Public school activist Leonie Haimson notes in her post about New York’s new educator evaluation plan that the plan includes this proviso:
“Teachers rated ineffective on student performance based on objective assessments must be rated ineffective overall.”
Haimson writes: “This means despite the claim that there are multiple measures, one year’s worth of unreliable and inherently volatile test scores will trump all.”
The state scores are supposed to be 20% of a teacher’s evaluation, plus another 20% of local measures. But a teacher who is rated ineffective on the 40% “must be rated ineffective overall.”
Ergo, 40% = 100%.
*the original post said 20% = 100%, but teacher/blogger Arthur Goldstein pointed out to me that the test portion was 40%, not 20%.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
But what will constitute an “ineffective” rating on the 20%?
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Really doesn’t matter.
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From doenuts’s blog. I can’t vouch for it but he’s generally pretty accurate about this stuff:
So it would seem to me that the targets are the biggest issue. From what I recall, other states that have instituted similar evaluation plans have not set very harsh targets and very small percentages of teachers have been rated ineffective based on test scores, to the extent that reformers are upset about it.
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Similar problem with Louisiana’s eval law. Says 50% student assessments and 50% observation/other but the the law states that if test component is in failing range, it supersedes. The “average” theory does not exist.
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It’s the new ideological math!
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Duane Swacker: yes, the new “ideological math” but without a hint of sound ‘ideas’ or ‘math.’
But I have it on good authority that 98% of these new teacher evals will be better than the old ones that resulted in nothing more than a perfunctory “satisfactory.”
[Did I get that right, Bill the G?]
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New Math (again)?
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Yep
How much does it cost to mail an empty box of textbooks?
Check out the Smarter whatever testing questions.
DUMBER THAN DUMB..
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I should not be surprised , but ……wow. How morally bankrupt must you be to abuse both teachers and the English language this way.
Quite stunning how John and Meryl are sinking that state to depths unseen.
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Somewhere in NYS, a rabbit is running around with a watch…
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What geauxteacher wrote: Same in Louisiana: The student test scores override the entire evaluation if the scores “show” that a teacher is “ineffective.”
The bill to suspend the punitive outcomes for the La. teacher eval is being heard in the legislature even as I write. It failed in senate committee earlier this week (HB 160) but has been tacked onto another bill (HB 129).
Friday, the La. Supreme Court declared that Act 1 (teacher evals and a whole lot more) must go back to 19th discritc court and be reheard. It was declared unconstitutional for having “too many objects,” but the LaSupreme Court wants the case reheard since Act 2 (vouchers) was not declared unconstitutional on this basis.
So all is up in the air regarding the La teacher eval (COMPASS).
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If teachers are going to be evaluated based on “objective” tests of student achievement, I hope they insist that these tests are professionally administered, valid and reliable in determining student progress from September to June. That means each test must be individually administered in the fall to ascertain the achievement level of the child and then again in the spring to determine progress over the academic year. And of course, the person who administers the test must be trained to differentiate between home and school learning and must note factors affecting school achievement (e.g. “Jose was in Mexico from Dec. 8 through March 20”). Sound expensive? Oh well.
In the meantime, each teacher should keep a portfolio of daily work, assessment tests and other examples of student progress. Other people (administrators, parents, teachers) should be witnesses. If possible, the teacher should get the principal to help assess students throughout the year. It’s not difficult to demonstrate student progress if the assessment is done correctly.
If each teacher keeps careful records of student progress, she’ll have plenty of evidence of student progress when these “evaluations” go to court.
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GOOD ADVICE LINDA.
Do expect to see many lawsuits…….many many
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This is true of many states, including mine. You could be distinguished in all categories, but if your kids score low, you get fired – at least after a couple of years.
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Linda has the right idea..
Document-document-document..EVIDENCE
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Yes, welcome to NY. Of course this is our first year with these assessments. Some were written locally, some were written at BOCES. Some teachers have state exams. They are possibly different for each school unless there is a state exam. Even the kindergarten teacher has to administer tests where they must read the questions to the student in September. You are not allowed to grade your students as you will cheat. I wasn’t allowed to see which questions my first semester students got wrong so I could improve my second semester teaching. There is no pilot, if the test is invalid or the growth target flawed. or if you have lots of mainstreamed students like my school, you are out of luck. Can we do the greatest of harm with the best of intentions? In essence, the students are no longer responsible for their work, the teacher must make them learn or loose their job. I wonder who will be responsible next, not the parents? Not the 1% who have pushed the students into poverty. We are dragging millions of teachers through the mud in order to find the handful who need to be dismissed and it isn’t working. A music teacher in one district who meets their students once a week for a semester gives the same BOCES generated test as another district where they meet their kids every other day. The first time many teachers saw their test was when they gave it as a pretest. There is no state mandated music curriculum, that will come after the test is developed and administered. VAM is a random number generator! The whole concept like all mandates was never thought through or bounced off any educators who could point out it’s flaws. You can be an excellent teacher with emotionally compromised students (i.e. middle school) and be ineffective. The VAM score says way more about the personal commitment students have to their education than it does about a teacher. There is nothing in the system to include attendance either. Miss half the year? You teacher will still be responsible for your work.
