A reader sent this excellent commentary on teacher evaluation, written by science teacher David Knuffke. It reviews the way that top-performing nations evaluate their teachers, as well as examples of how teacher evaluation is done in several states. He also briefly summarizes the views of scholarly and professional organizations. He does this to show how Governor Cuomo’s insistence that 50% of a teacher’s evaluation be based on test scores (and, though he doesn’t mention it, an additional 35% would be based on the judgment of an outside evaluator, someone who does not work in the school). He concludes:
Looking at the breadth of objection to the type of rating system that the Governor is proposing, and its absence from model educational systems at the national and international levels, one can only wonder why Governor Cuomo is pursuing such a policy. Attempts to make sense of these initiatives don’t lead to flattering conclusions: Either he is ignorant of the consensus that advocates against test-score centric teacher evaluation models, or he has decided that he knows better than a broad consensus of educators, researchers, and the entire educational systems of “high achieving” countries and states. We are not sure which of these possibilities is more troubling with regard to how the Governor thinks about the public education system of the state.
Given this analysis, it is clear that anyone who is actually concerned with the long-term health of the New York State public education system should be vocally, and stridently opposed to the education goals of its current Governor. This is not a partisan issue, or one that seeks to unfairly protect the jobs of the NYS teacher corps. There are ways to propose teacher evaluation systems that are in agreement with research and based on evidence from what is working in other places. This is not what the Governor has chosen to do. Rather than seeking to have a conversation with educators, students, parents, and all of the other stake-holders who value education in New York State, the Governor has chosen to propose an unsupported evaluation system with no track record of success in doing what he claims to want to do. And rather than attempt to build consensus on his proposals, Governor Cuomo has taken the position that he is not interested in perspectives other than his own on this issue. He is so strongly in favor of his education proposals that he is withholding state aid figures from districts until he understands just how eager the legislature is to support him in driving his education plan through without debate. It is difficult to believe that someone so vocally concerned with the future of NYS education would be willing to threaten the aid that districts need to provide for their most underserved student populations. It is similarly difficult to understand why he stands in opposition to reality itself on the matter of creating an effective teacher evaluation system. New York State residents should be very concerned about what their Governor seeks to do. We deserve better, and so do our children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here in Canada Time Mag calls us the world’s best education system based mainly on the highest % of post secondary grads.
There is zero involvement of testing in teacher evaluation. Teachers are periodically inspected by principals and supervisory officers. Our top board official is a Director not a superintendent. Supers are next level up from principal.
They have very specific “look fors” and teachers are notified well in advance of exactly the day and time of the inspection. The may also check the paper work (lesson plans, evaluation records, day plans, …..).
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This the exact same system we had in New York state before public education became monetized, and there was an incentive to destroy it. Evaluations came through department heads, principals and, on occasion, central office. The system was adequate. Teachers that didn’t make the cut usually left before tenure, and, even then, some were let go later. The system worked.
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Cuomo’s plan is not only based on his ignorance of proven methodologies in teaching, but moreso, they are based on a destructive policy aimed at our public education system, and the teachers that teach our children. An evaluative policy, such as that which Cuomo is trying to ram through the state, is flawed as a true evaluation system, and can have no other purpose but to launch a series of attacks on our public education system…the high cut scores required of the inappropriate common core, geared to label public schools erroneously as failures (which would then be subject to take over), the mass firing of teachers, and the implementation of unskilled and unqualified replacements. The profit motives here come from the entire privatization movement, which steals from our children, money which would normally be channeled to public schools, now headed to profit driven charters and their supporters.
Cuomo’s actions go beyond negligence…they reach into the murky waters of fraudulence and criminality.
He must be stopped from continuing his hazardous policies, and brought to justice for his calculated and systematic attacks on our public schools, our educators, and our children.
Mr Cuomo, the good citizens of New York have exposed you…and you will be stopped.
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Cuomo’s plan is based not on evidence, but on malice. Teachers did not endorse him in last election. They must be punished.
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In addition, if we follow the contributions that funded Cuomo’s $30+ million re-election campaign war chest, we discover they lead to individuals and for-profit corporations that are profiting off the corporate reforms to end democratic public education and turn our children over to for-profit, secretive and often inferior, fraudulent, corporate Charter schools.
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I was with a group of public school parents the other day and one was advising another on how to talk to her daughter about test anxiety.
She told the parent to tell her daughter “it isn’t about YOU, it’s about whether the teacher is doing her JOB”
I mean, really. Is this the impression we want to leave with 6th graders?
It seems oddly adversarial and inappropriate for what is a working relationship between an adult and an 11 year old. I don’t know- maybe I’m a “traditionalist”- but what are we teaching them with this? Since when are these two groups of people on opposite sides?
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Every year I am assigned to proctor the state tests for children that have test accomodations on their IEP and 504 plans.
