Randi Weingarten has come out in opposition to value-added modeling (VAM), the statistical measure that judges teacher quality based on the test scores of their students. This is great news! As I have often written here, VAM is Junk Science. It also is the centerpiece of Race to the Top, which makes the absurd assumption that good teachers produce higher test scores. Researchers have shown again and again that test scores–including their rise or fall–says more about who is in the class than teacher quality, and they reflect many other factors, including class size, peers, school leadership, prior teachers, curriculum, etc. Furthermore, VAM places too much emphasis on testing and leads to a narrowed curriculum, teaching to the test, gaming the system, and cheating. Teaching cannot be reduced to an algorithm.
To those tempted to chastise her for changing her mind, I say we should welcome and salute anyone with the courage and insight to give up a previously held position in the face of evidence. A few years ago, I changed my mind about things I once believed, like the value of school choice and high-stakes testing. Now, let us hope that others who support VAM see the light.
This morning’s Politico Education says:
“NEW TACTIC ON TEACHER EVALUATIONS: Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is launching a campaign against using value-added metrics to evaluate teacher effectiveness. Her mantra: “VAM is a sham.� That’s a notable shift for the AFT and its affiliates, which have previously ratified contracts and endorsed evaluation systems that rely on VAM. Weingarten tells Morning Education that she has always been leery of value-added “but we rolled up our sleeves, acted in good faith and tried to make it work.� Now, she says, she’s disillusioned.
“– What changed her mind?Weingarten points to a standoff in Pittsburgh over the implementation of a VAM-based evaluation system the union had endorsed. She says the algorithms and cut scores used to rate teachers were arbitrary. And she found the process corrosive: The VAM score was just a number that didn’t show teachers their strengths or weaknesses or suggest ways to improve. Weingarten said the final straw was the news that the contractor calculating VAM scores for D.C. teachers made a typo in the algorithm, resulting in 44 teachers receiving incorrect scores — including one who was unjustly fired for poor performance.
“– What’s next? The AFT’s newly militant stance against VAM will likely affect contract negotiations in local districts, and the union also plans to lobby the Education Department.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope everyone will now read (or re-read) “Mismeasure of Education” by Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn, along with “Reign of Error”. We’ve been studying both books here in Chicago in CORE (Caucus Of Rank-and-file Educators) for the past several months. The Horn-Wilburn book does a great job on the history of the VAM fraud in Tennessee, great historical research.
Other good news. In Chicago, CORE will now begin targeting Common Core in preparation for the 2014 American Federation of Teachers convention in Los Angeles in July. Hopefully by then we can be working with all the major locals and with Randi in opposition to both VAM and Common Core — and for a return to sane professionalism respecting teachers.
If I may add to your request, George!?
“I hope everyone will now read (or re-read) “Mismeasure of Education” by Jim Horn and Denise Wilburn, along with “Reign of Error” and the never rebutted nor refuted “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” found at: http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/577/700 by Noel Wilson.
Join the Quixotic Quest to rid the world of the nefarious educational malpractices that are educational standards, standardized testing and the sorting, separating and “grading” of student that Wilson has shown to be completely invalid and harmful to students. Read and understand what he says. For a summary see below but don’t stop there:
Brief outline of Wilson’s “Educational Standards and the Problem of Error” and some comments of mine. (updated 6/24/13 per Wilson email)
1. A quality cannot be quantified. Quantity is a sub-category of quality. It is illogical to judge/assess a whole category by only a part (sub-category) of the whole. The assessment is, by definition, lacking in the sense that “assessments are always of multidimensional qualities. To quantify them as one dimensional quantities (numbers or grades) is to perpetuate a fundamental logical error” (per Wilson). The teaching and learning process falls in the logical realm of aesthetics/qualities of human interactions. In attempting to quantify educational standards and standardized testing we are lacking much information about said interactions.
2. A major epistemological mistake is that we attach, with great importance, the “score” of the student, not only onto the student but also, by extension, the teacher, school and district. Any description of a testing event is only a description of an interaction, that of the student and the testing device at a given time and place. The only correct logical thing that we can attempt to do is to describe that interaction (how accurately or not is a whole other story). That description cannot, by logical thought, be “assigned/attached” to the student as it cannot be a description of the student but the interaction. And this error is probably one of the most egregious “errors” that occur with standardized testing (and even the “grading” of students by a teacher).
3. Wilson identifies four “frames of reference” each with distinct assumptions (epistemological basis) about the assessment process from which the “assessor” views the interactions of the teaching and learning process: the Judge (think college professor who “knows” the students capabilities and grades them accordingly), the General Frame-think standardized testing that claims to have a “scientific” basis, the Specific Frame-think of learning by objective like computer based learning, getting a correct answer before moving on to the next screen, and the Responsive Frame-think of an apprenticeship in a trade or a medical residency program where the learner interacts with the “teacher” with constant feedback. Each category has its own sources of error and more error in the process is caused when the assessor confuses and conflates the categories.
4. Wilson elucidates the notion of “error”: “Error is predicated on a notion of perfection; to allocate error is to imply what is without error; to know error it is necessary to determine what is true. And what is true is determined by what we define as true, theoretically by the assumptions of our epistemology, practically by the events and non-events, the discourses and silences, the world of surfaces and their interactions and interpretations; in short, the practices that permeate the field. . . Error is the uncertainty dimension of the statement; error is the band within which chaos reigns, in which anything can happen. Error comprises all of those eventful circumstances which make the assessment statement less than perfectly precise, the measure less than perfectly accurate, the rank order less than perfectly stable, the standard and its measurement less than absolute, and the communication of its truth less than impeccable.”
In other word all the logical errors involved in the process render any conclusions invalid.
5. The test makers/psychometricians, through all sorts of mathematical machinations attempt to “prove” that these tests (based on standards) are valid-errorless or supposedly at least with minimal error [they aren’t]. Wilson turns the concept of validity on its head and focuses on just how invalid the machinations and the test and results are. He is an advocate for the test taker not the test maker. In doing so he identifies thirteen sources of “error”, any one of which renders the test making/giving/disseminating of results invalid. As a basic logical premise is that once something is shown to be invalid it is just that, invalid, and no amount of “fudging” by the psychometricians/test makers can alleviate that invalidity.
6. Having shown the invalidity, and therefore the unreliability, of the whole process Wilson concludes, rightly so, that any result/information gleaned from the process is “vain and illusory”. In other words start with an invalidity, end with an invalidity (except by sheer chance every once in a while, like a blind and anosmic squirrel who finds the occasional acorn, a result may be “true”) or to put in more mundane terms crap in-crap out.
7. And so what does this all mean? I’ll let Wilson have the second to last word:
“So what does a test measure in our world? It measures what the person with the power to pay for the test says it measures. And the person who sets the test will name the test what the person who pays for the test wants the test to be named.”
In other words it measures “’something’ and we can specify some of the ‘errors’ in that ‘something’ but still don’t know [precisely] what the ‘something’ is.” The whole process harms many students as the social rewards for some are not available to others who “don’t make the grade (sic)” Should American public education have the function of sorting and separating students so that some may receive greater benefits than others, especially considering that the sorting and separating devices, educational standards and standardized testing, are so flawed not only in concept but in execution?
My answer is NO!!!!!
