New York’s Teacher of the Year testified to the State Senate Education Committee that the education evaluation system made it impossible for her to be rated “highly effective” because of the “dysfunctional implementation” of the Common Core standards.
Kathleen Ferguson, the New York State Teacher of the year, was also the teacher of the year in her school district, and has won several awards for excellence in teaching.
Yet, she told a Senate Education Committee hearing on the state’s new Common Core standards, under the new rules, even she could not score a rating of highly effective in the new teacher evaluations.
The reason, she said, is that her marks were based in part on student test scores. She teaches second graders with special needs, who are often behind the level of other children in their grade. But the new standards permit no exemptions for her students.
“This system does not make sense,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson said her students were required to take pretests for almost the entire first month of school. The pre-tests are used to measure what students don’t know. They are used as a comparison for their performance on tests given at the end of the school year, after they have actually been taught the material. The test scores are then used as part of the new process of teacher evaluations required under terms of federal grants worth millions of dollars that the state has received.
At some point in the future, historians will look back on this era and remember it as a time of child abuse and teacher abuse by government diktat.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In discussions with a confidant, and in all fairness to the integrity of discussion, we agreed that abuse is too strong a word in this context because it possibly (likely, and unintentionally) minimizes actual physical acts of child abuse. The implication is that the actions demanded and required through RttT are inappropriate for the nurture and guidance of children in a safe and encouraging manner, and are possibly (likely, though this time perhaps intentionally) harmful.
We need a different word than abuse.
“Abuse” comes in many forms, not just physical. That is the insidious nature of abuse. Bruises on the inside are often just as bad if not worse than bruises you can see.
Exactly..”Mental Abuse” of a child or any Human being…does exist.
Any of this who have been in a classroom where kids are taking a test that is designed to be what they do not know understands that this qualifies as abuse. The look of stress on their faces says it all.
Emotional abuse is more insidious – and in some ways more harmful – than physical abuse. As a society, we’ve finally gotten to the point that we generally agree that physical abuse is wrong. Also, physical abuse leaves evidence. Victims of physical abuse are generally validated and supported.
We haven’t generally gotten to the point of recognizing and validating emotional abuse. “Sticks and stones….” Victims are told to “grow up” or “man up” or just “get over it”. So then the victim gets double whammy – the abuse itself, followed by the violence of being unrecognized, invalidated, and possibly even blamed.
Mental and emotional abuse IS abuse. It’s why I quit teaching: I couldn’t subject children to the stress any longer, and I couldn’t take the stress myself. I am now cured of my insomnia, and my stress is at a healthy level.
Same
I hear you loud and clear. I feel like I have reached my limit in the daily unreasonable demands that are being made of me as a teacher. I spend so much time in meetings and professional development around “effective teaching” that I don’t have the time or energy to put into practice what is being drilled into me. I have no time to do what I know is really in the best interest of my students, and that is to plan wonderful lessons, gather my resources, give quick and generous feedback, and teach with a sense of peace that would permeate my class if I felt it. I love teaching, yet sadly I am looking at other professions. It is no longer a lifelong career. As soon as you hit the top of the pay scale, you become the villain.
Yep, me too! Taught lower elementary students for over 38 years and just could not submit them to the torture any longer! Also could not take the stress facing teachers every day! As I heard once, if a company is making blueberry ice cream and receives a bad batch of blueberries, they throw them away, with education, you take every blueberry and make it the best it can be! Under the new laws and guidelines, you are forced to make them what the data requires and if they cannot achieve like others destroy their self-esteem by making them realize how far behind they really are! I love my students, my job, and teaching, but the government has made it impossible to be a caring, loving, and supportive teacher! We can no longer empower students with a need to learn, we must cram what the government believes is best down their throat!!!
Me, too! Fought the hard fight for 18 years. I couldn’t stand to be causing my 2nd graders so much stress, so I resigned at the end of last school year. Something MUST be done about the direction education is going.
