Peter Berger teaches English at Weathersfield High School in Vermont. He says that the amount of instructional time wasted for faux professional development days is absurd. Equally absurd is the time and money wasted on consultants touring the latest fad, who never were teachers.
Likewise, the new online Common Core tests are a boon to the tech corporations, but not to the students, who actually write more on paper-and-pencil tests.
“I’ve stood behind my eighth-grade students as they’ve taken several publishers’ Common Core era tests. The directions were convoluted, the questions frequently did “focus on small details” and isolated, obscure bits of literary terminology, rather than on “overall comprehension,” and the questions often were ambiguous. Many were actually indecipherable, with words missing and incorrectly arranged so that students were left asking me what the question meant, and I was left to fill in the syntactical blanks and guess what they were being asked to do.
“The myth that these assessments are scientifically designed to generate meaningful data is insupportable. Any such guarantee is a fraud. Last week’s test was accompanied by a notice that the assessment contractor had added five questions to the test this year, for a total of 20 questions, in order to “provide more accurate test scores and less fluctuation in scores between test windows.”
“In other words, students, teachers, and schools that failed last time, and suffered interventions and sanctions as a result, maybe didn’t fail. Of course, students, teachers, and schools that appeared to succeed maybe didn’t succeed.
“Oh, well.”
Who dreamed up all this nonsense?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“. . . the amount of instructional time wasted for faux professional development days is absurd.”
Ah, you just gotta love being “Professionally Developed”, especially so that you can better implement ILLOGICAL, INVALID and UNETHICAL practices that harm many, many students.
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Do no harm?
That’s is completely antithetical to the so-called education reform project, which is all about dismantling “the last public monopoly,” according to the Reptilian Andrew Cuomo, and replacing it with private fiefdoms, monetized students and temp teachers.
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I hope the new PD time for NYC teachers, for which the extended day program that my son used was eliminated this year, isn’t as worthless as I’ve been told so far.
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That’s Teacher Detention, Flerp, not Professional Development.
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FLERP
You have erased the last shred of doubt I had that you might really be a NYC teacher.
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No, not a teacher. I’m just some guy.
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What I meant to say was, that if you really have some HOPE that the new PD for city teachers could possibly be valuable, you clearly cannot be a city teacher.
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FLERP! Has never claimed to be a teacher. He’s a member of the most hated profession in the US (unless that member is at your table on your side at a trial-right FLERP!-ha ha).
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Lucky students who study with this deeply experienced, eloquent and independent-minded teacher!
The solution is so simple: democratic governance of our schools, with power over all essential decisions in the hands of teachers, parents and local communities. Give teachers days off for professional development, by all means, but let them determine what that development should consist of — working toward advanced degrees or special projects in their areas of expertise, collaborative workshops, whatever THEY think would enrich their work.
In our corrupted system, the powers that be think that subjecting teachers to mandatory training in discredited instructional methodologies is what constitutes life-long learning for them.
Our schools have two primary goals: inculcating a love of learning in children and preparing them to be independent citizens in a democratic society.
The only way to achieve those goals is for the adults in their lives to model those values.
Teachers can only do that when they are in charge of their schools and of their own professional development. Which is not a dream, it’s the case right now in the elite, exclusive private schools to which our nation’s power brokers send their children. Try telling the faculty of Sidwell Friends or the Chicago Lab School that David Coleman has prepared a mandatory workshop for them on how to teach critical thinking.
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“. . . is what constitutes life-long learning for them. ”
Unfortunately it does “constitute life-long learning for them”–long enough to make sure they get more each paycheck than them sucker scrub teachers.
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Harm is being done! Here in Dallas our students are busy taking ACPs which are the tests used for VAM–the teacher pay for performance program called TEI. My first grader had to sing a song solo and acapella for a music teacher brought in from another elementary school campus in order to score our music teacher. She was graded for her pitch and rhythm. My child felt humiliated by the experience. The written music test will be administered to my first grader next week and covers music theory and note/rest recognition as well as recognizing what various words mean. There are also tests in P.E. and Art. Also, next week my first grader will take the 30 minute writing ACP…here is the rubric that was sent home to parents: It will be an exercise in “evidence-based writing.” In order to meet (not exceed) the standards the student is expected, among other things, to “support the points made with relevant, accurate textual evidence” and “include sentences that are reasonably varied and adequately controlled.” She must demonstrate a command of “transitions and sentence-to-sentence connections that are sufficient to support the flow of the writing.” The student must “include handwriting that is mostly legible” and “include spelling that is accurate for some grade level words.” The test is administered by a 2nd grade teacher because 1st grade teachers can’t be trusted to administer tests to their own or each other’s classes. While I know Common Core is an abomination, the whole VAM program of stacking teachers based on district designed tests (on top of the state-wide tests and the required end of course exams) is educational malpractice. Parents are finally awakening here in Dallas but it may be too late. VAM and over-testing in elementary and middle school may be here to stay.