One final note with Wilson channeling Foucault and his concept of subjectivization:
“So the mark [grade/test score] becomes part of the story about yourself and with sufficient repetitions becomes true: true because those who know, those in authority, say it is true; true because the society in which you live legitimates this authority; true because your cultural habitus makes it difficult for you to perceive, conceive and integrate those aspects of your experience that contradict the story; true because in acting out your story, which now includes the mark and its meaning, the social truth that created it is confirmed; true because if your mark is high you are consistently rewarded, so that your voice becomes a voice of authority in the power-knowledge discourses that reproduce the structure that helped to produce you; true because if your mark is low your voice becomes muted and confirms your lower position in the social hierarchy; true finally because that success or failure confirms that mark that implicitly predicted the now self evident consequences. And so the circle is complete.”
In other words students “internalize” what those “marks” (grades/test scores) mean, and since the vast majority of the students have not developed the mental skills to counteract what the “authorities” say, they accept as “natural and normal” that “story/description” of them. Although paradoxical in a sense, the “I’m an “A” student” is almost as harmful as “I’m an ‘F’ student” in hindering students becoming independent, critical and free thinkers. And having independent, critical and free thinkers is a threat to the current socio-economic structure of society.
Duane, I think people have gotten the point by now that you read an article by Wilson and it really impressed you.
WT,
My first response to your response is FO! Read it and understand, unless you can’t, and if that’s the case then you have no business (my fingers still aren’t working right) being either a teacher, but especially a parent, but more likely than not you’re one who “administrates”.
Good news indeed. I’m an NEA member, and while I’ve disagreed with most of her stance on CCSS, I’ve been impressed with Weingarten’s willingness to engage with teachers and critics (sadly unlike my own President). I’m even more impressed that she’s willing to shift here.
No doubt she’ll catch flak for waffling or changing her mind, but there is no shame in re-evaluating your position in light of new facts and understanding. It’s what grown-ups do.
Peter,
You have no idea who Weingarten really is. Talk to teachers in NYC when she was our leader and they will tell you how she sold us out.
There is a world of difference between talk and action.
She is a leader with no foresight. And her hindsight is coming a bit too late to correct the damage it has done.
You want a good leader—then her name is Karen Lewis.
Perfect! YES!
Dr. Ravitch: I have admired you for so very long because you had the integrity and insight to change your mind when it became so very obvious that the No Child Left Behind was not working the way it was supposed to work.
When at the University of Michigan one of the professors there, a man who was offered the head of the chemistry department, once stated something to the effect that someone who had not changed his/her mind over a period of time had not grown that much. Makes sense to me.
“someone who had not changed his/her mind over a period of time had not grown that much.”
Perceptive insight to be heeded!
Thank you.
Gordon Wilder: I think you have hit on the positive part of this change.
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” [Albert Einstein]
Good for Ms. Weingarten that she has finally stopped expecting those using VAManiacal formulae to at long last ‘get it right.’
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” [Albert Einstein]
Let’s see if your comparison between Diane Ravitch and Randi Weingarten holds up. The change in POV of the former led to a change in her actions. So far what we have seen in the latter is merely a change in POV; the action, or inaction, that follows is what matters most.
I am not holding my breath but I am cautiously optimistic.
Perhaps someone we know had a hand in this shift of opinion?
😎
P.S. Please note that in tribute to Señor Swacker I used a semi-colon.
After she pushed teacher evaluation based on test scores in New Haven CT? She can’t undo the damage she did there. And most people knew the evidence was out that VAM is a sham way before the New Haven deal.
I”ve long been a fan of your columns and comments. Please continue your fine work here in Connecticut and elsewhere, and thanks.
Isn’t she up for re-election this summer?
That’s the real question Linda. I wonder how many Unity folks are telling her enough already. She is good with words and having people, including some of the commenters here, believing she is going to do something. But how do you change state law without looking like a greedy union. She was on the side of Gates and Duncan for so long, maybe they threw her out to the wolves as well.
I am just saying there is a story behind the story and it has nothing to do with teachers and everything to do with her own career.
I say we nominate Wendy Lecker and Linda to replace Weingarten . . . .
I agree school gal. There is definitely more to the story. Perhaps, if we are lucky, the rest of the story will leak out.
Wendy,
She’s a disaster. . . . always was for the most part.
What took her so long??? — With the pounding unions are taking, I understand her caution in saying no to accountability policies, but really, from a professional standpoint, the entire concept of value added scores should have been a non-starter. There are a number of policies that could be adopted to improve the quality of teacher evaluation — this was not one of them. VAM was a policy where a union needed to act less political and more professional.
Great, the next step is judging students and teachers with the narrow, and sometimes political, reductionist measures of the Common Core. We need to move for a moratorium on all testing and new curriculum, pending academic review. Randi, never too late for forgiveness and absolution to strike in this direction.
If it takes the head of a teachers union this long to admit she knew there was a problem with VAM when teachers around the country are suffering under this system, then it’s time for her to resign instead of changing her mind!!!
I should congratulate her for changing her mind AFTER she not only agreed to this system but sold this “bridge” to teachers around the country and included a merit system to boot!! She wouldn’t even allow NYC teachers to vote on this deal. And in districts where they could vote, she strong-armed them to vote yes in order for them to get a living wage. She put her infatuation with Gates over those she pretends to represent. So how does this “turnaround” help teachers who have to suffer under it?
IT DOESN’T!!!
It was one thing to approve VAM, it was another to approve the “40%=100%” clause which gives VAM scores more weight to remove a teacher if scores are low 2 years in a row here in NYS. Should I also applaud her for that when she knew all along this was junk science, but put her ego to become the darling of the White House and Gates first.
The thing you don’t understand Diane when you defend this action is this:
Yes you changed your mind, but I didn’t pay your salary. But I pay hers. And I didn’t put her in charge of the AFT, she used her political influence to get it by making sure all those who attend conventions are UNITY, oath signing, members. There has to be a lot more to this story because the “arbitrary system” argument doesn’t cut it when VAM was always like that, and the truth will come out. I’m wondering if UNITY people are finally coming to their senses and she sees her power waning?
Several observations about this move by Randi Weingarten:
1. What took her so long?
2. Isn’t this about-face, coming relatively tardy in the process, too little and too late?
3. Is Weingarten now just trying to cover her rear end and burnish her image after she’s already sold teachers down the river?
4. Aren’t teachers across the country who care deeply about public education and genuine education reform already “disillusioned” with Randi Weingarten?
While I sympathize with your antipathy toward Randi Weingarten, to use a racist metaphor to stigmatize even her, is probably not appropriate in the modern age, unless, of course, you really are saying that Randi Weingarten is like a plantation owner who has slave workers whom, without concern for family or human dignity, sacrifices for her own financial gain. Now, I have often thought so about unions, but it is unusual to see such sentiments expressed here by anyone, especially good old communist/socialist sympathizer, the poster who calls him/herself “democracy.” Not only do words in general matter; metaphors matter too.
(semi colon for Mr. Swacker)
@ Harlan:
Sigh.
“…communist/socialist?”
The American Revolution was a movement catalyzed by freedom of political participation, equality of opportunity and equal justice under the law, and promoting the public good. Indeed, the Founders envisioned a democratic society “in which the common good was the chief end of government.”
This concept was reflected in John Locke’s view of property. Locke held that “every man has a property in his own person: this no body has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his…” And, in Locke’s view, the main purpose of government, the main reason people create government is to protect their persons, and thus to create the social contract.
Why is it about equality and freedom and property that conservatives hate so much?
We conservatives revere Locke, his concept of owning one’s own body, and the work of it. What we object to is a modern socialist sailing under the false flag of Constitutional Locke-ism, as do you. The “tell” is your interpretation of the purpose of the Constitution, your translation of “common welfare” into “Power of Big Government.” Common welfare in your world view I suspect finds justifiable transfer of wealth from those who create it to those who do not. Last I knew that was called theft and piracy. The government is used as the means of highway robbery. I hope you are open to a review of how your embrace of Lockean principles are carried out in modern practice.
