I apologize to you, dear readers, in advance, but I must ask you to read the latest balderdash written by someone who works for Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. From my days working in the U.S. Department of Education in 1991-93, I know full well that Cabinet Secretaries have several writers and don’t actually write anything themselves. Okay, so this latest statement from Duncan says that there is too much emphasis on testing. Testing is taking the joy out of teaching. It is sucking the oxygen out of the nation’s classrooms. Nowhere does he acknowledge that his very own Race to the Top demanded more high-stakes testing, demanded that teachers’ evaluations depend on the test scores of their students. Nowhere does he acknowledge his cheerleading for VAM–value-added measurement–or his hearty congratulations to the Los Angeles Times when it published the ratings of teachers based on the test scores of their students. Over the past five years, we have learned that what Arne says bears little relation to what he does. In the same breath, as this statement shows, he is both for and against testing. He seems not to see the connection between toxic testing and the policies he has put in place.
Fortunately, two of our best thinkers have written excellent responses to the new Duncan line on testing.
Anthony Cody says that Duncan is responding to the call of Gates for a moratorium (the point is illustrated by an old advertisement for a phonograph that said “his master’s voice”). He also believes the new tack is Duncan’s response to polls that show a decline in support for the Common Core. Cody points out that the most onerous demands for high-stakes testing were initiated by Arne Duncan. What is Duncan really offering, asks Cody: a one-year moratorium on the punishments attached to testing.
Cody writes:
“But a one year deferral does not do much to fundamentally alter the systemic change that is under way. The new Common Core tests are still being rolled out and will be given this coming spring. This only amounts to a one year delay to the time when those scores will be used for evaluative purposes.
“Duncan makes it clear that the purpose of this delay is to allow for a successful transition to the new standards, testing and evaluation systems. There is actually no real change in any of the substance of any of these programs, and he reiterates the Department’s commitment to the new tests.
“If Duncan is serious in his concern about tests are “sucking the oxygen” out of schools, he should begin to listen to teachers when they tell him to stop using these tests for their evaluations and to close schools. Until then, test scores will continue to rob children of the vital learning environments they need, and teachers will continue to object.”
Peter Greene also has a withering analysis of Duncan’s new line on testing.
Greene writes:
“Duncan is shocked– shocked!!– that anyone would think it’s a good idea to make a high stakes test the measure of student achievement or teacher effectiveness. “Growth is what matters. No teacher or school should be judged on any one test, or tests alone –” And here comes the vertiginous woozies (dibs on this as a band name) again, because that would be a heartening quote if it did not come from the very same office which decreed that by order of the federal government high stakes tests must be used as a measure of student achievement and teacher effectiveness. Duncan is talking about this test-based evaluation of students and teachers as if it just spontaneously occurred, like some sort of weird virus suddenly passed around at state ed department sleepover camp, and not a rule that Duncan’s office demanded everyone follow. Has Duncan forgotten that he just made the entire state of Washington declare itself a Failing School Disaster Zone precisely because they refused to use high stakes tests as a measure of student achievement and teacher effectiveness?”
And Greene adds:
“As far as Duncan’s other concerns go– a year will not matter. Much of what he decries is the direct result of making the stakes of these tests extremely high. Student success, teacher careers, school existence all ride on The Test. As long as they do, it is absurd to imagine that The Test will not dominate the school landscape. And that domination is only made worse by the many VAMtastic faux formulas in circulation.
[Says Duncan: Too much testing can rob school buildings of joy, and cause unnecessary stress. This issue is a priority for us, and we’ll continue to work throughout the fall on efforts to cut back on over-testing.]
Oh, the woozies. Duncan’s office needs to do one thing, and one thing only– remove the huge stakes from The Test. Don’t use it to judge students, don’t use it to judge teachers, don’t use it to judge schools and districts. It’s that attachment of huge stakes– not any innate qualities of The Test itself– that has created the test-drive joy-sucking school-deadening culture that Duncan both creates and criticizes. If the department doesn’t address tat, it will not matter whether we wait one year or ten– the results will be the same.