Wow. I really didn’t realize so many others felt the way I do. I took a year of personal leave (after 20+ years of teaching) to evaluate my professional path. I can’t believe the change in my health and disposition after just three months. I liked being a teacher and loved watching kids learn; however, I could not continue to watch the downward spiral of public education created by over-testing and micromanagement. I could not continue to give away all my waking hours to my job. I could not continue to watch cronyism poison my profession. I could not give more of myself, and giving less felt ethically wrong. It is because I feel I was a very good teacher that I must quit the profession– because what made me good was not measurable and will never be recognized under the new evaluation guidelines. I can’t go back to the stressful environment, the blame games, the unethical practices that, while not widespread, are ignored when the teacher involved is “in the inner circle”. I have witnessed these things at many schools since I began teaching in 1987. It makes me sad to know that I basically dedicated my life to something that began to eat away at my very being. It makes me feel better to know that others feel the same way, that I am recovering, and that I woke up in time to begin again. I don’t know what I will do, but I don’t think I can go back to the classroom. It hurts students and teachers alike.
Please don’t diminish the very real issues if psychological and emotional abuse. Hidden, insidious, and very destructive.
The notion that the only real abuse leaves physical scars is a problem, in that it helps the abusers ” get away with it”.
I got to stay at school until 7 pm to watch a child struggle through an untimed test written by the Pearson company less than 8 years ago.
She was trying her level best to perform well on a test that netted our principal a bonus but netted her nothing.
That’s abuse. These tests are abuse. Children aren’t paid to field test questions for Pearson, but that’s what the tests make kids do.
I proctored for one that lasted from 8 until 2:30..
One child…
@Joanna Best… I disagree. you make the false assumption that abuse is purely physical. Abuse is not just physical. It is mental as well. This RTTT climate includes both physical and mental abuse and any other choice of words in my opinion are a “euphemism” designed to soften the effects. Let us call it what it is… abuse!
agree
I think you and your friends Joanna are naïve when it comes to the term abuse. The fact that you called it harmful shows that it is abuse. Psychologists will soon see many young students suffering from the Common Core Syndrome.
One of NYC’s psychologists has actually already testified to that effect.
I can’t remember where I saw it, but I’ll try to find it when I have more time and post it. She said that besides getting many referrals for young children that she was seeing 8th graders who were cutting themselves and more teachers whose anxiety levels were high. They all talked about Common Core.
I love it – Common Core Syndrome!
I use the term “pedagogical malpractice.”
Well, tell my sobbing 5th grader it’s not abuse and see what she says. Abuse is exactly the RIGHT word to use in this instance. It is certainly abusive to make children sit for hat long with no breaks. My daughter gets extra time so she even has to go to lunch late. Tell me keeping a hungry child from lunch isn’t abuse. It’s time for us to stand up for the children and say NO MORE!!!. Neither my 5th grader nor my 7th grader will be taking this inane tests this year. One year was enough!!!
What would you say to the children who come home crying after these tests? Or the one in our district who felt so stupid after the pre-tests, that he committed suicide? I was an abused child, and I am a teacher working under this common core regime. Psychologically, it feels very similar.
feels like abuse to me.
Hi Diane,
I thought you would be intrigued to know that my government email tends to block your blog. This is a recent phenomenon as previously there were no issues following your blog. I teach in Western Australia in a government school. Our current practice and trends seem to be led by GERM and have uncanny points in common with processes you condemn in your latest book.
Wonder why you’re not streaming properly all the way in Perth? We do have slow Internet, but methinks it is more than that 🙂 keep it up
Unionteacher
Child abuse is the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children.[1] In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department for Children And Families (DCF) define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child.[2] Child abuse can occur in a child’s home, or in the organizations, schools or communities the child interacts with. There are four major categories of child abuse: neglect, physical abuse, psychological or emotional abuse, and sexual abuse.
Claiming psychological or emotional abuse does not minimize the seriousness of physical abuse. Maybe we just need to specify instead of using the general term “abuse:.
Unfortunately we can also call it child manipulation as many teachers now feel compelled to game the system under the ridiculous guidelines of APPR evaluations.
At all who replied: thank you for your thoughts. I only write things when I want to know what others think, so thank you.
You know, though, I want to applaud NCAE for a wonderful law conference today in Raleigh, concluding with our Appeals Court Justices speaking to and interacting with us. It was awesome.