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VAM = VACATED ASININE MADHOUSE
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In NC, the legislature language in the Excellent Public Schools Act of 2013 is a bit trickier – so, NC went on this media push this year that all 6 teacher evaluation standards (standardized testing being one of them, ‘standard 6’) were equally weighted in determining a teacher evaluation, but then in further reading the excellent schools act – failure to get proficient in any of them, including standard 6 (testing), is grounds for dismissal.
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A teacher in NC was called to the office at 8a.m. and was told
“Bring your evidence with you”
Too Funny..
NOT…DID NOT…THE TEACHER DID NOT GO!
THE TEACHER DOCUMENTED ALL..
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Ergo, the UFT/AFT are hopeless captives (willing or unwilling, it doesn’t much matter) of the so-called reformers.
The UFT is currently directing its reps to visit schools and sell this train wreck to the members, and actually has the nerve to be calling for a demonstration next week to demand a new contract, since NYC public school teachers have been working without one since 2009.
What they’re too intellectually dishonest to admit is that we now have a new contract: VAM, the Danielson checklist, endless exams under the Common Corporate Standards, and student rating of teachers.
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Why does this all remind me of that pineapple question?
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My district (in Florida) saw the inherent flaw in our state’s very similar model that requires the testing scores to override the observational scores, so they gave us 2 sets of scores on last year’s VAM evaluations, a “state” score and a “district” score. Should prove useful in a court case if anyone ever takes that step.
Our VAM model is 50% FCAT (state exam) and 50% Danielson-type observations throughout the year. In non-tested grades and classes, the FCAT score is averaged from the 4th and 5th grade tests.
According to the state model, I was rated “effective” because of the heavier-weighted test scores of the 4th and 5th graders in our school that I had never taught nor even met (I am a primary teacher, 2nd grade last year, 1st grade this year and new to this school).
My district model rated me “highly effective” based upon the equal weighting of the principal’s multiple observations (4 unannounced walkthroughs with Danielson checklist, 1 formal traditional observation with pre- and post-conference) and the averaged test scores of the 4th and 5th graders.
We didn’t even receive our evaluations until September of the following school year because the whole state-adopted VAM was so confusing that no one could figure out what to do with the data or how to report the evaluations. Talk about building the plane while flying it!
Good luck NYC teachers! As a former colleague and former UFT chapter leader I am familiar with the corruption of the NYC school system. This VAM model will be quite the tool in the hands of inept and/or vindictive administrators with axes to grind.
We need a nationwide strike to put a stop to this foolishness. Sooner, rather than later.
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AGREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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That is how it is in Florida as well. You could get great scores on your observations, but if your VAM isn’t great (even if you don’t teach the graded subjects or the students), your overall evaluation will be lowered.
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Who cares?
Let them fire all of the teachers and get their a**es in the class and attempt to teach a ridiculous test!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have lost all respect for these Testing Bureaucrats..
Need to join together and oust all of these testing maniacs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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On the NYS APPR it was stated that:
“The (NYS) Department (ED) will be analyzing data supplied by districts, BOCES, and/
or schools and may order a corrective action plan if there are unacceptably low correlation results between the student growth subcomponent and any
other measures of teacher and principal effectiveness and/or if the teacher or principal scores or ratings show little differentiation across educators and/or the lack of differentiation is not justified by equivalently consistent student achievement results. ”
Just in case you didn’t understand what this means, King made it clear in this statement:
“Teachers rated ineffective on student performance based on objective assessments must be rated ineffective overall.”
So you go through months of reflection to try to determine a fair based evaluation system and it doesn’t matter because the student performance based on VAM is all that matters to the NYS BOE.
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The same issue exists in Connecticut’s new evaluation plan, although not quite as bad as 20% = 100%. Nonetheless, test scores can trump other factors in some situations. I just love the intro to this train wreck: the authors brag that it is fair, valid, and reliable. It is none of these things.
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N ever was there a more false and specious system
Y aks in yokes on the field could have designed a better system and with more erudition
A sses that go hee-haw must be filling the posts up at Albany
P ick your poison: Christine Quinn, Bill Thompson, or Anthony Weiner
P assion is driven out of great pedagogy, people are put down
R eason has left the building, ridiculousness is now at the helm
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Note that the 40% weighted to 100% does an end-run around local determinations of teacher quality and effectiveness, thereby further eliminating local control of the district. In my state on NY, in most cases both the SLO 20% and the so-called Local 20% will be determined by non-local measures, since the ‘local 20’ must be part of the state approved plan, which only allows certain measures.
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Well, I haven’t seen anything regarding teachers who situations are similar to mine, so let me throw another “defective evaluation” log on the fire.
I teach elective classes. In North Carolina, in my county, you need 28 credits to graduate. If a student passes all of his classes since his freshman year, they would have 32. So, I end up with kids who “don’t need my class to graduate” and blow it off. They just have to make sure they pass their senior English class at that point.
So, should my pay and evaluation be based on students who are indifferent on their performance? Or should we require 32 credits to graduate (which would be a bad idea – drop-out rates would increase, graduation rates would decline, etc…)?
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