Peter Greene writes that there seems to be a contest among the states to see which one can be most hostile and punitive towards public school teachers. Is it North Carolina? Is it Tennessee? No, writes Greene, the state that is in the lead in this category is Massachusetts.
Massachusetts, which leads the nation by far on federal tests of mathematics and reading, intends to adopt regulations that will take away a teacher’s license if his or her students get low test scores.
Can you believe that? The teacher won’t just be fired; she will lose her license to teach!
He writes:
There are three proposed versions (A, B & C) of the new system, and they all share one piece of twisted DNA– they link teacher evaluations to teacher licenses. Not pay level or continued employment in that particular school district– but licensure. A couple of below-average evaluations, and you will lose your MA license to teach.
There is no profession anywhere in the country that has such astonishing rules. Good lord– even if your manager at McDonalds decides you’re not up to snuff, he doesn’t blackball you from ever working in any fast food joint ever again! Yes, every profession has means of defrocking people who commit egregious and unpardonable offenses. But– and I’m going to repeat this because I’m afraid your This Can’t Be Real filter is keeping you from seeing the words that I’m typing– Massachusetts proposes to take your license to teach away if you have a couple of low evaluations.
It will not surprise you to learn that those evaluations would include all the usual groundless baloney. Student Impact Ratings– did your real student get better test scores than his imaginary counterpart being taught by an imaginary average teacher in a parallel universe? Did you successfully climb the paperwork mountain generated by a teacher improvement plan (duly filed with the state department that doesn’t have time to do the work it has now, so good luck with the new influx of improvement plan filings)? One version of the plan even allows for factoring in student evaluations of teachers; yes, teachers, your entire career can be hanging by a thread that dangles in front of an eight-year-old with scissors.
Which groups are advising the state in this draconian effort to drive teachers away? Some group called “the Keystone Center” and TNTP, the organization founded by Michelle Rhee.
Greene writes about these organizations:
“The Keystone Center was established to independently facilitate the resolution of national policy conflicts.” Those conflicts seem to most often have to do with oil and gas stuff, as well as Colorado higher education and monarch butterflies. How they ended up helping Massachusetts blow up teaching careers is not clear to me. But it’s easy to see how their “project partners” ended up here, because they’re teamed up with TNTP, a group that never met a set of teacher job protections that they didn’t want throw in a woodchipper and burn with fire.
If TNTP ever has a legitimate mission, it has long since been replaced with one single-minded focus– to make it easier to fire all teachers everywhere all the time.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association is fighting this irrational plan. They see that it is a looming disaster for teachers and public schools.
Greene writes:
I would point out to the people pushing this that it’s a great way to chase people away from teaching in Massachusetts ever. I would point out that young people interested in starting a teaching career might favor a state where that career can’t be snuffed out because of random fake data that’s beyond their control. I would point out that this is one more policy that will almost certainly make it even harder than it already is to recruit teachers for high-poverty low-achievement schools. I mean, most states are settling for evaluation systems that punish inner-city teachers with just losing that particular job; it takes big brass ones for Massachusetts to say, “Come teach in a poor struggling under-funded low-resource school. Take a chance on the job that could end your entire teaching career before you’re even thirty.” Who on God’s green earth thinks this is a way to put a great teacher in every classroom?
Well, the answer is nobody. I would say all those things to the people pushing this program if I thought they cared about any of that. But it seems increasingly obvious that creating a massive teacher shortage is not a bug, but a feature. It’s not an unintended consequence, but the chosen objective.
Good luck, MTA. The people of Massachusetts should celebrate the successes of their schools and send these interlopers who want to ruin teachers’ careers packing. How is it possible to improve education by ruining the lives of teachers? How is it possible to improve education by making test scores the measure of everything? Good business for Pearson, not so good for the children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here in Nevada you might as well lose your license, if you are fired you will likely never get another teaching job anyway. Our governor is keeping mum about the new reforms the legislature will rubber stamp after he is re-elected. Top of the list will be faster firing of older teachers, expansion of TFA and charter schools, and a parent trigger law. Nevada will join the contest to run teachers out soon.
The only thing they should do in Nevada is abolish collective bargaining for principals. That is one of the major reasons they are nearly impossible to fire, unlike teachers, and why they flout the law with abandon.
Why should any state lump teachers who work with kids who can’t or won’t do grade-level work with child molesters and drug addicts and make it impossible to ever work again in education? You are correct, once you are terminated it’s nearly impossible to score another teaching job, but at least you have a chance working in education. However, if your license is revoked, you CANNOT set foot in a public school anywhere in the United States and work with children. I was fired for literally NO reason at all, and the bum who fired me is now head of the Washoe County School District principals’ association. A complete incompetent who was allowed to keep her job and thrive at my expense. The district didn’t even have anything to show they tried all avenues for me to “improve” when I was written up on a bogus bunch of charges by a previous insane principal.
Yes, creating a Massive Teacher Shortage is the intent. It is the calculated, continued disenfranchising of these children who have already suffered multi-generational, systemic assault. Teacher careers are trashed as just another eliminated line item in a budget, collateral damage as well as intended targets. Punish the ghetto, the barrio and the holler by a direct hit on their professional teachers.
Also known as “shooting the wounded.”
It’s an attempt to create a caste system in this country, with few children being allowed to attend high school, let alone college.
I’m in MA, what can I do to make sure this ridiculous idea never catches on?
And Dentists with patients with bad teeth should lose their licenses. I thought Mass. had a high IQ, this proves otherwise.
This war on teachers is just so bizarre, hideous and demoralizing. When will it ever end? Dean Baker also has a great article (The Blame Teachers Game: Has Anyone Heard of the South?) at commondreams.org about the blame game, blaming teachers that is. Blaming teachers for just about every ill in our society and for so called “failing schools.” Here’s hoping that MA will not adopt these proposed punitive and undemocratic strictures.
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/10/29/blame-teachers-game-has-anyone-heard-south
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
“Massachusetts proposes to take your license to teach away if you have a couple of low evaluations.”
When DCPS changed their license classes, back when Shelley was in charge, there was an attempt to peg renewal to one’s teacher evaluation and rating. That died a quick death – back then. For some reason I think it will be revived nation wide.
The problem with all if this is that policy makers give admin power to evaluate teachers on topics beyond teachers’ control. It’s terrible. Evaluating teachers on how students perform on standardized tests or evaluating teachers by students’ behaviors is ludicrous. There are many factors besides a teacher as to why a child scores or behaves the way he or she does.
The evil politicians know that it is all bogus data. They are doing everything they can do to eliminate our public schools and eliminate the teaching profession entirely.
