A reader sent this notice of a major change in teacher evaluation in Ohio, slipped into legislation at the last minute, with little discussion. The governor is determined to follow the Rhee script and bombard teachers with test-based accountability, despite evidence to the contrary. I have a suggestion for Governor Kasich: How about if you take the students’ end of course exams and publish your test scores?
The bottom line:
If you’re not familiar with legislative language, here’s the summary
HB 555 radically changes the method of calculating evaluations for about 1/3 of Ohio’s teachers. If a teacher’s schedule is comprised only of courses or subjects for which the value-added progress dimension is applicable – then only their value-add score can now be used as part of the 50% of an evaluation based on student growth. Gone is the ability to use multiple measures of student growth – ie Student Learning Objectives or SLO’s.
Teachers and school districts have spent countless months collaborating on the development and implementation of an evaluation system originally detailed in HB153 – only to now find the rules of the game changed at the 11th hour. Furthermore, the change is regressive. We have detailed the growing list of research that demonstrates the very real and serious problems with heavy reliance on value-add, and the need to offset these problems by using multiple measures of student growth.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Research and truth are not seated at this table.
Union leaders, while stating agreement with the need for multiple measures, truth and validity in teacher evaluations have not really moved to mobilize members in any significant call to action opposing this type of madness-maybe waiting for a swing in public opinion (on the heels of the fiscal crisis)?
This type of legislation demonstrates profit-driven, not people-driven, representation.
It’s too bad that legistlators don’t have a “value added model”.
Same thing happened here on Louisiana. Now that it’s a done deal, they are realizing the consequences of their hasty decision. Can’t wait to see the real consequences in the spring after the state test results come in. That’s when the “fit will hit the shan” . The word is that the state dept is already scrambling to revise VAM .
Kasich is a complete idiot. Him and the far right wing continue their quest of destroying public ed
In the 1960s there was a book called “Teaching As a Subversive Activity.” Don’t underestimate the ability of teachers and administrators to get creative in Ohio.
Linda,
Thanks for the tip on the 60’s book, I’ll look it up.
Here’s what I’m reading now, and a few author recommendations for educators who believe like I do, that real change in education and society will only come through mass social/civil upheaval;….revolution:
-Teaching against Global Capitalism and the New Imperialism: A Critical Pedagogy by Peter McLaren;
-Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Friere (2nd reading)
-Schooling In Capitalist America: Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life by Samuel Bowles (this book for me is a vade mecum!)
any book by: Peter MCLaren, Henry A. Giroux, Joe Kinchloe, Joel Spring, Rick and William Ayers, Jonathan Kozol, Bell Hooks etc.
Thank you.
Thanks for the tips form Linda and C Teacher. I was just browsing Amazon. I am interested in civil disobedience of the subversive sort! I want to do right by children and not actually break any laws, if that is even possible here in Louisiana. Your suggestions come at the perfect time.
Thank you for the heads up. I fowarded this information to members of our evaluation team. We have a big meeting tomorrow to review the agenda for an inservice on Friday about OTES. What a mess. The curriculum director submiited an update to the BOE last week. There no mention of this. I checked the ODE website. They have not altered the OTES model, but I know the administrators get daily updates on changes. Hopefully Maureen Reedy will have some more insight.
The administrators were aware. Here are the updates.
http://www.basa-ohio.org/Hot_Topics/HotTopicsArticleDisplay.aspx?articleid=17
We have new assessments being rolled out in 2014-15 (PARCC and exit exams for example) upon which those teachers will be subjected immediately to the value-added data according to the law. They have also expanded the requirement for teachers to have reading endorsements.
Our local union here in RI has pushed to remove SLOs entirely from the evaluation process. I have questioned this and the reason given was that the SLOs are not a fair way of evaluation teachers. My response was that standardized test scores are an even less fair way, akin to rolling dice or worse.
It is worth mentioning that RI has not fully rolled out our evaluation system yet, so we have another year before the test scores are used. My hope is that the union plans to fight them when they start being used.
Put cameras in classrooms for a certain number of days and let professionsals evaluate technique etc.
Upon what might those cameras focus and who are the “professionals”?
Yes, I had the same question, Duane.
Terry, have you had experience teaching in a public school?
Write to the governor to tell him what you think:
Governor John Kasich
Riffe Center, 30th Floor
77 South High Street
Columbus, OH 43215-6117
Phone: (614) 466-3555
Unfortunately, I don’t have his email, but you can try
http://governor.ohio.gov/Contact/ContacttheGovernor.aspx
You can also try your State Rep and State Senator:
http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/
I sent him the following note:
Dear Governor Kasich:
I can’t say I am shocked, but I am appalled at the changes in how teachers are evaluated in Ohio. For many teachers only their value-add score can now be used as part of the 50% of an evaluation based on student growth. Gone is the ability to use multiple measures of student growth.
VAMs are not accurate — there are false positives and false negatives galore. Much, much worse, they change the way a teacher runs his or her class. Instead of working for the greater good of the whole child, a teacher (if he or she wants to keep his job) will have to focus more on how students perform on these tests. Anyone who is concerned with education does not want to see “the majority of the student academic growth factor of the evaluation shall be based on the value-added progress dimension.”
The legislation dictates that, when it is available, the only data on how teachers affected students to be considered in an evaluation is a value-added measure.
This is bad, of course, when the tests are not reliable, but even when they are reliable
it is awful. Think of some of the scenarios:
1) A teacher has an evaluation coming up and has a choice of doing a unit involving a field trip,
an essay/report and a computer presentation or spending time on test preparation.
Which do you think he or she will choose?
2) A 4th grade teacher is aware that her or his 3rd grade colleague is making some false steps and,
having more experience and a good relationship with the teacher, could easily give some advice that
would help the 3rd grade teacher But, if the 3rd grade teacher gets better, and the 4th grade teacher’s
students will have higher scores and there will be less value to add.
What is the best strategy for the 4th grade teacher?
3) A high school teacher has a bright student who has health and/or emotional problems.
The teacher goes out of his/her way to call the parents, keep the child up to date
(or, as I had to do many times, convince the kid to come back to school) and the child,
who scored well on last year’s test comes back and, because of the missed time in school,
does not do as well, resulting in a low or negative value-added number.
What choice does the teacher have?
In all three cases the teacher is penalized for doing the right thing.
The teacher who wants higher VAMs should ditch the field trip and do mind-numbing work in class.
The teacher who wants higher VAMs should undercut the colleague teaching the students he will have next year.
The teacher who wants higher VAMs should discourage the student who has been out from returning to school
until the test date has passed.
It is a HORRIBLE way to evaluate teachers.
Also, aside from its awful content, there is a matter of process. From what i understand, this change in the law was passed without any testimony or hearings. Did the lawmakers who voted on it even knew it had been slipped in there?Thank you for your attention to this. Some people have been selling a bill of goods based on ‘accountability,’ but the way you keep accounts can have very negative effects.
Also, aside from its awful content, there is a matter of process. From what i understand, this change in the law was passed without any testimony or hearings. Did the lawmakers who voted on it even knew it had been slipped in there?
Thank you for your attention to this. Some people have been selling a bill of goods based on ‘accountability,’ but the way you keep accounts can have very negative effects.
Sincerely,
Brian Ford