I think these judges, who often have to affirm decisions of children being taken away from their parents, would agree that abuse is not the word that will curry favor towards teachers in a quest against CCSS, VAM and so forth. Whether or not yet testing and methods of CCSS hinge on abuse, word choice matters in making a case. It is wise and prudent to consider this factor so that all seriousness and integrity is maintained in standing up for our children.
To all the commenters above and below: thank you for your remarks re whether “child abuse” is an appropriate and useful term when applied to the effects of high-stakes standardized testing on school children.
Honestly, at first the term was a bit jarring but I now think that it accurately reflects the real harm done to young people by the rheephormistas. That’s why I sometimes refer to it as a hazing ritual.
As to when and how often to use the term: I leave that to each person’s individual judgment and POV.
Love this blog…
😎
I have seen my 20 year career as a High School Art teacher (yes I consider myself extremely lucky to still have a teaching job and not be an ATR) go from teaching a wide range of classes in a High School with a thriving Art Major program that allowed my students to take the NYC Comprehensive Visual Arts Exam and use it to help obtain an Advanced Regents Diploma (my school was intentionally and methodically destroyed by Mayor Bloomberg’s selective policies of allowing only special education and ELL students to attend so that he could phase it out, pour millions of dollars into a complete interior and exterior make-over, and fill it with small High Schools that are all failing) to teaching only Required Art at another school. My students are smart enough to know that our futures as teachers and the future of our school depend on their progress and often tell me and my colleagues that “we cant fail them because we will lose our jobs”.
To further my humiliation, my current school has been identified as failing because again only special education and ESL students are admitted and held to the same standards as general ed students, and my evaluation will be based on how students who I do not even teach score on the NYC ELA Regents, a subject I don’t even teach. This past week was probably my worst as a teacher in my entire career, consisting of incredible amounts of stress and disrespect from students, who I refer to Dean’s and Guidance for intervention, to no avail. They are returned to my class the following day after cursing me out and leave my hands tied as to how to teach the students in my class who want to learn and succeed.
The reform movement has taken a job I loved and enjoyed and turned it into a complete horror, to the point where I wake up in the morning and dread going to work. My thanks to Mayor Bloomberg, and State Ed Commissioner John King for abusing (yes, abusing) both my students and myself. Thanks also to the author of the Common Core and Ms. Charlette Danielson, who are both rolling in money meant to improve students lives. Their work has done untold damage to students and teachers across the city, state and country. Ms. Danielson’s “Framework”, which consists of a rehash of all the things good teachers have been doing from the beginning, and which was intended to help teachers hone their craft, is being used as a weapon against teachers as part of the evaluation process (I have heard rumors that she is suing the DOE. I hope they are true).
I am confident that at some point soon my school’s budget will no longer be able to support me and I will be excessed and replaced with a teacher fresh out of college with none of the experience that I bring to the classroom on a daily basis, but with half the salary (or less).
I will end my career as an ATR, my life made intentionally so difficult that they assume I will retire. I have news for them. I WILL NOT be bullied and have been paying into the 25/55 plan so I can get away as soon as possible from a job and career that I loved and that never failed to be fulfilling on a daily basis. Teachers are strong and we will survive (except for the one that replaces me, who will quickly become disillusioned and leave the profession completely for a job where she will earn more money and be respected for the work she does).
We’re all mandated reporters in NY State. Teachers and administrators, that is.
I say we all report it stemming from the cause of an excess of testing.
http://raginghorse.wordpress.com
Good Post
Eloquent speech by a high school
http://dailycaller.com/2013/11/14/watch-this-high-school-seniors-epic-takedown-of-common-core-video/
Sorry, that should have been high school student
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
There is no doubt that these are dark days in education and the WORST part is that our children are paying the price. What “we” are asking of our children is developmentally inappropriate in so many ways (delivery, content, and time required to administer all of these tests!) PreTESTS are not preassessments and they do not inform teaching – they simple leave children looking and feeling like failures before they have even been given a chance to learn. We MUST find a way to turn this around for our kids sake. In my opinion, what the state is asking teachers to do in the name of “teacher evaluation” borders on criminal, and it is impacting an entire generation of children. : (
Reblogged this on peakmemory and commented:
An example of the dangers of value added assessment of teachers.
