Arthur Goldstein teaches English in a high school in Queens, New York City. If you want to know what teachers in New York City are saying, you have to read his blog. It’s funny, sad, outrageous, and honest. Here’s Arthur:
I found your piece about student ratings very interesting.
I taught almost 20 years at the English Language Institute at Queens College. Student ratings were very important—word of mouth kept enrollment very robust. I‘d come to this position from the POV of a high school teacher. As such, I insisted on homework and participation. I also gave people a pretty hard time if they didn’t do the work. For a number of years I scored 80% favorable with the students, but one year I got a bad rating. It was partially my insistence on assignments done on time, but mostly my fault—I’d selected a text that was too tough.
After that, I chose texts more carefully. I also stopped bothering students about missing homework. My scores jumped to 99% favorable, and could have hit 100 were it not for my awful handwriting. They stayed there until I quit about five years ago. So if student ratings are important, I can do that.
On the other hand, if test scores are what you want, I can teach to the test and be a total pain. When I taught ESL kids how to pass the English Regents, my Chinese-teaching colleague overheard and translated the following exchange:
“I don’t know what to do. I can’t seem to pass the English Regents.”
“That’s too bad. You should take Goldstein’s class.”
“Why? Is it good?”
“No, it’s terrible. You will hate every minute of it. But you will pass the Regents.”
I was lucky enough not to be rated by the students in that class. But they wouldn’t have been able to graduate without passing that test, so I did what I could for them. Many kids, who really did not know English, managed to pass the test anyway.
Now, I teach near-beginners the English they really need. I hassle them if they don’t participate or do the work. I call their parents, or have people who speak their languages do so. I think the kids would give me a good rating, but not 99%. However, if you put a gun to my head and demand I teach to a test that doesn’t really suit them, I’ll take another approach, and there goes my rating.
If Gates and his band of know-nothings have their way, we’ll be judged both on test scores and student ratings. I can cater to one or the other if I have to. I’ve done it.
That’s why I know a better system would be to trust me to do my job and teach my kids what they need to know. Unlike the folks at Pearson who sit in offices writing tests, I see these kids every day. I can adjust the course to their needs, and adjust the tests to their needs too.
It’s not like I run around telling “reformers” how to run their hedge funds. I don’t even know what a hedge fund is. And after ten years of “reform,” it’s clear to me that billionaires making rules about my business haven’t got the slightest notion what makes that work, let alone how to put “Children First, Ever.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I think I would add to that the idea that parents would cast another vote, or at least it would be ancillary to the student approval rating. It seemed as though the most popular, most requested teachers were those who made the kids the happiest, whether it was through engaging teaching methods, field trips (relevant or not), plays, games, parties, coloring contests, etc. As you see, some of these things can be good, others not as much…but the kids were happy, which is what (most) parents see as the product of good teaching. I think that parents and other community members can be valuable stakeholders in the education reform process, but only with an inmformed perspective.
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One year, I did a parent survey as one of my “data points” for my evaluation. So few parents returned the survey that I couldn’t use it as a data point. As a result, I am nervous to have parental surveys determine my salary or job status.
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If I only read these words all weekend I will be ahead of the game, this statement is what we are all talking about, ingenious : It’s not like I run around telling “reformers” how to run their hedge funds. I don’t even know what a hedge fund is. And after ten years of “reform,” it’s clear to me that billionaires making rules about my business haven’t got the slightest notion what makes that work, let alone how to put “Children First, Ever.”
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I think I will do a cross stitch with this quote. I could do a border of the ABCs intertwined with $ signs.
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I think student feedback can be valuable if the source is considered. In general, your average college-bound honors student wants to learn, if for no other reason than the practical matter of not having to waste time and money taking remedial classes in college. Such students are usually pretty good at knowing who the truly good teachers are and stating reasons therefor, and I think they should be seriously listened to. The unmotivated students, on the other hand, are likely to rate the easier teachers higher, but their reasons will basically boil down to “He’s fun” or “She didn’t give us too much work”, which can also be taken into consideration.
Most of my high school teachers were great, but one was a joke. In chemistry class we learned the material two days a week (which usually consisted of learning the same material week after week because the unmotivated students would tell him – and he’d believe – that we hadn’t covered the material before. Two other days per week we had “lab” which often consisted of him starting an alcohol fire on someone’s lab desk, throwing in some noxious element and all of us running to the hallway coughing and gagging. The final day per week was movie day, in which we watched such educational gems as “Solar Babies” and “Bride of Reanimator”.
I don’t know how he was allowed to get away with this, but he’d apparently won all kinds of teaching awards at his previous school and we were told how lucky we were to have him.
Until my senior year, my school did not offer calculus. Every year a handful of motivated honors students went to the local college to take it. My senior year, however, they added it, taught by, you guessed it, the chemistry teacher. Four of us (the top honors students in the school) begged the administration to reconsider, but they were also getting many recommendations from satisfied customers of his chemistry class, so guess who was listened to? The sum extent of what I learned in calculus that year boils down to: you take the little number and multiply it by the big number and then you reduce the little number by one. Needless to say, I had to re-take intro calculus in college.
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The most telling line in this is “many kids who really did not know English managed to pass the test anyway”. So how many of our students who really don’t know whatever the test purports to measure are being trained to pass the test anyway? And to what long term end?
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