Carol Burris, chosen as principal of the year by her colleagues in New York State, has written a brilliant and frightening critique of the state’s ill-planned principal evaluation plan.
As you read her letter to the New York Board of Regents, you can’t help but wonder whether systems like this are intended to demoralize principals and to destroy public education.
What kind of inexperienced technocrats dream up such flawed and damaging schemes?
The Bush-Obama education policies have led to a destructive overemphasis on testing. The very nature of schooling is changed for the worse when higher scores become the goal of education. As we lose sight of the true purpose of education, we lose many fine educators who will not abandon their principals. Here is one whom we have lost due to misguided federal policy.
It is rare to see a high-ranking leader of a major association speak hard truths to power. For her courage and candor, Joann Bartoletti joins the honor roll as a champion of public education.
In the March 2013 issue of NASSP’s “News Leader,” Bartoletti, the executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, blasted the new teacher evaluation systems that were foisted on the nation’s schools by Race to the Top and its highly prescriptive waivers.
She notes that these dubious, non-evidence-based evaluation systems are coming into use at the very time that the Common Core is being implemented. Common Core–untested, never validated, whose consequences are unknown, arriving with not enough time or money for implementation or adequate technology for the computer-based testing–is widely expected to cause test scores to fall. It would be hard, she writes, to “come up with a better plan to discredit and dismantle public education.”
What motives should one attribute to policymakers who wreak havoc on their’s nations public schools and who blithely ignore all warning signs? Bartoletti won’t speculate.
Malice or stupidity? You decide.
She writes:
• A perfect storm is brewing, and it will wreak havoc on the collaborative cultures that principals have worked so hard to build. New teacher evaluation systems have begun making their way into schools, and over the next three years, more than half of states will change the way they assess teachers’ effectiveness. The revised systems come as the result of Race to the Top and NCLB waivers. To be eligible for either, states had to commit to developing new teacher evaluation systems that use student test scores to determine a “significant proportion” of a teacher’s effectiveness. In a January survey of NASSP and NAESP members, nearly half of respondents indicated that 30% or more of their teacher evaluations are now tied to student achievement.
There is no research supporting the use of that kind of percentage, and even if the research recommended it, states don’t have data systems sophisticated enough to do value-added measurement (VAM) well. Still, the test-score proportion on evaluations will increase at a time when we predict that test scores will decrease.
These evaluation systems will be put in place just as the Common Core State Standards assessments roll out in 2014. This volatile combination could encourage many teachers and principals to leave the profession or at least plan their exit strategies. I don’t want to attribute a malicious intent to anyone, but if policymakers were going to come up with a plan to discredit and dismantle public education, it’s hard to think of a more effective one.
Identity Crisis?
One of the most troubling issues, as Jim Popham describes in this month’s Principal Leadership, is that the overhauled evaluations are being designed to serve dual purposes.
Principals want to believe that the evaluations are formative and are inclined to give constructive feedback to teachers to help them improve their instructional practice. Lawmakers, on the other hand, see the evaluations as being summative—a way to identify weaknesses and fire ineffective teachers. Principals are caught in the middle: they want to offer frank feedback but are all too aware that any criticism is a black mark that can be used to deny a teacher’s con- tract renewal or tenure. In this case, killing two birds with one stone—when those birds have about as much in common as a penguin and a pigeon—is extraordinarily ineffective.
And so, principals tread lightly. Although the days when 99% of tenured teachers earned “satisfactory” ratings are long gone, emerging data shows that even with the new evaluations in place, the majority of teachers are still being deemed “effective.” Education Week noted in a February 5 article that at least 9 out of 10 teachers in Michigan, Tennessee, and Georgia received positive reviews under the new measurements.
With little difference in outcomes, it’s hard to justify the extensive training and time com- mitment that the new systems demand. In some districts in Rhode Island, a popular off-the-shelf model requires principals to view 60 hours of video training and pass a test before administer- ing the evaluation tool. If they fail, they’ll have to wait three months to take it again. Other states are developing their own systems that dramatically increase the hours spent assessing teachers.