Good Morning- I am sharing this in hope of a greater good. As an administrator I have been honored several times in my career. I have been Educator of the Year ; Student Advocate of the Year, and Humane Educator of The Year. I am humbled to have received these awards.
My Growth Score ( in NY State) was zero. I was told that because so many parents chose to Opt Their Children out of the high stakes testing my score suffered greatly. I felt embarrassed and humiliated to be told this by a much younger, less experienced fellow colleague.
When I shared how devastated I felt with my husband,
he said: ” Wear It As A Badge of Honor.” ” You have stood up against Abuse your entire career.” My husband has a gift for saying the right thing at the right time.
My words of advice to those teachers who have been rated “ineffective” and “developing ” by an invalid, unreliable , abusive practice stand tall you are not alone. Continue to do what is right on behalf of children.
Marge
Thank you! As our district gears up to evaluate our teachers, using a system we have not been trained on but only given th e97 pg packet to read and been told that to get top 4’s would be almost unheard of, has left all my peers broken. Having already felt beaten down professionally, this may be that straw on the camel.
@Borcert… anyone like yourself who is rated ineffective despite having a long lengthy record of successful teaching/administration should be able to bring a class action suit against those in the “evaluator’s seat” on the grounds of libel. Ravitch has quite capably laid out the factual information as to why the new “evaluations” have no grounded in reality and used the “corporate ed reforms” own data to prove this! Would that be a wonderful moment… a collective class action suit by defamed and fired teachers based on these “corporate ed” evaluations!
Especially teachers whose evaluations were/are tied to Pearson’s disastrous math and ELA tests. No teacher’s hard earned reputation should be tarnished nor should tenure be denied because Pearson’s incompetent test production.
My contention is that if you have been rated “highly effective” or whatever the name of the “top” category in the rating system then you probably should not be teaching. Either that or you just got unlucky that the system erred (of which their are many miscategorizations) and placed you in that category (probably due to many factors outside your control).
Teachers who strive to get the highest rankings are GAGAers* and deserve the fate** they shall receive upon their passing from this life.
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution upon their passing from this realm.
**Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to two words-Educational Excellence-repeated without pause for eternity.
That is the stupidist thing I have every heard. I was rated highly effective, simply because I am an excellent teacher. And my kids did well on their post tests and my observations were impeccable. You are definitely ineffective.
Mike,
No doubt your a good teacher, but don’t believe the hype.
Smart, serious, hard working, highly motivated students with well educated, concerned, and involved parents – they make most teachers look like geniuses.
Duane, your rant sounds like an excellent idea for a novel. It could use some factual information behind a fictional story of a teacher’s life in hell. Not so far fetched, eh! Go for it.
I usually do not comment on many things, but I have to say it is an unfair judgement to say people that were rated highly effective should not be teaching. I went from ineffective (yes there was a rating the first year it came out but it did not have to count, so not many administrators presented them) to highly effective. The way I taught my students has not changed except for some of my materials. My ultimate goal is for everyone to learn and do their best. If it happens to work with the rating system so be it, that is not for me to worry about. My job is to be there for my students during a time where the education system see dollars not children. My job is to teach. So please attack the process not the teachers! As a side note using technology does not make you a bad teacher rather someone that is learning other ways to help engage our students,especially those with special needs and children learning a second language.
NYT,
Kinda of like ball players making the manager seem to be a genius when he pulls off a couple of “gut level” moves that go against the “book” and the team wins, eh!! Managers are as smart as their players are good. And as you suggest its probably very similar in the class room.
Interesting that Mike’s comment didn’t show up in my “post replies” button but all the replies from the others did. ???
Not sure how to interpret Mike’s comment. Hyperbole? Satirical?? A true statement of facts??? Help me out, Mike!
My interpreting machine must have a glitch in it.
” My husband has a gift for saying the right thing at the right time.”
He is a keeper. I’m glad you spoke up. They always say it is not professional to share such details, but I have come to believe that silence serves their purpose.
“Silence serves their Purpose”…….Wise thought 2old2tch
Marge,
I understand you are a principal. I apologize if my tone was a bit severe about you in past posts. I sincerely feel badly.
One thing we all realize is that adminsitration and teachers are all in this together. We should generate some petition asking people in the visual and performing arts to speak out against the corporate reform movement.
