This is a terrific article that appeared on Huffington Post by Nicholas Ferroni.
He speaks truths that every teacher will understand.
This is what he did this week:
This week of school, like every other week, was pretty normal: I gave out about fifty dollars to various students who didn’t have lunch money; I resolved two teenage relationship issues; I comforted three girls who, for some reason, think they are so ugly that no boys will ever like them; I got three students, who have whispered three words each all year, to speak in front of the class; I paid for four students to join the gym and also offered to train them in order for them to deal with their aggression constructively; I went out of my way to make sure that five of my students, who I know are having problems at home, know that they are intelligent, strong and have so much to offer this world. So, in the education world where you deal with hundreds of uniquely individual teenagers trying to accept who they are, it’s just a normal week. I am not trying to brag because my commitment to my students is not the exception but the norm, especially at the high school where I teach where so many of my colleagues, day in and day out, give their hearts, souls and money to their students without a thought. I also do not want your sympathy because I, like most teachers, went into education for this very reason: to educate, empower and nurture youth.
Yet politicians constantly take pot shots at teachers and try to find a metric to weigh their value, usually with test scores. Teaching is so much more complicated and demanding than test prep, Ferroni explains.
He adds:
Without going into too much off topic, has anyone advocating for teacher evaluation and merit pay ever even consider what impact it will have on the performance of students in the classroom? They are incredibly naïve if they think that the fact that all accountability now lies on a teacher’s performance, and not the student, will not lead students performance to decline. Why would students work harder to excel in the classroom, when they are completely free of any responsibility for their grade? This is ultimately suggesting that each student has no role in their own success or failure in the classroom. Any one of us who has attended school knows that without a doubt that, not only are we responsible for our own academic performance, but that we are far more responsible than our teachers, our parents and even our friends were for our grades.
This brings me back to my opening paragraph; the most important role a teacher plays in the lives of his or her students is not as an examiner, but as a nurturer. Attempting to evaluate a teacher based on standardized tests is like evaluating a doctor solely on whether a patient lives, dies, or is cured. Just as every doctor gives his or her all attempting to save and cure patients, every teacher gives his or her entire self to students (who we treat more like our own children than our students). I can’t imagine a world where teachers are so fearful of losing their jobs because their students, who may be going through so many various and horrible circumstances, that they disregard the emotional role of an educator and focus solely on the academics. I will never tell a student, “Stop crying! I don’t care if you are depressed, or you haven’t eaten breakfast, or your parents beat you. I need you to do your work and study so you do well on your exam, so we meet our district goals and my pay is not garnished!”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I will say it again, teaching is a social activity. It cannot be automated, mechanize or standardized. (I am in favor of mutually agreed upon national standards by the way; everone benefits from a guide.)
“. . . mutually agreed upon. . . ”
And therein lies the problem.
frameworks, not standards. Standards are too rigid. Kids differ. Standards do not. Publishers treat standards AS the curriculum, thereby distorting curriculum development dramatically. National standards create economies of scale that help large publishers to maintain monopoly positions. Invariant standards also stifle curricular and pedagogical innovation.
None of this is true of frameworks, which have the necessary flexibility.
Diane,
The link that you just provided on “How to evaluate a teacher – really” does not work.
Here it is, Henry.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-ferroni/how-to-truly-evaluate-a-t_b_3128411.html
“No one cares what you think”.
-David Coleman
Correction: “…people really don’t give a shit about what you feel, or what you think.”
Says so much… fact of the matter is, sociopaths don’t give a s*** about what you feel, or what you think. I think the “sociopaths” are taking over America… and as that happens, the “evil” catches… think about the Milgram experiments… social pressure can encourage otherwise good people to do some very bad things. If the people making the decisions about education don’t care what you feel/think… they’re no better than sociopaths, because the human factor is no longer important. Caring for our fellow human being is the basis for moral behavior.
Thanks for the correction chemtchr. I kept my quote PG. I am glad this man is currently in the process of digging his claws into the SAT exam. Very settling.
I’m agreeing with Glenn Beck here! Who woulda thunk it? Except for two corrections: When he says we are dealing with “evil,” that is meaningless. It’s one of those words like “good” or “nice.” No meaning. Please think below the surface and say what you mean. Second: He says the “left” is behind the CC$$. That’s not true. He needs to take a closer look. The Democratic Party is not the “left” by any stretch of the imagination, and they and their partner in support of the corporatocracy, the Republican Party, are pushing the CC (descendant of NCLB), not the real left, if you can find it in this country. I would lilke for Mr. Beck to reply thoughtfully to these two points.
Mr. V,
“I kept my quote PG”
No need to keep things at a PG level here. Now XX and XXX will probably get deleted so maybe a “mild” X level is fine!!!