Harlan, you’re really fixated by this black/white/master/slave imagery in your metaphors.
For someone as presumably well read in the literary arts, could you not consider different imagery?
Please refrain from thoughts written out loud here that suggest racism. It’s just not necessary.
You can do better than that . . . . Don’t you want to?
It’s all the above items, but mainly item #4.
Teachers in the UFT, NYSUT and AFT are showing their anger at the union leaders for “collaborating” with policy makers and supporting their disastrous education reforms. Teachers want a shift in union leadership. Seeing the VAMotions of teachers, Randi realized that this can affect her chances of moving up in Washington. It is time to demand union leaderships to carefully evaluate their involvement and relationship with policy makers instead of the new excuse of “changing her mind”.
@ Harlan,
BIG, deep sigh!
As I pointed out, the American Revolution was catalyzed by freedom of political participation, equality of opportunity and equal justice under the law, and promoting the public good. The Founders envisioned a democratic society “in which the common good was the chief end of government.”
Conservatives don’t really like any of those things, and they certainly don’t subscribe to Locke’s view of property.
It is conservatives who work tirelessly to suppress voting. It is conservatives who try to deny women the control of their bodies. It is conservatives who hate labor unions. It is conservatives who are opposed to equal rights for all citizens. And it is conservatives who rhetorically salute the Constitution, but have – at best – a vague grasp of the values embedded within it.
The Constitution was written to provide for a strong central government. Its Preamble spells out its purposes: to provide for justice, common defense, freedoms, and “to form a more perfect Union” and to ” promote the general Welfare.”
What is it about the Constitution that conservatives detest so much?
You views on what you conceive conservative values to be, and on what the aim of the Constitution was, seem to me to deserve considerable modification. It did create a stronger national government than the Articles of Confederation, but it’s purpose was to limit that government to only those things proper from a national government. Conservatives do not “suppress” voting. They only want to make sure each voter is a legal voter. Your bias shows when you claim conservatives want to deprive women of control of their bodies. Conservatives think that there may be another body involved that has rights too, the unborn baby. Now I support the legal right of women to abort their babies if they want to, but to pretend that an abortion is not a killing of a person is to me utter blindness, mindless playing with words for political support. Abortion is a legal killing, perhaps akin to self-defense, but that a baby is part of a woman’s body just seems to me to deny reality. If we want to bring the fetus to term we call it a “baby”; if we don’t we call it ‘part of a woman’s body.’ Conservatives want equal rights for all citizens. They just don’t want some people to be ‘more equal’ in the insightful words of Orwell’s Animal Farm. Many economic and other policy errors are committed in the name of the “general welfare.” It is liberals, such as yourself, who seem to me to be quite misrepresenting the Constitution.
Conservatives are rightly skeptical of labor unions, especially public sector unions. Jimmy Carter permitted them to be legalized and since then public sector unions seem to me to have gotten a strangle hold first on the federal bureaucracy and then on education. I approved of Reagan’s firing of striking air traffic controllers. Even in the private sector, unions have not always worked in the best interests of their members. No one hates unions per-se, but sometimes union leadership is corrupt and criminal, and I can’t see that anyone can approve of that, even if we have to put up with it as a pragmatic matter.
I do appreciate that you have been explicit about your interpretation of constitutional principals because that allows me to attempt to rebut your analysis.
The ‘deconstituionalizing’ of America became serious when Senators began to be elected by state wide popular vote rather than by the legislatures of the states. That made Senators less representative of the people of their states. I hope to see a constitutional convention at some time in the future which will repeal that amendment.
Democracy – three and four are a definite possibility. Hopefully two hasn’t come to pass. But for now, we will take what we can get. It doesn’t matter what road she took, the fact is that the union is finally on the side of the teachers they represent. Let’s see what impact she has.
I’m afraid the pro-privatizers are enjoying this moment as much as many of your readers…This is not good news unless both the AFT and NEA need to come out FOR some kind of accountability measure AND the membership news to ratify it and support it ASAP. If they only express opposition to VAM without making it clear what kind of accountability they DO support, the union’s opposition to VAM will be trumpeted as further proof that both organizations are opposed not only to “reform” but to “any form of accountability”.
I think this is an important point. Without an alternative suggested system for evaluation, the status quo becomes the only game in town.
It seems to me that a strong peer evaluation system, something like Montgomery County has, might be a good proposed alternative.
What system of employee evaluation does Boeing use? Ford?
I know, I know. A student is not a widget.
Does that then call into question the entire application of the concept of “value added” so common in manufacturing to education?
How else can one judge the “causes” but by their effects? One would think teacher quality isn’t the crucial variable of student performance, listening to the arguments on this blog.
For that matter, what is “teacher quality” anyway???????
Harlan–
I describe what quality teaching is and how a school achieves that qualtiy in my latest book from Corwin Press:Teaching matter most: A school leader’s guide to improving classroom instruction — on amazon and kindle
VAM and the high stakes tests connected to it are the status quo.
That is right. If you want to displace the status quo, you need to propose an alternative.
“For that matter, what is “teacher quality” anyway???????”
HU, you’re starting to sound like me with that one!
(Sorry, no semi-colons in this one.)
Unions need to reframe the discussion. Schools aren’t failing. Bad teachers are not a significant problem. So holding schools and teachers “accountable” is a solution in search of a problem. Unions need to get this message out loud and clear. Even if they don’t win the argument, they’ll sow doubt about the reformers’ narrative, just as right-wingers have sown doubt about global warming. This strategy works (in our case, for good). And then unions need to admit that things are imperfect and offer wisdom about what WILL ameliorate schools: a sound, content-rich curriculum; better teacher preparation; more prep time; government policies that alleviate poverty; fixing broken and unhealthy school buildings; (perhaps) diminishing the role of sports in schools…
I can tell you what does NOT constitute a high quality teacher: a standardized test score says NOTHING valid or reliable about the qulaity of a teacher. The minute you tie a standardized test score to a teacher’s evlalation, you are asking for trouble.
You just are . . . . . .
What would you tie teacher evaluation to?
I knew, I JUST knew, TE was going to ask this question RIGHT after my comment. . . .
TE, get out of your rationale state and try fitting significantly more into your philosophical and visceral state . . .
Your chances of succeeding in changing a policy are greatly enhanced if you can offer an alternative.
Reblogged this on Nathan Merz's PLN.
Read about VAM by a mathematician. It’s a FACTORY MODEL. Students aren’t parts of a car to be assembled in a factory.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/leading-mathematician-debunks-value-added/2011/05/08/AFb999UG_blog.html
And here is what Einstein says about standardization:
“I believe in standardizing automobiles. I do not believe in standardizing human beings. Standardization is a great peril which threatens American culture. . . .”
— Albert Einstein, Saturday Evening Post interview, 10/26/1929″
Regarding your post, the most poignant aspect of Einstein’s warning is the date!
“Verryy interesteeng!”
Maybe she spent all of the Gates funding money she received!
I will not downplay or cast aside the doubts and criticisms raised above. They are well founded.
However, there is always the possibility that some good—some real good—will come of this change in Ms. Weingarten’s POV.
IMHO, let’s take Ms. Weingarten at her word and point out the necessary steps [with details] to replacing VAManiacal schemes with genuine assessments of teaching and learning.
A very very small start. Throw out psychometric terms like “performance” and “achievement.” How about using such currently discredited terms like “joy of learning” and “joy of teaching” when we refer to teachers and students?
A most decidedly insane POV from a most decidedly KrazyTA.