I stayed in my classroom until 8:00 PM Friday night, and I have worked the entire weekend on my teacher work. It is 10:35 PM Saturday night, and I am still working on my teacher work. I do not get paid any overtime for any of these extra hours. I have to work these extra hours because I am not able to complete all of my work in a regular school day.
In addition to my regular work as a teacher (grading papers, grade cards, and parent teacher conferences), the state of Ohio has placed meaningless loads of paperwork on teachers to burn us out and wear us down. The only things that keep me going are my students and knowing that I do not have that many miles to go to cross the finish line. I will work hard to the very last day of my teaching career. As I look around at the younger teachers, they look as tired and worn out as I do. How will they survive throughout this dark, dark time in education?
As I’ve said many times before, parents are going to have to become more informed and start a campaign against the evil ones. The sad thing is that parents are loaded down with working two jobs, a terrible economy, and many do not even know the evil that is lurking so closely by.
Let’s make this true of all professionals. Any doctor or psychologist whose patient dies loses his/her license. Any lawyer who loses a case loses his/her license. Etc. Now we somehow need to get politicians licensed.
And we re-elect these pols. I agree. Not only licensed but tested. Say, AP American Government?
“Certifiable Pols”
They might not have a license
But most are certifiable
The politicians’ nonsense
Is certainly undeniable
This is already true of all other exempt professionals. Doctors / psychologists / lawyers go through a rigorous selection process to get into their chosen college major, followed by a very rigorous and lengthy process to obtain a diploma, and another rigorous process to become licensed to practice in their chosen field. If, after all that, they are unable to meet the standards of their profession and are unwilling or unable to work to remedy that, they can and do lose their jobs. If the pattern continues, they also lose their licenses.
FLSA, how many doctors or lawyers lose their license? Do doctors lose their license if their patients die? No one would be a cancer doctor if that were true. Do lawyers lose their license if they lose a case?
As both an attorney and an educator, lawyers do not go through a more rigorous selection process than educators. You graduate from law school and you pass the bar exam You do fill out a questionnaire about your background answering questions about arrests, convictions.
This is no different from educators. You get a degree in education, you document the courses you took meet the standards for certification, and you pass the Praxis. You pass a criminal background test.
Attorneys certainly can be disbarred (lose their license) but only for ethical breaches such as stealing client funds or demonstrated incompetence which rise to the level of a violation of ethical standards. You cannot be disbarred for simply losing a case or even – losing a lot of cases. Public defenders probably lose more cases than they win. In fact the disbarment process provides multiple layers of due process protections, including notice and hearing levels up through the state Supreme Court.
Most states also have an administrative process for educator license terminations for ethical breaches within the state department of education.
Also, in private practice you choose your clients and you can also choose to terminate your relationship with your client, especially if they fail to carry out their responsibilities to help you present their case. Educators do not choose their students. And they cannot terminate their relationship if the student is uncooperative.
More importantly, as an attorney, no one is tracking your win/loss record or figuring out your value-add for each of your clients and reporting this out in a misguided attempt to ensure you are being held accountable to your clients.
It was harder to get in law school than to be accepted as a student seeking an undergraduate degree. But it was comparable to the acceptance process I went through to be accepted in my doctoral program in education leadership. Both required an exam and an application. To get in the Ed doctoral program, I also had to take a monitored writing exam, write a personal reflection, and pass an interview. Both took 3 years of coursework. But for my doctorate I had to write and defend a dissertation. This was more challenging than anything I had to do in law school. After law school I had to pass the bar exam- 2 days of writing extended response to questions about legal dilemmas and one day of multiple choice questions. In my education doctoral program, I had two days of oral comps plus a Hal day defending my comps.
There was no rigorous process at the college graduate level to get into law school. For me it was just an undergraduate degree, LSAT scores, 2 letters of recommendation, and over a B average. No screenings or even an interview.
So, bottom line, I do not see any reason to treat teacher certification different from attorney certification. There is simply no conceivable purpose to require anyone in either profession to prove their value-add to maintain their license or stay employed, especially when you are really measuring student or client behavior and circumstance on one particular day when the test is administered.
“There was no rigorous process at the college graduate level to get into law school. For me it was just an undergraduate degree, LSAT scores, 2 letters of recommendation, and over a B average.”
Worried, what you just described is rigorous, and that was just to get INTO law school. I got a license to teach in Massachusetts without an education degree by taking the MTEL, a 4 month night class, and a few months of student teaching. I took the Praxis for fun (not required in Massachusetts) and I cannot believe you’re comparing that to the bar exam. I got Recognition of Excellence on the Praxis II content knowledge exam with an outdated calculator, a 103 fever, and no preparation at all. The Praxis is hardly rigor, in fact the Praxis I is inexcusable.
Diane, there’s a difference between losing some patients or cases and consistently losing patients or cases because of failure to abide by professional standards of practice without any attempt to improve. If Massachusetts is really aiming for the former approach, then perhaps I did have my “This Can’t Be Real” filter on. But that would be because I hear so many teachers blaming the students for not learning rather than setting about finding better ways to teach. So many cures for diseases would not exist if doctors blamed the patients for getting them rather than setting about finding new cures or at least administering existing treatments, and so much of the technology our lives and livelihoods depend on would not exist if scientists and engineers blamed physics and nature for limiting what can be done. I can watch a movie about the Wright Brothers and then get on a faster and safer airplane than they could have built, or read about Jonas Salk when I ask my doctor if I need a polio or updated flu vaccine. Why then when I watch movies about great teachers who succeed in teaching the unteachables, am I told that it’s unrealistic to expect other teachers to follow their lead? I am similarly frustrated when I read about other countries succeeding in educating their children better than we do and then hearing the excuse that their methods can’t work in our country for this, that, or another reason.
There are significant problems with our education system and I would like to see teachers solving them. But the few who do are rewarded with higher paying positions outside of the classroom.
FSLA,
I am confused as to your point. Are you suggesting that educators should be evaluated using VAM or student growth measures because their certification process is less rigorous than certification processes for attorneys and physicans?
Or are you arguing that the alternative educator certification process should be more rigorous? I agree with you on this.
I would also suggest that if you also took the LSAT, your scores would be high enough for acceptance into a law school.
My point is simply that no person’s certification in any field should depend on some value added assessment based on the conduct, behavior, and circumstances of others.
Law school is more comparable to a graduate degree in education. But many educators have advanced degrees. Should we use VAM just to assess Bachelor level educators or educators that were certified through an alternative certification process? Or maybe just TFA folks?
My fundamental assertion is that value added measures are not valid or reliable for the purpose of teacher evaluation, teacher certification, attorney certification/Licensure or physician licensure – no matter how rigorous or lenient state certification requirements are.