The question we need to stress is “WHO (gets) to evaluate a teacher?”
The corporate control enthusiasts would actually be happy to add any additional checklist Nicholas suggests to their bogus scoresheet, once we’ve agreed that regulatory authority over our professional goals and accomplishments is theirs.
“WHO (gets) to evaluate a teacher?”
As a teacher, the only valid evaluation is one that I do in concert with my supervising principle in a sit down narrative fashion, no rubrics, no check sheets, just good old fashioned respectful, equal and common sense pedagogical discussions of what I do, think, believe, put into practice and why, in what order and why, in attempting to implement a curriculum that is agreed upon in advance.
But, but, but, but that will disrupt the “power relationship” that the “leaders” psychologically need.
I am doing my doctoral research and hopefully subsequent research on student responsibility for their learning. I feel we are handicapping our young people today by sending a message that learning is all about what the teacher does and is only measured by a score on a test. As a university instructor I see it everyday in students inability to reason, connect, think critically and creatively.
I am interested in connecting with anyone who interested in doing research in this area. “Instruction” is about the teacher, but “Learning” is about the student and this message has gotten lost.
Why has it taken so long for someone to point this out?
Good teaching does not guarantee good learning. Its a two-way street but the current model (NCLB/RTTT/CCSS) is teaching students that their teachers are to blame for their poor test scores.
Its actually an intersection – teachers are also being blamed for inappropriate/ineffective curriculum and poor testing instruments – these have an incredible impact on teaching and learning.
How fascinating. I have not thought about that this way before! As a mother, one of the most important–and constant–lessons I work on with my son is responsibility for his learning, meaning engagement and organization, really. His high school teachers are excellent about it. One of them said on Back to School Night, that the most important thing the students would learn in her class is to advocate for themselves. I was so grateful that there was such a strong emphasis on the effort the students put forth. Sounds like common sense, but that has been a casualty of this obsession with teacher accountability.
That is what we do in the Montessori classroom. It’s really nothing new except that many people outside of Montessori don’t know about it. We present the concept to the kids and show them how to use the materials in order for them to further learn it on their own. The class is divided into subject areas, rather than separate classes for each subject, so we are able to easily integrate, make connections, and show relationships. We call our lessons “presentations” and the kids refer to their assignments as “works.”
UOW- As a Montessori teacher, it is our responsibility to strike the imagination of the child and provide the environment and opportunities for the child to engage him or herself with the work. They take responsibility for their own learning and discovery. If this is along the lines of what you are researching, please feel free to call our school (Kenosha Montessori School, Kenosha, Wisconsin) for further information. (1st-6th grade classroom)
I am most tired of teachers or students “being blamed” in the passive voice. Exactly who is it, who is doing all this blaming?
Teaching and learning aren’t about blaming and being blamed, and nobody is in a high and mighty position to decide how to apportion blame between me and my students. They can blow it out their ear.
Who is doing the blaming?
Superintendents who close schools because of low performance. Fake grassroots organizations that “empower” parents to pull the parent trigger and blow up a school. Legislators who pass laws that make it easier to hand public school funds over to private enterprise. Superintendents and school boards that refuse to hire enough teachers and criticize such priorities as “adult conflicts.” Mayors who yell “Just do your job!” at teachers asking for more funding for their students.
Or was that a rhetorical question?
Reply to Karen…I believe it was a governor, Christie, who yelled at teachers to do their job. Look where his lousy attitude got him: bridgegate. What goes around, comes around.
I’m not fully understanding. I thought we needed to engage students in their learning. Where is the line drawn where it becomes students’ responsibility?
I would love to speak with you on this. Please get in touch.
uhow,
You can contact me @ dswacker@centurytel.net . I’d be happy to help in what ever fashion, reading, critiquing, etc. . . .
Daune
P.S. Just reference this post in the “subject” line as I have a tendency to delete all emails that I don’t know the sender.
I agree with you. I am in the classroom to instruct and give guidance in helping my students understand how to learn.
This post reminds me of myself. I give students money. I write countless letters of recommendations. I stay after school 4 out of 5 days a week for meetings, club gatherings and unpaid tutorials. Yet, my evaluations are based on test scores – tests that I rarely have time to prepare students for because I am (gasp) teaching the Common Core curriculum and the Senior Project. But don’t worry legislators, I do enjoy a two month unpaid vacation that allows me to go to workshops to maintain my license to do all of this.
Moving post! This is so very true! You get to the heart of what this new “business model” for education is lacking …heart.
It makes me think of all the language we now use … Everything seems to be a “war” …not a nurturing word. War on poverty, war on Christmas, war on drugs, war on education, war on teachers, and on and on.
