This was written by Kipp Dawson, an experienced teacher of English and social studies in middle school in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh won a large grant from the Gates Foundation to apply its ideas about evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students. Things have not gone well, as Dawson reporters here, especially since the city schools have a Broad superintendent who is a true believer in test scores as the measure of one’s worth.
Before becoming a teacher, Kipp Dawson spent ten years as a coal miner. She knows the importance of collaboration with colleagues. In the mines, her life depended on it every day.
She writes:
Education “reformers” are pointing their “effective teaching” arrows in precisely the wrong direction. In real life, anyone who wants to see really bad teaching can walk into any “highly effective” teacher’s classroom in public school in any Broad-trained-superintendent’s district infested by any Gates-type teacher “evaluation” system and see what fear has turned “effective teaching” into.
The day begins with an administrator’s announcement over the PA system of how many days are left until the BIG test.
Children, our precious children, then go from room to room (or the little ones stay in one room) led by a teacher who fears every moment for her/his job, and “knows” the way to keep it is to get those high test scores from those actual real children from the real world who are going to make or break her/his employment by which circles they fill in on those answer sheets during all of those days. So fear guides her/him as lessons are planned, as letters are sent home to parents, and as children’s time in school is more and more frenziedly taken up with frenzied, fear-inspired “teaching” of how to fill in those bubbles, by golly, we’re gonna make this happen, aren’t we, kids. And if any parent of a “high achieving” child dares mention opting out of these tests, fear guides the teacher’s response — fear based on real possibilities that in and of themselves make this whole scene draconian.
This is what classrooms across this country are becoming/have become for our beautiful kids — kids who come to us to get away from the growing poverty and violence which in too many cases controls their lives outside of school.
Fear.
Fear is coloring the days of children and teachers alike. THIS is what “education reform” ala Broad and Gates hath wrought. This is what we teachers and our organizations need to recognize, stand up against, and fight. Alongside our real allies. Along with parents who are telling the truth about what is going on even as they do all they can to stop the attacks on us teachers, too many of whom have been pushed into being agents of this horror.
Let us raise high again, out of the dust this mess is creating, the images of what real teaching and learning can be like (for a quick refresher, go back to chapter 9 of Diane Ravitch’s “Death and Life of the Great American Schopl System” — “What Would Mrs. Ratliff Do?”). We have to stop this madness.
There seems to be such a disconnect between what we as teachers know motivates ourselves and our students and what the ed-reformers think they know. We know that fear does not help students learn. Many already live in fear of an insecure home, bullying or just loneliness.
We know that fear does not motivate ourselves to work harder. Most of us are already working as hard as we can, Many are going out on our own time to learn more about how to help their students. Fear of a administrative observation does not make anyone teach better, but it may cause someone to have a “special” lesson they pull out when the administrator walks through the door that is tailored to the effective teaching checklist du jour.
Reformers claim they want 21st Century workers, but are still using 19th century business philosophy. No wonder they want to get rid of unions. They want those “good ol’ days” when workers would labor 12-14 hours/day for scrip to use at the company store while the owners stood on the hill counting their money.
So true, fear is the guiding principle today in public education. Fear for your job, fear of low test scores, fear of any type of evaluation. This hostile work environment is toxic and produces nothing. The students’ studies have been narrowed down to math and english overload while the other subjects are left in exile. Collaboration does not exist in these environments, top down, inefficient, irrational decision-making is the rule by know nothing administrators whose best qualities are that they know how to take orders, blindly, illlegally,uncaringly. Students are just test takers and teachers, our most valuable asset, well they are expendable, especially if they are older, veteran teachers. Let’s just bring in TFA, the young ones, who don’t ask questions but take orders, blindly and obediently. Public education in the reform/deform era.
Pittsburgh, Tampa… any school District that Gates has infected with his punitive teacher ranking system is fueled by fear. Massive PR campaigns made these abominations sound good to those unwilling or unable so see through the glitz and rhetoric.
In Florida, they practically had a parade to celebrate the 100M grant; 100M of which exactly zero would make it to the class room; a grant that called for 5% of continuing contract teachers to be terminated each year.