I’d encourage people to read Duncan’s statement. Strikes me as an attempt to acknowledge criticisms & concerns. I don’t think it’s “balderdash.”
Of course you wouldn’t Joe, of course. Until November ….that’s all Joe. Catch up.
Duncan has not changed his message. He wants tests. He has been playing the game that tests should not be the only measure of so-called “teacher effectiveness.”
He still wants tests. So what if he puts it off for a year– an upcoming election year?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/05/18/arne-duncans-reaction-to-new-research-slamming-teacher-evaluation-method-he-favors/
the big questions is where will Hillary stand on ed issues? that will affect the dialogue significantly a year from now, yes?
Joseph,
How so?
Thanks for asking, Robert.
On-line dictionary defines balderdash as “senseless talk or writing; nonsense.”
#1 Duncan describes some progress in high school graduation rates. He writes “For these achievements, we should celebrate America’s teachers, principals, and students and their families. ” I that makes sense.
#2 He describes 3 main concerns:
“There are three main issues I’ve heard about repeatedly from educators:
It doesn’t make sense to hold them accountable during this transition year for results on the new assessments – a test many of them have not seen before – and as many are coming up to speed with new standards.
The standardized tests they have today focus too much on basic skills, not enough on critical thinking and deeper learning.
Testing – and test preparation – takes up too much time.”
I agree that many educators, including me have these concerns. I understand there are additional concerns. But I think he accurately describes some of the concerns.
He then writes “No teacher or school should be judged on any one test, or tests alone – always on a mix of measures – which could range from classroom observations to family engagement indicators.” He offers some examples.
In district schools where I’ve worked, and in district and charters around the country that I think are helping many of their students accomplish more than many young people thought possible, a range of assessments is being used to measure students, faculty (including administrators). While some don’t like it when I recall my own experience, a group of us developed a portfolio approach to graduation in 1971. We’ve described other portfolio approaches to graduation used by outstanding district 7 charter schools.
I think Duncan is right to urge a mixture of measures for teachers. I’d add the same for students and administrators.
Many people on this board have vigorously disagreed with Duncan (and with me). But I think those who disagreed with Duncan should give themselves credit. I think at least some of your concerns have been heard. And the NY Times story this am suggests that Duncan is suggesting some changes based on concerns.
Listen, so to write, Arne can say all he wants about mixes of assessments, but as long as one assessment can tank the whole mix, it’s not really a mix at all and it is an excessively and inappropriately high stakes assessment.
I read it, Joe. It’s insincere. He suggests that he would never dictate to states what other measures to use to evaluate teachers, but ignores the fact that his department strong- armed them into using test scores. Oh, and he pretends that the protests have nothing to do with PARRC and Smarter Balanced -they will solve the problems because we’ve spent so much money of them.
Okay Joe, it’s not balderdash, it’s pure 100% USDOE Grade AA Bullshit.
Good Morning — These are great commentaries about high stakes testing and Duncan. Can anyone draw a cartoon with Duncan sucking the joy out of all of the schools in the United States?? That’s the visual I get whenever I read about anything he proclaims!!
I see Arne pressing down on the flush lever of a toilet labeled “Common Core Testing”
The water going down is labeled “The Joy of Learning”
Good one!
Arne Duncan is like a dementer in Harry Potter. His voice is nominal, his effect depressing merely by being in the area. He brings gloom and sadness as he passes by. The thought of him coming near depresses….I can’t bear any more.
His ma$ter has snapped his fingers and Arne Duncan is responding. Duncan’s statement shows just how clueless he is about cause and effect and what policies are coming out of his department.
If I may correct your statement: “Duncan’s statement shows just how clueless he is about cause and effect and what policies are coming out of his ARSE.