Teachers who see their duty as nurturing and responsible for creating a caring community of people are seen as being at war with some kind of warped ideas about what America was meant to be through the narrow eyes of those who continue to rewrite history and who fail to look at themselves through the lens of reality.
Teaching ng is so much more than a test score, so much more than a snapshot day of an observation. Teaching includes so many details and feelings and sacrifices. It can’t be reduced to the insulting level of s andardized expectations that have been tossed at the profession with less understanding and care as is used in dumping a port-a-pottie.
America is not some test rank. America is not the land of the free market. America grew through hope and compassion once it struggled away from the shackles of the collective past, with people escaping the oppression of those with wealth.
Are we really going to sit back and watch the reformers ruin this country?
“Everything seems to be a “war”
Militaristic is as militaristic does (or is that vice versa?) America (sic) has been an aggressive militaristic society since the end of WW2 when we could have scaled back on death and destruction but we chose to continue to follow the path to hell that is the MIC.
And many of these “wars” actually help to create, maintain, and acerbate the problems that they are meant to rid us of. The War on Drugs is a great jobs program for drug cartels and drives drug usage underground where it can’t easily be treated as a health problem. The interminable, open-ended War on Terror creates terrorists by sewing deep, long-lasting enmities among the relatives of the civilian victims of that war.
Finally, the truth is told. Recently, I told a friend that the most exhausting aspect of teaching is being as sensitive as we must be all day, every day. Our students need us to be responsive to their hearts and minds. Additionally, we must expect them to rise to challenges while knowing they have our support.
People who haven’t taught don’t realize just how physically and mentally taxing/exhausting teaching can be (and usually is). I didn’t start teaching until I was 38 and had many a position that required 60-80 hour weeks and none were as exhausting as my regular school day due to what you have said, Ellen.
Years ago, I attended a conference where the late Reverend Gomes of Harvard referred to teaching as magic. Sadly, all of those who were schooled by fine teachers who appeared to teach with “ease” have no understanding that this illusion is achieved by a mixture of hard work, dedication and the ability to connect. Those with little comprehension of this artistic craft believe that since they had attended schools, they can now play a role in how teachers teach.
Diane Ravitch’s blog highlighted a commentary by Nicholas Ferroni which appeared in Huffington Post. She was right. It was worthy to read, and really valuable for understanding how ridiculous is this whole business of evaluating a teacher, standardized testing, and the idiotic value added concept…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicholas-ferroni/how-to-truly-evaluate-a-t_b_3128411.html
One of the biggest failures of teacher evaluations is the undue emphasis on the delivery
of a single lesson, which often results in the administrator being treated to a 40 minute “dog-and-pony” show. Short shrift is given to the over-arching structure of a teachers year-long program. Programs that have been fine-tuned and improved over years of instruction, reflection, and change. Programs that include grading, classroom discipline, testing, and homework policies. Programs that address major concerns of most students: expertise in subject area (especially beyond the textbook), clear and concise methodologies, substantial and valuable learning activities, fairness, organization, and efficient use of time. Students, who are probably much better teacher evaluators than most building principals, draw their conclusions based on program structure and consistent delivery of a fair, interesting, and substantial program.
I agree. I have 18 years of outstanding observations; I have a new coordinator who came to observe me on a day the lesson fell flat. As teachers, we know that happens sometimes, and if she told me snapshot one more time, I was going to snap. Years past if a lesson didn’t work as planned, it wasn’t the end of one’s reputation. Now it can aid in doing just that. If it comes to it, I will consult my own attorney . I don’t know if there is any recourse, but I will find out. I will not sit by and let my professional reputation, that I have worked hard at building and maintaining, be tarnished by some new system that has no interest in developing good teachers.
“Without going into too much off topic, has anyone advocating for teacher evaluation and merit pay ever even consider what impact it will have on the performance of students in the classroom? They are incredibly naïve if they think that the fact that all accountability now lies on a teacher’s performance, and not the student, will not lead students performance to decline. Why would students work harder to excel in the classroom, when they are completely free of any responsibility for their grade? This is ultimately suggesting that each student has no role in their own success or failure in the classroom.”
This is a great point, and one I have wondered about myself listening to the ed reform/media focus on teachers. It’s a weirdly passive role for students.
I’ve also wondered how public school students perceive the attacks on teachers. I am not an expert, but I am a parent, and the constant ed reform/media drumbeat on how teachers are dumb and lazy seems like a contradiction when at the same time we’re telling kids to respect teachers and listen to them. Why would any kid listen to their teachers or take direction from them if their (exclusively) public school teachers are portrayed as dumb and lazy by ed reformers and media? I wouldn’t listen to a person who is portrayed like that. Why would kids?