Please know that I rethought my own energy directed toward you and respect your efforts. If you get a petition together, send it my way via this blog or at artwork8@aol.com
Sincerely,
Robert Rendo
NBCT
Great Post..so agree
The Powers That Be DON’T CARE. They don’t want “Teachers of the Year” in the classroom. They want cheap and compliant robots who follow scripts.
Some of you might find this interesting. It’s a series of videos of an event with political operatives and marketing people advising on how to sell the Common Core to “the kitchen table” (public school parents) :
From GOP political operative and pundit Mike Murphy: “what are the two most powerful words in advertising? New and improved!” 🙂
Murphy admits what polling shows, which is that local teachers are the people most trusted by parents re: education.
You’re more credible on education than any of these politicians or marketing people, so you have more power than they’re letting on. Trust is huge. You have it, they don’t.
To further complicate matters: The Danielson Rubric, under which many of us are evaluated, is in complete opposition to the CCSS. Why? Danielson requires for Highly Effective, classes to be flipped, student engagement to be individualized, etc.. CCSS modules emphasize whole class instruction and lack individuation. (I’m not going into a critique here of Danielson—that’s another story of how there is no developmental continuum—all teachers K-12 are evaluated by the same criteria.) In my own elementary school, many teachers remark that they feel this is a form of child abuse. Abuse? Neglect? Whatever you call it, teaching methodology that undermines a child’s innate ability to learn as well as love and joy of learning, is harmful and wrong. Ultimately, a failure to change this, may result in a generation whose potential remains largely untapped. Who knows what the consequences to our society will be? Certainly, we are not educating children to be creative citizens of a healthy democracy.
In what sane system is the kindergarten art teacher and the high school AP calculus teacher rated using the exact same rubric?
Sorta flushes validity down the toilet.
Imagine if teachers used the same rubric to evaluate every student in every subject at every grade level. Will some one please get me out of this rabbit hole. My GPS cant seem to “acquire sanity”.
NY teacher,
“. . . cant seem to “acquire sanity”.”
That is why it would have been wise to have taken acid when one was younger so as to prepare oneself for times like these (all apologies to L. Black). At least one might be prepared to diminish the irreality of the current educational malpractices by convincing oneself: “It’s only a trip.” “It’s only a trip.” “It’s only a trip”. . .
I did get to see Timothy Leary speak when I was in college. Does that count?
Using my “da Vinci” art rubric I have determined that Picasso was “ineffective” – Monet and Cezanne were at least “developing”
NYT,
What did Leary have to say? I’ve seen interviews with him on the tube and have read interviews and he seemed fairly down to earth in those.
In the mid sixties I got to go to a seminar by Masters and Johnson on illness and sexuality. They were quite the dynamic speakers for a topic that tended toward dryness.
I think I saw him in the early 80s. My memory of it is somewhat vague but I do recall him being pretty much down to earth. He was not the far out hippy that one would expect. I remember him providing almost an historical look back on the counter-culture of the 60s and his research on the use of LSD as a clinical drug, not to mention mind expansion.
MId seventies not sixties, ay ay ay. Where’s my gd editor. Gonna have to whup him.
Melissa,
I don’t know where you teach — if your district or state interprets Danielson as *requiring* a flipped classroom, you need to know that’s not anywhere in materials that Charlotte Danielson wrote but your district or state’s (re)interpretation. Similarly, if your district or state interprets CSSS as *requiring* whole-class instruction, that’s a distortion of what is actually published as CCSS.
That’s not to say Danielson or CCSS are perfect, but that local claims about this stuff is often way off the mark.
Aaarggh! Local claims… are…
@ShermanDorn.. no matter what you argue, the real proof is in the here and now. What is happening as a result of implementing RTTT, high stakes testing, Danielson and common core? The reality is that children do not want to go to school anymore, they equate learning with test taking, teachers have had their profession stripped from them and are told exactly what to do even if it is against their best judgment and then are evaluated on actions they are forced into. So, argue as you like about the details of how Danielson is interpreted or implemented… as to who has the “right and wrong” strategy of implementation… THE REALITY IS THE REALITY and it is UNFORTUNATE!
