Two days ago, the New York Daily News published a beautiful tribute to the heroes of Sandy Hook, both the dead and the living. The newspaper called them its Heroes of the Year. The editorial was written with such eloquence and feeling that it brought me to tears.
I admit I was surprised by this editorial because the Daily News is known for its stridently anti-teacher, anti-union editorializing. (On the other hand, its reporters are unfailingly fair, and the newspaper publishes the amazing Juan Gonzalez, whose column has exposed numerous scandals.)
Today, the New York Daily News resumes its regular flaying of teachers and their union with one of the world’s dumbest opinion pieces. This one was written by a teacher who belongs to Educators4Excellence. She says she moved from Denver, where test scores count for 50% of educators’ evaluations, to NYC because of the Big Apple’s reputation for innovation. The Colorado law was written by a young state senator who is an alumnus of Teach for America.
Based on this teacher’s opinion piece, we may safely assume that Denver was not innovative enough to keep her there nor was the lure of its fabulous teacher evaluation program.
She says that she really, really wants to be a better teacher but she can’t be unless she is evaluated by her students’ test scores. Does she not know her students’ test scores now? This is puzzling indeed.
Please, someone, send this young woman the report by the National Academy of Education and the American Educational Research Association on the inaccuracy of value-added assessment. Or the statement by leading researchers published by the Economic Policy Institute.
For the uninformed, here are a few details about Educators4Excellence. The organization is two years old. In its first year, it had grants and contributions of $339,031.00. That’s pretty amazing for a start-up.
Even more amazing, E4E had receipts last year of $1,926,028. About one-quarter of the total came from the Gates Foundation.
I wish E4E would share its secrets about how a small group of teachers raised nearly $2.4 million in only two years. Inquiring minds want to know. Think what we could do to support public education if we had their fundraising secrets.
Its mission seems to be to demonstrate–in testimony before legislative bodies, advertisements, and opinion pieces like this one–that teachers want to be evaluated by test scores, and they don’t want tenure. And above all, don’t pay any attention to experienced teachers. Listen to the kids who have taught for a few months or a few years. They know best.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
That editorial is beyond dumb – it’s fishy. No one, in any position, in any field, begs to be evaluated, most especially not by factors beyond their control. I just have a sneaking suspicion that this Susan Keystock got well paid for writing that, and not by the Daily News.
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The billionaires boys club’s messaging exploits the public’s trust in teachers.
It is cynical and easy to do when they employ young teachers to speak the pr language of “reform” in editorials and at public meetings.
The evolution in pr messaging seeks to split teachers and teachers unions from the public support they have enjoyed in Chicago, Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere. In Chicago, a similar local group is called Teach Plus. They join DFER, Students First and Stand for Children in similar astro-turf pr efforts.
As we read a beautiful editorial about Sandy Hook teacher-heroes, we feel good knowing their great sacrifices are not ignored. Then the paper follows it up with a mumbo jumbo op-ed about flawed teacher accountability schemes.
The paper furthers the false dichotomy with its placement of editorials and op-ed.
This has been their m.o. in other cities, papers and online sites.
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This article is odd because it misrepresents how procomp works. I work in DPS and procomp isn’t really an evaluation system. Our actual evaluations won’t be 50 percent on test scores till 2014-2015. The growth scores she refers to are not necessarily based on standardized tests. The person who wrote this is either ignorant or being dishonest.
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She could be both.
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Wow! It took FIVE years to discern that NYC was not as innovative and cutting-edge as she was led to believe. Why so long, I wonder? Anyway, a quick Google search and you’ll know where she’s coming from.
She rang in the New Year last year with a letter to the NYT’s editor.
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Journalists and young, inexperienced teachers write opinion pieces like this one because they are not aware of the careful evaluation of students that teachers routinely do, nor are they educated about the purposes of a standardized test.
As a teacher of first graders, I carefully assessed each child’s progress on a daily basis. After each lesson, I moved around the room checking for understanding and giving quick quizzes to see if the children understood my lessons. In addition to that I gave frequent “benchmark” tests in math and reading, as well as monthly writing assessments to gauge pupil progress in compostion. Most teachers know that progress in many skills (spelling, grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, clarity of expression etc.) can be measured by looking at growth in writing. Each student in my class had a portfolio ready to share with a parent or administrator. As we flipped through the student’s tests, compositions and daily work from September to May or June, it was always easy to see the student’s progress throughout the year.
I know that almost every teacher in my school kept careful records because during various periods of self-assessment, I went to the classrooms of other teachers and examined their portfolios. In addition to that, the kindergarten teachers always sent me careful records in the fall showing each pupil’s progress throughout the year. Checklists were kept to show letters, sounds and words learned during the months. Copies of benchmark tests were passed on. I did the same for the next teachers.
The most competent administrators were involved in this progress and fully aware of academic progress within each teacher’s classroom.
The ridiculous lie that teachers don’t want to be evaluated on the basis of student progress is absurd. After all, “student progress” is what teachers do. This is just one more fiction propagated by the “reformers” for the purpose of discrediting public school teachers. The reason is greed.
What teachers are against is teacher evaluation by standardized tests. This is because these tests are not designed to measure the progress of each child in the class as well as the competence of the teacher. Experts tell us that these tests compare groups of students and correlate with the background of the child. Anyone who reads the paper should understand this. “Reformers” want to use these tests because they are a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry and they present an “easy” way to evaluate teachers. The only problem is that these tests are not designed to evaluate teachers and are not able to do so with any degree of accuracy. Put it simply, the children who go home to daily discussions and read-alouds in Scarsdale will likely make phenomenal progress on their yearly tests while less privileged children might not.
