This just in.
The Florida Education Association and two named teacher-plaintiffs sued to block VAM because the process is confusing and the state has provided inadequate guidance.
A judge agreed with the plaintiffs. The state education department will either appeal or have to redo the rules and clarify the way VAM is supposed to work.
This teacher-evaluation stuff is complex, poorly thought out, and endlessly divisive.
It is being foisted on states across the nation–thank you, Race to the Top–without any clear evidence that it works.
No one knows whether VAM identifies the worst teachers or those unlucky enough to get difficult students or those who are good at teaching to the test.
District after district will be thrown into unnecessary turmoil.
A few teachers will be thrown out, and they may not be the “bad” teachers.
And the cult of data worship will grow stronger.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I fully agree with you on this one.
It is good that teachers are fighting these unfair and unreliable evaluation models!!
This made my day!!
Good! I’ve suspected all along that teachers would find relief in the courts. Soon we’ll see lawsuits all over the country as teachers are judged based on invalid data.
It’s a great day for labor relations lawyers everywhere.
Yep. They’re sharpening their pencils as we speak. And judges and juries don’t care about quantitative measures as much as economists and psychometricians. They care about qualitative pieces more – was someone hurt (loss of wages)? Were they fairly informed before they were “hurt” to curtail behavior? Did they have a chance to curtail the process before they were “hurt”. Did they understand the “process” they were to use to curtail being “hurt”? And was the judgment made that “hurt” them made by validated measures that applied to all people in similar circumstances? It will get interesting, especially if there are civil rights infringements to our inner-city teachers, who are predominately minority. If enough of these teachers are fired, even in part due to VAM, and they band together in a class action suit, VAM will sink. But that could take 10 years.
A reason to cheer lawyers, who thought that would happen?! I wish them further success and prosperity. Maybe states will figure it isn’t profitable to help Pearson et. al’s profits.
I applaud this endeavor and pray that the trend continues, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. From the article:
“The FEA noted that the ruling does not invalidate teachers’ 2011-12 evaluations. Neither does it eliminate the statutory mandate to use student learning gains as part of a teacher’s overall performance rating.”
It could be interpretated that “student learning gains” to mean “student test scores and VAM.” I admit, though, that I didn’t read the entire brief. I got to page 30 and then got bogged down in the legal language.
New teacher evaluation systems, of which I believe 30 states or more have implemented (due to RttT and ESEA flexibility requirements), are one gigantic social experiment gone wrong. When we do research as graduate students we must endure headaches to be approved by a Board in order to carry out action research that involves students as participants. What “Board” did Arne and the U.S. DOE go through to carry out this reform experiment that involves even more testing than the NCLB Act? For that matter what “Board” did Alexander and the U.S. DOE go through to carry out NCLB? Who are they accountable to? These people are freely experimenting with our kids, and the public idly stands by. You know if it were just the state experimenting like this, our capitol is not too far away. I can get there to demonstrate, even if I have to hitchhike. I can’t afford gas money to D.C. This is why I was unable to attend the SOS conference. The SOS conference should have offered “scholarships” to teachers or something.
Human Subjects Review Committee? First, do no harm?
Great point.
Here’s an example of how bogus the value added issue is……
Having a documented reading disability means that students can have the math, science, and writing tests read aloud to them. I read the science test to a small group of students. Over a third of the test was on land and water, and included questions about erosion, deposition, parts of rivers, and other brand new vocabulary. Three science units are sent to each school per year on a rotating basis with two social studies unit between. The land and water had not yet arrived. Not a single 5th grader at my school has even had that unit, and yet it was on the state test. Consider all the other elementary schools that had the land and water on the last rotation. No teacher could legally question the fairness of this because it is against the law to even look at the test questions, although I suppose there is an exception for readers.
Yeah, I’m sure the teachers that perform read-alouds will add much validity to VAM outcomes. Sorry about being accusatory, but what do you expect when my job is now riding on how well my students do and how poorly yours do?
Based on what I’ve read, this will NOT throw out 2011-2012 evaluations. This really only impacts what the DOE can do from here on forward. We will not know our final scores (because of VAM) until the first week or so of October.
Which county are you teaching in? For my evaluation in Miami, I believe I read that the state had 90 days to release the value added portion after the performance standards were finalized. That window is rapidly closing and I haven’t heard a peep about our VAMs from anyone.There is a rumor that the 2011-12 evaluations will not count. I know Palm Beach county is not counting last year’s evaluations.
How is it taking the state until October to release the data? Students took the test in April. They’ve had all the data they need for months now and this is obviously all done by some crazy expensive computer system and not some math dork in a dark room plugging and chugging the variables. The only explanation I can think of is that the state finalizes student enrollment numbers at the end of September. From there, they can decide the cut scores based on the number of students versus their applicant pool of teachers.