Yes, it seems if I teach the students to blame the teachers, I must be coddling the students. Or if I fail to blame the teachers, I would be coddling the students directly. So coddling always happens.
An active-voice blamer (tip o’ the hat to chemtchr) *can* have it both ways.
More charter school corruption in Ohio. Our state school board is packed with charter school lobbyists, some of whom are actually also registered lobbyists for anti-labor groups. They’ve received state funding to open a charter school that will “teach” construction trades (mostly online, no word from ed reformers how they plan to “teach” construction trades online) because as we know online charters are extremely lucrative and sold to poor and working class students.
It will create a pipeline of poorly-trained non-union construction employees and help to undercut wages in construction trades, which is not surprising because the state school board member who is pushing the charter is a paid lobbyist for an anti-labor construction lobby shop.
http://www.ohio.com/news/state-school-board-member-from-akron-represents-nonunion-contractors-who-opened-charter-school-1.448804
This is a new twist on ed reform, because it actually funnels ed money directly to building companies so they can train their own non-union workforce on the taxpayer dime, so it’s a double-dip public subsidy of for-profits.
The hubris of ed reformers is breathtaking. They’re now actively robbing public school students. There’s not even an attempt to hide it.
I’d take a teacher over a doctor any day.
For??
Teachers are social workers in a sense, but they also need to be creative in covering the curriculum. Being effective in that regard can help to overcome emotional situations of students. Not being effective compounds them and their attitude for school in general. The nicest teacher can dumb down an entire class.
I finished teaching my class on Friday afternoon (I go into the classroom teacher’s class as a specialist). Before the kids were leaving they started to pack up well in advance of the afternoon PA announcements. They were putting their library books into their bags. I took a moment to walk around and look and talk with them about their selections. They were filled with curiosity about a wide range of subjects from spiders, castles, dinosaurs, etc.. The joy and wonderment and the excitement that another teacher was coming over to talk to them about the book they chose was enormous. I commented to one student that I did not know the answer to his question asked in regards to dinosaurs but that perhaps it would be in the book. He is going to tell me if he finds the answer in there on Monday. I mention all of this because NONE OF THIS ENGAGEMENT AND CURIOSITY involves preparing for standardized tests. It is about human interaction, about caring, about genuine engagement… this is what fuels life-long learning. This student is in second grade and I shutter to think how he will slowly turn off to reading or “learning” as he starts to realize that education is not about interacting with others and sharing knowledge but is about a “testing race”… So sad that our national education policy has taken such a money-driven stance. I would also like to say that the corporate world (which I do spend a lot of time villifying these days) used to have a humanistic view. I do hope and think there are some corporations out there who still are humanistic and hope that as teachers we can find them and seek them out. A company that makes polartec fleece was once owned by Aaron Fuerstein and many years ago had a terrible fire at the main factory. The place was destroyed. The wealthy owner continued to pay the worker’s salaries out of pocket until the factory was rebuilt. This kind of thinking.. more humanistic and caring is what needs to be injected into the corporate world these days. What this teacher describes in regards to interactions with students IS DEFINITELY WHERE THE REAL LEARNING TAKES PLACE. Here is an article on Malden Mills (original maker of polartec fleece)…
http://ethix.org/2011/06/25/was-aaron-feuerstein-wrong
Another thought.. there have been articles on the high rate of student suicides in China over the testing craze. I wonder if this testing craze now in the US will lead to more situations like Columbine? Should we not put CARING about our nations’ youth first and foremost at such a difficult period in history. While the author in the article points out the fact that teachers are now wrongly made to be 100 percent responsible for student “learning” and students ironically are no longer responsible for their own learning.. I have a slightly different stance. Teachers are forced to teach in ways they know are not good practice. So how can we suddenly say that even though a student pays attention in class and does their homework… and still fails.. that this is their responsibility if the methods are all wrong anyway (at least for title one students)? If our system does not adequately prepare students because it is too focused on what is on a test… can we not hold the policy makers who IMPLEMENT and ENFORCE inane ed policy in the classroom more responsible for this mess??? Title one students need to suffer a lot LESS from the long-term effects of poverty before we can start questioning their readiness to learn. Can you be ready to learn if you get no sleep because you share a one bedroom apartment and an infant brother was up crying all night or you have not had a decent meal and you are hungry in the morning or you have a rotten tooth that hurts but no medical attention to fix it?
You bring up two important issues which both point beyond the classroom to structural problems.
(1)”Teachers are forced to teach in ways they know are not good practice.”
Teachers need a unified and prestigious professional organization (such as the bar assn. or the ama) which would provide a voice counterbalancing the whims of politics and marketplace.