Gates realizes the teachers are on to his plan and he needs teacher support to implement his technology in school districts across America. Miami Dade County Public Schools is now Microsoft Dade County Public Schools, check out this ad that runs on our main ticker http://www.bing.com/classroom/miamidade?CREA=MK119W&FORM=MK119W&OCID=MK119W&programname=miamidade&publ=miamidade
If we register with him and use his search engine, we can earn a free surface tablet for our school.
Now that his technology and software is being established in large school districts he needs teacher support to implement it. Having received a little training, the technology is actually good and I’m not against it. I do believe, however, that he should at least be donating the tablets to our schools since it is a huge expense and he is branding our students, teachers and parents with his products. He could at least donate the devices since he is the wealthiest man in the world. If he was ever really concerned about public education and closing the achievement gap he would meet my challenge. You can read more about my challenge to Bill Gates here http://kafkateach.wordpress.com/2014/08/16/a-challenge-to-bill-gates/
Cody and Greene analyses lays bare the “balderdash”of Duncan’s latest missives. Those of use who keep close tabs on the details of this struggle know well the validity of their analyses. Let’s remember that Duncan’s missives and other public communications are not intended for Cody and Greene or any other informed citizen; they are directed at the general public, who do not have the wherewithal to wrap themselves around the issue or details that inform school ‘reform’.
Our efforts must be directed toward informing and educating teachers, parents and other laypeople, as well as elected officials of the key issues and what is at stake for public schools.
The only way to reach these publics is via large scale outreach efforts. The AFT and NEA must finally do the large scale ‘boots on the ground’ efforts that are required, It remains to be seen whether they finally enter the fray wholeheartedly ? i exclude the amazing work of the work of Karen Lewis and the CTU and other activist local unions and parent groups ?
The NY education blogosphere is reeling from a deal our NYSUT leadership cut for themselves via legislation and governor approval. What did they get? to retain their original jobs and pensions should they be voted out of office! Nothing for the membership except, oh yes, VAM and tests, tests tests. So boots on the ground are going to need to be a groundswell from the grassroots inside the union. Neither AFT nor NEA will do anything.
The policy is wrong, not just its implementation.
The implementation has been an utter disaster and has created toxic environments at nearly all local levels of school management. And that is due to inappropriate policy, idealistic and ideological thinking, arrogance, ulterior motives, lack of understanding, etc.
Marie Antoinette: “Let them eat cake!”
Arne Duncan: “Let them have a Steiner or Montessori private education!”
This “Back-to-School Conversation with Teachers and School Leaders” strikes me as a way to distract people from the issues, as a way to buy time and hope that the current heat will pass. In my interactions with the highly educated parents of my students in the affluent wealthy Boston suburban school where I teach, I see that most do not begin to understand the implications of any of this at all. How are they supposed to understand amidst all of this conflicting and confusing “balderdash?” I agree with John A. that the national union leadership better step up their game.
National union leadership is part of the problem, not part of the solution. You have better odds of winning when purchasing a lottery ticket.
Arne says: “I’m from the government, and I want to be part of the solution.”
Be afraid, be very afraid!
There are probably two things behind the “change of heart”:
An election in November. His party needs the teacher and parent vote.
It also may well be a way to deflate the momentum from the anti-reform movement. A delay does nothing to change the policies, but it can lull some to sleep.
You can bet Duncan is acting on orders from above; Gates, other large donors, or party advisors. Let’s watch the response from DFER.
Gates realizes the teachers are on to his plan and he needs teacher support to implement his technology in school districts across America. Miami Dade County Public Schools is now Microsoft Dade County Public Schools, check out this ad that runs on our main ticker on http://www.dadeschools.net/.
If we register with him and use his search engine, we can earn a free surface tablet for our school.
Now that his technology and software is being established in large school districts he needs teacher support to implement it. Having received a little training, the technology is actually good and I’m not against it. I do believe, however, that he should at least be donating the tablets to our schools since it is a huge expense and he is branding our students, teachers and parents with his products. He could at least donate the devices since he is the wealthiest man in the world. If he was ever really concerned about public education and closing the achievement gap he would meet my challenge. You can read more about my challenge to Bill Gates on my blog.
