A teacher explains what accountability means in North Carolina:
I argue that the validity of these test scores and results are dismal because the test itself does NOT hold students accountable (at least in my state of NC). The entire basis of the test is invalid before the students even took the test.
The only person that gets any consequence from poor test scores are teachers. No student is held back due to failing the tests (even before the Common Core exams) and every student knows this – they state it out loud in my classroom. I had a student fail EVERY assignment (many assignments were not turned in at all and if completed late could be turned for a grade) and was in the 1% on the high stakes test and STILL was promoted. the teachers now get “report cards” based on student test scores. Sure if I was responsible for these young peoples diet, bedtime, homework help and general health and education care I would be happy to be graded based on their test scores. Many students & their families do not value education in my school district, many are not getting their basic needs met and because I am employed in a very low income school district in a very backwards state I am getting a grade. My grades are average for teachers and I excel in all that I do and a highly trained leader and teacher (I have run education programs and have taught for 20 years and have received numerous awards) but none of that changes the life conditions at home. Yes if I was a poor teacher it would be worse – but even the best teachers cannot overcome the effects of ignorance, poor health and poverty. Grade me on my lessons, on my leadership , on my character and my work ethic – these are measurable items that can be assessed with fairness. But I cannot be graded based on student scores of a 4 hour test at the end of 180 day school year – the 6th graders do not care all they know is in 7 days they will be on summer break!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t think anybody knows what anything means, yet, in NC. We are still in transition. What was true last year, might not be true this year and so on. The online teacher evaluation system from last year has been replaced with one that is less expensive, we are all on “HomeBase,” and I understand it will be the superintendant who decides if 3rd and 8th graders are held back or not (I know this is true for 3rd grade, not positive about 8th).
I still hold to the philosophy of being positive. Think about the children. Be positive. Work with what you have. Do what you can with the circumstances you have right now. Reach out to colleagues for support. Continue to stay informed. Take frustration to pen and write to the representatives in Raleigh, the NCAE, and others who will listen.
But focus on the children right now.
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Student test scores should never count for a teacher’s formal evaluation. Ever. Twenty years ago such an idea would have been met with incredulity and laughter, because it so obviously is a misuse of the whole purpose of a standardized test.
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I had a group of students tell me once that they didn’t like a particular teacher, and so they decided that they were going to answer the test questions incorrectly to try to get her in trouble. Although I did not keep this information to myself, everyone felt powerless to do anything to stop students from choosing the wrong answers. I share your frustration.
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Sounds like a wonderful opening to a class discussion on the ethics of retaliation.
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I had a student say just that when he failed his EOG. Administration had to explain to him that he was not hurting me but himself. This was 6 years ago when that was still mostly true.
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NC Teacher. I do feel for you. I’ve replied on other posts regarding NC’s trip down the yellow brick road. Only thing is, they won’t find the Wizard of Oz. “Don’t pay any attention to the person behind the curtain”. There’s no magic to be had, no crystal ball and the wishing well is out of order.
Regarding accountability and responsibility, as I have said, in order to be responsible for a plan, system or group, such as students taking standardized tests, the person(s) has to have some control. To be held accountable then for student performance, without having input to the process is illogical. This “accountability” amounts to nothing more than blame, with teachers being the scapegoats for our “system’s” inability to find the solution to a manufactured problem, our “failing” public school system.
I’m right with ya’ll out there who want to kick the butts of big money and educational consortiums. You probably realize that Pearson PLC is a British owned company and has their mitts into every major educational market in the world. Not that I hang on every word from Huffington, but here’s a link to some good information. It gives you a feel for just how power the company has become.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-singer/pearson-education-new-york-testing-_b_1850169.html
We, for the most part, are on the same page and understand the issues behind this hijacking of America’s public education system.
As both a conservative and a teacher (now retired) I have NEVER supported anything that looks or smells like NCLB/CCS. Many conservatives feel the same way. Many of us don’t support either main political party, not because of our ideology but because neither party is adequately serving the people of this country.
I’m probably closer to being a Libertarian, not that all the leaders of that movement are on the same page, and the Tea Party is just a vocal arm of the GOP which more than likely does more harm to the GOP than good.