(2)”can we not hold the policy makers who IMPLEMENT and ENFORCE inane ed policy in the classroom more responsible for this mess???”
Not if we have a governmental structure which allows federal and state actors to devise, implement, and enforce educational policy.
Reblogged this on From experience to meaning… and commented:
The idea that there are great teachers just keeping their great lessons to themselves because they don’t get paid extra, is, to me, the biggest mistake people defending the zombie idea of merit pay make.
Oh, yes. We have a guy who teaches 4th grade. He has a lot of lessons he developed over the years and via committees he was on in Kentucky. He has no desire to share with anyone and has repeatedly stated that he would never share if merit pay is instituted.
He says that he will close his door and do what he can to make his and only his students be “better than” all others. He sees no obligation to contribute to the entire student body’s progress.
I do not feel that teachers are islands unto themselves. This signifies the selfish lack of heart that is beginning to dominate the behaviors of so many who claim to know what is best for schools.
As a teacher in an urban district who hasn’t had a raise in 7 years (despite increased cost of health care to us), I have found reading your blog as a daily source of re-affirmation of the importance of a single teachers’ dedication.
I am in a room where I don’t have sufficient light and the HVAC leaks consistently (before I realized this, I lost nearly 50 books); one wintry day not long ago we had no heat, but students had to attend school; we get docked pay to leave half an hour early for doctors appointments, but there are repercussions and intimidations if we don’t use our personal time to finish HOURS of required paperwork that’s not physically possibly to complete during the day (beyond grading papers and planning purposeful lessons at night, too)…. the list goes on and stress is high. It is no wonder why so many good teachers are leaving (especially urban) education.
Our politicians would never work in such conditions let alone allow themselves to be evaluated as they are demanding our teachers to be evaluated. Imagine if our senators’ re-election was based on SMART goal accomplishments and a quantitative measure of their success…
Ferroni’s point is felt daily and deeply by teachers nationwide. How many districts across America declare they believe in educating “the whole child”… and how many are truly doing so? And yet, teachers persist despite the conditions and the pressures of high-stakes testing. We know and love the fact that teaching and learning is so much more than numbers and words. Indeed, it is to nurture.
Who is evaluating the evaluators? I keep saying education is one of the few jobs that the leadership has very little training and experience in leadership, management, supervision and training. The education and training they get from a university or college is useless.
One problem is that teachers depend on others to tell them how to teach. Teachers would drop dead if they had no handouts to give to the kids. The union complained that our teachers don’t have the material. As if they are paralyzed. Brian Cambourne says
that “hand outs begin nowhere and end nowhere.” There is very little writing in the schools because teachers are addicted to fill in the blank handouts. The judgment need not be at the door of the teacher, but the influence of the publishing companies, with interlocking testing and instructional materials. Teachers should not be in the profession if they do not enjoy the challenge of creating their own lessons and realize that learning is a process over time and not just a “lesson”.
It can’t be quantified, and given the often dirty office politics in education, which is worse than other sectors of the economy, principals cannot be trusted with evaluations.
That reply was meant for a post upthread, by the way. WP is screwy today.
Craziest statement I have ever read. Teachers can’t just go out and “create lessons,” and they are BROKE a good deal of the time having to buy materials and other things in order to “create lessons.” Teachers these days are hamstrung on what they can and cannot teach, and they had BETTER be following the curriculum laid out by Common Core and state standards and by the materials provided by the districts. They have little or no autonomy over their jobs. Your statement is offensive on so many levels.
I couldn’t disagree with you more. I loved it back when I was allowed to teach writing however I wanted to: writings integrating what we learned in other subjects, journals, class stories, writer’s workshop. Then The Test came along, and my school mandated every grade level to teach a cookie-cutter model of writing so they would be prepared to spew canned garbage writing on The Test in 4th grade.
I was not addicted to hand-outs, I was forced to use them. The lack of ability to teach to the love of learning (as opposed to teach to the test) was one of the many reasons I quit teaching.
I wish, instead of being handed textbooks, teacher would be handed budgets. I would have bought authentic literature, materials for writing (no more begging for pencils and stealing paper from the copy machine!), and a huge classroom library. My students would have learned much more if I had been able to teach freely, with materials *I* chose. I miss teaching terribly, but I know that profession isn’t teaching at all. I don’t know what it is, but it ain’t teaching!
We had the “pleasure” of adopting the infamous Lucy Calkins writing program. Her manuals are absolutely ridiculous. And the prescribed time for delivery each day… Mind boggling. We could not deal with the way it was mapped out. We spent $35k sending 10-12 teachers to NYC. They came back, rolling their eyes and laughing at the absurdity.I had j st purchased another program via some district Prof Dev and thought we were going in that direction. Craziness and a wasted personal money.