Peter Greene writes, “It’s that attachment of huge stakes– not any innate qualities of The Test itself– that has created the test-drive joy-sucking school-deadening culture that Duncan both creates and criticizes.”
I don’t disagree with most of what he says in the piece, or in his recent piece about the increasing teacher opposition to the Common Core Standards. However, I think his critiques of the status quo tend to give way too much credence to the status quo.
For me, the “innate qualities” of these tests are atrocious. Just read some of the published samples. Or consider the length and duration of the tests some third graders now have to endure. Or take a test yourself. I used to take a sample ACT English test every year because I was required to help prepare for high school juniors to take the full ACT. Trust me. Even the vaunted ACT is a horrible test. Its innate qualities had me seething every single year.
It isn’t just the stakes, or the innate qualities of these tests, or the absurd reduction of “student growth” to test results that’s sucking the life out of schools. It’s the entire standards and accountability movement itself that is sucking the life out of schools. And sowing chaos in school systems across the nation. If you grant the “reformers” their unfounded assumptions, you grant them power they don’t deserve. If you say you don’t object to “The Test” or the idea of “higher standards” (especially when the Common Core is so reductive and prescriptive in its very nature that it arguably lowers standards), you are hedging your argument in a way that takes the sting, and some of the substance, out of your critique.
Unless and until we get rid of the wrong assumptions that are propping up the ramshackle edifice of “reform,” it will remain standing. Meanwhile, expect more redecorating by the likes of Fordham, Duncan, and the Gates Foundation.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I completely agree. To my eyes the excerpt you quoted from Greene is patently false and weakens the whole argument.
Randal – You have highlighted the phrase that caught my attention in Greene’s comments:
“Don’t use it to judge students, don’t use it to judge teachers, don’t use it to judge schools and districts. It’s that attachment of huge stakes– not any innate qualities of The Test itself–
that has created the test-drive joy-sucking school-deadening culture that Duncan both creates and criticizes.”
It reminded me, sorry for the reference, to the dementors in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books – the guards at Azkaban who’s behavior, like that of the corporate deformers, is best described by Remus Lupin:
“Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them… Get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory will be sucked out of you. If it can, the Dementor will feed on you long enough to reduce you to something like itself… soulless and evil. You will be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.”
Like.
Hear, hear Randall! It’s not just “reformers,” but a majority in our society, who continue to believe these tests themselves intrinsically demonstrate and measure some kind of high level of thought, when in fact they are mostly junk. This is only possible because of a widely prevalent commodification and quantification of education itself, the idea that its purpose is “college and career readiness–” not also “citizenship readiness,” “relationship readiness,” “enjoyment of the arts for the lifetime of emotional and spiritual growth they can offer readiness,” or myriad other vital functions of education. You rightly point out that spending any substantial amount of time with these kinds of low-level tests is at least wasteful and at worst destructive, regardless of consequences attached to them.
Yesterday I received another call from the Democratic Party. They know I was a big supporter in the past but have given nothing this past year (except to my son, who ran for office). I told the woman that I will not give anything to the party until I hear support for public education and public school teachers. She reacted as though she’s heard these words a lot. And that’s what I think all this is about.
Teachers DO have a lot of power and that power is being felt right now.
Duncan had to wait for his boss Gates to order a step back on testing. The Dems are feeling the grassroots opposition against their corporate politics, thanks to all the resistance of parents, the Opt Out folks, teacher activists, Karen Lewis/Barbara Madeloni/Bob Peterson as progressive union leaders, MORE in Chicago and CORE in NYC, relentless blogging of Diane, Mercedes, Anthony, Jersey Jazzman, Mother Crusader,Mark Naison and the BATS. Thank you, keep going!