😎
KTA,
If I may add a thought to your question: “How about using such currently discredited terms like “joy of learning” and “joy of teaching” IN THE “TEACHING AND LEARNING PROCESS” when we refer to teachers and students?
K Kat,
Talk to NYC teachers who she stabbed in the back with the ’05 contract. Talk to teachers in Washington, DC, Colorado, Newark just to name a few and you will see teachers and students are the last group of people she cares about. She even kissed Joel Klein. She invited Gates as the main speaker to the AFT convention. These were all political moves by her.
Now Karen Lewis is rising to stardom, so maybe we need to connect some dots here before we wave the flag of happiness.
Hmmm…schoolgal, you may be on to something. I would think that AFT members would be pushing for Karen Lewis to run for AFT President. Ergo, is Randi wanting to keep her job and feeling threatened? Or…is Randi looking at Diane’s highly esteemed (by our education community) 180 and emulating the same in order to achieve some lost credibility?
Or could it be both?
Schoolgal,
You are right. We are far from the flag of happiness. . . . So much to be done and undone for that matter.
So Weingarten kissed Joel Klein?
Did he turn back into a frog?
Did he acquire any of her warts?
Did she have to disinfect herself after she bussed Mr. Klein?
Isn’t that like a slug kissing a tapeworm?
Of course, Randi’s ever three faces of Eve turnaround is welcome at this point, but one must see what she does and not what she says . . . . . . . .
Not to belabor the point, but anyone who has taken a basic course in statistics and tests/measurements would have immediately saw the flaws in the VAM concept. Again, I know that on any media outlet you could not explain these flaws in sound bites or to the run of the mill uneducated pundit. Having said that, my expectation for individuals leading educational organizations, whether in Washington or a national teacher’s union, is that they know something about the profession they are leading. When I first viewed Ms. Weingarten do the Ali Shuffle on this issue, I shook my head—come on Randi don’t get on the crazy train — but she did. I wish I could say that this was a complex issue that needed study — but nothing could be so clear cut as the nuttiest associated with trying to tie tests scores to teachers, to principals, and in some states now, to schools of education.
“I know that on any media outlet you could not explain these flaws in sound bites or to the run of the mill uneducated pundit.”
Oh, yes it can be done. Gimme a microphone (not necessarily a camera because I wouldn’t want to be held liable for a new lense)!
Really, it’s not that difficult. I’ve explained it to supposedly country bumpkins and they understand quite well-you can weigh it daily but that won’t fatten the hog. Or that having ten hogs says nothing of the marketability of them.
Duane:
Love to see you in action with the Morning Joe crowd —
I’m not that “photogenic” but I guess I could take one for the team, eh!
No, matter what they’d ask, I’d just spout off little power point pensamientos (couldn’t think of a “p” English word) time after time after time. Maybe have a half a dozen or so.
Can’t quantify a quality.
Suspend logical thinking to attempt to understand edudeformer logic
How many years have you taught?
Where do/did your kids go to school?
Educational standards and standardized testing = the coin of the Rheelworld.
When are you taking the ______test?
What is the difference between epistemology and ontology? (that one would be for laughter effects only as they haven’t encountered words that long yet)
I’m sure I could refine it down, get an acting coach and play a straight faced “academic” smoking a Missouri Meerschaum (I’d have to save my glaucoma tobacco for afterwords-hey feds, that’s a joke, I don’t have any). Hell, I could even buy a tweed jacket to put over my overalls (don’t worry, I’d make sure they were designer labelled).
This could be fun. We’d have to take a whole crew of the folks here to make up the audience and have some real fun, not rheeal fun!
A five-minute video on VAM, created by my colleague Herb Bassett:
Last I heard, Ponce de Leon was still searching for the mythical VAM.
The only thing found so far is fool’s gold, VDM, value detracted mismeasure.
The dodo-data tribe needs to go back to preschool and learn the basics.
TAGO!
How many “TAGOs” did you have that contributed to your ranking on the top 5 list?
Fess up!
🙂
(Kidding . . . . )
One of the great things about rankings is one can manipulate any stats/data used in any fashion/norm/way/means that one chooses so as to get the desired effect (see innumerable examples in relation to education these days).
Now that I know that to be NUMERO UNO all one needs is a “yes”, “agree” or TAGO or “no”, BS, or “YFOS” as a response (sure would placate WT as “he/she” wouldn’t have to read the word Wilson anymore) , I’ll just have to respond to everyone in that fashion, saves a lot of time and thought. My new spirit raiser “#1!” It shall be repeated morning, noon and night for all of 2014!
Robert,
You must also realize that I have very, very, very high standards for the usage of TAGO. An average comment will never ACHIEVE that standard, however if I spit my tea at the screen more likely than not the post is either so idiotic I can’t believe someone would write it or it deserves consideration with proper vetting of course, a TAGO. (I need an emoticon of a statue of a dead Greek/Roman guy in a TOGA tipping his stéfanos/corona, of course in yellow.)(then I need a way to get it to work on this site)
Duane,
TAGO!
Duane,
Yes!
Duane,
Your comments are #1!
I love the imagery of you spitting out your coffee at your reaction to a ridiculous post. Sometimes my family comes running to see why I’m alone in my room laughing my head off.
Oh, I thought you’d like to know that Washington University in St Louis was ranked #16 for the worst crime-ridden Colleges in America in 2013. Don’t worry, NYS has nearby SUNY at Binghamton at #22.
Man, they’ve got rankings for everything. Ranking, #1 Ranking, my kingdom for a #1 ranking. (apologies to the original)
That’s okay, Missouri has a conceal/carry law-ha ha!
Conceal/Carry? I thought you were the Show Me state?
TAGO!
(Missouri does allow open carry of firearms for those age 18 or older. However, city, county, and municipalities are allowed to pass laws and ordinances restricting this) from Wiki.
I thought that we are all about reforming the reformers. So Randi changes her mind, isn’t that a good thing? This is what always frustrates me – we write, blog, post even protest with the goal of changing minds and when that happens many denounce the change in heart. I say we take Randi’s stance on VAM and push her to change on CC; use her statement against VAM and pressure the NEA to do the same. In Indiana there is a legislative push to add an amendment to our constitution to ban same-sex marriage. No one really came out against it until just recently some heavy hitters in the Indiana business community (Eli Lilly) spoke out against it. It was like a flood gate opened and now everyone is rushing to take a stand against it – even many of the all GOP state legislature are finally speaking out against adding discrimination to our state constitution. People can have a change of heart and mind; now we need to run with it and get others to join us.
Teresa:
Here is my frustration—educators, those in leadership positions, continually permit/allow non-educators to frame the arguments or policies we then end up debating or defending ourselves against. So, for the last two years we are debating VAM — a ridiculous idea from the beginning—and which should have been called out from the beginning. If we assume the mantle of professional, then we own our methods of inquiry and vocabulary and should be ready to use those methods and vocabulary to aggressively call out educational malpractice —which VAM was from its inception. Comments like, we were leery of VAM, ” or we
rolled up our sleeves to make it work,” come on —Again, any training in basic research methods/statistics should have made VAM a non-negotiable item from that first contract. Now, we will spend another two years trying to unravel this mess, instead of focusing on improving classroom experiences for children.
“Again, any training in basic research methods/statistics should have made VAM a non-negotiable item from that first contract.”
I wonder whether you can take the time to just identify the flaw in logic underlying VAM?
I thought the research upon which the idea was based had been done by Teach For America and had indeed, all other things being equal, identified the variation in student progress on basics as related to the individual teachers they had had.
What was that original study?