Nicholas Ferroni sounds like a great guy and a very committed and involved teacher. Now let’s look at some of the things he said, that go beyond his personal demonstration of caring and generosity.
Nicholas writes:
Attempting to evaluate a teacher based on standardized tests is like evaluating a doctor solely on whether a patient lives, dies, or is cured.
The key word here is solely. Clearly this changes the statement from the more realistic one that includes patient outcomes as an important evaluation criteria. Who would not go to the doctor or hospital with the best patient outcomes, all other things being equal. Similarly, why would you not include student learning outcomes, however measured, as one evaluation criteria for teachers. I certainly would agree that it is plain wrong to evaluate teachers solely on the basis of standardized tests. So how do we evaluate teachers?
The second statement follows the first and amounts to an empirical assertion:
Just as every doctor gives his or her all attempting to save and cure patients, every teacher gives his or her entire self to students (who we treat more like our own children than our students). Emphasis added</b
Clearly all wish this to be the case. However, realistically and empirically this is simply not the case. Doctors and teachers get distracted, focus on other interests, acquire self destructive habits, prefer one part of their jobs and ignore others or simply become bored. For example, with respect to doctors, patients switch primary care physicians sometimes on a whim or because the doctor has moved or no longer is in the patients doctor network but patients also leave because they are dissatisfied with some aspect of the care they receive. According to one study in the New England Journal of Medicine about 7% of doctors are sued for malpractice each year, which clearly indicates that opinions differ as to which doctors are giving their all.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa1012370
I would prefer it if apparently great teachers like Mr. Ferroni indicated in operational terms how they think teachers should be evaluated.
Education is not a business and kids aren’t widgets. Principals are not objective evaluators of teachers. What is considered great teaching by some may not be considered great teaching by others. Principals can and do destroy teachers with lousy evaluations. Many if not most of them were never teachers or were teachers who couldn’t cut it in the classroom or they wanted the higher pay of being a principal but without all of the responsibility that teachers have. Are lawyers evaluated? Are doctors? Either teaching is a profession or it isn’t.
BTW, anybody can file a civil suit. That doesn’t mean a doctor is guilty of anything or a lawyer. Yes, they have professional associations policing them, but teachers also have professional standards commissions in every single state that do the same thing.
Your post is an epic fail because you are a privatizer hack with an agenda and don’t know what you are talking about.
Susan:
Did you actually read the New England Journal of Medicine article?
I am not a privatizer hack in the least. There is absolutely nothing in my comment to indicate whether I am or not.
Susan:
Lawyers and doctors are evaluated all the time when they are part of a group practice. When doctors are part of a network they are also likely to be evaluated both in terms of patient outcomes but also in terms of patient satisfaction. Where have you ever read that a part of the criteria of being a professional is that you cannot or should not be evaluated.
All that said, those doing evaluations need to be subject to an auditable process that ensures that they are objective, thoughtful, accurate and thorough in their evaluations.
“The crucial confusion here is between the idea of publicly supported education and the idea of centrally controlled state-administered education. To really get your hands around this distinction simply replace the word “school” with the word “radio” in the following sentences and see what you get:
I am in favor of publicly supported radio.
I am in favor of centrally-controlled state-administered radio.
Not the same thing, are they?”
Quoted from Carol Black
This quote feels very relevant to this discussion
Dead on about the role of teachers. It’s so much more than just teaching. I loved this article. Thanks
Re: teaching evaluations and any link to standardized test scores, I refer viewers to a recent posting on this blog that linked to a posting by Bruce Baker on his blog.
Read the comments too.
Link: https://dianeravitch.net/2013/10/20/bruce-baker-teacher-evaluation-is-still-junk-science/
Link: http://schoolfinance101.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/the-value-added-growth-score-train-wreck-is-here/
😎
Rutgers pushes people out . age discrimination? Sudden change in evaluators. People from outside. Conflict of interest. Experienced workers are “too expensive”…yet replacements receive more.
This happens every year in public education.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/12/07/booming/pushed-out-of-a-job-early.html?h=oAQFndac4&s=1
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
Very moving post!!
I never open attachments or read commentary more than a paragraph or two. If you have something to say, then say it.
Tis your loss to not do so.
Enough of other’s ideas. What are your own.
Evaluating teachers SOLELY on the basis of standardized test scores is not the answer; however, test scores as input to the overall assessment of teachers is very valid.
“test scores as input. . . very valid.”
Under APPR policies in NY test scores account for 40% of a teacher evaluation. Use of scores
“In science and statistics, validity is the extent to which a concept, conclusion or measurement is well-founded and corresponds accurately to the real world.”
NY teacher ratings fail remarkably by this definition.