Gates is the most vulnerable of the billionaires financing this private capture of the public sector. Gates’s seeks public admiration for his worldwide philanthropy and humanitarian. There is an immense public relations campaign attending his projects to hide their faults and failures and to exaggerate their good. His position as the greatest benefactor in the world cannot survive bad press and mass opposition. Hundreds of millions to force CCSS/PARCC down our throats is actually a high-risk gambit which is slipping from his control as his own agents and mass media “good press” face growing opposition.
More than any of his class, Gates wants to be “the unaffected rich guy who does good things in the world.” Other billionaires–Broad, Koch brothers, Bloomberg, Jobs’s widow, hedge-funders in DFER and financing TFA and Canada’s HCZ, Facebook’s Zuckerberg, etc…so not seek such global prominence, keeping more to the shadows. When CCSS/PARC goes South, Gates will be the biggest loser, which is why he ordered a tactical pullback and lackey Duncan obliged.
Duncan will go on to cushy jobs courtesy of Eli Broad after CCSS is rubble. Obama will get huge pension, speaking fees, a small army of secret service, his own pres. library, etc. Hillary and Cuomo are still-vulnerable b/c they still need to win elections which they can’t do unless Randi AFT/Lily NEA/other union leaders/noted feminists/Black opinion leaders keep their constituents compliantly voting Democrat.
Bogus new “Democrats for Public Education” reads like political theater to create an “escape hatch” for Hillary to distance herself from Duncan/Obama. Cuomo is immediately exposed in the coming election for NY Gov–which is why going all out for Zephyr Teachout in the Sept 9 NY Dem primary is best choice for public advocates. If Teachout loses, then all out for Howie Hawkins of the Green Party for gov in Nov.
This is culture war. Our resistance so far has forced their head billionaire to order a temporary retreat. We’re nearing a turning point.
On point analysis irashor! Hillary’s education policies differ not one iota.
“Bogus new “Democrats for Public Education” reads like political theater to create an “escape hatch” for Hillary to distance herself from Duncan/Obama”
I think you may have hit the nail squarely on the head with that one, Ira. Muy astuto.
I totally agree, going all out for Zephyr Teachout is essential. Also on board with Howie Hawkins.
If New York teachers unite and vote for Teachout in the primary, winning is a real possibility, and won’t Cuomo be surprised!
She’ll be at the Southampton Farmers Market on Long Island this Sunday 11:30- 1. Hope many teachers and parents in the area turn out and support her.
Great analysis, Ira. As a life-long Democrat I’m ready to change parties, only staying with them right now so I can vote Teachout in the primary. The next day I’m switching my registration to the Green party and unless Teachout defeats Cuomo, in which case there will be a hard choice to make, I’ll be voting for Hawkins.
The two party system is bankrupt. I used to be mystified by monied interests that donated to both parties. Silly me! In too many areas, education being the most blatant, the major parties are acting in concert against the interests of ordinary people and justice itself.
Clearly this is merely damage control. It’s like everything that comes out of John King’s mouth here in NY.
Just a far fetched thought: Arne has a 4year degree in sociology with 🏀🏀 & we expect him to have the knowledge, experience & professional insight of a trained educator. Plus, the Impostor Syndrome is alive & well as he learned everything he knows on the jobs & back rooms of Chicago, surrounded by politicians, foundations & CorpEdReformers. This is what Arne knows. Add to that, Gates’ brilliant mind and his deep knowledge of education (Plus $B) and the stomach churns for all of us.
I think we should demand VAM NOW!
Let the s**t his the fan & allow their crap policies & shameful practices fall off the cliff at 120 miles:hr! Get it over with. This may be the only way to prevent the next Administration from continuing this PublicEducation Nightmare.
If we allow Arne & Gates to wimp out, buy time, jerk us around more, and we beg for mercy, shake, shiver & cry…they’ll have us again and still by the short hairs.
Sorry for the graphic images.
This is one disgusted retired career educator who is also deeply involved in the education of our kids, including my grands.
