Retiring Palm Beach County teacher reflects on cellphones, testing frenzies, tardies and more

For most of the 42 years I’ve been a Palm Beach County high school English teacher, I’ve loved my job. If I had my life to live over, I would choose the same career. My greatest reward has come from students telling me I’ve made a positive difference in their lives.

My teachers and my mom’s reverence for teachers ignited my desire to teach.

Mom never forgot the kindness of the teachers who stayed after school to help her when she emigrated from Cuba in 1950. At 19, she had attended only two years of school, so she was hungry to learn. But she was placed in the third grade until she learned English.

Five years later, she graduated with honors from Palm Beach High School.

Mom was as proud of me for becoming a teacher as she was of my brothers for becoming doctors.

To honor her love of education and mine and to try to improve our education system before I retire —as I plan to do at the end of this school year — I want to sound the alarm about the ways in which I see this world changing, and the challenges I see students and teachers facing today.

Lowered expectations: Grades, absences, tardies and more

When I began teaching in 1983, Florida’s students needed a 94% to make an “A” and a 65% to pass. They needed to bring a note from home to excuse their absences and make up the work. Late to class twice? That too was an absence.

But these standards are no more. An “A” begins at 90% and 60% is passing. Any work missed by absences, excused or otherwise, even suspensions, can be made up without academic penalty. And the definition of absent and tardy has shifted too — students can be up to 50 minutes late in 100 minute class and that’s still only “tardy.”

Knowing that, many stroll in 45 minutes late.

Making up classes is no longer a matter of attending summer school to get those lessons again; we have what’s called online credit recovery, which is easily passed with the help of AI or classmates’ screenshotted answers. I could go on.

Then vs. now: Where are my students?

What’s gone exponentially wrong since COVID is how much school students miss.

During this school year’s first semester, 31% of my 145 students had 15 or more absences. Two had over 60. And 36% of the 59 students in my first classes of the day had 10 or more tardies. Two had over 25. (Parents or guardians receive a phone call every time their student is absent or tardy — unless their student blocks the calls.)

With classroom doors locked — a state requirement — if I have 14 tardies the first period of the day, that’s 14 times (knock knock) my teaching is (knock knock) interrupted to (knock knock) let (knock knock) students in.

More importantly, tardy students miss out on my teaching.

Students miss exams, snub huge incentives

Until COVID, students rarely missed their semester exams. In December, 12% of my students were absent and 28% tardy for my exam — even though many had to pass it to pass my class.

Kids seem to be absent because it’s raining or cold or Monday or Friday or their birthday or the day before or after a day off. In my first period class, the day we returned from having a whole week off for Thanksgiving, I0 students were absent and six were tardy.

Incentives, including a drawing for a 55-inch TV, didn’t move the needle.

Students with perfect attendance and no tardies the last two weeks of first semester qualified for the drawing.  On our first day back after winter break, 15 of the 33 seniors in my first period class were absent and eight were tardy. So much for New Year’s resolutions!

Teacher absenteeism a problem too

Some Fridays, we have 30 teachers of 198 on staff absent —and not enough substitutes.

When students have a substitute, many skip class. And when a teacher is out, and there’s no substitute, the students are sent to other classes where they generally do nothing.

I’m often asked to take in others’ students even though I have only 29 desks in my room and — in one class — 33 students and no room for another desk.

School grades drive policy — and funding

In the late 1990s, when the state began issuing school grades and tying our funding to things including graduation rate, our focus shifted from educating students to graduating them. Teachers are urged to stretch deadlines for makeup work missed when absent — deadlines set in policy. Not that more time matters because many students don’t even ask for makeup work.

(This creates new pressure from above to give students 50% for work not done rather than a “0” because zeroes tank grade averages quickly and, often, beyond repair. Not happening on my watch.)

Also, teachers are sometimes asked to explain failing grades — are students?

In a move to curb students taking shortcuts, I told students who needed to do makeup work that they had to leave their cellphone with me and do the work in front of me. Six seniors with an “F” essentially said, “Nah, I’m good.”

The challenge of cellphones in classrooms

We provide students with a laptop. They don’t need to use their phone during class.  (I understand parents want to be able to reach their children, but, parents: You can call the office.)

This is what my students tell me they do on their phones: scroll through TikTok and Instagram, watch Netflix and Youtube, listen to music, play games, and text. What teacher can compete with that?

School district policy (5.183 to be exact) allows students to have cellphones on campus, but in class those devices are not supposed to be “visible, used, or activated, and are kept in the ‘off’ position’ throughout the day and even on the school bus.”

Here’s the catch if you’re a teacher: The district doesn’t spell out the consequences, leaving the rule unevenly enforced across the county.

If we’re supposed to impose any consequences, we need to feel supported.Years ago, if a student had a phone out during class, we could take it to the office, where a parent had to retrieve it. Now, we’re discouraged from touching students’ phones.

Anecdotally, I know this can work.

My dental hygienist’s son told her when his high school banned students from having their phones visible during the school day, except during lunch — and followed through with consequences — it was a game changer. He now enjoys school and is learning more than ever. Cellphones clearly detract from our students’ education.

Cellphone addiction, depression and why I miss class clowns and shushing

Students are no different from the rest of the population: They’re addicted.

This year, one of my students wrote in an essay, “Phones are a NEED. We need our phones to not feel lonely.”