Worried,
I’m arguing that ALL educator certification processes should be more rigorous. I believe the reason Massachusetts doesn’t use Praxis is because they recognize that it is not rigorous enough – unfortunately they were having difficulty getting enough people to pass certain MTEL tests and had to lower the bar. The year I took my subject MTEL was the last year it was offered as a general secondary test. Fewer than half of the first-time test takers passed, and fewer than 1/4 of repeat test-takers passed. That test became the high school subject test the following year, and a different test was implemented for middle school subject teachers. The pass rates improved after that. I find this troubling. Teacher prep programs should be able to prepare middle schools teachers to at least be able to handle material taught in high school.
I wasn’t making a point about VAM, but I would advocate for a weighted growth model. Say teachers A, B, and C all have students who exhibit and average of 1 year of growth in 1 year’s time. The weighting would bring the students past individual growth into the picture. If teacher A is working with G/T students who typically exhibit 1.5 – 2 years growth in 1 year, I would want teacher A to have an improvement plan in place. If teacher B is working with ‘average’ students who have have typically exhibited a year’s growth in a year’s time, that is a teacher who I would feel is meeting the existing standards of practice.
If teacher C is working with kids with social or learning difficulties who have typically exhibited 1/2 or 1/4 year growth in a year’s time, then teacher C is doing something very special and should be rewarded to continue doing what he/she is doing with the same demographic in the classroom. Teacher C should be further rewarded to disseminate these techniques among others in the field. This is how it works in other FLSA exempt professions, but as I understand it the teacher salary lane structure precludes such rewards unless teacher C is ‘promoted’ out of the classroom.
Weighting can also be adjusted to account for other factors like classroom size.
FLSA, If you were really as smart as you claim in your comments you would understand that your nifty teacher A,B and C model for evaluating teacher effectiveness is a great dream that in reality is not working. When teachers are rated on students they don’t teach or are compared to imaginary teachers in imaginary classrooms, when student scores on a particular day are a measure of so many complicated factors many of which their teacher has no control over, then your neat model doesn’t work. Teachers aren’t angry about your dream of VAM, they are angry because the reality doesn’t work and that isn’t right.
Like your response to this issue. Fact is the Schools systems’ Superintendents & Principles should also be looped into this ridiculous threat of penalizing Teachers. If all were to be set an example of, especially in this manner, we would think twice before acting. This is yet another Union busting ploy that should be exposed for taking away Union Members rights for protection and fair treatment through labor/ management negotiation process & contract agreements.
It was past corporations abuses that made it necessary for people to organize and develop Unions. And, Market Basket employees, here in Massachusetts, have proven we are stronger in numbers and we can make a difference, and they are not even Unionized.
Yes, it is the politicians (GOP) who push this issue, for yet another outcome to make all of us weaker. Stand Strong and get out and vote on Tuesday.
We already have it in RI thanks to Deborah Gist.
See ran in tandem with Rhee. IF RI has it then I know where the idea originated. Now, lets license: Education Chancellors, Commissioners, and anyone else who has something to do with education state-wide. Lets hold them responsible for the entire state.
I am more and more convinced that these pathological Deformsters did not just appear in public policy stink tanks, they have been seething and hating teachers since they were in elementary school. They hit the ‘Evil Pathology MotherLoad’ when they met other public policy wonks, politicians and CorpGreedsters, joined forces and celebrate over drinks that they are sticking it to teachers…every day, for life!
Sick beyond belief!
Evil!
Thanks Mr. Obama & Arne! Thanks for NOTHING,
This is about taking away licenses of legitimate, certified, credentialed, educators, veteran and novice, to replace them with TNTP and TFA “teachers” who ARE NOT credentialed, legitimate, or certified, at the sum of a teacher’s salary paid by the district taxpayers, with a finders fee of $5,000ish paid on top of that salary, by the district taxpayers, with more taxpayer dollars paid to put these twits though 5-week-bootcamp-summer school with 8 students in the room, to “teach” subjects they aren’t qualified to teach. While there, these twits will be conferred with Masters degress and certifications, as bogus as the Broad Supes school. By the way, do my tax dollars pay for the Broad Supes’ training too?
Donna hit the nailed it.
It’s really about creating an economic caste system for children so that they never, ever become educated beyond middle school. This is what is done in third world countries, and neoliberals see education as a waste of money, since few jobs require any education at all.
They don’t care that job training is NOT the purpose of public education.
Americans like their teachers. Polls overwhelmingly show support for teachers. If the plutocrats can destroy them, they know they’ve won the battle to impoverish our communities and to make us dependent on oligarchs.
You are in good company in your thinking:
“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people… They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” — Thomas Jefferson
“The tax which will be paid for the purpose of education is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance” — Thomas Jefferson
We all have to understand that the Commisssioner of Education, Mitchell Chester, has signed on for the Common Core and PARCC. The entire department is geared up to fully implement the entire range of standardized tests. The proposal(s) to remove licenses is a natural extension of existing policies. With the exception of several urban districts and several public school advocacy groups, such as Citizens For Public Schools (CPS), resistance to Common Core/PARCC has been minimal: Mitchell Chester has been able to roll out his policy implementation like the Nazis over running Poland in 1939. Perhaps the new state NEA president, Barbara Madeloni, will be able to mount a legal challenge to the licensure implementation. What would be optimal is if Massachusetts teachers awoke from their deep passivity and actively created alliances with parents around the opt out issue. I can easily envision two possibilities: wholesale de-licensing and/or early retirement of veteran teachers, coupled with the hiring of either scab labor (TFA) or young entry level pay teachers; enforced curriculum and licensing requirements imposed on schools of education. In both cases we see a state take over of the public schools and feeder schools of education, along side full implementation of VAM based teacher evaluations based on standardized tests. As a former 30+ year educator in Massachusetts, I can see the process of putting all elements of this plan in place. It both enrages me and scares the hell out of me. Posters to this blog who live or work in Massachusetts must oppose any delicensing proposals. Teachers must work with their local unions and the NEA had best lobby and institute legal actions. Perhaps Mitchell Chester can be stopped.
Not only has Chester signed on, he’s the president of PARCC. Clearly NOT a conflict of interest.
Mitchell Chester’s behavior is despicable. Nothing more need be said.
As for Massachusetts educators and their locals,, they had best awake from their slumber. The present situation is, among other factors, a direct outgrowth of the Department’s reorganization, including a new role for the Commissioner, its total allegiance to NCLB and the passivity of the MTA and its membership..
Did not know he was the pres. of PARCC. Interesting! This model which has students evaluating teachers must be illegal somehow? I’ve told my kids not to fill those out, already have some teachers doing this weekly. I certainly think that is reprehensible. No way a student/minor should be held responsible for someone’s job/license.
Where is Deval Patrick on this? Are we really this far down the rabbit hole?
Very depressing news. However, I am not a great believer in worst case scenarios. Still finding it very hard to believe that any of this de-licensing threat could possibly survive a legal challenge.