Same for the new so-called “standards” in ELA. Unthinking acceptance of these amateurish standards [sic] and of the idea of having one, invariant set of standards for all students has had and will continue to have egregious consequences. The CC$$ are the engine that runs the deform juggernaut. Support those, and you are supporting the key component of education deform. I am entirely with Alan about this. It is time, long past time, for educators to take back their profession from the plutocrats and the politicians.
If Achieve had hired Coleman and Pimentel to write new standards for the medical profession, and if they had done so based on, say, a quick perusal of the 1858 edition of Gray’s Anatomy, then the standards and their authors would have been met with overwhelming derision from people who know what the heck they are doing. This is what should have happened with the CC$$ in ELA. Those who support the implementation of the CC$$ in ELA and the tests based on those standards [sic] are supporting deform. They are collaborators. They are helping to achieve the goal of the Powerpoint of U.S. education.
“I believe in standardizing automobiles, not people.” –Albert Einsteing
HU,
“What was that original study?”
Is my sarcsmometer broken today? Maybe it needs readjusting due to the extreme cold today.
Harlan:
Re: Training in basic statistics: No room for a basic training course BUT some points you might look up and think about:
1) For the structural problems with VAM —read the article suggested above by Duane Swacker: Wilson’s Educational Standards and Problem of Error
2) For the statistical problems— look up confounding variables ( which will lead to talk of regression coefficients —the great hope of VAM supporters—that somehow they have found a mathematical way to eliminate poverty, crime, poor health, homelessness, the effects of other teachers, etc., etc.,).
3) As for any research coming from Teacher for America—well, let’s say, it is equal to the research put out by the American Tobacco Association on smoking.
For point 2, you might also look at an introductory econometrics text. My department uses Introduction to Econometrics by James Stock and Mark Watson, but there are many other texts.
@ Teresa:
“I say we take Randi’s stance on VAM and push her to change on CC; use her statement against VAM and pressure the NEA to do the same”
Weingarten has “changed” her mind on VAM precisely because she’s caught so much flack about her previous states of “mind.” What she seems to be doing now, after the fact, is to try and preserve her image. She’s already backed Common Core – as has the NEA, and the AASA, and the NAASSP, and the NAESP,and the National PTA, and the National School Boards, and the Gates, Broad, and Walton Foundations, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Roundtable….
All she’s doing now is trying to make it appear that she favors a “reasonable” implementation.
Who knows, maybe she even believes that. And the NEA?
The NEA’s chief policy analyst repeats the nonsense spewed by the corporate “reformers.” She says “Students need the knowledge and skills that will prepare them for college and career in our global economy.” As I keep noting, the U.S. already IS internationally competitive, and when we drop in the World Economic Forum’s competitive rankings it’s because of stupid economic policy choices that piled up big deficits and debt and plunged the nation into the Great Recession. The corporate-style “reformers” – from ExxonMobil to the Waltons, from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to State Farm and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – supported all of those stupid (but for them, lucrative) policy choices.
Then, the NEA policy analyst cites some specious research (from the conservative Manhattan Institute) to insist that Common Core is necessary because “Among high school graduates, only half are academically prepared for postsecondary education.” The lead author of that “study,” Jay Greene, is no friend of public education (see the link to his review of Reign of Error at the bottom). In the “study, Greene says this about college attendance:
“Our results indicate that nearly all students who can possibly apply to college already do attend college… increasing financial aid or strengthening affirmative-action programs cannot substantially increase college participation…there is already a wide variety of programs designed to help low-income students attend college”
Uh-huh.
Greene says that “Some might find our results implausible.” Apparently, no one at the NEA does.
When the top teacher representatives don’t do their homework, and resort to reciting bad “research” and inane pronouncements, then teachers truly are in trouble. Such is the current state of public education in the United States.
Yup. The NEA and the AFT used to represent teachers. They have now become propaganda ministries for the CC$$. It’s sickening that teachers cannot depend upon them to stand up against this nonsense.
Teresa,
Don’t hold your breath. Over 6 months ago she called for a moratorium on testing. Have you seen any protest or activism there since that announcement???? This is her MO. All talk, no action.
As for changing her mind, I think that shipped has sailed because for many states, it’s now state law, so she can talk all she wants now and have people think what a great lady for changing her mind. Notice is came after teachers were fired due to VAM when she was warned about this many, many, many times. Last year she got the Newark teachers to agree to VAM. In NYC she wouldn’t even let teachers vote on this topic and made the deal directly with Cuomo.
Will she go back to Newark and other districts where she worked to inflict VAM on union members and work to get it out of their next contract? Then her change of position will mean something.
Thank you, Louis.
While Randi’s shift in rhetoric may be a positive sign, suggesting increased teacher pushback against her collaboration with the so-called reformers, short of concrete actions it is symbolic at best.
If she returns Gates’ blood money, or demands to re-negotiate the disastrous contracts she helicoptered in to oversee, then we can start speaking about a real shift, however long overdue.
Until then, watch what she does, and heavily discount what she says.
Is she up for re-election this summer?
Michael,
And what do you think Cuomo are Christie is going to say to this new shift in attitude? Klein must be LHAO all the way to the bank.
I bet she even got Duncan’s permission to make this announcement because it’s up there with her testing moratorium announcement. And have you seen any movement on that?????
Schoolgal,
Indeed, her corporate patrons know she is dissembling, and playing the teachers she ostensibly represents as rubes to be conned.
If she really intended to fight VAM, you’d see Gates, Broad and others of the same ilk attack her. Instead, you can picture them smirking and seeing their view of classroom teachers as chumps validated.
Michael,
Oneof the FIRST things she must do is to disembowel the policy of tying a test score to a teacher’s employability. The two should NEVER be linked . . . . .
Teresa Wiley: thank you for your comments. Let me expand on one idea.
There is a direct connection between VAM and CC staring us right in the face: high-stakes standardized testing. This is not to dispute the notion that CC is fundamentally flawed in its design and execution.
Dr. Mercedes Schneider recently provided a money quote from a leading “education reformer,” Dr. Frederick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute. *Note: he is even more than that—on his page on the AEI website you can genuflect to the fact that he is a “Resident Scholar and Director of Education Policy Studies.”* This is insider information, so note the indissoluble tie between CC and standardized test scores:
[start quote] In truth, the idea that the Common Core might be a “game-changer” has little to do with the Common Core standards themselves, and everything to do with stuff attached to them, especially the adoption of common tests that make it possible to readily compare schools, programs, districts, and states (of course, the announcement that one state after another is opting out of the two testing consortia is hollowing out this promise).
But the Common Core will only make a dramatic difference if those test results are used to evaluate schools or hire, pay, or fire teachers; or if the effort serves to alter teacher preparation, revamp instructional materials, or compel teachers to change what students read and do. And, of course, advocates have made clear that this is exactly what they have in mind. When they refer to the “Common Core,” they don’t just mean the words on paper–what they really have in mind is this whole complex of changes. [end quote]
Link: http://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2013/12/28/the-american-enterprise-institute-common-core-and-good-cop/
Without the test scores the whole edifice collapses.
Lastly, I would humbly add to the books that George Schmidt mentions above (REIGN OF ERROR and THE MISMEASURE OF EDUCATION) another one: Daniel Koretz, MEASURING UP: WHAT EDUCATIONAL TESTING REALLY TELLS US. There are some other fine books I have mentioned on this blog before, but as a psychometrician Koretz completely demystifies (in plain English no less!) the whole process of designing, producing, pre-testing, administering and scoring standardized tests—and why they measure so little, are inherently imprecise, and are inappropriately used for purposes for which they are not intended.
😎
“Without the test scores the whole edifice collapses.”