Be doubly duplicitous? We’re not secret service agents, we’re guardians of children and young adults.
You can go to Duncans blog and leave a comment: http://www.ed.gov/blog/2014/08/a-back-to-school-conversation-with-teachers-and-school-leaders/comment-page-1/#comment-454778
BTW . . . I left a post at Duncan’s blog with the following question: So does this mean that we don’t have to send letters home to every family in the state of Washington explaining that our schools are failing since the provision we rejected now has a one year delay?
Much of this was presaged in Arne Duncan’s speech to the April 30, 2013 annual meeting of AERA [American Education Research Association], “Choosing the Right Battles: Remarks and a Conversation.” *Notice a similarly soothing title?*
Besides calling on some of his harshest critics to pay heed to Campbell’s Law [¿¡!?!] and fix their mistakes so he can get on with ‘ed biz’ there is this forgettable cry for reason in high-stakes standardized testing:
[start quote]
I think we can generally agree that standardized tests don’t have a good reputation today—and that some of the criticism is merited. Policymakers and researchers have to listen very carefully—and take very seriously the concerns of educators, parents, and students about assessment.
At its heart, the argument of the most zealous anti-testing advocates boils down to an argument for abandoning assessment with consequences for students, teachers, or schools.
The critics contend that today’s tests fail to measure students’ abilities to analyze and apply knowledge, that they narrow the curriculum, and that they create too many perverse incentives to cheat or teach to the test. These critics want students and teachers to opt out of all high-stakes testing.
The critics make a number of good points—and they express a lot of the frustration that many teachers feel about today’s standardized tests.
State assessments in mathematics and English often fail to capture the full spectrum of what students know and can do. Students, parents, and educators know there is much more to a sound education than picking the right answer on a multiple choice question.
Many current state assessments tend to focus on easy-to-measure concepts and fill-in-the-bubble answers. Results come back months later, usually after the end of the school year, when their instructional usefulness has expired.
And today’s assessments certainly don’t measures qualities of great teaching that we know make a difference—things like classroom management, teamwork, collaboration, and individualized instruction. They don’t measure the invaluable ability to inspire a love of learning.
Most of the assessment done in schools today is after the fact. Some schools have an almost obsessive culture around testing, and that hurts their most vulnerable learners and narrows the curriculum. It’s heartbreaking to hear a child identify himself as “below basic” or “I’m a one out of four.”
[end quote]
Link: http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/choosing-right-battles-remarks-and-conversation
Compare this to the Duncan statement accessed by the first link in the above posting. See any similarities in the Teflon Defense?
But what about the call to be moderate in the use of standardized tests? Be reasonable? Use them wisely? You know, not as the only, or most important, measure?
I have quoted from Audrey Amrein-Beardsley’s recent (2014) RETHINKING VALUE-ADDD MODELS IN EDUCATION on this blog previously, but let me give some excerpts from teachers suffering from Duncan’s mandated testing that fuels VAM:
[start quote]
Here’s the problem. No principal wants to be called in by the superintendent or another superior and [asked], “How come your teachers show negative growth but you have high evaluations on them? Are you doing your job? I don’t understand. Your teacher shows no growth but you have [marked them] as exceeding expectations, all up and down the chart?” Now it’s not just this [sic] data over here that’s gonna harm us, it’s the principals [who are] adjusting our data over there to match the EVAAS®. So it looks like they’re being consistent.
[end quote]
(EVAAS = Education Value-Added Assessment System)
That’s from p. 45. Another couple of choice quotes from teachers on the same page:
A), “They’re not about to go to bat [for us, although] a few of them will. But most of them are going to go in there, and they’re going to create a teacher evaluation that reflects the [EVAAS®] data because they don’t want to have to explain, again and again, why they’re giving high classroom observation assessments when the data shows [sic] that the teacher is low performing.”
B), “Well my evaluations were fine, but of course now they have to make the evaluation match the EVAAS®. We now have to go through that.”