“State statute provides that: “The evaluator may amend an evaluation based upon assessment data from the current school year if the data becomes available within 90 days after the close of the school year.” FS 1012.34(3)(a)(4)(d)”
I suppose this means that administrators will not be able to go back and change the observation portion to match the VAM portion if the data is not released by Sept. 8th but VAM still has the power to ultimately decide if we are rated “highly effective” “effective” or “needs improvement.” Unless we were rated 49 out of 50 on the observational standards, we are all still at risk of being labeled “needs improvement.”
I am in Clay, and the information has not been sent out. I sent out an e-mail to our union asking why this information has not been sent out.
Hope this is an indicator of sensible decisions down the line and across state lines.
Me–the whole value added concept is wrong, and insanely unfair. The accusatory tone has me a little confused. I was trying to make the point of how off the mark the value added evaluation plan is by my discovery what was on the science test through an accommodation some of my students had a legal right to receive in accordance to their IEPs.
(If special education students are to be tested, and have not been opted out by their families, those students must receive accommodations for their disabilities in accordance with their IEPs. That means yours, mine, and everybody’s students.)
The kids I serve range from twice exceptional (gifted and a disability) to intellectually disabled. The disabilities my students have include autism, learning disabilities, TBI, mental health issues, behavior disorders, and more. How my students do on standardized tests does not either positively or negatively reflect my effectiveness as a teacher. Some of my students do well on the tests, but have severe deficits in social skills and need intensive instruction to learn how to relate to others and regulate their own emotions and impulses.
Because I’ve known teachers that cut deals with the testing coordinators to give read alouds on a consistent basis (every semester) only to leave the read aloud and go straight into a review session for their classes. Their kids take the same test…so this is basically cheating if you get my drift. I did some checking up on it and it is legal, because in high school, the material is so specialized, they need a teacher of that subject to read it in order to say all the terms correctly.
Even NY’s APPR Field Manual lists research that does NOT support VAMs when making high-stakes decisions for employment. The FL ruling may be duplicated elsewhere. Thanks for posting!
Diane:
Unfortunately, teachers’ unions like the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) in Miami, FL have already undermined the value of the judges decision by unwisely signing on to RTTT applications that paralleled and even EXCEEDED the legislation like SB736 in Florida. So while the courts have declared the invalidity of the legislation, they will still require teachers to be evaluated by instruments in many instances MORE stringent than the legislation as a consequence of their lack of leadership, aggressiveness, and/or strength in opposing such travesties: “This decision does not mean that teachers’ 2011-12 performance evaluations are invalid under the bargained evaluation systems already approved by the DOE for Race to the Top purposes” – Judge Van Laningham (http://feaweb.org/fl-judge-invalidates-state-education-teacher-evaluations-rule ).
In our case in Miami, UTD pushed an insane change to the teacher evaluation model that essentially gave $350 performance payouts to nearly all teachers (if all get it, is it performance pay? furthermore, no criteria had been announced ahead of time, so no one knew how to “earn” the “performance pay”). see http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/?p=198
The short take on the insanity is that 50% of all teachers and counselors evaluations come from SCHOOL AVERAGE READING GRADES…which means that no one teacher can hope to change the overall result, no one teacher will be evaluated on the merits of his or her actions in their own classroom. Consider the further insanity of a calculus, chemistry, band, woodshop teacher receiving 50% of his/her evaluation on the basis of school average reading grades (see the paragraph entitled “What Happens If You Don’t Teach an FCAT Subject?” here: http://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2012/02/16/inside-the-mathematical-equation-for-teacher-merit-pay/ ).
UTD defended their actions by blaming the changes to the teacher evaluation model (IPEGS) on the recently invalidated SB736 (see the 2nd paragraph here: http://www.utd.org/news/utd-contract-ratification-rumor-control and page 2 of the UTD/Miami-Dade jointly presented August 2011 announcement to faculty of the changes to the IPEGs teacher evaluation instrument…before it had even been ratified by union members: http://ipegs.dadeschools.net/pdfs/IPEGS_Update.pdf ). see also point G) here: http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/?p=164
Please note that UTD’s blame of the changes on the Senate Bill 736 is completely refuted by the judge’s statement “the bargained evaluation systems already approved by the DOE for Race to the Top purposes” and is a VERY important reminder for our bargaining agents and unions: DO NOT INCORPORATE ELEMENTS INTO COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENTS BASED ON SHAKY LEGISLATION THAT IS BEING CHALLENGED IN COURT!