It is not that difficult to evaluate a teacher, but it takes other informed professionals to do it. It can’t be done with a ten-dollar group test. That should be common sense.
Teachers will prevail in this area because the truth and the testing experts are on their side.
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You stated it better than I could have. Thank you, Linda!
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Come on let’s face it they are an “Astroturf Group” Just like Michelle Rhee’s “Students Last” is. After all Rhee only was a bad teacher for only 3 years when the big money came in behind her. To Gates, Broad, Walton, HP and the rest if you will sign on the dotted line to do whatever they tell you to do you will have a nice cushy job with great pay and benefits forever. If you cross them you will never work again. This is how they roll. They are after all the cookies on the playground. Considering their assets what it takes to buy people for the return, you know “Cost Benefit Analysis”, is what it is all about and since it is soooooooo cheap to buy people “Why Not.”
How does a teacher doing their job not know what is happening with the capabilities of their students? If they do not they are obviously not doing their job. It is that simple. Education and how the human mind is nothing new. We have not changed genetically for a long time. As Eisenhower’s commanding officer in Panama in 1920 told him “Ike, the tools of war have dramatically changed in the last 2000 years, however, human nature has not.” Think about it. Just go to the basics of what drives people and there is the answer always. One thing for sure is that people, including children and youth, know when you do not really care about them. They have told me this about their schools now for over 20 years. They do not care about us or they do everything for us. This is the gamebreaker not tablets and caculators.
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Googling Susan Keyock you see that she is currently a Technology Specialist at at The Bronx Lighthouse Charter School in New York City. They scored better than 11.6% of elementary schools in NY for year 2012.
Bronx Lighthouse Charter School
The Bronx Lighthouse Charter School is managed by the non-profit Lighthouse Academies, which collected at least $182,000 in management fees and bonuses in 2007 and $127,000 in management fees and bonuses in 2008. Lighthouse Academies has also extended the school a $230,000 loan. The Lighthouse CEO serves on the charter school’s board of trustees, as does a management consultant who is also on Lighthouse Academy’s national board. Another Bronx Lighthouse board member was paid as a consultant by the school to prepare its renewal application.(NYC Board of Education, audit report)
Susan is obviously someone caught in the reform agenda with their Hope Street Group and E4E (2nd class TFA) jargon. If only these people could think for themselves, instead of only about themselves, they could possible make good teachers.
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Ms. Keyock seems to live in a world where standardized tests are flawless and their results reveal each student learner in all their complicated splendor and provide a fair evaluation for every teacher in all situations.
If this is not the case for Ms. Keyock, then why would she ever write such an article? Hmmm… Is she an E4E “Stepford” Teacher?
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Educators for Excellence (from their Form 990):
Evan Stone: CEO
Sydney Morris
Michael Loeb
Sivan McLetchie
Peter Flaherty
Anne-Marquerite Crousil
Among other things it says,
“Educators for Excellence trains teachers to give them the skills and background information necessary to advocate for the changes they believe will elevate the profession and improve outcomes for students.”
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I don’t think that’s the Evan Stone that is on Wikipedia.
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I can assure you that the DN reporters are not “unfailingly fair” based on my direct experience. In fact, I found their coverage of my school to be duplicitous, deceitful and disgusting. I unfortunately learned the hard way about their coverage of public schools after I was duped by one of their reporters on their coverage of this very issue of the release of Teacher Data Reports.
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Started by ed-TFA edupreneurs who learned everything about children and education while they had a cup of coffee in the classroom, E$E is an egregious and deceptive organization that is funded to give the impression that rank and file teachers in NYC want more high stakes testing, VAM, nit-picking evaluation checklists, merit pay, loss of seniority and tenure.
This is essentially a fifth columnist group, funded to undermine the union, and preying on the naivete of younger teachers for their funder’s policy interests, not the interests of teachers or students.
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Sorry Diane, I don’t consider the NY Daily news a real newspaper. I haven’t in a very long time. It’s a sad commentary on our national intelligence when a rag like that gets read by so many.
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This is just plain dumb on its face. How on earth can people publish garbage like that? How much was she paid to write baloney like that? What on earth is Gates trying to prove? I don’t know of one single teacher who thinks like the teacher in the article. What can you say? This is just someone on Gates’ payroll.
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Stuff like this is becoming comical.
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You are right Diane. The new year is back on track with more puff pieces on E4E and now the TFA piece in the NYTimes. At least many truths were exposed–like using TFA as a stepping stone for better opportunities. How sad that 2 years of part-time teaching can land you a job as ed commissioner of a Tea Party state or give you an in to run a for-profit charter group. How wonderful to know that it’s not the students that matter, but the lucrative careers. Both these organizations are very well-funded, and I guess the Koch Bros and Waltons are also great contributors. What’s the real cherry on the top of this ice cream is that those who join E4E and work their butts off will not be receiving tenure due to those scores. But no matter. Even if your scores are low and you don’t get a good rating from your principal, places like Harvard will take you into their Administrative Policy department because of your connection to a reform organization, and those getting this “degree” can one day become the boss of all of us.
This is why activism is more important now. Teachers cannot count of their unions to stop this madness (mainly because many union leaders are selling their rank and file down the river). Those that say we need time to grow a grassroots movement like Chicago’s CORE are unrealistic given the changes in law that are being rushed through legislatures around the country.
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