While I have referenced W. Edwards Deming before on the use and misuse of numbers&stats (including in education) as indicators/goals, a commenter on this blog pointed me to a pertinent observation by someone else:
“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” [Charles Goodhart]
I wonder. Surely Secretary of Education Arne Duncan actually reads beforehand, and then thinks about, his own speeches…
“I reject that mind-set.” [Michelle Rhee]
And she surely should know…
😎
Here’s my comment from a while back on the Duncan-Gates connection. My apologies to Harold Arlen and E. Y. Harburg . . .
I could kowtow to the Powers
That Be for hours and hours–
I think I’ve made it plain.
For I know they’re not kiddin’
So I’ll gladly do their biddin’
And pretend to have a brain.
I spout platitudes on Twitter,
My rhet’ric all aglitter
From that I won’t abstain.
For that mogul near Seattle
I will gladly go to battle
Though my Op-Eds sound inane.
For we must raise the bar
And make those kids jump high.
Oh, but if you ever dare to ask me Why–
It’s cuz Asia’s tryin’ to steal our pie.
I’m acceptin’ no excuses
From the teacher that refuses
Culpability and blame.
For bad scores on the testin’
Common Core is manifestin’
She should wear a badge of shame!
This new move by Duncan is further proof. They just want to delay the consequences by a year or two.
Randal Hendee: TAGO!
I envy you the lyrics. Now, ‘If I only had a brain…”
¿? Sorry, Mr. Secretary. Did I steal your line?
Sheesh! The perils of thinking out loud while doing my CCSS ‘closet’ reading. I should have noticed the snoring in the corner…
What were the chances that Arne Duncan would be sleeping in there when he’s supposed to be out and about working to protect public education and educators from themselves?
😳
” All of us who’ve worked with young people. . ”
The Dunkster has worked with young people??? In what clever way might his statement be true???
Did he do any coaching??
This is a delay. The NY Times recycled the story today, Aug. 22. The timing at the start of the school year does nothing to stop any of this year’s student tests and the teacher evaluations based on them.
Moreover these testing mandates are built into NCLB and Race to the Top (RttT). Many states have independently put the same basic requirements in place for public schools. The underlying goal is still a nationalized system for public schools and for rating teachers. The components interlock.
The key features of the emerging system, not of equal strength, remain:
(a) the econometric definition of student performance as a measurable output on tests for a given unit of input of teacher effort, with any “value-added” by the teacher an indicator of “student growth” and marker of “progress.” “Improvement of student learning” is the spin and the cover story for everything else.
(b) VAM and SLOs (Student Learning Objectives), as measures of choice for teacher performance. SLOs are to be used until standardized tests for all grades and subjects can be developed and made suitable for VAM. Never mind that VAM and SLOs are unreliable and invalid for teacher evaluation. SLOs are a version of Drucker’s1950s management-by-objectives, outcomes-based education, competency-based education amplified by 1960s specifications for instructional objectives suitable for programmed instruction;
(c) strict compliance with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the use of the CCSS test scores on forthcoming tests in teacher evaluation—pushed by the Aspen Institute among many others and not yet dead;
(d) classroom observations to secure teacher compliance with one-size-fits-all specifications for reductive labeling of teachers in one of four or five categories from highly effective to ineffective (you can be fired). The preference is for Charlotte Danielson’s revised Framework for Teaching protocol (2013) because it includes the CCSS and an earlier version was featured in Gates-funded research (MET for “Measures of Effective Teaching” project) … not peer reviewed research but uncritically accepted in many states as authoritative and reliable and valid;
(d) student surveys, K-12 and proctored, with a preference for those designed by economist Ron Ferguson, promoted within the Tripod Project®, and viewed as exemplary because these were also piloted in the MET project and the ensuing spin. Take a close look. The seven attributes are loaded to produce high scores for teachers who conform to Ferguson’s idea of one-best-way to teach—strictly academic in focus, assign and check the homework, etc;
(e) teacher education programs and certification tests that comply with the CCSS and other expectations that honor other accountability imperatives of the day (e.g., Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, edTPA, 2013):
(f) the Gates-funded $25 million program to cultivate “teacher voice groups” who favor pay-for- performance with more money from other foundations plus by USDE’s 2010 $43 million dollar investment in spin (via a grant to IFC International and nine other subcontractors)—a four-year campaign to market pay-for-performance, plus USDE’s more recent vision of “RESPECT” shaped by McKinsey & Co. with one teacher in a classroom of 150 students and computers galore and a few assistants;
(g) an enlarged presence for computer-based instruction as well as student and teacher evaluations free of face-to-face human judgments, evident not only in the on-line courseware with integrated scoring systems but also in US patents such as US 8696365 B1 dated April 15, 2014 for a “System for defining, tracking, and analyzing student growth over time,” with one of the co-inventors a school superintendent in Ohio whose business is Align, Assess, Achieve, LLC.