I mention the politics of this situation because there is responsibility on all sides. The stampeding elephants in this educational debacle includes any label of politician and so called “educational expert”, including, I’m sad to say, some good educators that have been taken over by the dark side.
So, it’s not a right-wing GOP run thing, or a moderate Democratic run thing, or a conservative thing, liberal thing, etc. That’s what makes it so difficult to pin down because this animal can shape shift and become anything it wants to be, at any time, for whatever purpose suits it.
Like most of us that post on this blog, I sure don’t have all the answers, but I do know that there is strength in numbers of people with like minds.
Joanna really hit the nail on the head “I still hold to the philosophy of being positive. Think about the children. Be positive. Work with what you have. Do what you can with the circumstances you have right now. Reach out to colleagues for support. Continue to stay informed. Take frustration to pen and write to the representatives in Raleigh, the NCAE, and others who will listen. But focus on the children right now.”
We can expand this call to arms to include every state’s leaders who will listen, and even those who won’t. The elephants will tire of the opposition and will begin some type of concession process. That’s my prediction. I hope I’m correct.
So, I’ll concentrate on Arizona and some for Washington state and the DC.
Bless ya’ll. You are inspirational.
Jim
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Background: If you ask sales folks whether it is fair to use total sales or sales against quota as the basis for their compensation, they will swear up and down that you cannot use sales to measure their performance. Try to change their compensation plan as a result of changed market conditions or products and they will yell and scream. Use billable hours in a lawyer’s office or patient billings in a doctor’s office to determine compensation and you will get the same push back. People hate to have their performance evaluated. No performance evaluation is uniformly seen as fair. Moreover, after 30 years looking at them and designing them, I would say folks are right. But and its a very big BUT, there is no real alternative if you want to make decisions that are fairer and more equitable. Certainly Seniority is among the worst ways to compensate and make personnel decisions. Its widespread use is simply because it takes all judgment out of the decision.
I do think that test scores can be used as part of an evaluation process for classroom teachers BUT not in some simple and mechanistic fashion. Test results can produce both false positives and false negatives. Anyone using them surely recognizes this. Certainly test results can be gamed. That said, test results are far from meaningless and arguing that they are not relevant appears to most as a weak and overly defensive argument. It would be far more constructive to argue how and when they should be used.
The NC author of the post suggests other indicators of teacher performance. These are also useful and could even be weighted according to their perceived validity. I suspect that many teachers with argue with the author on how and when these should be used.
The real problem is that there is little evidence that in general any meaningful teacher performance evaluation is actually in place. The use of and emphasis on aggregate standardized test results in many cases appears to be an example of “if you only have a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.” To argue against something is difficult if you do not have a viable alternative. At least the NC author suggests a way forward. The Montgomery County PAR process raised earlier sounds good, but as I have indicated elsewhere the available data suggests that it has lost its vigor and rigor.
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“I do think that test scores can be used as part of an evaluation process for classroom teachers ”
You seem to place a lot of trust in the quality, validity and relibility of these tests.
Why?
You also seem to believe that a test can assess both the taker and someone else at the same time.
Why is that?
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Ang:
Actually I do not put a lot of trust in tests unless they meet standard psychometric requirements for reliability and validity. I certainly would not take Pearson’s or any other test developers word for it.
For the sake of the discussions here, which are largely about principles as opposed to actual technical details of the tests, I am assuming that the tests are reasonably reliable and valid measures of mastery of a pre-defined set of math and or English language tasks dictated by the curriculum. I have not seen the technical reports on these tests so I am making a crucial assumption. Do you have a reference that suggests otherwise for these particular tests.
Despite all the criticisms, tests like the SAT, for example, are reliable and are valid for their stated purpose.
On a practical basis and assuming that the tests meet standard psychometric criteria, if on average a net 60% of 8th grade students improve their scores over the course of a year on one of these tests and only a net 25% a specific teacher’s 8th grade students improve their scores then I would look very carefully at response of the students on the test plus other indicators of this teacher’s performance and any factors that might have influenced the performance of the students on the tests – last year’s and this year’s. I would probably spend less time on the teachers where 50% to 70% of their students had increased scores. Obviously teachers where 80% or more raised their scores would also merit closer examination for potential best practices.
I would not be very comfortable with making fine distinctions among teachers based on their student performance on such tests nor would I dream of placing a heavy weight on such a performance metric. In addition I would want access to a test item analysis of student responses.