Local media and politicians celebrated. The teachers union told their constituents this was a great thing. After all, a hundred million dollars is a 100 million dollars, right? Wrong. Money can do great good or great evil.
This has been a nightmare.
It is really shameful that teachers’ unions would be full of collaborators with these deforms. Shameful.
School reformists disregard scientific evidence on the impact fear has on the brain. In response to fear the amygdala releases chemicals that interfere with learning. It is shocking that school reformists typically model and support practices that inhibit learning and implicitly foster bullying and antisocial behavior.
I cannot understand why is that administrators can’t look around at what is really working for students and teachers and emulate that. Fear has never worked for anyone. There are public and charter schools that have innovative curricula that are working to educate our children and provide freedom for teachers to teach real lessons, not a test. What we have now is teachers teaching to the test to make sure that students can pass the standardized exams and that they don’t loose their jobs. All the while, students are falling through the cracks of real education. Teachers have a classroom full of students, some of which are not even on the grade level for which they are teaching. How do we expect them to teach all of these students to pass a test they don’t even understand. This has got to change.
As a related services special ed. teacher, I visit 12 schools in the course of a month to work with students.
In each and every school and in each and every classroom, whether it’s special ed. or regular ed., teachers are afraid. They’re afraid of the “walk through” when a principal and AP and often other “experts” from the district come in and take up positions at the back of the classroom with their clipboards to “observe” (more like intimidate) the teacher.
They’re afraid when the AP comes in almost daily and uses their iPad or tablet to take pictures of the teacher’s lesson plans for the day; I’m not kidding! They’re afraid that some little thing related to the CCSS has not been addressed, that some i, has not been dotted, or t crossed because that will result in a “write-up”. They’re afraid that if they stray
a few minutes overtime in their literacy block into another scheduled lesson they’ll be written up.
I routinely visit special ed. classes where the children; most in wheelchairs, some with feeding tubes and most with GDD, are parked at the front of the classroom watching a Disney or other children’s movie because the teacher has been told by the principal or sped. coordinator she/he needs to get
their alternate assessment binder or “data” binder, or online student data base or another of the myriad reporting tools required by CCSS and other “rigorous” criteria caught up or tweaked because of a failure to address some administrative minutia that no one will ever look at, and will not really help the children anyway.
The worst fear is that these children with GDD’s among other impairments, will not be able to “master” their required CCSS skill sets and not make the grade to assure that the teacher warrants a rating of “effective” and is able to keep their job.
Unless there is direct action by the teachers themselves, ( most of us have long given up on our unions doing anything but collecting dues) the intimidation,fear and misery of “modern teaching” will continue, resulting in many lost jobs, ruined careers and most importantly of children going through a constricted, mediocre curriculum that will do anything but enable them to become effective engaged citizens capable of the critical thinking they’ll need to be able to identify corporate driven frauds like common core
and stop them in their tracks.
Your quote…..
Corporate driven frauds like common core…
so so so so true!
Great Post
In CA the union is doing a LOT to protect teachers from this type of thing. Every year CTA beats back attacks from right-wingers who want to end due process, kill the union’s political influence, etc. The union helped Brown pass an initiative that raised taxes on the rich to pay for education –which will lead to more jobs for teachers, better pay, more job security… The union’s support for Democrats here is a factor in their rejection of RTTP money and its invidious attached strings. The union is the only thing between us and the ugly fate described here.
Are those funds really being used to hire more teachers? The governor has shifted much of that money to poor school districts. Is it so they will have money to hire “turnaround companies,” once they do poorly on the standardized tests? Some of our elected officials have ties to turnaround companies.
When are the parents in this state going to get a clue? They’re the ones paying for this fiasco.
It’s no wonder teachers would abandon any desire to teach the under served, inner city communities and instead seek out employment in affluent suburbs. It is absurd to think all teachers would be measured with the same yardstick (student achievement). Student achievement is affected by many factors. Teachers are only of the factors and possibly not even the greatest factor influencing success. Teachers have become the unfair target in a society that is broken on many levels.
“. . . to think all teachers would be measured with the same yardstick (student achievement).”