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PLEASE, Lesley, DOUBLE PLEASE WITH SUGAR ON IT WITH A CHERRRY ON TOP, opt your child out of this nonsense. Do not allow them to abuse her like this. Take your daughter to a museum, a play, anything but being used as a pawn in adult sociopaths’s games.
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Many outsiders seem to question how an educational reform movement can actually “harm” children.
How do I harm thee? Let me count the ways:
1) Narrowed curriculum emphasizing math and ELA = lost learning opportunities
2) Emphasis on test scores distorts the true meaning of “education” and is counterproductive to the goal authentic teaching and learning. It inhibits critical thinking and devalues creativity.
3) Test-prep imbues the false notion that learning is all about finding the one right answer, and that all other options are wrong. That is the wrong message for young learners.
3) Millions of dollars wasted dollars that could be buying instruments, art supplies, science equipment, athletic gear, field trips, or more teachers (smaller class sizes)
4) The use of is intentionally confusing, tricky, frustrating, and often developmentally inappropriate tests is unfairly branding many children as failures and is causing untold and often irreparable damage to their pysches. Chronic failure is extremely harmful and this reform is purposefully placing 70% of our young learners into this category, year after year, after year. This is especially true for learning disabled, dyslexic, and ELL students.
5) The false claim that CC will close the learning gap, diverts attention away from the true problems of generational poverty and the hopelessness it breeds. The ridiculous claim that fighting for the CC is the new civil rights movement is misleading too many minority parents into investing in what is really just a scam.
6) The pedagogy required by Common Core is making kids dislike math and ELA more than ever. Boredom surrounded by academic beat downs inspires no one.
7) The associated teacher evaluation plans (VAM, SLOs, SGOs) are stressing and demoralizing many teachers. This in turn is subverting classroom learning environments.
8) The total amount of teacher, parent, and student hours (TIME) wasted chasing lies and the bogus claims of the test-and-punish reformers is a form of theft that is morally unacceptable. These are critical years for students and the time wasted can never be recovered. The academic and psychological cost of this “time lost” is incalculable
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You can refuse. Until parents start refusing, the testing (and profit) will continue.
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Technically, yes, you can refuse. But often administration puts such pressure on parents with threats, lies, etc. that parents don’t believe they can refuse. How many districts (and even entire states?) have sent out letters telling parents that they can’t legally opt out, or that if they do, their child will be retained/kept off the honor roll/prevented from playing sports/etc., or that their school would lose funding, etc. Affluent, educated parents may be able to stand up to that kind of propaganda/threats, but many parents can’t, so for them they effectively can’t refuse.
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NYS Teacher: Well stated! I have always felt that success breeds success. No one really understands the long term impact that “institutionalized failure” will have on the students and teachers. You should send a copy of your observations to President Obama; I fear he is living in a bubble.
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Thanks for the encouraging response. I took your advice and just emailed President Obama a copy of my post. When I get out of school I am going to drive east down the Mass Pike to Cambridge. I am then going to stop off at MIT and ask if they will let me spit into their high speed wind tunnel. Into the wind of course. It was good advice none the less. Thank you.
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“The Omin’ Core”
Who dreamed up this nonsense?
David Coleman did
Dancing round his incense
And Om-in’ for a vid
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SDP, If that link is the video of the “Coleman Shuffle” I’m gonna have to take you down to The Pink Slip Bar and have ol Socrates give you a handful of his special relaxers.
I’ll take a look now!
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Ahhhh, I”m so relaxed and relieved now! Trying to get the ol dead greek guy to give up any of his special stash is quite difficult
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Heard a great joke relating to teacher Professional Development days. I might’ve seen it here, but it’s possible I picked up from somewhere else.
On reaching the pearly gates, a teacher is greeted by St. Peter who wants to show him around heaven before taking him to a beautiful city reserved just for teachers. First St. Peter and the teacher pass a city for doctors. It is gorgeous, it has manicured lawns, lots of beautiful homes, and spending eternity there is a worthy reward for any doctor who spent his life on earth alleviating suffering and helping improve the human condition. Every doctor on the streets of this city is obviously content.
After leaving the city reserved for doctors, St. Peter shows the teacher a second beautiful city, but this one is reserved for lawyers. Like the city for doctors, the lawyers’ eternal city is a wonderful reward for jurists who spent their lives assisting their fellow man. Like the doctors, the lawyers spending the afterlife here are obviously enjoying their final reward.
The teacher says to St. Peter “these places are wonderful! Can I see where my eternal home will be?” St. Peter takes him to another city, just as beautiful as the first two, but the streets are empty. Not a single teacher is to be seen there. “But where are my fellow teachers?” asks the teacher. St Peter’s reply: “Oh, well they are down in hell at an in-service Professional Development day.”
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TAGO!
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