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Many posts here speak of the stress that these standardized exams put on the students but this post suggests that one problem with these exams is that they are no stake exams and thus are not stressful for the students.
On another point, if a student does extremely well on standardized exams but finds the class work irrelevant to learning, perhaps the student is in the wrong class. That has been my experience both as a parent and a teacher.
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This rating of teachers on test scores is going to make for apt of outward prejudice against the populations we teach. I wo set how conscious this divide and conquer mentality was as the “reformers” went about setting their agenda.
Sent from my iPhone
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pdobosz5:
Try assuming that they are trying to do what they say they are doing. You can still argue they are wrong, but you do not have to attribute nefarious motives.
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I take them at their word, Bernie. They want to privatize public education and bring teachers to their knees in North Carolina.
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I agree with Diane. NC has started the voucher process with HB944.
SO far, voucher schools are not to be held to the same standard as public schools.
Here’s the wording from the voucher bill:
“A nonpublic school that accepts eligible students receiving scholarship grants shall comply with the following… Administer, at least once in each school year, a nationally standardized test or other nationally standardized equivalent measurement selected by the chief administrative officer of the nonpublic school…,)”
Test results will not be reported until there are at least 25 voucher students at a school.
This bill does not stipulate that the voucher school has to evaluate teachers based on test results.
I find that to be confusing. Why different standards for students being educated with public money?
Maybe this is a way to fight the testing mandates?
Click to access H944v2.pdf
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Allowing families to choose schools can substitute for regulations. I am not sure that this specific mix is correct, but it seems reasonable that if a family can choose a different school for their student, some of the regulations that apply to traditional zoned public schools might be relaxed. In addition, some of the rules for public school are meant to prevent the public school system from providing patronage positions to supporters. This is less of a concern if the leader in a school has control of far fewer jobs.
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TE:
You beat me to it.
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If experience is any guide there will be a number of posters who will disagree.
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concernedmom:
The wording of the legislation is helpful. Thank you.
It seems to me though that charter schools are under the same requirements to use standardized tests for their . I suspect, though I do not know, that the charter schools survival will depend on their relative performance on these standardized tests as well as the overall educational experience in the school. The pupils can certainly return to the public schools if they are dissatisfied, can they not?
If I were a principal at one of these charter schools, the performance of the students on these tests would be certainly one of my considerations when evaluating my staff. .I guess I am agreeing with teaching economist
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concernedmom: :”This bill does not stipulate that the voucher school has to evaluate teachers based on test results.”
Great insight!
Sometimes it’s what you don’t see or what you don’t hear the sneaks right up and bites you on the butt. It’s like being hidden right out in the open.
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How come the assumption is made that parents did not choose their neighborhood public school? That’s the choice I made.
Can I choose that my child not take standardized tests?
How many teaching positions do you estimate are filled with patronage positions and how does standardized testing fix that problem?
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I think parents do choose their school by their decision on where to live. Of course, not everyone can afford to buy into the New Trier school district.
I think you can choose to send your student to private school or could move to my state in the middle of the country where at least my students pay little attention to standardized exams
Finally the system is relatively successful at preventing these positions as patronage positions, so my estimate would be rather low. In many towns in my state the public school system is the single largest employer in the town. Should we allow local politicians the freedom to decide who should be employed in the public school system and who is not?
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Bernie1815
-Voucher schools are not charter schools,
I often thought that charters and traditional public schools could come together on this testing requirements for voucher schools and argue against standardized testing.
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TE,
What if I don’t want to move and my child already attends a Title 1 school in a “failing” district? I already live In a town I can afford, with plenty of choice schools for those who don’t like public schools. I don’t feel I should be told to attend a voucher/private school because the only thing I don’t like is standardized testing. Why does choice end with the school?
Why can’t a public school parent have a choice to opt out of these tests? Is the assumption made because I choose to keep my child in the neighborhood school that I don’t know what is best for my child and therefore, my child (and his teacher), needs to be tested?
The issue for me isn’t whether the students care about the test, the issue is what the powers that be want to do with the results.
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I am all in favor of parents choosing things, even schools. I don’t think I suggested that parents should not be allowed to opt out of exams.