Another, “Most kids are quiet and glued to their phones. School feels lifeless, like a place where all joy goes away.”

And another, “In school people don’t talk to each other. Nowadays, you just go to your class, do your work, and then go home.”

“Good morning,” we say to students on a Monday morning. “How was your weekend?” Often, we receive no response. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Are they even listening? Headphones and earbuds have to go, too.

They see the problem too. “When COVID started, we stayed on our phones, not realizing it started to become a habit. Before COVID, we would hang out with our friends, go to the beach or park. Not a single person had a phone in hand. We were happy, and now we’re falling into depression.”

For the past few years, teachers have been asked to deliver mental health lessons.

The lessons for this year’s high school juniors covered topics including being tech safe, overcoming challenges, suicide prevention, human trafficking, preventing violence, and managing anxiety.  Sadly, many students don’t engage in these lessons because — you guessed it — they’re on their phones.

I miss the class clowns, the big personalities. I miss having to shush a class.

Another problem for teachers: Cheating with phones

Students also use their phones to cheat. How? One person completes an assignment and sends a picture of it to a friend. Soon, everyone has the answers. They can even have AI write an essay for them. Or they can scan a worksheet, and AI will give them the answers.

Before AI, I could catch a plagiarized essay by Googling a sentence from it. Bam! The source would pop up. All I can do now is ask a student, “What does this word you used in your essay [‘nuanced’ or ‘delineate,’ for example] mean?” Even if they clearly can’t answer, if they insist they did the work, what can I do?

My suggestion: The district could get Turnitin, a program many college professors use to detect AI text.

An instructor’s (and student’s) nightmare: Testing, testing, testing

As of December, only six states required a test to graduate from high school: Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia.

In Florida, we administer an alphabet soup of standardized tests: PBPA, ACT, SAT, BEST, PM#1, PM#2, PM#3, CLT, EOC, FAST, AICE, AP, PSAT/NMSQT, USA, FSQ, FCLE, and ASVAB. We also give makeup and retake tests. And makeups of makeups. And retakes of retakes.

Students must be what we call “math and reading ready to graduate” in order to earn a diploma. The ones who don’t hit that mark keep missing class to take and retake tests. This can leave them further behind, as classes go on while they are sitting for those retakes. (It also disrupts the day for students who did pass as schools juggle staff, taking some out of classrooms, to monitor tests.) Those who can’t pass the tests receive a certificate of completion instead.

During the 2023-2024 school year, only five out of the nearly 900 seniors at my school missed the mark — but some tested nearly 20 times to pass.

And not to mention: Teacher pay still terrible

Over the years, I’ve worked with some wonderful teachers and administrators who show up every day and do their best to help our students and each other. Our school district — the largest employer in Palm Beach County and the 10th largest school district in the nation — has nearly 23,000 employees, including over 13,000 teachers. I’d be doing my fellow educators a disservice if I didn’t talk about money.

For the 2024-2025 school year, starting teachers’ pay was boosted to $53,000. Until then, Florida was 50th (the worst) out of 50 states. We’re now 49th.

Median earnings are nearly seven times what they were 40 years ago, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Yet, $53,000 is only four times what I made ($13,500) 42 years ago.

“Depending on the data source, there are 20 to 30 percent fewer people going into teaching each year than there were a decade ago, ” according to Education Next. And “nearly 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years,” according to the U.S. Department of Education.

(We also need more classrooms. Many teachers have to “float” to a different classroom each period.)

Oklahoma is easing their teacher shortage by giving scholarships to education majors and stipends to new teachers.

Despite all these challenges: Teaching can still be rewarding

“You get evenings, weekends, summers, spring break, and holidays off,” I tell my juniors and seniors, “and you get 10 sick days per year. You get health, vision, and dental insurance. You feel as if you’re helping others. You get to be home when your children are home from school. And when you retire, you can get a pension for the rest of your life.”

And today, students have more opportunities to go to college for free than ever before. Since 2016, 827 students at my school have earned an “AICE diploma” — giving them free tuition to any public Florida university. Many others have received Florida’s Bright Futures scholarships, and thousands have earned college credits by passing AP and AICE exams.

They can also apply for scholarships. The National Scholarship Providers Association estimates $100 million in scholarship money is unclaimed every year because of a lack of applicants.

Teachers and students are still making a difference. Over the past 10 years, I’ve helped over 90% of my AICE students earn college credits for passing their exam. I’ve helped over 90% of my AICE students earn college credits for passing their exam.

Last year, a student wrote, “At first, I didn’t like you because you looked mean, and your class was hard, but then I realized you were trying to get us to pass our AICE exam. Thank you for always believing in me and helping me improve my writing. You are full of surprises. You’re actually cool. I am so blessed to have had you as a teacher.”

“Alessi,” wrote an autistic student, “has unlocked my true potential and allowed me to realize I don’t need to be in ESE classes. I wish I had a teacher like her during my sophomore year.”

I was even asked to officiate over a former student’s very small wedding.

Teachers and students are still making a difference. The teacher across the hall from me is alive thanks to a kidney donated by one of his former students.

Teaching doesn’t have to be as difficult and frustrating as it’s become. We need to stop the downward spiral.

Our children are our future.

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Janet Meckstroth Alessi has been teaching at John I. Leonard High School since 1983 and is a frequent contributor to Accent. She can be reached at jlmalessi@aol.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida teacher reflects on cellphones, testing frenzies, absences