Those teachers are not being “measured” by the “same yardstick” (student achievement). Perhaps in a metaphorical sense they are but that does not mean that any actual logical measuring is taking place whatsoever. It’s not. “Student achievement” (whatever the hell that is) is not a “measuring device”. Never has been, never can be nor never will be!!
To give into the edudeformers’ illogical and irrational discourse on these supposed measurements is to give up the fight before it even starts as the basic premise is completely false and invalid.
We really do need to change the discourse and not accept these spurious** blatherings of numerized and scientized discourse. Pure 100% bovine excrement are their declarations and idiologies (puposely misspelled).
**and all the other descriptors: not being what it purports to be; false or fake.
“separating authentic and spurious claims”
synonyms: bogus, fake, false, counterfeit, forged, fraudulent, sham, artificial, imitation, simulated, feigned, deceptive, misleading, specious;
phony, pretend
Reformers say the quality of the teacher matters. Yes, a quality teacher may have a positive effect on students. Using test scores to evaluate teachers reverses the logic, that students’ performance equals teacher quality.
In California, the unions are doing a little on the state level to beat back this corporate tide but local unions are beat up and ineffective. They are reactionary at best and that’s not good for any kind of change. The closed shop has come back to bite us in the butt, without it, the unions would have to be more responsive to us, now, whether we like it or not, they get paid. Unions have to change and adapt to the new methods of these deformers. I believe in the union, I always have and I know we can fight back and succeed.
I harken back to Deming’s “14 points” in creating quality management and” Drive out fear” comes to the forefront. William Glasser adopted this when he gave us the model for quality schools. We are so far away from that right now. But many of us are more angry than fearful and we are up to this fight……and we will bring parents with us. We in the trenches will always have the benefit of one on one. They can call the shots from corporate offices, but they do not have any clue about the truth and strength of a teacher-student-family team.
Hi Elaine,
This is the core problem…the shots being called from the corporate office. These are people that have no real concept of how things are actually done in the classroom.
Michelle
Because they’ve never taught in a classroom for the length of time it takes to become “proficient” (at least 10 years).
Reblogged this on 21st Century Theater.
Good morning, class. I am I. Crane, Common Core Roboteacher Model CC$$.TFA.666.3a. Please pull my string to begin your rigorous lesson on standard CC$$.ELA.RL.6a.
Excuse me Mr Shepherd……………
Please see me after school in my office.
Are you teaching in code??
ROFLOL
We’re well on our way to the world in Asimov’s ‘The Fun They Had’. No fun at all.
Alert from central office
This weeks standards to be mastered by every student…
Monday..CC$$.TFA.666.3a.
Tuesday …CC$$.TFA.EE3-666.3a.
Wednesday….CC$$.OMG.6667789.4a, 5c, 8d
Thursday….CC$$.RTT 89898989.20e, 19f, 10c
Friday.Test1-Test2-test3-Test4
BTW….Mandatory Saturday Test Prep…5 hours..BYOL…..
Fear is the universal emotion in classrooms in the LAUSD these days. But anger is beginning to bubble to the surface. A good sign, I think.
anger is good!, rage with a plan of action is better!
well, even a YA author is coming aboard for the cause.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/ref=pe_617470_112790970_pe_row1_ba2_t/?ASIN=1419710524
Too funny but scary too.
Wow! The entire picture posted instead of the link but just click on the pic and read.
I underestimated my powers of technology (right!)
delightful
Check out #ResistTFA
“If you want engagement, self-direction is better”, “One day of autonomy produces things that never emerge” “challenge and mastery along with making a contribution”,”Purpose motive…when the PROFIT motive gets unmoored from the PURPOSE motive, bad things happen: like crappy products, like lame services, like uninspiring places to work..people don’t do great things ”
HHHMMMMM… “Challenge, Mastery, Making a Contribution…= Transcendent Purpose” “Treating people like people instead of horses (i.e. carrot & stick)” will get us a better world.
Common Core = lack of engagement, lack of purpose = crappy results.
Okay, fellow educators, when are we going to rise up?
Thanks, Robert for sharing this.