In my town there are no “choice” public schools, just traditional zoned schools or private schools.
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The children in North Carolina have already lost. It will be a failing state as far as education goes. They will not pump out many kids who will have the grades to get to college. My advice to this teacher is either get out of the public schools or move to a different state. Nothing will change in NC. I had to move and get my son out of there. We moved to a northern state where we can still get an education. There is no such thing as educating kids down there when you have 1 teacher to 50 kids. They are insane!!! I do feel for the situation but the parents don’t stand up. If you don’t stand up you will lose out!! The state as a whole is going down the sewer!!! They will allow fracking there as well!! You will be unable to use the drinking water. The governor has cut 4 billion out of the educational system in NC. He has cut medicaid and there will be many kids who have no health care and can not go to a doctor. This situation this teacher is talking about is about to get worse. Sorry, for the people in NC.
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One teacher to fifty students – what county was that in? What subject and grade level? Aside from possibly high school band I have never heard of that situation.
NC is experiencing some difficulties right now in education and other areas. I believe things are getting ready to turn around in education, maybe I am overly optimistic. Tthings are pretty low right now. I do know that the staff that I work with are wonderful, dedicated and caring people. I wouldn’t work anywhere else and our students are blessed to have us in their corner. Are there problems? Absolutely!
Would I like to feel appreciated by the administration? You bet! But these children have my heart and I am ready to do what it takes for them to succeed. I get it back from them in the most amazing ways.
Leaving the state is an option and one I understand but I am staying for the children. I’ll keep the light on for those who leave, and hope things turn around soon.
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Ms. Cartwheel,
Thank you for your dedication to the children of NC.
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I am staying too!
This is our home.
We will get this worked out.
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Joanna,
Thank you!
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ZenQ1:
According to the NEA, the pupil teacher ratio in North Carolina the Fall 2011 was 15.2 to 1. In the US it was 16.0 to 1.
Click to access NEA_Rankings_And_Estimates-2013_(2).pdf
Table C6
North Carolina does however rank among the lowest states in terms of per pupil expenditures: $8,492 vs. US Average of $10,834 (2011-12). Spending per pupil in 2010-11 was slightly higher: $8,572. US Average per pupil expenditure in 2010-2011 was lower: $10,669
Table H11
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Obviously, they are wrong!!! I know how many kids were in my son’s class.
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@Bernie,
You sound like a psycometrician who works with standardized tests and has little or no experience actually teaching children. The problem with standardized testing is that it now drives education. The very process of standardizing a test makes it a poor tool to provide ongoing evaluation of a student’s progress in learning. Only a teacher or parent can observe a child’s growth in skills and knowledge and make valid assessments of their progress. Tests should be developed by classroom teachers to evaluate student success of materials that have been covered in class. The tests then become an effective teaching tool students can use to see what they have (or have not) learned. Standardized tests make the assumption that all children learn the same and are given the same instructional content. The tests are graded off site and neither students or teachers are provided any detailed feedback on the results, just given a score. Educating a child is far more complex than that. Learning requires two way communication and feedback. The real values of getting an education include (or should include): learning how to fail and get past it; gaining self confidence and skill from a growing base of knowledge about the world we live in; learning how to effectively communicate in writing; developing good habits of inquiry and critical thinking skills. When education is driven by standardized tests and the volume of content students must master to be successful on them, it destroys the teachers’ freedom to work with students, culture their curiosity and enflame their interest. The most vital task of an elementary school teacher is to get her/his students excited about learning. When students are interested they learn well and there seems to be no limit on how much they can learn. When they are bored they do not, and no amount of standardized testing, threatening, or bullying the teachers will fix that.
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In the county ww used to live in 5,000 children were home schooled because the school were so bad!!!!! That is a very big number and that was the actual count and growing. It was a mix of Christians but mostly from students with learning disabilities. NC is a very crappy!!!! state that does not address children’s needs. If anyone that has a child with learning disabilities better leave or you can guarantee the fact your child will not be educated. It is a very backward state. Had I known that I would have never went there in the first place.
I love and support teacher’s and believe that they are doing there best but the politicians are destroying the state. I am grateful we left because my son is getting a great education in the north. I feel sorry for the parents who can’t leave for what ever reason. And I feel for the kids who are ignored.
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