Where is Devel Patrick: He is the out going Governor. He appointed Mitchell Chester. No help on that end.
Deval Patrick is just as bad as Andrew Cuomo on education. Another fake Democrat.
Rhee and company just cannot tolerate the idea that real teachers do a better job than her five week wonders. Massachusetts has a reputation for having good schools so this is what happens. But to take somebody’s certificate? That is just wrong for anything less than child molestation on the job.
We’ve had the law that teachers lose their state license if they receive two out of three years of unsatisfactory or needs improvement ratings in Florida for three years. It’s an ALEC legislation that has been making its way across the nation.
And the principal can literally make up bad evaluations if the teacher isn’t enough of a brownnoser. This is why these laws are so STUPID. Most principals are idiots or are crazy and easily retaliate against teachers, especially if principals’ jobs are at risk. Naturally they continue to be protected by state regulations.
Gosh, everywhere you turn, scoundrels. Trying to keep our fingers in the dam. Getting tricky.
Poste Peter’s link at
http://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/CURMUDGUCATION-MA-Committ-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Evaluation_Massachusetts_Mathematics_Peter-Greene-141030-796.html#comment517746with this comment
The real destruction of public edcuation was carefully planned, and it began by removing the PROFESSIONAL PRACTITIONER. Just imagine that a hospital director –aka the management– instead of supproting the doctors, organizing staff and providing technology and supplies- instead mandated procedures and medication that would hurt or kill patients. Then imagine that the same managers could point a finger at the doctors, becasue medicine, like learning is a complex subject, and people only know what they are told. Here are the real professionals, and THIS is what LEARNING LOOKS LIKE when teachers show what they know, which is all good teachers, authentic educators do… they enable learners to do what they know how to do. This is what all mentors do. The Duncan narrative about teaching is bogus, meant to sell magic elixirs, not real learning.
Let’s see what Barbara Madeloni has to say about all of this. . . .
http://www.massteacher.org/news/archive/2014/DESE_proposal_to_change_licensure.aspx
That was quick!
Barbara, I am up in North Adams and Williamstown quite often. Stop by and say hello if you ever have the chance.
Thank you, Barbara, for calling out this ludicrous proposal. You rock! So glad to have you in our corner.
And Barbara,
Although my wife and I are teachers from NY, we follow you and love you to pieces! Thank you for your bravery and integrity. Leaders like you make all teachers across the nation feel less isolated, less alone, and more empowered with real tools and hope . . . .
Since the Revolution, Massachusetts has always set itself apart from the Union as being a much more independent and forward thinking state. I know we will all fight to keep it that way. When I think of regions like Amherst, North Hampton, and Hadley, I see a righteous earthquake of progressive mindset.
I reside part time in Massachusetts and relish this push back with you and others. . . . .
There is also a huge catch-22 in one of the “options”. Evaluators were told by the DESE that exemplary ratings were not to be given out, since they were “lofty goals that all should aspire to”. Option A REQUIRES at least one of these impossible to acheive ratings for license renewal.
I’m sitting in my classroom right now (7:30 PM) grading papers. It will all be a moot point someday, not that far off….The rich politicians will not be worried about teacher evaluation systems, teacher due process, or how to fire a teacher….there will not be anyone willing to dedicate 35 years of their life to a such a horribly abused profession. The end result is their plan: to privatize our schools so they can begin to pick and choose the children who get educated. Teaching will become a service industry with all profits going to charter executives. We will see 9 year olds walking around who cannot read because their parents cannot afford to send them to expensive charter schools. It is all a bad science fiction movie – definitely Twilight Zone. Parents with little ones need to wake up. I do not think the public schools, as we know them, will survive in the long run.
Yep. That’s the goal of libertarianism and neoliberalism. These jerks think that if they don’t have kids, why should they pay for it? Never mind these kids are the future taxpayers of the country who will pay for THEM when they can no longer work. Eventually there will be NO taxpayer money going toward schools at all, so you will have beggars on the street or sweatshops on every corner, just like they have in third world countries.
It plants the seeds for revolution, and that’s what is going to happen until people purge both political parties of neoliberals and their poisonous ideology.
It’s dark, very dark. This is Germany in 1933. But what could people do back then either? My relatives left quickly once they saw it was a done deal. Those who are able should leave and raise their kids somewhere with a future. It doesn’t look good for this country. Most Americans feel this on at least a subconscious level. Public schools are just the last public good to crush. My family had a good 100 years in America, but the game is over. This happened much quicker than I thought it would. It’s accelerating.
Yes. The scare tactics. The propaganda machine, this time unlike any in history. The polarization and hate. At Oped News, where Chris hedges and Robert Reich are among the writers, many people feel this way. It is frightening.
Though I understand your deep frustrations, which I, too, hold, your reference to Germany in 1933 is in apposite on all historical grounds.. What is critical and necessary to preserve and protect public schools in Massachusetts is for masses of parents to become involved in this struggle. As important, MTA (as a trade union) membership must awake from their deep slumber and believe in the good intentions of their school committees and school administration and stand behind their new president as a unified body and actively work against education agency proposals to tie teacher evaluations( often using invalid VAM measures) to maintaining teaching licenses. If Chester’s supid and probbly illegal proposals are effectuated, I would hope that the MTA would be at the court house door the next day. If the MTA folds its tent, then kids, parents, teachers, schools and communities will be “waste deep in the big muddy”.
They chose the wrong state to try this out in. The Massachusetts Teachers Association has a new, dynamic, social-justice/fight-back/democratically-focused leadership, headed by inveterate educator Barbara Madeloni. They’re organizing a big response, which began with their public statement on this travesty, which is inspiring to read.
From it: ” Too many mandates on top of too many mandates. It is outrageous that these proposals are being made at a time when even top state education officials have acknowledged that the state and federal governments have imposed too many mandates and new initiatives on educators. State Education Secretary Matt Malone has described the current mandate madness as akin to educators “trying to drink water from a fire hose.” And yet now the state is proposing a controversial new mandate that is strongly opposed by the field – with no clear explanation of why it is so urgent to impose these burdens at this time or how students will benefit. Stop the mandates! Let us teach!”
Read it all at http://massteacher.org/issues_and_action/Performance-based%20Licensure.aspx
Kippdawson,
We must be realistic in our expectations. Barbara Mandeloni can’t act alone. She and the MTA can only be as effective as the active involvement of its membership Activating membership should be the responsibility of the MTA field reps. They have got to be behind Barbara and stir the pot of progressive actionss..
