One of my personal rules about being a teacher: never blame the teachers who came before you. Never, ever.

Look: I come up short every year. If future teachers want to blame me, I know there is a ton I’m responsible for teaching my students where I’m unuccessful.

This is a black hole. Would it be nice if every one of my students mastered every standard from prior years? Yes. But it will never happen. It doesn’t matter whether the teacher last year did a good job or a bad job or was a rotating cast of long-term subs. I get what I get, I focus on what I can control, I do the best I can.