Sherman,
“That’s not to say Danielson or CCSS are perfect. . . ”
Quite correct except that one should take it a step further and shout out about the complete invalidity of those processes. Attempting to quantify (Danielson rubrics and/or CCSS which imply measurement and in practice do have standardized tests to do so) the very human aesthetic activities in the teaching and learning process (which is in the qualitative realm) is a logical falsehood and therefore invalid, and as soon as it is shown to be invalid that means COMPLETELY INVALID.
To use COMPLETELY INVALID methods gives one COMPLETELY INVALID result/conclusions. Wilson has proven this in his never rebutted nor refuted “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at
So much time, energy and monies expended on COMPLETE INVALIDITIES is the definition of COMPLETE INSANITY.
Not only that but the innocent, the students (and by extension teachers now) are harmed through the process. Kind of like bathing a child in 150 degree bathwater. Most may survive but there sure is a lot of damage done that will last a lifetime.
And they say that the driver of the Quixotic Quest Bandwagon has lost his mind. No, tis the other way around. UTTER MADNESS!
Duane
Its not a matter of interpretation. You cant interpret “stupid”
After seeing first hand the emotional pain, suffering, self-doubt and insecurities that these invalid test results bring when students are told they are no longer smart and teachers are told they are no longer any good, certainly reaches the level of abuse. And it is leading to a school wide post traumatic stress disorder. I do not think this is minimizing real abuse since it is real abuse. The number of students and teachers with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts is really scaring me. When a system causes mental health issues we need to fix it as soon as possible or it will take years to recover from and some may not survive.
“. . . certainly reaches the level of abuse.”
Yes, maam! And let’s call a spade a spade: it is BULLYING perpetrated onto the teachers by those above, those administrators that willing implement these destructive educational malpractices.
YES!
This is most definitely emotional abuse and it leaves life-long scars. I have watched as my younger special needs students cry and rock themselves do to test anxiety, and I’ve watched as my older special needs students give up and stop caring-out of necessity.
This is emotional and psychological abuse. The scars from this type of abuse are not readily seen; however, WE should all be concerned about the mental health issues stress and anxiety cause.
And not just in students, but in teachers, too. My students AND colleagues AND I are all worn to a frazzle and it’s only November. I don’t know WHAT the kids are going to do when faced with the four hour and ten minute spring language arts test. It’s going to be ugly.
I have 31 6th graders. 7 receive special Ed support (push in), 1 is selective mute, 1 is autistic with no support, 1 has a behavioral disorder (no support), 1 has a 504 plan, 1 has a court-ordered supervisor, and 2 have non-English speaking parents. With student test scores counting 40% of my evaluation, you don’t have to be a mathematician to see I won’t be highly effective this year. Am I stretching these students as far as I can? You bet. Do I want to continue to have the most challenging students in my school? Absolutely! Do I feel my evaluation should be zinged because of it? Hell no!
When are excellent teachers going to be able to form the Common Sense Faculty and plan curriculum for schools? The answer is probably “Never” as long as corporations and test companies are ruling the roost.
If our country could simply forgo it’s ego, and accept that nationally we don’t rank # 1- and let teachers be teachers, students learn, and districts support and protect the educational integrity that we strive for then maybe this abuse/ maltreatment/ insanity- whatever you call it would stop.
The heart of the issue is that our government cannot accept that other countries rank higher than us academically- but the sad truth is we report all/ other countries weed out the “bad” scores before reporting.
We teach (or are suppose to) our children that being individuals and doing things your way is ok- but as a society we are failing in this area.
Just my 2 cents. I’m sick of the dictatorship mentality we are enduring- we are not China. We are not Singapore, We are not Japan, We are a country of many ethnicities and cultures diverged in one-
I agree Nicole. We can’t compare the US to other countries because our educational systems do not equate. Other countries were sending their students here because our schools were better. We want our children to learn in a loving environment, especially at the elementary level. We want our kids to enjoy their childhood and be exposed to art, music, literature, sports, etc. We don’t want our children spending all their free time doing homework. We want some family time so they can bond with their siblings and parents.
Our current educational system should not be the plot of a science fiction novel where children are isolated from family and peers.
