now and I don't want to explain to my siblings that some minor illness that my kids had killed Dad and Mom.  My mother in law recently survived cancer so her immune system in non existent so she is definitely out.  The kids' father?  Yeah, he absolutely refuses to do it.  Somehow he feels that because he makes more money than me, that he can't possibly take the day off.  He works a ridiculous number of hours for his company, not even one day off is acceptable?  Can't say he'd be the best nurse as he'd be on conference calls all day. Besides, I am their mother and I want to care for them when they are sick.

And I love the advice we all get about how to keep our absences to a minimum.  Make doctor's appointments after school hours.  I'm sorry, have you tried to make an appointment with a specialist lately.  They have one free day, 3 months from now, smack dab in the middle of the school day.  And if you don't take that appointment, you will have to wait until the new year. Trust me, if you are calling a specialist, you can't afford to wait a year.  Can I get the usual routine stuff done in the summer? Sure.  And I did manage to find a dentist that has appointments after school if you book way in advance but the little medical surprises can't wait until summer.  When my kid had a severe reaction to walnuts, I burned half a day taking him to the allergist to get an epi-pen so he doesn't die next time.  Yeah, that one couldn't wait.  The time I potentially had ovarian cancer, that couldn't wait either.

So, this year I got a highly effective rating in the area of attendance.  Want to know how?  That's my dirty little secret.  I took half and quarter days off to get my kids to those appointments with the specialists and fortunately they didn't get sick beyond a cold this year.  So I managed to stay within the 3 days.  The dirty part is that I wasn't as lucky as the kids, I got sick, 3 times.  And I came to work sick each and every one of those times.  Oh yeah, the last time I actually spiked a fever at work, took some ibuprofen and kept on working.  Oh and FYI, it was right before a big holiday break when people go on vacation.  So your kid should start spiking that fever just before you reach the Mackinaw bridge.  Should make for a fun weekend.  I have also gone to work with influenza A but, in my defense, I didn't know that's what I had because I didn't want to waste a day off work to go to the doctor.  I finally discovered that I had it when I passed it along to my son.

So yes, we are all coming to work sick because we have to save our missed days to care for our children and elderly parents.  We save our days for those unexpected medical issues, such as that pesky breast biopsy, that can't wait until summer.  So we drug ourselves up and we show up at work and we do the best we can.  And, your kid might get sick as a result.  And you might say, the attendance doesn't count for very much of the total evaluation score but in this age of shrinking populations and families on the move, we teachers need every point we can get.  Those measly points might be the difference between you getting laid off or that poor bastard that stayed home with the flu getting laid off. It sometimes actually comes down to 1 point.  Even before these standards were in place your lay off could be determined by the most random thing.  I know 2 library specialists who were both hired on the same exact day in the same exact year.  They had to lay off one of them so they put their names in a hat a drew one.  Imagine, losing your job by getting picked from a hat.  So you can see why those little points are so important.  You never know.  So yes, as long as this policy is in place, I will continue to come to work sick.  And if you don't like it, better buy your kid a hazmat suit cause we're all doing it. Now our secret is out.