You can support our actions by signing and sharing this link. Solidarity! http://capwiz.com/nea/ma/issues/alert/?alertid=63669646&type=CU&show_alert=1
“Decertification en Mass”
A teachbot in every class
A teacher on every corner
Decertification en Mass
Education at the coroner
So, exactly whom do they expect will take the place of all the highly educated and experienced teachers in Wellsley, Newton, Newton Highlands, Milton, Duxbury, and so on and so forth, in Massachusettts?? Exactly which MA politicians want to become teachers??? Because they should head to Springfield, Fall River, New Bedford, and, Lawrence. Have a great time, folks!!
My former neighbor teaches disabled middle-school children in a high-poverty high-risk area of Boston. I always imagined a faint glow around her head when we talked. I can’t imagine how she does it, year after year after year. To her, and rightly, “progress” means the kid shows up every day, without a bullet wound. It means she manages to get a kid into a vocational training program where the kid will be taught reasonable life skills and a trade to earn a living.
Fire her! Take away her license! How dare she not lie and cheat to pretend her students’ scores are going up!
I assume she will automatically be admitted to heaven without further examination. Let’s not discuss what will happen to the members of the Keystone Center and other architects of this insanity.
The life of a teacher is very sad
Goodness.
One way is to eliminate tenure for teachers. There are very few jobs that become nearly impossible to be fired from if you work at the job for a few years. There are large numbers of teachers who are incompetent or just lazy in their jobs because of this. Using the example in the article the manager can fire the employee that is not up to snuff, but what if after flipping hamburgers for a few years you became impossible to fire. That is why drastic measures are being proposed.
With the present toxic environment for teachers….believe me, the problem will not be finding ways to eliminate teachers…but, it will be finding good teachers and trying to keep them. The only ones who will suffer here are the children. Without continuing contracts and due process, teachers will be discontinued on their 40th birthdays. A teacher cannot travel around and find new teaching jobs, not even in within counties, let alone traveling to another state. Teachers have become the scapegoats for all of the ills of society. We are not the enemy. We are the ones who have tried for many years to bring comfort and security to our students. We love our students. We are many times all they have.
Sad teacher, I am sad like you. Exactly the case. You got it right,.
Correct, Sad Teacher…as soon as my old 47 year-old self started getting that weeding out harassment, I saw the handwriting on the wall…and though I often get high praises from former students when I meet them in the community, because of the hostile work environment imposed on teachers…I refuse to give my gift of teaching to any school district in the US, I refuse to cast my pearls before swine and refuse to EVER teach again…Hey! You policy makers out there…lol…Good luck finding teachers…You’ll be begging people to take it up and will fail until these INSANE policies are CHANGED….not relaxed…CHANGED.
@Michael Silva,
There are in excess of 200,000 unemployed teachers in the U.S. and most of them don’t have skills that will land them a job that has the same pay and benefits as a teacher. Unless you are a High School STEM teacher and/or have other marketable skills good luck finding a job that has the benefits and pay of teaching. Teachers routinely score in the top 5 of most respected professions, overall job satisfaction, and desirability of job when rated on objective measures. In any case the smart thing to do would be for teachers to work constructively with society at large to identify and remove or retrain teachers who can’t or won’t teach. If teachers did that this whole issue would disappear.
Socrates, How exactly are teachers not helping to mentor struggling teachers? They do it all the time. Often newer teachers are paired up with experienced teachers formally or informally. Teaching students is very difficult and demanding for many reasons. Of course we try to help each other out as much as is possible. Why would anyone assume that successful teachers would want to protect incompetent teachers? Why would anyone working in a high demand high stress environment want weak links? You do realize also that teachers do not have the authority to hire or fire, that’s administration’s job.
I’m guessing that you probably think that teachers should help newer teachers and help get rid of poor teachers by agreeing to dump tenure and unions? The very structures that help good teachers keep our jobs when we have to deal with crazy kids, parents or incompetent administrators? Think about it Socrates.
@dunl0005 ,
What you’ve described is what should happen, and is what does happen probably in the majority of schools, but you are very naive if you think that’s what happens everywhere all the time. From my experience with local schools(urban with high percentage of poor and minority students) where it doesn’t happen is with young teachers who weren’t taught classroom management skills properly and with older tenured teachers(many with political connections) who just can’t or won’t teach and don’t really want to learn how. There are a significant number of teachers who fall into this category.
Alan, Sources, I need sources. You claim that teachers are nearly impossible to fire and that there are large numbers of teachers who are incompetent or lazy. Do you have sources for these facts? Or wait, are you a teacher yourself Alan? That must be it. That’s why you are such an expert on this topic. Thanks for your insight.
When something is as common knowledge as Alan’s comment it’s not his responsibility to “provide sources”. If you have evidence to the contrary YOU provide YOUR evidence. There has been one widely publicized court case in California where the Judge looked at the evidence from both sides and said that in fact in California at least Alan is right on the FACTS. Many state constitutions have a legal requirement that the State provide each student with an adequate education. In addition the Fourteenth Amendment requires that each citizen be afforded equal protection of the laws, thus school districts can’t assign all the worst teachers, particularly if they are totally incompetent to the poor black and Hispanic kids. Teachers Unions better wake up and smell the coffee, because if they don’t get on board with this there won’t be any more Teachers Unions. There are a lot of good reasons to grant teachers tenure, but this issue trumps those reasons by a mile. Wake UP!!!
Socrates,
That’s funny, your “common knowledge” must come from your buddies at the bar or “Faux” news. People who actually educate themselves on these issues commonly realize that problems in education such as the achievement gap cannot be blamed on the teachers (although they seem to be the most convenient scapegoat). There are not huge numbers of horrible teachers that are protected by unions and damaging children. The California case was not proof of anything besides how desperate the “reformers” are getting to push their agenda. I’m afraid that you are the one that needs to wake up.
Alan has no sources, because as Diane Ravitch has competently pointed out, there are no facts to support this hate. It’s just hate.
Michael Silva has no sources. For some reason Diane Ravitch has failed to point that out. There are no facts to support this hate. It’s just hate.
“One way is to eliminate tenure for teachers.” Not the solution. May I suggest you look around this blog and find out exactly what tenure is and why it is necessary. Then purpose a solution. You’re probably a nice fellow with a good heart, but sorry. At the moment you don’t know what you’re talking about.
There are too many clueless people out there, because the truth about the way that tenure was completely bypassed in order to remove the hundred thousand veteran , experienced teachers is no where to be found in the media. Lawless principals in NYC and LAUSD had not worry about ‘tenure,’ because the union contract which called for grievance procedures was routinely avoided. Teachers need unions to be their legal reps.