No, test scores purport to be the windows into which we view the interior of the edifice. The whole edifice collapses because the epistemological and ontological foundations* are built on logical quicksand eventually causing the whole thing to sink into the putrid muck and sand. Although it may be temporarily stabilized, it can only be swallowed up and, hopefully, be forever buried until it fossilizes.
*see above referenced work of Wilson.
Duane Swacker: in line with my comments, I was trying to be a bit more specific in the way I approached my topic.
However, based on watching what actually transpires with standardized testing and the labeling, sorting and ranking that it enables, I am coming to the conclusion that the whole enterprise is vain and illusory and destructive.
And let me add: any comment with your handle on it always draws my attention.
Keep on commenting. I’ll keep on reading.
😎
And I thoroughly enjoy reading yours! (my fingers still haven’t thawed out yet, it’s friggin cold here, and I’ve been inside for 10 or 15 minute now).
And, KTA, it ain’t my handle, it’s my name, it’s me!!
I am who I am, and I’m not afraid to lay it out there for all to see. Why? Because I believe in what I write (or else I wouldn’t write it) and if someone doesn’t like it, well, tough effin shit!!
It’s just me talkin and I ain’t that much of anything other that what I write and say.
Your just misunderstanding the weather. Coldness is a quality that can not be turned into a quantity. Thermometers are manufactured with error. At best they measure an interaction between the local environment, the thermometer, and the observer at a particular place and time. I was confident that the quality of hot would be at the front door because I wished it so. In retrospect, wearing shorts and a T-shirt was not ideal, but given the inherent error in measuring hotness, there is really no hope that I will know how to dress in the morning.
Who would have thought a number like -9 had any meaning for the quality of being cold?
Love it,.TE, love it!
Too bad it has nothing to do with “measuring” the teaching and learning processes.
But it has everything to do with Wilson’s objections.
“Who would have thought a number like -9 had any meaning for the quality of being cold?”
The answer to your question lies in the White Album circa 1968, specifially the song Revolution 9. Played backwards the title is Negative 9. In it you will find the answer to your question (and all others for that matter).
Duane, I get your passion, and KTA seems to share it, but in the defense of KTA many people do not use their real names because they have a “hunting dog” principals (he/she just go’s where their told). This kind of principal is more the standard today than the exception, some would say the first requirement of the job anymore (certainly here in Oregon). These principals will, and do retaliate. KTA is wise to maintain anonymity- you can reason that one out for yourself-No? It’s not duplicity, but a wise response to the dictatorial nature of educational bureaucracy.
James,
I thoroughly understand why one wouldn’t want to identify themselves. But, boy isn’t that a sad state of affairs in this supposed free country? I don’t fault anyone for protecting themselves and their livelyhoods. I have been subjected to the kind of crap, retaliation, vengence at which you are hinting. It’s not pleasant and I wish it on no others. My response was not as any kind of dig at those who use nom de plumes. It’s just a shame that we can’t speak our minds because of the threats/fear thrown on us.
Yes, Amen to that. The only reason I use my real name is because I resigned (insert sadness here) and relegated myself to substituting. Anonymous position if there ever was one.
Thank you, James Clark, but I use a nom de plume not for myself but for the many fine people with whom I worked. So I take no offense whatsoever at what Duane Swacker wrote…
I couldn’t write some of what I do on this blog without implicating some people for whom I have much respect and affection. Just to give you a hint of what I went through as a SpecEd TA in the high school I worked at: I am fully aware of what a Dr. Steve Perry is like because the AP who effectively ran the school for years would make him look like an altar boy. And things haven’t gotten any better since I’ve gotten out.
Yes, what a state of affairs indeed.
A tip of my hat to you both.
😎
Reblogged this on Crazy Crawfish's Blog and commented:
VAM is finding fewer and fewer friends once people finally discover just what it is, and more importantly what it isn’t: a fair, just and reliable method for identifying and ranking effective and ineffective teachers.
From the Politico article cited in Diane’s post:
“[Weingarten] has always been leery of value-added ‘but we rolled up our sleeves, acted in good faith and tried to make it work….'”
[Silence.]
To break your [Silence.]
She’s a GAGAer, blowing (double entendre meant) in whatever way she perceives the power to be coming from.
I want to read the detailed plan Weingarten proposes to follow in order to reverse the effects of her active and pronounced “rolling up of the sleeves” to promote VAM. Otherwise, this pronouncement is nothing more than the couisin to Gates’ “not knowing for a decade if our education stuff will work.”
It angers me to think that this “change” amounts to nothing more than upward-rung insurance on a career ladder.
Show me the detailed plan to undo Weingarten-promoted VAM damage.
Bravo!
This is a great step in the right direction. But it’s not enough. The teachers’ unions need to take a principled stand against the Powerpointing of U.S. education via bullet lists of “standards.”
“There’s no bullet list like Stalin’s bullet list.” –Edward Tufte, “The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint”
I’ve noticed that some of the commenters on this post think that because a teacher is opposed to VAM, she is opposed to any system to evaluate teachers. Of course, this is not the case. Although I am now retired, here was the situation in my old district, a suburb of Los Angeles:
In California, we’ve had the Stull Act since 1971. This Act requires teachers to be evaluated according to the progress of their students. Every two years, when I had my formal evaluation, I kept a folder for each child in order to show individual progress in the spring. Into this folder went end-of-chapter tests, weekly compositions, teacher-made tests, cumulative tests and individual diagnostic tests given by a specialist teacher or me. In addition to this information, an administrator could look at the cumulative folders of my students at any time. She did not need my permission to do so.
Frankly I always enjoyed demonstrating the progress made by each of my students. I loved sharing this information with administrators, parents, students and other teachers. If a child did not show adequate progress, I was always very concerned and always asked for the help of other professionals. I always informed parents when their children were not making adequate progress. It was my experience that almost every other teacher did this and I was not aware of a single teacher who objected to the Stull Act. However it is true that some districts (e.g Los Angeles Unified) ignored this law and was admonished by the courts for doing so. The superintendent of LAUSD blamed “the unions” for this but, of course, a labor union cannot negate state law. Not surprisingly the courts chastised the administration, and not the unions or the teachers, for ignoring this law. After all, it is administration that hires, evaluates and fires teachers.
What teachers are against is being evaluated on the basis of standardized tests for the simple reason that these tests are not designed to measure the SCHOOL progress of every child in the class as well as the effectiveness of the teacher.
Here are more specific reasons why teachers do not want to be evaluated by VAM:
The tests on which this method is based correlate closely with the background of the child, and not with the effectiveness of his teacher.
These tests are designed to test children who are at a particular grade level. So if a teacher has a sixth grade class who are at a third grade level, the test will not measure the progress of those students. It will look as though the teacher has taught nothing.
These tests are usually not professionally administered or handled, making them unreliable or even invalid.
These tests often dictate the curriculum, which hurts the education of the children being tested.
In my opinion, the public has a right to demand that children in a teacher’s class make adequate progress. That said, teachers have a right to demand that these tests can accurately measure the SCHOOL progress of each child in the class. At this time, there is no two-dollar group test that can do that.
I would add that teachers are opposed to being evaluated with the intention of finding a flaw. VAM being more of a weapon than a tool, evaluation in general has become more about punishment than genuine professional growth.
Yes, I agree. Districts with very low-achieving children (e.g. DC and LAUSD) know that many teachers will inevitably get low scores and that will provide an ostensibly “objective” excuse for getting rid of them. It’s all part of the general education scam that is going on right now. Fortunately the truth is slowly but surely coming out. Shame, shame, shame to all those “educators” who are participating in this unconscionable fraud.
