A reader sends a description of a teacher’s life in Louisiana, where a new state law changed everything, including tenure, evaluation, charters, vouchers, and whatever else the reformers could throw into a law that was passed without input from educators or any deliberation:
So here in Louisiana we get ready to start the new school year, having spent the summer at “mandatory” conferences and training; middle schools are sending many teachers to become AP certified, math and English teachers have spent their summer in classes 5 days a week for STEM training, CCSS classes abound with little information and three full days of “in-services” await us before we see students. That alone will kill any motivation that remains. So many teachers are exhausted and yet the demands for new and better programs requires 200%, last year teachers were requested to give 200% or find another position. Yet we have no idea what our value added scores really mean-some are told they don’t really matter if you’re a good teacher. Others are told that starting 2013-2014 the firing of the lowest 10% will start.
No one can tell us how the scores will help us improve, where our strong or weak areas are, what we need to change, how we relate to the rest of the state etc. Teachers want to do their best and take it to heart when we are told we failed our kids. Even though logically we know the value added scores are bogus, especially since the numbers are not given meaning with explanations and feedback. Emotionally it has been devastating and most discussions are about the fear of hurting our students again since we don’t know what to improve. Teachers express fear of getting caught up in this mess and losing their tenure knowing that there is no way in hell anyone will manage to get “highly Effective 5 out of 6 years” to regain tenure if we don’t know what we did wrong in the first place!
A student I taught in high school several years ago, both of his parents are teachers, commented that this value added stuff is like failing your drivers test but no one tells you why and then says you have to do it again but since you don’t know what you did wrong in the first place you just keep failing. He said his family had a pretty miserable summer trying to deal with all the stress and fear of trying to decide if they should change careers, move to another state, get another degree (both of his parents have masters degrees and are national board certified and have been Teacher’s of the Year. He said they stick up for their students and that is what gets them in trouble and they fear it will effect their evaluations. He is looking forward to going back to college just to get out of the house and that makes him feel guilty.
If you teach math and English at least the LEAP scores count for your area, science and social studies are the step children. Any idea of how motivated a middle school student is to pass a test they don’t have to? Why focus only on 50% of the core subjects for years and years? Supposedly highly educated people who should know the interrelationship between all the core classes made that decision! Now math and English CCSS are here, with lots of overlap to science and social studies whose CCSS are years away.
No one want to talk about what is really going to happen next year, everyone is afraid, discussion leads to anger and frustration and many just want to ignore it and think all this will go away. Talking about the mess gets many in trouble and the newspapers don’t think it is worth discussing except for an occasional article. The Shreveport paper had a short article about how parents could avoid the inconvenience of PTA/PTO involvement(Thanks Shreveport Times), Jindal is gone running around campaigning for an office he doesn’t have yet while ignoring the one he has and our students are depending on teachers to create the safe, caring, learning environments they need. And we will, because that is what educators do.
Not a surprise that FUD explains our state and many others.
“Others are told that starting 2013-2014 the firing of the lowest 10% will start.” Can you say stack ranking? Or should that be rank stacking, you know like an ever building cow pie.
Firing the bottom 5-10% is based on speculation by Hoover Institution/Stanford economist Eric Hanushek. We debated this last year at eduwonk.com
I think it is demoralizing and the measures stink. He thinks it will lead to unprecedented improvements and gains of trillions of dollars to the national GDP.
What has he contributed to the world, except his idle speculation? I know that in DC, Rhee and others worshipped the guy.
I hope his theories remain speculative. No one needs to see if he can prove his hypothesis. Doubtful, but I remain hopeful
I wish there was an edit button.
remove ‘are’ from “I hope his theories are remain speculative”
Done
Diane
And, who is to really say that Louisiana teachers have done or are doing anything “wrong”? Student success and school improvement are inexorably tied to teacher effectiveness and/or teacher improvement. Evaluation in any job should be framed around improvement. Its primary focus should not be personnel decisions. Louisiana has been turned into one hot mess, and the fault lies well beyond the teaching staff and other education professionals.
I am so pleased, Diane, that you picked up this comment made by a Louisiana teacher on an earlier blog and used it on yours. This teacher has done a fantastic job expressing not only her anxieties, frustrations and fears, but am quite sure expressing the same from thousands of other teachers across the state. Looking at what are now the laws regarding teaching the children of Louisiana’s public schools to the lack of any requirements to those teaching in charter and voucher schools is so blatantly wrong, it makes one become really sick to their stomach. A disgusting national model for ed reform. IMO, this is going to be a VERY stressful school year that starts for most systems in just a few weeks.
Here is a good summary of what educators are facing.
http://laeducators.blogspot.com/2012/07/guess-who-has-been-empowered-by-jindal.html?spref=fb
I should have mentioned that the teachers in the charter and voucher schools do not live with the Sword of Damocles over their heads, only public school teachers.
Shame on Bobby Jindal. Shame on John White.
After reading this post and the series of comments that followed, I feel confident in declaring Louisiana first in the category of worst places to teach.
I just hope that the students, teachers, and parents survive.