When the local reps are complicit (and I have all the evidence of complicity in my case and in hundreds of others) then the teacher finds that slander is the method that ends the career, no matter how successful… and I was not only tenured… I was successful by every measure… and a celebrated educator.
http://www.opednews.com/author/author40790.html
This happened to me, and tens of thousands of ‘tenured’ NYC teachers while the media talked about those bad teachers.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
This is what happened to NYC when the professional teacher had no legs to stand on, let alone tenure
https://vimeo.com/4199476
So to all the ignoramus who talk about tenure as if they actually know something… I say DO NOT DO IT HERE WHERE THE TRUTH IS KNOWN.
Mark, you are too kind. Anyone who feel like Alan, is too ignorant of the reality, too brainwashed by the media…even if his belief is sincere.
Tenure does not mean that teachers can never be fired. Tenure provides for the right to due process that teachers must be provided before they can be fired. If there are incompetent teachers in school districts it is because the administrators are too lazy to collect the necessary data required to justify the firing of incompetent teachers. It is rather that incompetent teachers may still be teaching due to the incompetency of local administrators. Tenure for life is a totally misinformed idea about what tenure is and really means.
Thank you – this is the truth about tenure – just due process. If you find an incompetent teacher – look to the administrator who evaluates them – that is where the responsibility lies.
The truth…finally!
Alan, really now, how many times are teachers explaining the same thing about tenure and firing, but, there are always a few who keep insisting the world is flat, Santa is real, the Holocaust never existed and so on. We have more important things to discuss, like…educating children.
Please stop, educate yourself or hang out with some not so educated buddies and talk nonsense over a couple of beers.
We have explained the ins and outs of tenure till the cows come home.
Go bug someone else.
Please!
H.A. Hurley. Really, enough is enough. Thank you for finally writing a most necessary post.
True true true. Tenure no longer exists as the commonly misunderstood ‘lifetime guarantee.’ Another truth in Massachusetts: when I received teacher certification in 1979, I received a computer generated punch card, green in color, that included the words “certification for life unless revoked for just cause.” In the nineties, without any reason, EVERY Massachusetts teacher had their lifetime certification revoked without ANY consideration of just cause. I already had my Master’s Degree, with a second certification in special education; however, I had to continue taking (or, in my case, giving courses) to renew that lifetime certification every five years. Younger teachers who might not have planned to study toward a Master’s Degree were told they would have five years to get one. What was once a mark of distinction became one more job requirement to be sought by all. And the estimated six hundred thousand dollars generated every five years by these re-certification fees? Who know where that money has been spent? On education? On testing with the state mandated testing? On teacher assessment tests? Or on bureaucratic paperwork?
Large number of teachers who are incompetent? Please cite your sources because I have been teaching for 20 years and I have worked with 2.
Nearly impossible to fire…Rules are in place to remove teachers but are never carried out. Why come up with more laws when current ones aren’t followed?
What frustrates me the most is that, as a teacher, I would love it if the principals would fire the FEW incompetent educators out there. But this way, the only ones that will get the ax are the ones that don’t conform to what the administrators are looking for.
You are not well informed. If you are lazy, there is absolutely no way on earth you can become and remain a teacher! This profession is one of the most demanding on earth! Especially in today’s world. Not only do kids have tons if baggage, they have few positive role models and so much to learn. Now teachers even go to school and fear their lives. Please talk to some teachers about how “easy” their jobs are before you make another ignorant comment.
If you took out “and remain”, or added the qualification “in a well run and ethical school” your post would be fine. Take my word for it, in many schools, particularly urban schools with a lot of poor and minority children, there are lots of teachers who can’t or won’t teach, and they are almost always assigned the children who need the best teachers the most.
Alan, you say there are “large numbers of teachers who are incompetent or just lazy in their jobs…” – what data do you have to support that claim? What experience do you have to support it? I’m curious because the trouble with “drastic” measures being perceived as necessary, is that they likely do more harm overall than good. It’s akin to a brain surgeon using a machete for their work – it’s simply the wrong tool for the application. To properly fix issues requires a proper examination of facts and root causes. It does not require politically driven (read money) “solutions” that ultimately rob the children that need a proper education the most from access to good teachers. I’m all for accountability in the workplace, but the general application of a performance evaluation process born in the professional world simply doesn’t work in education. As a manager, I do not have to worry about whether my PAID employees come to work fed, clothed, and with the necessary support and guidance at home. They are adults, and not children dependent upon adults for those things. How might it affect your colleagues or employees performance if some of them were only fed by school provided lunch programs? If they came to work in dirty/smelly clothes, maybe without a winter coat when it’s below freezing outside? Maybe those same colleagues/employees were physically/mentally/emotionally/sexually abused the night before? Would it be reasonable for you to be held accountable for their passing a standardized test, and your individual performance be graded exclusively based upon the test score? Now what about your ability to practice your profession? I don’t believe it’s reasonable, which is why the INTENT of teacher evaluations is fantastic but in PRACTICE it falls apart pretty quickly. I also find it interesting that the GOP is a party of smaller government, but is the same party driving more government intrusion into the education system through the teacher evaluations measures. The future generations are the ultimate losers in this process, as would be great teachers choose other professions and students are not taught HOW TO LEARN but rather HOW TO PASS A TEST.
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ480417
If you want a description of typical urban schools read the following. These reports are toned down considerably for “political” reasons and don’t really address the problem of the truly incompetent teachers in these schools. Actually to their credit the district was actually able to “force” many of the worst teachers out once they saw it was in their best interest to do so. The High School also completely closed down a part of the school that was housed in a separate building and given its own name but was part of the main high school for reporting purposes. However, this school was actually administered as a separate school. Teachers in the main building “affectionately” called this “school” the “dog pound” and no real efforts were made to actually teach or maintain discipline in this building.
Click to access WilliamSHackettMS.pdf
Alan, you obviously know little about teachers and nothing about tenure. Why not educate yourself a little more before speaking in a public forum.
Thanks, David. A short ‘sweet’ reply.
We do not have tenure for teachers in Massachusetts. After a three year probation, you have professional teacher status, which means they must give a reason to fire you and give you a chance to improve before they actually fire you. If there is some egregious offense like insubordination or taking a sick day when you weren’t sick, they can fire you pretty much right away. Terminations do happen – mostly before three years but some after. When you think that there is about 50% attrition after 5 years of teaching, most unsuccessful teachers are leaving voluntarily.
Your post is perfectly clear. As a Massachusetts educator, I attempted to write just about what you wrote several times. Alan is cemented to his misunderstanding of “Professional Status” and Tenure in Massachusetts, which was, in fact, the topic of the initial question way up thread. Should Alan answer your post, good luck with your reply.
One way is to purge a group of troll huddling in an oily pot. It’s people who know little or nothing about teaching and education making an absolute nonsense like this. People like you should get well prepared if they come here and make a choice to take swipes at this blog. Otherwise, they should go elsewhere to spin their own fatansy like an self-revolving orbit.
Alan, your comments are uneducated and lacking in sources…ie: opinion…Furthermore, your opinion is wrong, but a popular one none-the-less.
