This reader notes that Bill Gates admits that we won’t know if his education “stuff” works for a decade. Yet based on Gates’ support for evaluating teachers by student test scores, teachers are losing their jobs. These are real people, who need to feed their children, not data points in an experiment.
Meanwhile, most researchers agree that the metric is flawed, unreliable, and unstable. Thus comes this reader’s suggestion:
“Here’s a suggestion offered only partly tongue-in-cheek.. The Gates Foundation should be joined as a repondent in every suit filed for wrongful termination as a consequence of any Gates sponsored or designed teacher evaluation system. What could be more quintessentially American than that? Moreover, when suing, it’s always better to go after the party with deep pockets. After all, should cash-strapped urban districts that have had these evaluation systems forced upon them be held solely liable?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Partly tongue in cheek perhaps but it certainly makes the point and also makes complete sense. Todd Farley’s book Making the Grades suggests exactly this course of action and would include both ETS and Pearson. A quick romp through the reckless landscape of testing mad USA.
The Gates Foundation response would likely amount to “I did not have sex with that woman.”
I have often thought a class action suit by certifed educators against the Education departments that provided the guidelines, expectations, certification tests, fees, and follow up professional development requirements would be an interesting approach. It irks me that we all collectively spent milllions to become “highly qualified” by earning all the credentials that those very departments mandated, only to find out afterwards that so many of us are ineffective or perhaps developing.
The responsibility goes beyond state DoEs to state politicians, who passed the laws that DoEs are required to enforce.
Why not go after all the politicians and government officials who allowed Gates to call the shots in education, too, despite being an out-of-field dilettante and college drop-out? They seem to think accountability applies to everyone but themselves, so let the judicial branch of government determine who all is culpable.
That’s a brilliant idea. Even if the court tosses it later, Gates and others have to defend it. In DC you can file and serve pro se for under $200. If it progresses you can do depositions and interrogatories. Oh the fun I would have with that.
In tennis that would be a service ace.
“After all, should cash-strapped urban districts that have had these evaluation systems forced upon them be held solely liable?”
That’s a very good question. When these “new teacher evaluations” are fully scrutinized in the light of day, who will be held responsible for threatening and/or destroying the livelihood of so many teachers? Further, who will be held responsible for all the monetary, human and time resources that have been wasted on useless test prep and testing. Is there legal redress for students for lost instruction? Certainly the U.S. DOE, State DOE, local districts, “reformers”, state governors and legislators all have a share in the damage done to public education.
I don’t think it should just be tongue and cheek….
I’ve been pondering this for a while now. Students are also affected by al the testing and changes in the curriculum which are not always for the best. The 1st grade CC ELA Standards are developmentally inappropriate. And yes, such a lawsuit should include Pearson, Duncan and all others involved in creating and promoting this reform package.
Can we add pain and suffering for all the stress this causing?
This is a wonderful idea, and could provide an incentive for lawyers to take these cases on contingency, since Gates is such fat target.
It also points to something that’s becoming more apparent by the day: the Common Core Standards, the tests they are a vehicle for, and the deranged teacher evaluations – in my school, phys ed teachers are being evaluated on the English proficiency test scores of our 100% ESL population! – accompanying them, are a Full Employment Act for lawyers.
I’d much rather the so-called reformers have a stake driven through their collective heart by an informed mass movement repelled at what they are trying to do, and seeking a revival of public education, but if it’s thousand legal cuts that kill them off, I’ll take it.
What heart?
I have already stated if my professional reputation is compromised, after 18 years of stellar write ups, I would sue. My evaluation gets posted. I work hard. I will not be quiet and let my reputation be tarnished because of junk science.
A few months ago Anthony Cody had a lively and feisty exchange with the Gates Foundation. At one point I remember him suggesting it was Gates’ responsibility to repair the damage done. I agreed, and suggested we start thinking of “restitution”.
I think it is ABSOLUTELY right to continue speaking in these terms. Think of the millions and millions of student years of education ruined and compromised by the influence of their billions spent on untested and flat out damaging ideologies and “hunches”.
In addition to the years of ruined education, as mahlness points out, think about the impact on students who don’t graduate with a “real” diploma because they are unable to pass one test for which the “proficiency” cut off score is a moving target. What about the freshman who started high school with the Common Core standards being taught but the old standards still being tested and that test is still determining their entire futures? It is sickening that the people who claim education is the only way to end poverty are doing everything in their power to create more of it. Restitution may indeed be in order, not only for these students, but also for the taxpayers who pick up the tab when they are unable to find jobs and become self reliant.
US Department of Corporate Education under the control of the Gates Foundation, Pearson’s lobbyists, Amplify/inBloom, DFER, ALEC, reformers, certain legislators and Jeb’s Chiefs for Change have worked together to set up a for-profit no-win education system for millions of students and teachers under the guise of accountability. Therefore, it’s important to file the largest class action suit in history since federal funds have been misused to close neighborhood schools, harm students’ education rights and to terminate employment all based on reformers’ ideology and profit motives.
I think we can also sue Eli Broad and Waltin Family. In doing so, perhaps we can tank some of that obscene wealth that allows them to corrupt and corrode everything we hold dear. Consider the unseemly influence Broad has had on LA museums. Nad Gates’ meddling in medicine has been less than successful. At what cost? The Walton’s have pushed TFA interns at every urban school district while offering their own employees courses in how to apply for public assistance. When I tell folks I do not shop Walmart, they always say something in praise of low prices. Those low prices cost all of us a great deal. Who pays for medical care when Walmart will not do it? We do !
I like this. A lot.
I don’t see how this is tongue-in-cheek the least little bit. I think teachers’ organizations should be finding enterprising attorneys who will do the work that it will take. The love of the lawsuit by Americans is something of a joke, but here is a place where it actually makes sense. These people are causing teachers to lose their livelihoods.
Let me amend your last sentence:
These people are causing teachers and pricipals to lose their livelihood by falsely portraying them, maligning them, and mischaracterizing them to be incompetent when in fact they never were……..