The sad part is that Mr. White continues to make a shambles out of education in Louisiana. He is ” working on” an accountability system for the unaccredited voucher schools, or as our BESE member describes it… building the plane while in midair. The new Compass evaluation now requires ALL grades, both tested and non- tested, to create specific learning targets ( SLT) for each teacher in addition to the other value added measures. So in addition to learning the new common core standards and asessments, we also have to figure out requirements for the new evaluation process. Most teachers here on Louisiana won’t find most of this out until just before school begins because the administrators are just now being trained in the new Compass evaluation procedures. But don’t worry, as usual, teachers will get it done. We always do. It really makes me sad though to see our most experienced teachers, who are the foundation of our school, throwing in the towel and saying “Enough”. Will the younger ones with the new energy stick around for long? In the end, I wonder who will still be around when the smoke screen clears, and the man/men behind the curtain has high tailed it out of our state.
John White has never created an evaluation system in his life. I hope he has someone to help him.
You are correct. It was contracted out to an outside agency.I think from a university but my training material is at school and I can’t remember who. The Ed dept was actually very helpful to our district during the process. We were assigned a contact person. Nine districts volunteered to participate. I am thankful that we did. I don’t know how they will be able to do this statewide and provide the support necessary. Last I heard changes were still being made based on our input and school starts in a couple of weeks. As an administrator I will do what I need to do to make it work and support my hardworking teachers. We have already lost four good teachers at our school this summer who decided they were tired of jumping through hoops.
That’s shame about losing good teachers. The state ed dept doesn’t have a clue about the damage they do. Teachers should be allowed to teach, without all the constant disruption and static from bureaucrats They should get out of your way
“because the administrators are just now being trained in the new Compass evaluation procedures.”
When are administrators going to refuse to do what they know is wrong? Oh, but it’s the law. Well when the law in unjust/wrong then it’s time for some civil disobedience. I won’t hold my breath waiting for administrators to do what they know is right because it just won’t happen. Even strong administrators such as John Kuhn down in Texas admitted to playing the game of standardized testing. Got a chance to meet him at an SOS Missouri meeting earlier in the year. A well meaning chap but still knows who butters his bread. I understand that we can’t eat off of our ideals but. . . .
Duane, You make the assumption that I AM willing to do something I know is wrong, but I can assure that I am not, and don’t believe my colleagues would either. Staff evaluations have always been required. I view this as yet another tool, but it doesn’t mean that I relinquish my own knowledge and blindly submit because it’s the law. I can’t speak for others, but I for one will continue to use good judgement and support my teachers to continue to improve our school. There are parts of the value added evaluation data that come from the dept of Ed, and I have no control over that. As an administrator, I make it my business to know my teachers and to know what is going on in our classrooms. We work together as a team. I can’t tell you how other administrators do it, or speak for how you think it should be done, but I am committed to supporting a strong team approach here where our goal is educating our students to the best of our ability. I don’t need civil disobedience to accomplish that goal. You are correct that we can’t eat off of our ideals, but … I am still required to function within this system. Otherwise I guess I could just go open a charter school.
Bridget,
“There are parts of the value added evaluation data that come from the dept of Ed, and I have no control over that.”
Exactly my point!
“You make the assumption that I AM willing to do something I know is wrong, but I can assure that I am not.
If you truly believe (and I’m not saying that you do) that the value added evaluation (VAE) data is fatally flawed (and, for me, it is without a doubt) and understand that VAE is unethical and you still plan to implement that portion of the evaluation system? If yes, then no doubt that you “know who butters your bread” (and again not so unwisely in a certain regard, personal and family survival).
So my question to you then is: In your mind is the “value added evaluation” right or wrong policy? Is it inaccurate? Is it invalid? Is it unethical?
Implementing false, harmful, unethical policies is one of the two main reasons that I chose to stay in the classroom even though being certified to be an administrator. The other being that I just enjoy working with the students too much. Sorry, but I have a real hard time with your rationalization, i.e., it’s mandated, of implementing harmful and unethical policies as that type of rationalization has only served to legitimatize those harmful, unethical policies.
“As an administrator, I make it my business to know my teachers and to know what is going on in our classrooms. We work together as a team.”
My comments are not meant to be an attack on you personally, as an administrator. From what I’ve read in your posts, you’re probably are one of the better ones. My concern is with what I see as a general practice by administrators claiming “the devil made me do it”, i.e., that it is “mandated” and nary a peep out of them to the contrary even when they know that a policy is harmful.
Duane, I guess you and I aren’t understanding each other. You seem to assume that I have a choice in implementing this new eval process. The value added process is a done deal. The data will be generated from state test scores and calculated by some formula no one can quite explain. Our legislature voted on it and it will be implemented through our education department. I play no part in that process. I am required to implement the observation portion at my school, which is called Compass here. So when I talk about evaluation, I am speaking only of the part that I do have control over. I have no control over whether or not value added is implemented at my school or any other in my state. That train has already left the station. Fatally flawed or not. In my district the administrators are very vocal about our concerns, both at the district and state levels. I am sorry that your experiences have been otherwise. Maybe you should reconsider and move into an administrative position so you can try out some of your theories about how to make this all work. Btw, I’m not rationalizing anything, since I have never implemented anything harmful nor unethical in any educational setting. I believe we both agree that Ed deform is a bad thing, so I will continue to support my staff and you will continue to teach. Refusing to do my job won’t make VAM go away, just as refusing to teach your students Common Core standards won’t make them go away, even though research shows either won’t make a great difference in outcomes for students. I believe we both have the best interest of our students at heart. It’s
our elected officials who don’t seem to get it. Maybe we should both
run for office.
Correction, ” in Louisiana ” not ” on”.
FUD = frustrate, undermine, discourage!