“. . . test scores as input to the overall assessment of teachers is very valid.”
NO!! Wilson has shown the complete invalidity of “test scores” as an indication of anything. If you have not read Wilson’s never rebutted nor refuted complete destruction of educational standards, standardized testing and the “grading” of students, showing them to be the educational malpractices that they are, then please read to understand why: “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700
I wish people could agree that nothing is a true, specific, objective “grade” of anything other than what is specifically on a test or observation THAT DAY. What happens at sports events? Does the overall “best” team or person always win? NO! Trophies are for a moment in time. So are tests. It is absolutely ridiculous to act as if these tests are truly of further value, if of any value at all. And, even with their so-called value, there is the possibility of truly poorly worded questions! It is only done because it is “available” and widespread. It is a lazy way to do their job. So. Sick. Of. It.
Please, give your summary already of Wilson.
How does one evaluate a parent? Throw out the substance abusers and those with hateful mental deviations and what you have left are good to great parents in a spectrum that spans a huge swath of human experience. Do the same for teachers. Looking back I experienced drunks as teachers and female teachers that hated men, male teachers that were deviants. Get rid of those. After that it should be on the HR department to hire qualified instructors. Thirty five years ago I was given a preference test that took over two hours to accomplish. At the end, not only was I not suitable for the position but the manager that administered the test/survey had suggestions to improve my abilities in the field. If you could have done that 35 years ago it should be possible today to develop filters that allow for excellence in a wide swath of personalities.
What clouds the issue in every state that this is an issue is politics and money. Plain and simple – in fact it’s the only plain and simple aspect of this discussion
Some of these may be the best teachers. Best teachers have no judgment of others. They care about the students because they are sensitive to their own problems. Student abuse and teacher abuse is a razor’s edge.
I’ve not read other things Mr. Ferroni’s written, but this piece doesn’t encourage me to seek more of his stuff out. His first paragraph is nothing but a self-love fest. A more persuasive route would have been to talk about another teacher. By talking about himself, a reader automatically starts thinking, “Who is this braggart?” (I assume that with a school full of amazing people such as he, finding someone else to talk about to make his point should not have been difficult.) And $50 a week for lunches and four gym memberships means that he’s spending about $3-400 per month on his students. One might believe this until s/he gets to the next paragraph and realizes that hyperbole for him might be a way of life.
In his second paragraph he makes two unfounded claims: most people think that teaching is the most noble calling and he is certain that one teacher performs more of a public service than 1000 politicians. When you combine his inability to persuade with reason in this paragraph with the braggadocio found in the first paragraph, you end up with a piece of writing that fails at effectively using two of Aristotle’s three persuasive appeals: ethos and logos.
The biggest tragedy here, however, is not his lack of ability as a rhetorician. (Or that he complains without offering an alternative or a solution to the problem he discusses.) It’s a problem many teachers who complain about evaluation methods have today. They don’t see, or they ignore the fact, that the same methods of evaluation against which they are fighting are the same methods of evaluation to which they subject their students. Before teachers start complaining about being graded and ranked based on measures that they don’t believe are valid, they need to stop ranking and rating students by alpha-numeric measurements based on subjective tests over material that may or may not interest their students and may not be vital to their students’ lives. First end student testing, student grading, and student sorting and ranking, and then you might have the credibility you need to make the argument you’re trying to make here.
Richard, sorry you did not like that post. Many teachers reacted positively and tweeted it as a reflection of their own experience. It is not narcissistic to write about what you know. If it is, that excludes a lot of literature.
As to evaluation, teachers judge students by the work that students do. The overwhelming view of researchers is that it is inaccurate to judge teachers by the work that students do. Students are accountable for their work. The test scores of students depend on many factors, not just what teachers do.
Richard the piece written by Mr. Ferroni is not meant to brag about what he has done and he clearly states that; “I am not trying to brag because my commitment to my students is not the exception but the norm, especially at the high school where I teach where so many of my colleagues, day in and day out, give their hearts, souls and money to their students without a thought.” He was only giving an account of what many teachers to every day,week and school year for the children they teach.
Diane, I know you’re an extremely busy person, and I appreciate greatly your replying to my comment.
A teacher judges students on the product created by the work a student does, and the student is not fully accountable for the quality of that product or the grade that product receives. First off, the teacher, not the student, assigns the work the student does and usually sets the date the assignment is due. The student has little control over his/her interest in the assignment and little control over what else is assigned to him/her that may take away from his/her ability to give a full effort to that product. Family time, bed times, and obligations to other activities are things that may not be in a student’s control but may affect the quality of an assignment. Also, no research exists showing that alphanumeric grades lead to improved student outcomes. (In fact, with what we know about motivation, the grades, which are merely punishments and rewards for toeing the line, may actually decrease motivation for life-long learning.) In addition, grades depend on a teacher’s opinion, a teacher’s mood–there is even research showing that the same teacher will grade the same assignment differently at different times. Students have some accountability for the work they produce, but they are not fully accountable for the grade that’s assigned to that work. Yet teachers and schools are willing to make many judgements about students based on test scores and grades alone.
