Trumbull Teacher’s Retirement Letter Causes Controversy

TRUMBULL, CT — A popular math teacher’s mid-year retirement is causing a stir after he released a letter that was critical of school administration. The letter has been circulating on social media.

Harold Darak taught math at Trumbull High School. In the letter addressed to students, parents and colleagues he said, “Many of the things I was taught when I earned my teaching certification are being overturned by administrators who are more concerned about keeping up with appearances than actually doing what is in the best interest of students.”

Darak criticized moves including eliminating classes like junior level honors English in an effort to boost the number of students taking AP English. He alleged that the decision was made because U.S. News and World Report places high value on the number of students taking AP courses.

He was also against standardizing the weighting of things like quizzes, tests and homework that play into a student’s overall grade instead of allowing flexibility in order to motivate lower level students.

Darak said he was escorted off school property after being told releasing the letter caused a disruption and was against school policy, according to the Trumbull Times. Superintendent Gary Cialfi said in a statement that the Trumbull Public Schools curriculum and practices are in alignment with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, national teacher organizations and other Connecticut school districts. He added that students and parents are encouraged to bring concerns to teachers and/or administrators.

“Expertise and experience are no longer valued by administration,” Darak said. “If the community allows the toxic environmental to continue, you will continue to lose the best teachers. Where will that leave the students?”

Below is the full text of the letter:

When I started my second career as a Math teacher thirteen years ago, the one thing I promised myself is that when I couldn’t give 100% to my students on a daily basis, I would retire. That day is today.

My passion for the education profession has been slowly diminishing over the past several years and now is at a point where I am expending more time and energy on activities that are not necessarily helping students learn math better. Many of the things I was taught when I earned my teaching certification are being overturned by administrators who are more concerned about keeping up with appearances than actually doing what is in the best interest of the students.

Teachers are trained to differentiate their lessons and approach to get the most out of each student. Yet, year after year, while we say the words “differentiate” and “flexible,” the actions show more standardization.

• Standardize the curriculum so that there is less differentiation between levels. Then, don’t follow it. Then let teachers make changes that are in direct conflict with the Board of Education approved document. Eliminate topics. Change the order of topics.
• Standardize the classes. Eliminate classes, like junior level honors English, so that students are forced to take AP English. Why? Because U.S. News and World Report’s annual high school ratings highly value the number of students who take AP and Trumbull can have the appearance of being a better school if they have a better rating. (We actually tried briign the students with pizza parties to encourage them to move to AP, but when that didn’t work, we just eliminated the honors class). We are actually coaxing students to take the AP exam in May by offering to waive their final examines in June if they do so.
• Standardize the assessments, so that every teacher that teaches the same course is giving the exact same test. But, don’t hand back the tests, which would be a great tool for students to learn from their mistakes. The numbers of emails sent between teachers writing and rewriting these tests and arguing over point values and question wording have required an excessive amount of time that has been taken away form the time I would have spent preparing and differentiation my lesson plans. We rarely standardize or have time to determine partial point values for answer keys to grade the tests consistently.
• Standardize the weightings of the grading practices,increasing the percentage of weights on tests and quizzes when it is well known that lower level students need to be incentivized. In the past, ways teachers have done this have been by increasing the weighting of homework, class participation and organization of notebooks. Teachers have lost the ability to offer extra credit opportunities, or allow students to make test corrections or retake exams. I was actually told by one administrator that if it didn’t have to do with math, I shouldn’t be teaching it.
• Standardize by purchasing the same text for ACP and CP classes, where in the past we had textbooks to meet the specific needs of each level of student. We have recently spent over $150,000 on textbooks that needs to be renewed (ongoing cost) every five years. We are purchasing online textbooks that many teachers have not been fully trained in using. The students are not even using many of these online textbooks - many can’t even access the online textbook. We have also purchased classroom sets of these textbooks, but not enough, which has led to teachers switching classrooms in order to teach in the room that physically holds the books. You see math teachers running around from room to room, not being able to stay after a few minutes to answer student questions, and , having less instructional time because they have to “set up” the next classroom by singing into the computer in their next room.
• Speaking of less instructional time, teachers are regularly asked to attend special education meetings for one student during academic classes when we should be teaching 25+ students.
• Require non academic teachers (Bake/Wood/Auto Shop, Art, Gym, etc.) regularly assign students passages to read and answer questions, instead of following their set approved curriculum, to give the appearance that all subjects are helping students better prepare for the SAT exam.

In the past three years I have had to alter my lesson plans to adhere to curriculum changes writene for Algebra 1 (4 curriculum changes and 3 different textbooks in 10 years), Geometry (3 and 2 in the last 6 years) and Algebra 2 (4 and 2 in the last 9 years). These changes are not based on proven studies that kids can learn better with these changes. These changes often don’t even add significant new material to each course, because, as you can guess, Algebra and Geometry have not changed much in the last several hundred years. The energy I have to expend on these changes for appearances sake makes me feel like Sisyphus (Google the story) and has sapped me to the point where I am focusing less and less on things that will make students more successful.

Teachers and counselors are being pressured to recommend students move up levels where they will likely not be successful, and when we are being told not to share the calendar dates of cutoff times to transfer to lower level courses or switch to pass/fail.

I will miss the students; I will miss most of my colleagues. I will not miss feeling like Sisyphus, redoing the same work over and over to keep up with appearances. Teachers are special, dedicated professionals who always try to do things in the students’ best interest. They feel a calling to this profession and passion to help student perform at their best They are not well paid, but don’t complain about money. The want to be respected and treated like professionals, which is happening less and less these days. Expertise and experience are no longer valued by administration. If the community allows the toxic environment to continue, you will continue to lose the best teachers. Where will that leave the students?

I’m finally leaving high school. Thanks for the memories...