We need to put some common sense back into education. I hope it is not too late.
Love this post.
Nor do I want my child to be Chinese or a Singaporian(?) or anything else but what their interests and talents lead them to be ………to live a Healthy, Productive, and Happy One Life.
Yes, it’s abuse….
YES, indeed! Call it what it is…ABUSE for PROFIT and CONTROL.
Who is on the stage with King??
Great two minutes! The teacher didn’t need anymore. I applaud her!
Chancellor Meryl Tisch is on stage with Commissioner King.
Thanks.
And the other man at the other table?
Thanks for posting that schoolgal.
Do you have a URL for it?
FLANAGAN.
Who is he? What’s his position?
Thanks in advance!
Senator Flanagan ; Chair of the Education Committee.
It was interesting to see that he was sitting at the other table by himself. Was that the way it was the whole time?
I wasn’t there, but I assume that was the seating arrangemt the entire time. Were you able to see the expressions on their faces?? I found the body language very interesting.
Marge
Teaching is not, nor has it ever been about “Evaluations tied to Standards, etc…” For anyone to believe that a teachers impact can be judged by tests and data means they have no concept of what happens in a classroom.
http://ojlowe.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/why-do-most-fail-at-becoming-a-teacher/
As a veteran teacher of 30 years, it is abuse – plain and simple. When children are crying and having anxiety issues – that’s abuse.
Then there are those children with IEPs who are required to take a 3rd grade pre-assessment on 3rd grade material because they are in the 3rd grade. Many children with IEPs are working at least a year behind grade level. If a child is actually working closer to a beginning 2nd grade level, let’s say in math, and her teacher plans lessons for her at her appropriate instructional level, it is possible for that child to make great progress and still not show progress on the 3rd grade post-assessment because the progress that she made was on the second grade curriculum that the teacher taught. I often proctor the state tests to children with IEPs. To see a child, with a serious learning disability, have to sit and look at a test for 90 minutes, 3 days in a row, that they know and you know they can’t begin to do, is abusive to the child and to the teacher forced to witness that child’s distress.
“At some point in the future, historians will look back on this era and remember it as a time of child abuse and teacher abuse by government”
At “some point in the future”?
Certainly not in the foreseeable future !
This kind of stuff has been going on for decades and will continue ad infinitum as long a “Educrats” continue to run public school systems and teachers fail to rebel.
Here’s a taste of the educational schemes that have already been foisted on NJ teachers over the years:
The Renaissance Act
The Urban Hope Act
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
The Race to the Top
The Quality Education Act (QEA)
Thorough and Efficient (T&E)
High School Proficiency (HSPT)
(HSPT9)
(HSTP11)
Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA)
Quality Single Accountability Continuum (QSAC)
Comprehensive Education Improvement and Financing Act (CEIFA)
The School Funding Reform Act
The New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (NJ ASK)
NJ ASK 3
NJ ASK4.
NJ ASK 3-8
Minimum Basic Skills testing program (MBS)
Early Warning Test (EWT)
Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA)
Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA)
Core Curriculum Content Standards
Tenure “Reform”
Pension “Reform”
And there will be many more to come as long as teachers and their unions continue to cower and sit meekly by !!!
http://teachersdontsuck.blogspot.com/
http://wsautter.com/
With the exception of NCLB (Title 1 schools; grades 3 to 8), past reform movement have never been this punitive. Nor has there been such an obvious threat of corporate take over and privatization.
As far as unions go, NYSUT did not cower and sit meekly by, they literally sold us out to Bill Gates and Co.
How can learning disabled 9th graders reading on a third grade reading level be expected to pass the regents in living environment in June? And I’m going to be evaluated for this? I’m the Special Ed team teacher and believe me, my LD kids will not pass…yet, my 40% rides on them…
No teacher should ever have to have thoughts like these gnawing at their psyche.
Dear Ms Ferguson,
I’m sorry you had to be the guinea pig. But know that my ‘show-me’ engineer husband, who is anti-union & not interested in a bunch of details, snorted, “Ridiculous!” when he heard the headline “NYS Teacher of the Year Not Good Enough for ‘highly-effective’ Rating.” Getting common-sense stories like yours out to voters is the only way to turn things around.