Those who want to judge teachers based on student performance are looking at this in the same way students are evaluated by teachers. A teacher’s job is to help students learn new skills and/or become more adept at extant skills and/or obtain new knowledge and/or refine extant knowledge. The only way to understand if a teacher has done his/her job is to look at the product of that teacher’s work–the students and their increased knowledge or ability. This is just like the only way a teacher can tell if a student has improved as a writer is to look at his/her writing–the end product of work done.
In the end, Diane, I’m on your side on this issue. For me, however, students come first. And until teachers change their ways in the classroom and treat students with the same respect they’re asking for, I will continue to criticize their approach for what it is: hypocrisy.
Have you read this:
http://www.rd.com/advice/parenting/american-school-system-damaging-kids/
Richard
You write as if teachers can decide whether or not to give grades. In most districts BOE policy dictates requirements for grading. Most of us are fully aware of just how arbitrary, inaccurate, and to some degree, even invalid our grading systems are. To call us hypocrits for implementing a grading system is being either ignorant or disingenuous. If we stopped doing everything that was imperfect we would be doing nothing. Grading teachers based on student efforts and achievements on standardized tests is a very different problem.
Imagine if we graded our students on information we didn’t teach them. Imagine if we gave each student a different test for the same comparative grade, some easy and some very difficult. Imagine if we graded students based on information “taught” by an uncertified substitute teacher. Imagine if we graded students based on course material that was one, two, or three grade levels above their developmental ability. Imagine if we graded students using tests written inheiroglyphics. CAN YOU IMAGINE?
NYS Teacher, No, you don’t get to decide whether or not you give grades. I know this. But I also know that I’ve never seen as much energy (or any energy) behind protesting those evaluations as I have seen behind protesting yourselves being evaluated.
Who’s grading you on information they didn’t teach you?
Actually, an argument can be made that no two students need the same exact test at the same exact time. However, I don’t understand what the comparable situation in your world would be.
Did the uncertified substitute teacher do a good job? I know plenty of great uncertified teachers in independent schools around the world.
Students are often given exams above or below their developmental ability. This is a problem inherent in age-based educational institutions where individualization is sorely lacking.
I’m not sure how the hieroglyphics comment applies here.
Again, I understand how unfair some of the evaluation methods being proposed are. (It’s a waste of time to point these things out to someone who has already claimed to be on your side.) But in a school, the student is the focus, and because of this, I feel your protestations should first be aimed at creating an atmosphere that is more respectful of each student as an individual and not a cog in an industrial system.
Richard
>I feel your protestations should first be aimed at creating an atmosphere that is more respectful of each student as an individual and not a cog in an industrial system.<
What specifically might you suggest "create an atmosphere that is more respectful of each student"???
NY teacher, I first suggest you click on the link to the rd.com article I provided above and read that for an idea of something I think makes sense.
But more specifically, I think a fine beginning would be to end age-based k-12 grades, separated academic disciplines, and alphanumeric grades. As well, students should be given more autonomy over what they learn and when they learn it. And all work should be real work. As an example: all student writing should have a specific audience. That audience should never just be a teacher who is going to make an alphanumeric assessment of that work. Blogs, reviews for websites, letters to friends and family, contest submissions, and submissions for publication should be the writing students do.
Heck, some things teachers could end now without even getting system-wide approval: having to ask permission to use the bathroom, behavior charts–why should a student’s difficulties be made public, and the repetitious hand clapping/hand signals to get students’ attention–what’s wrong with just asking for a group’s attention?
Many teachers are being evaluated on the test scores of students that they don’t teach. Math and ELA teachers in grades 3 to 8 are evaluated on student scores using nearly impossible CCSS aligned assessments whereas high school teachers in NYS are evaluated on Regents tests scores, tests that are made public and are routinely used for review/test prep. Some teachers get to write their own pre and post tests, the scores of which determine their evaluation (I can just imagine some of those test prep sessions). Teachers of special ed and ELL students are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to showing student growth using the very same test that the future valedictorian is taking. As far as hieroglyphics, the construction of Pearson test items proved so confusing that students might as well have been reading a foreign language. And I can add in the fact that teachers are evaluated on test scores that no-stakes for students; there is absolutely no incentive fro student to persist on these overly long and stultifying exams.