Tennessee principal and NASSP board member Troy Kilzer devotes nearly six hours to a single teacher’s evaluation, not counting the time spent observing that teacher in the class- room. This figure is similar to the respondents’ answers in the NASSP survey. Almost all (92%)
said they spend anywhere from 6 to 31 or more hours evaluating each teacher.
These evaluations are simply trying to accomplish too much. What’s even worse, principals must apply them across the board—66% of the survey respondents are required to use one instrument for all teachers and staff, includ- ing those in non-tested subjects. School nurses, athletic directors, and school psychologists are expected to be assessed with the same tools. Since when can a nurse’s capacity for empathy be measured by a student’s ability to factor polynomials?
High Anxiety
Although only some states have fully imple- mented the new models, exhausted teachers are showing signs of wear. The “teach-to-the- test” frenzy is compounded by the fact that their evaluations will rely on scores over which teachers have limited control. NASSP’s Breaking Ranks tells about the importance of a positive culture, yet the atmosphere that the new evalua- tion systems create is anything but positive.
Shawn DeRose, an assistant principal in Virginia, said that since the implementation of his state’s new evaluation system this past fall, many teachers in his school have indicated that they feel additional stress. It’s no wonder. Fifth-grade teacher Sarah Wysocki was fired at the end of her second year with the DC Public Schools because her students didn’t reach their expected growth rate in reading and math under the city’s new value-added model. Never mind that she received positive ratings in her observations and was encouraged to share her engaging teaching methods with other district educators. This is hardly an isolated event.
The anxiety levels raise an even more acute challenge for principals in urban, high-poverty schools. No teacher wants to teach in a school with a traditionally low-performing population. Add test scores as a part of their evaluation, and it now becomes impossible to recruit teachers for high-needs schools. But regard- less of a teacher’s placement, the onus is still on principals to ensure that evaluations are fair and meaningful—and that they improve teachers’ capacity to enhance student learning.
NASSP is regularly delivering this message to Congress and the
Department of Education. In meetings with Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education Deb Delisle, I’ve shared NASSP’s recommendations and have reinforced that teacher evaluations should serve their intended purpose: to help teachers improve their instructional practice. NASSP is making it glaringly clear to policymakers that if they want to push out inef- fective teachers, there are other ways to go about it. Throwing the entire profession into a tailspin is not only ineffective and mis- guided, but it’s a poor way to play the long game as well.
Just minutes ago, I posted a strong letter from Superintendent Jeff Ramey, calling on parents and educators to support their schools and protest the budget cuts and tax caps that undermine them.
Carol Burris, an outstanding high school principal in Long Island, New York, responds here:
Superintendent Rabey,
I assure you, there are outraged New Yorkers all over our state.
Over 12,000 New Yorkers have signed the petition against high stakes testing http://roundtheinkwell.com/2012/12/29/petition-to-the-nys-board-of-regents-against-high-stakes-testing/ in two months. The Alliance for Quality Education has an Albany rally this month regarding funding. Over one third of all New York Principals signed a letter in opposition to APPR for the reasons that you mention. http://www.newyorkprincipals.org . The Niagara Regional PTA is proposing a resolution at the State PTA conference against high stakes testing. Schools Boards in Bedford and in New Paltz have passed their own resolutions.
The problem is that there is no state-wide coordinated effort and frankly a lack of courage to go beyond grumbling and resolutions into passive resistance and even active resistance. If you take your three key points–lack of funding, over testing, and state controlled teacher evaluations with test scores–and link them together, you have a powerful combination that many would support. Think about how much more funding there would be if all of the dollars going to testing and test prep and APPR went into classrooms in the schools that can no longer adequately serve their students?
I will hop on that bus anytime and I will bring others with me. In fact, you will have overwhelming support from principals and from rank and file teachers, though not necessarily from NYSUT, at least not on APPR.
Will you, however, get your colleagues to stop whispering their disgust at the Albany agenda and be willing to stand up against it?
Several years ago, death by lethal injection was brought to a halt in California, because anesthesiologists refused to participate. Courage, not compliance, is what is needed now.
Carol Burris
There is this motley group of people and organizations in the U.S. who call themselves “reformers.” Few of them are educators. Most are corporate leaders, pundits, think tank thinkers, or rightwing politicos.
