This blogger wants you to understand legislation that is sailing through the Michigan legislature.
The teachers’ pay will be based on whether student test scores go up.
Experience and degrees don’t matter.
Only test scores.
Is there any research that supports this idiotic policy?
No.
Thanks, Arne.
“He shot an arrow in the air….”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I thinkd the link is in error onthis posting. It takes you to the entry on CPS closings.
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Here is a link that says it will be the primary factor : http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/michigan-lawmakers-debate-student-performance-in-determining-teacher-pay
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And the most vicious part of that paradigm is that teachers are TOLD what to teach and then suffer the predictable, bad results of curriculum that wouldn’t educate a frog! Talk about a no win situation…
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Astute comment, Mary.
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Wrong article/link, Diane.
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Michael, try the link again, I fixed it.
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If you look up Michigan legislator in the thesaurus it directs you to “stupidity” with a footnote to see the Term Limit fiasco of 1992. That being said, for those against the Charter movement MI charters were delivered a fairly major setback this past Thursday. I filed a formal complaint this past January against the Mosaica-run Muskegon Heights Public School Academy (first all-charter district) pursuant to alleged violations to the IEPs of every student age 3-26 and on 10 substantive violations. The soup to nuts (or rotten eggs) of special education violations. The MI Dept. of Ed found NONCOMPLIANCE for ALL 10 allegations. The director of special education was fired 6 weeks ago over this complaint (and a second for children, birth to age 3 that will be out in several weeks) and corrective action that includes compensatory education for the students has been ordered. This complaint highlights (or lowlights) the complete failure of Mosaica and these Charters to deliver even a semblance of a free appropriate public education. I will next file a complaint with the U.S. Dept. of Ed Office of Civil Rights and allege the denial of FAPE. So while I have never met a parent in this regurgitated emergency manager-run district…score a victory for the children…and those of us fighting for public education.
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Good for you. I still remember that Mosaica was guaranteed money up front. This is shameful. How on earth could this district be so out of compliance. You would think they would have known the spotlight would be shining on them.
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Marcie,
Contact the ACLU to help you.
ACLU got the US Department of Justice to issue a warning to Milwaukee voucher schools for excluding children with disabilities.
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Thank you, Marcie!
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Diane, I click the link and it’s sending me to a blog about postmen.
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Read the blog about the postmen, Zulma. It is a metaphor for teachers and evaluations.
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Teachers of the gifted don’t stand a chance. Where do you go from up?
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Down!
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This represents the danger that is sweeping our nation, non-educators writing high stakes educational policy. Those of us in the field know that the achievement gap starts way before a student enters our schools. We have a crisis in our country, our teachers see it every day, the students entering our classrooms are coming in more damaged than what we have ever seen. What is the overall issue that is heading our country down a slippery slope? Violence! America’s children witness more violence in their neighborhoods and in their homes that no child should have to experience or witness.
I’m going to take a little turn. Our legislators if they had the courage and took a stand on principle, do have an opportunity to write policy that can protect the rights of our children. However, they lack the courage and the drive that it would take to start turning this country around. Legislators protect the rights of parents to neglect their children, abandon, use substance abuse, be incarcerated, emotionally abuse, allow children to be truant from school, to scar the child as much as is protected under the law. There is not one policy that grades or mandates that our most valuable resource…..our children, come under the legislator’s accountability.
Tell me or show me one educational policy that has been written and/or mandated that is “student focused”? Tell me or show me one educational policy that scores a teacher or student that is not punitive? We are overlooking what these high stakes testing is doing to our children….it is punishing them. Diplomas are being denied over one state standard, we are trying to fail students and retain them if they can’t pass state tests, we are doing what seems to be the natural approach, “the harder we punish them the harder they will try and their performance will go up”. Schools, teachers, and students are not graded by reviewing their work, they are graded by these “Achievement index” calculations that fail every time. It is riding the dead horse all different ways and ending up at the same location……no where. As an administrator, I rebuke the punitive policies that are being mandated and I commend the teachers that don’t judge a student by their score and risk of not testing well, these teachers look at the whole child and begin to move many of Hesse kids forward. High stakes testing…..teacher moves student two years growth but does not meet state standard is marked a failure.
How many students have to fail and their lives destroyed before we stop this madness? How many times can a teacher be beaten down that is giving their all each day to each student? Who is getting hurt the most….our students of poverty….. that come from home environments that our legislators continue to turn a blind eye and deaf ears. If they want to impact the achievement gap, protect all of our children from abuse and neglect!
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“hose of us in the field know that the achievement gap. . . ”
Who cares about this so called “achievement gap?” That is the deformers way of talking. Please quit using their framing.
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Duane, I don’t know what state you live in, but this framing has been the bowling ball thrown at our teachers. They are being blamed for not bring students up to grade level. They are being blamed that students of poverty are not being challenged, and it is this framing that is used to attack. It’s an elites ideology and I am going to
confront it. I’m just as fed up as you are……we’re both fighting the same fight for the same reasons.
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There is but one cure for the dread disease of Legislatitus —
Legislatectomy
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It’s quite simple, just perform a lobotomy, eh!
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I just contacted Rep. Lisa Lyons as a result of this post. Thank you for keeping us informed. This is a bad idea on a number of levels.
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How in the world can such a bill get to the committee? I mean, who wrote it?
“Supporters argue that rewarding teachers who perform better and moving away from a system that rewards seniority will improve teachers and benefit students.”
While I am generally against seniority playing too large a role, the argument suggesting that there is a way to measure “performance” of a teacher is already nonsense. Worse yet is the idea to say that a teacher’s performance is related to the students’ test scores.
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Who wrote it?
I haven’t checked, but it’s always a good guess that they cribbed it off our friendly non-local shadow government at ALEC.
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“Supporters argue that rewarding teachers who perform better and moving away from a system that rewards seniority will improve teachers and benefit students.”
That’s a good one, can I get some of that snake oil too??
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The best example I have heard came from my wife. Let’s rate dentists based on how many cavities their patients have.
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This is coming to TN as well. The state board is meeting this summer to discuss it further.
Click to access III_C_2013-2014_State_Minimum_Salary_Schedule_Cover_Sheet.pdf
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Here’s the base salary schedule they are proposing.
Click to access III_C_2013-2014_State_Minimum_Salary_Schedule_Attachment.pdf
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