Our teachers union, UTD, forced the teachers who were alert, aware, and active to the courts against our own local, UTD, which was acting contrary, not only to its own membership for inexplicable complicit actions with the Miami-Dade Public Schools administration, but UTD also acted contrary to its own parent union, the Florida Education Association (FEA), which filed and prevailed in the lawsuit. See point C in paragraph 9 here: http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/2011/09/18/beightol-plea-in-circuit-court-for-relief-from-undueextreme-testing-intrusion-into-teaching-via-ipegs-2/
Though UTD prevailed in the circuit court by having our attempt to block their enactment of RTTT/SB736 insane changes to our teacher evaluation model (Ibid., beightol-plea-in-circuit-court), we won in the court of Florida’s Public Employees Relation Commission (see page 7, right column here: http://perc.myflorida.com/news/PERC_News_Jan_-_Mar_2012.pdf ).
Consequently, UTD reran the Teacher Evaluation (IPEGs) Change ratification. Activists collected broad exit poll results indicating teachers REJECTED the changes 2:1 CONTRARY to UTD’s announcement of passage. Informed of activists’ data collection, UTD has refused to release poll by poll results, contrary to what is good for membership and what is required by law. see http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/?p=400 and http://shawnbeightol.com/blog/?p=391
As a result of the disingenuity of UTD and the apparent support of the Miami-Dade School Administrative goals and objectives over their membership and student needs, Miami-Dade teachers are stuck with insane evaluation results from 2011-2012 as a result of UTD’s push/ramrodding of the RTTT
Bottom line: Had UTD represented its teachers’ and their students’ best interests and had the patience to await the ruling of the court on the lawsuit filed by its own parent organization (FEA), teachers would be able to go back and insist on an evaluation that was based on their actual classroom performance and not some insane, disconnected system now shown by the courts and the expert witnesses to be dangerously flawed.
Regards,
Shawn Beightol
Chemistry Instructor,
Miami-Dade Public Schools
http://www.shawnbeightol.com
It is of no consolation to you, but Florida and Miami have embarked on teacher evaluation schemes for which there is no evidence.
They are likely to do no good and a lot of harm. To you and your fellow teachers.
Do you know if Miami will still be able to use the student performance portion of IPEGs for our 2012-13 evaluations because we are a Race to the Top district even though the judge is blocking it for other districts? Will UTD be asking us to vote in favor of Race to the Top again despite the FEA victory? When will we be voting for Race to the Top for this year? Will they wait until our evaluations for 2011-12 are finally finalized so teachers can see how the VAM portion really works for themselves?
Kafka:
the way I read it, unless our union (UTD) goes back to the school board and says “we demand a renegotiation” of the teacher evaluation model (IPEGS) based on the SB736 invalidation…we are stuck with the RTTT agreement that the judge says stands inspite of the SB736 victory because the RTTT application was voluntary.
Such a move by UTD is unlikely because of the close relationship between UTD’s President Karen as handmaid to Miami-Dade County Public Schoools’ Superintendent Carvalho. As Carvalho was the chair of Florida’s RTTT committee and rushed to be first in the state to roll out the faux performance payouts and seems to have PR/political ambitions that depend upon nothing but good news…AND because such a change would require an AMENDMENT to the RTTT grant application that might imperil our status…it does not seem likely.
It would seem we are stuck with the RTTT modifications to the Teacher Evaluation model used in Miami (IPEGS)…
…unless my soon to be filed objection to UTD’s reratification vote of May 2012 is upheld by PERC…
then we might be freed from the recent insanity of UTD working complicitly for/with MDCPS to put feathers in Carvalho’s ambitious cap…
I am a 27 year veteran teacher from Miami Dade County, Florida, and I can finally say that Florida has done something right by invalidating a ridiculously arbitrary evaluation system that came without a valid rationale or explanation. I was also very pleased that our commissioner of education decided to resign to spend more time with his family after two public debacles with test scores and school grades. I can only hope that our governor follows his lead and decides his family, too, deserves more of his time.
It is sad enought teachers are not paid enought to educate our children; then they have to put up with beatings and disrespectful children. This is a shame
Where are the days of working hard for our students and our school morale? Obviously, Educators of public schools no longer serve the purpose for which we earned our degree(s)! Continuing contract stakeholders will soon be extinct! The State of Florida’s concept for evaluating Florida public school teachers will serve no good! VAM must have been specifically developed to bring continuing contracts for teachers to an end. No matter the content taught, no matter the continuing education hours endured, no matter the additional hours grading and recording our stakeholders mastery of content…VAM! Nothing, makes a difference for our Teacher Evaluations, that can’t be molded and reformulated! What real-recourse do we have? We are not allowed to strike since the 70’s…we take our “unsatisfactory”/”needs improvement” evaluations and keep on working…just where are we leaving “points” on the table? Is there really no recourse?