Last year there was an eight year old girl assigned to my classroom who was so anxious and upset that she had to leave the room several times because she would begin to cry. She kept pushing herself to do the best that she could. She was trying to use all of the strategies that her teacher had taught her for going back into the text to find ‘correct’ answers. When she couldn’t figure out an answer she would become more and more physically agitated.I kept telling her that she was doing fine, that she didn’t need to worry and that it was OK if she moved ahead without completing a question if she needed to.
At the end of the first day of testing, she told me that her mother told her not to worry or get upset about the test, because the test was really just being used to test how good her teacher was. As she told me what her mother had said, she broke into fresh tears. She said that she loved her teacher and that she was afraid that she was going to hurt her teacher because the test was too hard and she wasn’t going to be smart enough.
This child’s story is just one of far too many stories.
I think that central office administrators, and BOE members should be required to proctor the tests this year.
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Also, I thought this was very generous of “PARCC”- whoever the heck “PARCC” is- to “give” Ohio students this gracious extension on testing season:
#PARCC gives #OH students extension for brutal weather conditions
https://twitter.com/parccplace
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As noted in another commnet. Rahm Emmanuel did not get the expected outcome that most, including myself, thought a foregone conclusion.
The teachers union had a very significant contribution to this.
Keep up the good fight. There is reason to believe that reason will prevail but only after a long and hard fought battle.
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Not just the teachers’ union.
The education formula that works the best is also played its part in the results.
Teachers + children + parents = education
Teachers talking to children who talk to their parents = resistance to Rahm Emmanuel and corporate education reform.
And when children go home and talk to their parents, who do you think the parents will trust the most: teachers, elected officials or big business.
A Gallup Poll might offer the answer:
The Public Schools ranked much higher than Banks, Big business and Congress.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1597/confidence-institutions.aspx
What I found interesting is that the Gallup Pole for 2013 on this topic included Grade school teachers but that category was gone in the 2014 poll.
I wondered why teachers were dropped from that same poll in 2014.
Anyway, I found the results for the 2013 poll on “Most Trustworthy Professions”.
And Grade School teachers were in second place tied with Pharmacists. Nurses were in 1st place with an 82% very high or high trust factor.
Just in case that poll somehow vanishes from the Internet, I took a screen shot and plan to use it in a blog post.
In the 2013 Poll when teachers were on the list, 70% said trust for teachers was very high or high.
But trust for bankers was 27%
For Local officeholders like Rahm Emmanuel was 23%
Newspaper reporters were 21%
TV reporters were 20%
State officeholders were 14%
Members of Congress were 8%
And Lobbyists were 6%.
http://campaignforaction.org/community-post/2013-gallup-poll-nursing-most-trustworthy-profession
Once again, I ask, why were teachers removed from the same poll in 2014? Why? I don’t think teachers would have dropped that much in one year in the trust factor. In fact, it might be possible that teachers would break the tie with Pharmacists and move int the #2 slot without a tie.
I don’t think the oligarchs, for instance, Bill Gates and/or the Waltons, would like teachers being recognized as very highly or highly trusted above them, because business executives only earned a 22% trust rating. Does anyone know of Gates, the Waltons or one of the other oligarchs contributed any money to Gallup in the last year?
After all, the oligarchs seem to be attempting to buy everyone else in America so why not Gallup too so they can control the results of polls like this one?
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How much more evidence do we need for crying out loud? I do not think it is hard to understand Cuomo’s education goals, so lacking in evidence, trust and goodwill. So lacking in support, so eager to punish and label. Just like NCLB, RTTT, Common Core, and on and on. Public schools and teachers MUST fail in order to justify their destruction and takeover by power and wealth. They MUST fail.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
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This obviously has nothing to do with teacher evaluation so I wonder why we even talk about it on those grounds.
I think Cuomo’s goal at this point, is to try to strong arm all these changes in at the beginning of his term, try to force the legislature to take him to court, hope the courts don’t stop ALL of the policy changes since there is no firm line yet on how much policy the governor can shoehorn in, and let it ride out and destroy public education with 4 years of impunity as much as possible before he moves on to either higher office or a lucrative private sector career that rewards him for his privatization schemes.
It seems at this point, only the courts can stop him. Someone is going to have to file AFTER this becomes law and either get it stopped by proving it will cause harm, or we will then have to wait while public education melts down to prove harm was done and THEN get it stopped when we’re past the point of no return.
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Money is what it is about. And getting funding for future campaigns.
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To whom it may concern:
Parents and true Educators should focus on ZERO TOLERANCE towards all nonsensical and abusive testing scheme by participating and supporting Teachers to organize “civics lesson” on March 4th.
This is the only way to show young generation how to get together as ONE STRONG MOVING FORCE to create an awareness about all corrupted government officials who either choose to be a true public servant or to resign with compensation from corporate backers. Most importantly, this typical “one strong moving force” will cultivate the civility and make a strong impact in children’s mind. Back2basic
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