She replied to my Twitter comment last night about how she rejects Twitter too.
TAGO!
There you go again, cheater . . . . .
I blame that one on Tracie, she was short, subtle and to the point!
But thanks for giving me another opportunity for a “cheap” one!!!!
For people in the Philadelphia area, the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools will be having a screening of the new film Standardized. Information is here:
http://rockfishproductions.com/
I am glad Randi is saying this, but what is she going to do about all the contracts already signed, contracts that she recommended? I can’t help but be skeptical, especially after her recent alliance with John Engler (!) promoting CCSS. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2013/12/weingarten-joins-union-enemy-john.html
Hey people,
Do we support a leader with no foresight?? If not, let’s start commenting on why the AFT needs a new leader like Karen Lewis.
Thank you!!
Yes, but Diane you changed your whole belief system. You accepted responsibility for believing that school reform was the way to go. You wrote books and blogged. You listened to all viewpoints. Randi is a person who could have a huge impact on this tsunami that you, Karen, Lace to the Top, BATS etc … are buttressing.
I do give her lots of credit for answering her tweets ; however, her responses can be noncommittal, fluff, or Bill Clinton like. A few words from Randi would pay huge dividends to members or her union: ” HST, CCNS and APPR is not good for public education”
To James & Linda Johnson above: yes, evaluation (of any job, really) should not be done with the “intent of finding a flaw,” but with the intent of the employee’s job improvement. I was so extremely lucky to have wonderful principals, and my very favorite, very experienced (are there many of them these days?) principal, in my post-observation conferences, gave me such invaluable, constructive criticism that I remembered an incorporated well after he left the school (over 20 years!). As a matter of fact, I thoroughly enjoyed most of my observations & post-observation conferences, as we both learned much in order to help the students we cared about.
I fervently hope that these scenarios will once again occur in our schools.
In fact, they must.
Yes, I agree. I too had some excellent principals who gave me feedback that greatly enhanced my teaching. Of course, that’s the way “evaluation” is supposed to work.
The union recently had a “day of action”, what was that about? Did they introduce new legislation?, it’s all theatrics if the AFT does not have its political minions on the move.
Maybe a hunger strike announcement by union officials, who praise Mandela in his spirit.
Now, that would be good theatrics in comparison to being honored at the Harvard Club; or a march on Tweed Courthouse to meet the new “progressive” Chancellor and break her cone of silence.
Amen!
Randi: Now denounce Common Core. You know it’s wrong.
Yes!
Randi:
Now denounce the tying of test scores to teacher evaluation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For Harlan: Dr. Bruce Baker has many detailed explanations of the problems with VAM methods, and he breaks it down in such a way that a lay man can follow the discussion. His site is School Finance 101. He presents his arguments with little or no rhetoric, more a dragnet prose of just the facts.
Thank you “Old Teacher” for the steer.
Also realize that the other evil twin step-sister of VAM is SGP.
Good news, but not enough. Common core is connected to high stakes testing is connected to VAM. Rejecting any of these necessitates a rejection of all. Still waiting.
That is the truth, but it does not have to be.
If we had only CCSS and not the APPR that contains test scores linked to evaluations, we would have just yet another set of standards to implement, supplement, adapt, and adjust to.
Standards have some and gone.
The CCSS is NOT the problem. even though I think they are incomplete and narrow.
The problem is that curriculum gets narrowed as does every other best practice in pedagogy when we TIE TEACHER EVALUATIONS TO TEST SCORES, WHETHER LOCAL OR STANDARDIZED ! ! !
The CCSS is not causing this problem; the APPR required by RttT is causing this problem, and the masterminds are Obama, Duncan, the new undersecretary of education, and corporate America.
THAT, in a nutshell, is the problem . . . . . .
Exactly! Fully one third of my class was at beginning kindergarten level when they entered my class last year. Every one of those children made at least one years growth. But first grade tests do not test kindergarten skills. It looked like they had made zero progress. I had two students who missed over 1/4 of the year due to uncleared absences. If the child is not there, I can’ teach them. But maybe I need to adjust my schedule to go to the children’s homes, get them ready and transport them to school. I know that sounds over the top, but then VAM doesn’t account for student/family issues.
It appears to me that Weingarten’s strategy was to go along with the deformers, perhaps because she didn’t know how to fight some of the negative publicity. Now that we’ve cooperated, and gone along with it, we have evidence to back up our criticisms.
It would be like getting another one of your own children ready each morning. Be sure to bring some clothes and underwear, and some extra paper, pencils, and pens so they are fully prepared, but don’t be late for your morning duty. You know how those principals are – be at your post, no excuses.
Anything that can hurt teachers is not an added value. AFT must be stronger for their teachers.
“Weingarten said the final straw was the news that the contractor calculating VAM scores for D.C. teachers made a typo in the algorithm, resulting in 44 teachers receiving incorrect scores — including one who was unjustly fired for poor performance.”
I would love to know what kind of resources the AFT is putting together to defend and exonerate these teachers and if it will be able to get the fired teacher his/her job back . . . . . . . . .
Has there been a law suit raised for this?
Too little, too late. Why haven’t our unions been leaders in pointing out the flaws and failures of these inadequate, unfair evaluation systems? Why have they foisted these evaluations and Common Core on members trying to get us to “embrace” them? Why have they accepted money from Gates and others who are hellbent on destroying the teaching profession, teachers unions and public education? The AFT, NEA and locals need to step up and lead rather than waiting for the tide to change and then after all kinds of damage has been done to students, teachers and schools saying, “Gee that doesn’t work we are against it now.”
Not too late!
Let’s reinvent the union. Have you heard of the UFT faction known as MORE?
Wanted to role up their sleeves and take Mr. Gates’ money.
I agree, Donna. Last summer she issued a threat; she said bad teachers better beat it because their unions were not going to protect them. She did not explain who or what a bad teacher is l she didn’t even question the way the DOE and districts are determining who is good and who is bad despite years of compelling evidence that Wham Vam thank you, Mam is a SCAM. She never has confronted Gates and his qualifications to judge teachers. His acrimony is APPALLING! Any teacher would be insulted By the low opinion he has of them. She is really NOT a teacher. Nir is she their advocate. She Did not do much to help rubber room teachers in NYC and she is doing even less to Right The wrong that is teacher jail in LA. I do not think she supported Chicago teachers very well during a strike Most parents supported. She has, however, accepted gifts of cash and charter schools from Broad and Walton Family. I thnk Gates has been generous with unions all around. She makes $400k a year + your average annual teachers income and her many perks besides. WHy does she need more? Why would AFT need more? They have so much just in dues alone. I guess if these unions invested unwisely that would explain it, but it does not justify biting the hands that still feed it (we have NO choice but to do so) . The teachers’ union is NOT being busted. It has been bribed!
We know she is the devil, but let’s use her turn around to our advantage. All’s fair in fighting CCSS and Duncan.
Let’s see. This headline might be “Union Honcho Steps Back from Voodoo, Provisionally Accepts Logic”.
TAGO!
There is one other variable that is not often mentioned: Students have no ownership in the tests, no personal consequences that befall them from test results. They have no reason to try their best or even try at all. When I proctored the NCLB test several times, the first question students asked was “How does this affect me? Will this be a part of my grade?” When we told them “no, you’re not graded on this,” many students still tried their best but some penciled pretty patterns onto their bubble sheets and then fell asleep.
I have often pointed this out when these exams are called “high stakes” and are blamed for increased stress on all the students involved.
And what about undie stress on the teachers?
I was commenting on student stress, a great concern in some posts here.
I meant “undue stress” . . . .
