Adequate Yearly Progress
Roxanna Elden
Each new school year brings familiar challenges to Brae Hill Valley, a struggling high school in one the biggest cities in Texas. But the teachers also face plenty of personal challenges and this year, they may finally spill over into the classroom. English teacher Lena Wright, a spoken-word poet, can never seem to truly connect with her students. Hernan D. Hernandez is confident in front of his biology classes, but tongue-tied around the woman he most wants to impress. Down the hall, math teacher Maybelline Galang focuses on the numbers as she struggles to parent her daughter, while Coach Ray hustles his troubled football team toward another winning season. Recording it all is idealistic second-year history teacher Kaytee Mahoney, whose anonymous blog gains new readers by the day as it drifts ever further from her in-class reality. And this year, a new superintendent is determined to leave his own mark on the school—even if that means shutting the whole place down.
Publication Year: 2020
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0 0I really enjoyed this novel, mostly for the fact that I could relate to the teachers. If anyone wants to know what teachers go through, I highly suggest to pick up this book.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a big fan of it. Despite relating to the characters as teachers, I didn't care for their personal life--I was indifferent through it all. I tried to connect with them, but I just didn't care for them.
I expected more teaching dynamics, where teachers bounded together to fight this system against them, but in turn, I got a lot of the teachers' love life, an assistant banding up against the principal and another teacher. I believe if the book had focused on Kaytee, one of the newer teachers and the other teachers trying to help her out, giving their own tips, this book would have been more to my liking.
Also, this book had a lot of point of views. It was a surprise I didn't get lost, since the author was able to give a unique voice to each character, but at the same time, it made it seem all over the place. There were a lot of topics and what should have been the focus of the story ended up being brushed off.
Overall, Adequate Yearly Progress is an eye-opener on the teaching field. I loved that I got tips on teaching from it, and was able to see how I should be grateful of the school I work at and the students I have because it's not like I have it anywhere else.
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