I have a similar situation. I have always (37 years) received superlative evaluations. I also founded a successful small private school. At night I had been an adjunct in a state university. One of my grad students went to the white house for a teaching award. I am a career person who lives and breathes education. I now teach in an urban middle school (for a challenge). For 9 years I received great evaluations. The paperwork in my life is now extraordinary. I have no Saturdays, Sundays, evenings, parties or time for phone calls. At this breaking point, we were told we had to analyze all open ended questions on cycle tests. I have 120 students and 3 questions per student. It was simply not possible and have to time to go to work. I was given a very bad rating in the category of “administrative duties”. On another occasion, a 6-question report was sent to me with an edict of “complete this in 48 hours”. In the subsequent 48 hours, SGOs and MANY other documents were due. I couldn’t get it done on time. I was then emailed on my vacation to complete it. In the end I am rated very low for admin duties when I have no personal life due to admin duties. I feel harassed and may seek legal help.
Oh, Marie. I feel for you. I had never received a bad evaluation…. until last year. In fact, one of my colleagues once dubbed me the “team cheerleader” and wrote a recommendation letter that hailed me as “unfailingly positive”. That’s who I was. I started at a new school last year and my reception was no less than chilly. My new job was to teach pre-AP Language Arts to 7th graders, almost all of whom read well below grade level. I was told to stop writing detailed comments on their writing assignments as it was considered unnecessary. (I am a published writer myself, and when I give a piece to someone for editing, I expect comments. That’s how writers improve.) I watched my counterpart created unit tests that were 6-8 pages long, including essay questions, and then basically scan the answers rather than critically evaluate the answers. I watched quietly as her students scored very high on assignments that, using our common rubric, were passable but not exemplary. I disagreed with this process. And guess what? I received my first poor review. The sticking point: a very low rating in teamwork and professional relationships. Wow. There was only so much the union could do. It was my doctor who went to bat for me in the end. I was able to take FMLA due to the increased amount of stress (my hair was falling out!). He scheduled a long-overdue surgery and I took the last three months of the school year to recover. I felt harassed and beaten down. Demoralized. Keep fighting the good fight. Remember that you (and your life) are important. You matter.
So sorry to hear it affected your health. The teachers in our school have been crumbling healthwise and we’ve had 2 stress related deaths……
I fractured a bone in my ankle this past Monday and had to take the week off to keep my foot up and iced. While I still had to develop lesson plans for my sub every day, I didn’t have to take time out of my busy administrative (paper work) schedule to deal with teaching all those pesky kids that keep getting in the way of the work I am expected to do for the district and the state. During my week off I managed to almost catch up on the chores that keep piling up faster than I can do them. When I am expected to actually teach the children and do all the other chores, there is no possible way to get it done unless I give up everything else in my life.
I will no longer give up everything else in my life, I’ve done that for several years now, and I am determined to keep my focus on the kids at school. I am encouraging others to step back and remain healthy and sane as well. I used to love my job…. it is sad what is happening in schools everywhere.
I hear you. It is so important that we all remember WHY we chose education as our profession. It is about the kids- they are what really matter in this fight and it is their futures that are at stake. I say, close the door and get back to the important work of educating America’s children. And oh yes, keep reading Diane Ravitch’s blog- not only will it keep you informed but it will give you the strength you need to fight the good fight another day!
The value of Intelligence has been reduced to an all time low of Plutocracy. Commissioner King and Governor Cuomo need to start listening to the masses and stop catering to the money or go. It is time for them to admit they have made a mistake and fix it. That’s what would indicate intelligence on their part. 3012-c is the most unbalanced, disrespectful measure of productivity I have ever seen. Everyone is talking about Common Core. The fact is, that this present demoralizing model makes teachers do the bare minimum. If I don’t have a job, nothing much else matters. I love my students but I need to maintain some sort of dignity. You can’t punch me in the face and accept that I’ll just take it. As indicated in the article. How can the best of the best not even make highly effective? Cuomo on King need to fix this or go.
Around my school system, we often refer to RttT as the “Dash for the Cash.” We’ve mostly used our chunk of cash (a pretty paltry $73 million) to create a new bureaucracy to administer the spending of whatever cash is left over after having created the positions to spend it.