You have stated the misconception that so many hold about tenure, Alan. Tenure does not make it nearly impossible to fire a teacher. Tenure offers due process in the case of an employee possibly not being ” up to snuff” . Isn’t that what every person, in every job, deserves?
If you think that there are “large numbers of teachers who are incompetent or just lazy,” you are profoundly IGNORANT. My wife is a teacher; she puts in 60-70 weeks regularly. I have met many other teachers through her, and I have known quite a few others through a variety of ways. They were all dedicated, hard-working, and knowledgeable teachers who gave their best to their students. Of course a very few teachers are poor at what they do, or are dreadfully mismatched in their position.
Lifetime tenure, after a probationary period, is to protect teachers from idiots who think that because a teacher is not working miracles or taught something that they regard as wrong, the teacher deserves to be fired. Teachers can be fired – just not at whim.
Volunteer at a school and learn something about teaching and teachers. Sub for a day, if you’re really brave.
Right on , Charlie.
The exodus is over in NYC…here is the result:
https://vimeo.com/4199476
They have a ‘gotcha squad in NYC , and slander is the rule:
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
In LAUSD, where the union also looks the other way while thousands of the best teachers were sent packing:
http://www.perdaily.com/2014/07/former-ctc-attorney-kathleen-carroll-lays-out-unholy-alliance-between-union-and-public-education-pri.html
and http://www.perdaily.com/2014/03/lausd-continues-to-target-teachers.html
When ‘THEY’ are finished in the 15,880 school districts in 50 states, the real teacher-practionier who knows what learning looks like, and how the brains of children acquire skills, will be GONE, and the classroom teacher will be trained ‘medic’ not a ‘doctor and will do as she is told. The public is being bamboozled
http://www.opednews.com/articles/BAMBOOZLE-THEM-where-tea-by-Susan-Lee-Schwartz-110524-511.html
as the real practitioner, the American who chose to dedicate a life and a career to teaching is being victimized, as the UNIONS allow it to happen.
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
There is no such thing as tenure anymore. Any underperforming employee can be released, given adequate opportunities for improvement and documentation, regardless of years in the system.
Jeez, another clueless opinionated offering nothing but the rants from the voice in his head.
the substantive case for “tenure” has already been made numerous times by other education professionals. my point is that you assume that “There are large numbers of teachers who are incompetent ….who can’t be fire because of tenure. you pull your assumption out of thin air; second ‘tenured’, at least in massachusetts is a misnomer; actually “Professional Status” teachers can be fired for lack of effectiveness; the burden of proof is on the school to prove that the teacher is ineffective and the school must adhere to the due process rights mandated by the collective bargaining agreement. If the school does not follow due process, its case can be fatally tainted. my point is that your initial assumption is baseless. therefore, your case is evaporates
@ john a and others,
You accuse Alan of “pulling assumptions out of thin air” but in effect that is exactly what you are doing. There is ample anecdotal evidence practically everywhere, put primarily in urban school districts with lots of poor and minority students, that there are large numbers of teachers who are incompetent. The Common Core State Standards Initiative was started by NGA and the association of chief state school officers because of so many complaints being received from employers and colleges that students weren’t graduating with the necessary skills. States like Mass. started “getting tough on teachers” after mountains of individual complaints about teachers who could not or would not teach being left in the classrooms, usually in the classes of students who needed the BEST not the WORST teachers. All this is good enough evidence for me that we have a problem here. If you have evidence to the contrary YOU provide it. I believe Alan. In any case if there isn’t a problem then teachers have nothing to complain about and no real harm done(in fact these evaluations might improve the teaching of teachers who are already good), but if there is a problem, which there is, then not doing anything about it would be a crime.
May I suggest two wonderful essays from 2 observers of the culture of deceit that is now prevalent at the top.
Triumph of the Wrong by Paul Krugman,
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/opinion/paul-krugman-triumph-of-the-wrong.html?emc=edit_th_20141107&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=50637717
appeared today , and Krugman points out the reality for the kind of conversations that Alan and others present, cherry-picked ‘talking points’ posited as ‘facts — lets people and pundits hide their true intentions and offer false impressions to a gullible audience about a complex subject:”
Krugman writes: “… leading Republicans managed to mask their true positions… Most voters don’t know much about policy details, nor do they understand the legislative process. So all they saw was that the man in the White House wasn’t delivering prosperity — and they punished his party.” ” In short,” he continues “the story of conservative economics these past six years, and more, has been one of intellectual debacle — made worse by the striking inability of many on the right to admit error under any circumstances.”
Sounds like the same behavior I saw in the unions… this inability to admit they made mistakes by not enforcing the contract, and by allowing administration to slander the professional staff. Under no circumstance will unions say ‘UH… we let it happen; we looked the other way and tens of thousands of Americans who just happened to have spent a lifetime teaching were not only thrown out, they were thrown into chaos, their reputations smeared my a media campaing as viral and false as the ones used in the election.
Same behavior at the top, filters down to the bottom-feeders in the schools, administrators whose only job is remain employed.
Ain’t this the same story? Do we not see the same deceptive talking points about a complex subject (LEARNING not “teaching” ) which we see in the Duncan and Gates narratives… and by bloggers here who want to their anti-teacher, anti-tenure talking points to be perceived as valid.
Thomas Friedman points out an accompanying ‘BIG truth” that happens when the culture at the top is one of deceit — then anything goes… everywhere; especially in 15,880 school districts with not a shred of oversight for what the top dogs do… removing all support for the classroom teacher and then
Well, actually Friedman puts it this way: “ When the people governing us become this cynical, polarized and dysfunctional, it surely seeps down into the bureaucracy. As above, so below.” Friedman continues talking about the secret service, but he might as well be talking about schools : You see too many self-interested, self-indulgent politicians who are only there to grandstand, spend most of their time raising money to win elections and then, when you, as a federal worker” {or a teacher} “make a mistake, they are the first to rush to the microphones with feigned concern to investigate your competence — as long as the cameras are running.
Here’s the BIG TRUTH:
“Tell me that doesn’t filter down to every department… When so many above you are just cynically out for themselves, it saps morale, focus and discipline. If so many above you are just getting theirs, well then, why shouldn’t Secret Service agents doing advance work for the president’s trip to Colombia in April 2012 take prostitutes back to their rooms and have some fun on D.C.’s dime, too?”
WHY SHOULDN’T john Deasy lie like a sailor about his credentials and make some money from interested parties, as head of a school system.
Krugman put this way, behavior in all the institutions are modeled “on the culture that we see in the winning party in this election.”
First, you have not provided any factual evidence to support your assertions. You revert to claiming that there is “anecdotal evidence practically every where”, “mountains of individual complaints…” and “”…so many complaints being received from employers and colleges …” re teacher preparation. I am sorry, your assertions are comprised of unsupported evidence.