The patent citations for this system (in development with patent protections since 2012) include the evaluation systems in Austin TX, Charlotte-Mecklenburg NC, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, NY, Rhode Island, Delaware, AFT’s National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality, among others.
In sum, the infrastructure for this “test-the-students-to-rate-the-teachers-to-pay-the-teachers” agenda is not likely to go away soon. Neither is the maze of mandates that one expert in personnel management called “bureaupathology” West, G. E. (1977). Bureupathology and the failure of MBO. Human Resource Management, 16(2), 33-40.
Seems like he has a split-ego. One is Duncan(Jykill) and the other is Dunkenstein(Hyde).
Peter Greene is so funny. His is one of my favorite blogs.
I read Duncan’s statement and found a lot to question, but I want to look at the problem he pegs as #2, the concern that standardized tests assess “basic skills” but not “critical thinking and deeper learning.” Some of the Common Core standards describe complex skills I absolutely want my students and all children to possess: for example, “Write arguments to support claims using relevant evidence and valid reasoning.” The best, and indeed the only, way to assess whether students’ learning meets this standard is to have them write arguments to support claims using relevant evidence and valid reasoning. Standardized tests cannot adequately measure achievement of this standard — not even standardized tests that cost a quarter of a billion dollars to develop and implement. The real impetus for standardized testing is, of course, the need to measure how well teachers and schools are doing. But imagine that we trusted teachers to assess their students, and administrators to monitor their teachers. All of that money going to standardized testing could be spent on teams of educators who would evaluate schools, documenting the presence or absence of “critical thinking and deeper learning,” as well as student work that meets standards, and would report to the public on the progress of schools, teachers, and students. Yes, parents do want to know how their children are doing in school. That is why we have report cards and parent-teacher conferences. Teachers and principals and school communities also want to be able to compare their students’ performance in basic, testable skills, which they can easily do with existing instruments. These would be more reliable as measures of student learning if *no* stakes were attached to the outcomes. Would anyone, other than the Pearson Corporation, be unhappy with such an education system?
VAM: The Scarlet Letter
“We are your teachers! We’ve become the enemy!!!!”
“Testing has become toxic.”
“We’re Crazy Alec and Our Educational Policies are Insane!”
To all educators and parents;
Please make sure that any candidate in running for a state governor position should clearly pledge to honor three important rights in his/her education platform:
1) Maintain to honor teaching Tenure track in University and to respect the due process rights in Primary, Middle (Junior) and Senior High School.
2) Education Policy must be transparent and participated by local board of expert educators, teachers and parents. All inputs, feedback, and correction from education policy must publish to be known to public before implementing it.
3) Last but not least, all educators have the rights to unite and to call for an early vote for Union Leader, or/ and State Governor in emergency situation like CCSS of today which is against the welfare of American Public Education.
We are educators, so we are the law makers, NOT the tycoons. Educators cultivate people, including tycoons’children and grandchildren. Back2basic