Those who care for are effected by adversity and in turn affect those who are cared for . . . . .
THINK, TE. . .. and make a connection for once. There is some fluidity somewhere in that stainless steel cranium and nervous system of yours. . . . There has to be.
Stress is contagious. Children are naturally stressed when adults are . It makes sense because they relay on us to look out for them and we have not been doing the best job of this.
Perhaps than that is the solution to Dr. Ravitch’s problem in getting 17 year olds to take no stakes exams seriously.
But that could change. There’s talk about using the test as an indicator of whether they pass the grade or not. It will definitely happen at the High School level when the CC subject area tests roll out.
guess being a constant pest and calling her on her foolhardiness has finally begun to pay off; next Randi needs to dump her support for #CommonCore, then charters and #TeachForAwhile…. wow, at this rate, we might finally get the AFT onside with parents, working for the best interests of our children by the time this generation of kids is old enough to leave school (I didnt want to use the word ‘graduate’ because it really means nothing to complete a narrowed, dumbed-down curriculum while being taught-to-the-test)….
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
I want to be happy that she’s had a change of heart. I am happy. But why does it take so darn long for those in power to actually listen to what those in the trenches are saying?
Finally. There’s only so long a group can be bullied. It definitely helps when there is so much incompetence regarding the tests, scoring, and teacher evaluations. Another voice to join the chorus. This one might be a soloist.
In Buffalo, there was a grant to rate the teachers. (Do the calculations based on all the data points – not just the tests). However, the money ran out before all the teachers got their scores, so a large number of evaluations were never completed. So much for APPR.
I think this is sad. Pittsburgh both the union and the district have been working hard and collaboratively to come up with an evaluation system that is better than the previous. This is years before Pennsylvania has mandated that all districts shall be doing this. Not to mention that most polls show the public want to see a robust teacher evaluation is in place to ensure effective teachers are in the classroom. I believe that PPS understands the issues of VAM brings up, whereby we only use VAM as 35% of a multiple measure as an evaluation tool for teachers. The final brief on the work Pittsburgh has been doing the past 5 years is published here (http://www.aplusschools.org/wp-content/uploads/Great-Teaching-Brief-2013_FINALv2.pdf).
A reason IMHO that Ms Weingarten is denouncing it now is because Pittsburgh Public Schools has a union contract to negotiate in 2015. This denouncing is a tactic that unions use to disarm any data that the district can use to keep teacher salaries from rising to unsustainable levels or keeping their members from being thrown out. It puts our children and us parents in an untenable position and requires that we either chose the side of the teacher or the district. This is sad because we just want what is best for our children.
So you are saying that teachers should be judged on the test scores of their students? But only 35%?
Thanks, Steve. We always have to be hip to the ulterior motives. I believe she also is shrewd enough to know this common core will not fly, it is going to be our biggest victory to date because Gates and Hs pals are going to lose on this investment big time. They’re not going to be able to pull this crap so easily in the future now that parents are awakening to the boondoggle either. That does not mean we can wash our hands of them as Gates, Broad and Walmart meddle with medicine and the arts in between gentrification hustles and other assorted grifts. My instincts say they already know the common core is coming down around their ears. They probably are plotting something else as we discuss this. What? Who knows? We will have to be vigilant because they think differently than mammles. I guess we have to get in touch with our reptile brains. Maybe Randi will help us with that,
“. . . whereby we only use VAM as 35% of a multiple measure as an evaluation tool for teachers.”
Well, that’s 35% too much.
Your statement is full of edudeformer talk. My assumption is that you administrate. Is that true?
Dr. Daniel Willingham created this video in 2009 in which he breaks it down about merit pay, teacher pay, and value added measure.
It’s a simple video that truly explains the big issue behind teacher evaluation. Randi should have it on her cell phone as an app to remind her of the big picture since 2 0 0 9!!!
Undue stress? Is that when the t strap gets a little too snug because you are an emotional eater?
Dan Willingham is one of the brightest men in the United States. And, btw, his Cognition: The Thinking Animal is the best one-volume introduction to cognitive psychology I’ve ever seen. I would dearly love to see that book on the reading lists in every teacher preparation program.
Loved the video – especially the part where he implied the librarian taught life long skills. My kind of guy!
Do you think this is easier for her to come out and say, now that the Obama Admin and Sec. Duncan have essentially helped to hand select the new Chancellor of the NYC schools?
Yes… She is a politician. She, of course, want’s be in the tide that is turning.
The turning tide will soon be increasing in Chicago, where the Chicago Teachers Union is now planning events about Common Core, while the CORE caucus will move more directly (being more nimble) against Common Core and other Duncan policies. One of our objectives will be to have the material for resolutions for the AFT convention (Los Angeles, July) ready for discussion by April. We will also be working to coordinate with the New York unions (that’s a plural, from PSC through NYSUT) so that by the time we get to Los Angeles, it will be easier to fully denounce Race To The Top and each of its iterations, not only Common Core.
Our union president in Buffalo, Phil Rumore, has been calling it “Race to the Bottom” since day one.
BRAVO! and Amen… I just heard a quote by Howard Zinn “The problem isn’t civil disobedience, it’s civil obedience.” I hope we keep seeing more teacher wade into the fray.
Lois Weiner provided the below video on FB. Randi states that you must look at what’s going to be good for the teachers and the children of New Jersey and she embraces merit pay. But merit pay, teacher evaluation, VAM, CCCS, and RttT are all interconnected. The confusion here is that Randi says she doesn’t get involved at the local level but she does when it’s a TV moment. I truly feel that Randi’s constant mixed messages to her members and the backlashes pushed her to step back and re-examine her leadership goals.
http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/christie-teachers-unions-agree-merit-pay
I was just thinking that the state would save a lot of money rewarding highly effective teachers in Syracuse, NY, where there were only a few in the upper grades and none at the elementary level to achieve that “honor”. It’s all how the grading is weighted. (and in Buffalo, NY, a large number of teachers were never rated because the district ran out of money to complete the evaluation process.)
The damage has already been done in many AFT controlled districts who were pressured by Weingarten to accept it as part of their evaluation. Is AFT going to go back and now renegotiate their contracts? I hope so. Too bad they can’t undo the stress that it caused the teachers who had to be rated based on what anyone with half a brain could see was, indeed, “junk science.”
I wonder what the context of the Zinn remark was. It’s one of those “Clever Communisms” that he likes so much. It’s sounds like he’s arguing for not obeying laws. Now non-violent disobedience is a legitimate tactic against unjust law, but I suspect what Zinn really wants is a mass repudiation of capitalism, in which case the remark is just normal radical contempt for the masses.
Are you advocating, James Clark, that individual teachers openly defy their administrators or rather subversively pretend to go along but attempt safe sabotage, or rise up in a political mass protest against the testing going along with CCSS. The last seems honest to me, the first two folly.
I think that we need a great deal more open defiance of administration in general. I think that principals have become (ever so willingly) the tool of corporate policies. I think many of the principals today practice a kind of hunting dog leadership. They just go where they are pointed. I think they need to be held to higher standard. In addition, teachers need to stand together and support their each other as they stand up to ignorant policies implemented by ignorant, and/or complacent principals.
As far as Zinn, I believe the context was in reference to complacency of Americans who stand by and watch while a clear and present set of inequities across our culture are allowed to flourish. Communism…? Perhaps… But it makes sense to me.
Complacency about inequities. How about complacency about other real scandals?
Both… Inequality is (more often than not) a real scandal…
Reblogged this on peakmemory and commented:
The head of the American Federation of Teachers has added her voice to those who question the validity of value added teaching evaluations.