The issue is not evaluating teachers, as all teachers in Massachusetts receive annual evaluations., but maintaining the due process rights for those teachers who have attained “Professional Status” (the term in Massachusetts). I guess you realize that school administrators have long had the right not to renew a teacher’s contract for the first two school years (Massachusetts ) without providing a reason for the non renewal (obviously discrimination laws remain in force and effect. The non renewed teacher has no right of appeal.
If you want to abrogate the the due process rights of “Professional Status” teachers, anecdotes and other unsupported assertions are worthless regardless of your claims to the contrary.
Perhaps another blogger wants to respond to your blather.
You are the one who is guilty of “cherry-picked ‘talking points’ posited as ‘facts”, not Alan. The “republicans” on this issue are the anti-reformers/teachers unions. Your comments on “tens of thousands…” are deranged. You can’t be serious.
@john a,
My evidence is supported. You are the one making claims with no supporting evidence.
@any unbiased casual observer,
If you can’t decide who to believe here ask yourself this, “Who has the most to gain by short circuiting attempts to identify and remove incompetent teachers?” or “Who has the most incentives to lie about this issue?” In my humble opinion it’s bogus to ask people in a forum like this to provide research evidence to support an opinion that is “common knowledge” without providing at least some research evidence supporting the opposite point of view first. In any case I did a simple google search and this is the first one that popped up. 10% of teachers are incompetent
http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ480417
I refer you back to AERA study that reported on the invalidity of using Value Added Measurement (VAM) to determine teacher effectiveness. Abrogating “Professional Status” protections based on the basis results gathered from an invalid method of determining teacher effectiveness would, in itself, be a violation state and or federal due process protections. Finally, I draw you back to the language Alan used in his original post regarding the supposed numbers of ineffective teachers. His language is merely inflammatory. End of discussion.
>>You accuse Alan of “pulling assumptions out of thin air” but in effect that is exactly what you are doing.
There’s no one who is doing so except for YOU and the one you mention(Alan).
@Ken Watanabee, john a, others
If you’d been following the news you’d know that there has been a court decision in California that in effect states that Alan and I are right. Sorry, case closed.
You’re right. Case closed already before you talk non-sense. Vergara is nothing more than a joke. News media spins off misinformation and illusion. The reason why the United States outclasses in bad science and myth. Bye.
@Susan Lee Schwartz ,
On this issue the anti-reform crowd are the “republicans” and are the ones who are guilty of the bad behaviors you are describing.
This is private interest working to destabilize the public education system so that it can be privatized for profit. Only the greedy and the incompetent propose to remove teacher unions, and do away with tenure. Teachers are generally some of the hardest working and most selfless people in our society but the United States as a culture seems more concerned with growing the wealth of the aristocracy at the expense of it’s citizenry, including the education of children. We should be ashamed and outraged at the direction of our country but we just don’t seem to care anymore.
The regulation written about in this blog post is never sourced. Please give me a link to the regulation so I can read it for myself instead of reading about from someone who knows someone that read it.
My wife, a teacher, has been told in official channels about this regulation – which, thank heaven, is not yet in effect, and I hope never is. If you want to see an exodus of competent teachers, this is the regulation to put into effect.
@NC,
It’s still in the proposal stage. Be sure to keep scrolling down to get the whole thing.
Click to access MALicensurePolicyOptionsPacket.pdf
You’ll notice that both this blog and the referenced article misrepresent what’s actually being considered, but that’s no big surprise. The proposed types of “performance evaluation”/”license renewal process” are actually SOP in most government jobs. Student test scores aren’t referenced anywhere in the document. What generally happens in similar types of setups in other government jobs is that somebody who “doesn’t cut it” in the job they’re in and not likely to improve enough to “make the grade”, but aren’t completely “beyond the pale” are encouraged and even given assistance to seek employment elsewhere. Sometimes the person just isn’t a good fit and supervisors don’t really want to ruin the career of somebody who might actually do a good job elsewhere. On the other-hand it would be immoral to just let a complete incompetent do damage someplace else like with the pedophile priests who kept getting transferred from parish to parish. Some students never really recover from the damage done by a truly bad teacher, particularly at the primary school level.
This is going to impact everyone. Not only does this regulation not take into consideration high poverty or under achieving schools, but also Special Education isn’t mentioned. Students with severe disabilities in the classroom, from being on feeding tubes, needing speech-to-text assistive technology, having significant developmental delays, and varying psychiatric disabilities, ALL students are being held under this umbrella. Not only will it drive wonderful, passionate general education teachers out of the field for unrealistic measures and evaluation procedures, but it will also have a detrimental impact on special education.
Their purpose over the long run is to drive everyone out of education, so that they can take everything over. I think everything is going to their plan. All of our industry is overseas, so the evil ones see that education (through the charter schools and tech industry) is really their last chance to pocket big money. The saddest thing that breaks my heart is that it will be our kids who suffer the most for this greed.
The people you are describing are only a small part of the Education Reform movement. Our kids are already suffering and it’s high time somebody stood up for them. The k-12 educational establishment in this country is basically a cartel and needs to reform, or get smashed. Try putting our children first for a change.
Sorry to tell you that they are throwing the baby out with the bath water…..the new toxic environments that they are creating in the teaching profession will keep outstanding teachers out of the classrooms too. No young person is going to invest over $100,000 in a Bachelor’s degree to be treated this way. So, in their quest to fire teachers and privatize education, there will be far fewer excellent teachers in the classrooms within 10 years.
Teachers, like me, spend so much of their own money on their students and their classrooms. If we didn’t spend our own money, our students would not have all the materials they need. Before my evaluation lesson this past school year, I spent $80. of my own money on materials for my students for the lesson. I constantly buy stickers, rewards, and candy treats out of my own money. It is a shame we are all hated so much. Believe me, more and more excellent teachers will disappear each year. I would never allow my daughter or son to go into this abusive profession.
New? Are you kidding. It was in fuels wing in the largest school district in the country in the nineties when they took out NYC
https://vimeo.com/4199476
and I wrote this over a decade ago:
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/No_Constitutional_Rights-_A_hidden_scandal_of_National_Proportion.html
The public needs to know about the bullies who run the schools — into the ground and blame the practitioners who have no voice, and no choice but to follow their mandates.
Read http://bravery-bullies-blowhards.com and know that this happened a decade go.
it ain’t new, but with 15,880 school districts in 50 states , and the media selling the Duncan narrative about bad teachers, few realize the war on teachers which I wrote about a decade ago:
http://www.speakingasateacher.com/SPEAKING_AS_A_TEACHER/The_Insane_War_on_Teachers_and_Democracy.html