Good Numbers

The Students I Stopped Counting

Issue #31

Good Numbers

My scores were going up.

Year one, up. Year two, up again. Year three, same story. By year four my superintendent was showing off my school’s data at board meetings. Holding it up. Pointing to it.

Reading proficiency. Math proficiency. Both moving in the right direction four years running.

A commendation letter went into my file. People in central office started saying we had turned a corner.

And I believed them.

I need you to understand that part. I was not running a scam. I was not doing anything that felt wrong on any given Tuesday morning walking into that building. I was proud of what we had built. I talked about it. I presented it. I stood in front of my staff every year and pointed to those numbers as evidence that the work was working.

The scores were good.

For four years, that was enough for me.

She had been on my staff eleven days.

My new assistant principal. Very sharp. Asked questions the way good educators ask questions, not to challenge anyone, just because s…