They say they want to “fix” education but their main goals seem to be to belittle the people who actually work in schools and to close down public schools in high-poverty districts.
These self-named reformers (did GOP wordsmith Frank Luntz write their playbook?) have been in charge of federal policy since the passage of No Child Left Behind. President Barack Obama built his Race to the Top program right on top of the NCLB approach.
And what’s the result?
The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher 2013 says the troops are stressed out, demoralized, and doing their best to survive. What kind of general would go into a crucial battle with his heavy artillery pointed at his own troops?
Actually, the survey includes both teachers and principals. Both are beaten down by the Bush-Obama reforms. It seems that the non-educators and entrepreneurs decided that to impose their ideas without bothering the people who do the daily work.
Three-quarters of principals say their job has become far too complex. Half of them feel stressed out lost daily. Their job satisfaction has declined, and about one-third of them are thinking of quitting.
Despite the constant reformer sniping and whining about “bad” teachers, 98% of principals–the ones with boots on the ground–have a positive view of their teachers.
But we have all seen those Hollywood movies that tell us teachers suck, and teachers have seen them too.
The reformers’ nasty portrayal of our nation’s teachers has had the following result:
“Teacher satisfaction has declined to its lowest point in 25 years and has dropped five percentage points in the past year alone, from 44% to 39% very satisfied. This marks a continuation of a substantial decline noted in the 2011 MetLife Survey of the American Teacher; teacher satisfaction has now dropped 23 percentage points since 2008.”
Principals and teachers think they can implement the Common Core standards but only one out of five educators (or fewer) feel “very confident that the new standards will raise achievement or better prepare their students for college and careers.
Among high school principals and teachers, only 11-15% of principals and teachers are very confident that the Common Core will help their students.
Bottom line: a workforce in the schools that is increasingly demoralized, stressed out because of the demands imposed on them by politicians, and worried that they and their students are being set up to fail by clueless reformers.
When will the CEOs of the “reform” movement be held accountable for the harm they are inflicting on students, teachers, and principals?
Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford, New York, public schools wrote the following for his colleagues among NewYork superintendents:
“If you want to see Superman solve the problem of the day with the fix of the day, go to
the movies or buy a comic book. If you want to see a student motivated intrinsically with
drill-skill learning and a standardized test, go the DMV. If you want to make money off the
backs of kids, open a small business that sells video games, not tests.
If you want to see authentic learning, go to a public school where you will find a proud
principal who will gladly engage you in dialogue with professional teachers and introduce
you to remarkably dedicated staff members.
And then proceed to the entire school district where you will find a humble superintendent observing in schools, meeting with our citizens committee or civic partners, and planning with an elected board or district leaders; a superintendent who revels in the connections, the learning, and the organizational capacity to sustain success.”
Spring is coming.
People are standing up and speaking up.
Teachers at Garfield High in Seattle say “no more.”
Teachers at Ballard High School support their colleagues at Garfield.
The Seattle Education Association supports the Garfield and Ballard teachers.
Randi Weingarten tweeted her support.
Superintendents, one after another, are saying the testing obsession is out of control.
The principals of New York State stand together to demand professional evaluation, not trial by testing.
Parents are defending their children by supporting their teachers and their community schools.
The PTA of Niagara County in New York say hands off our public schools.
Communities are opposing school closings and corporate takeovers.
Students are speaking out because they know what is happening to them is not right.
Journalists are starting to recognize that the “reformers” are not real reformers but privatizers.
It is starting to happen.
We will put education back into the hands of educators and parents and communities.
We will work to make our schools better than ever, not by competition, but by collaboration.
Last year, someone emailed and asked me to create and lead the movement to stop the corporate reformers, and I said I couldn’t do it, that all I can do is write and speak.
That truly is all I can do, but when I started this blog in late April, it turned into a platform for the movement, and leaders are emerging all over the country, and learning about each other. They are communicating.
I am not the leader, I am the facilitator. You are the leaders.
Merryl Tisch, head of the Néw York State Board of Regents, says full speed ahead with the state educator evaluation plan.
Bruce Baker of Rutgers says she is wrong, wrong, wrong.
Mike Petrilli of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute summarizes “What’s Next” for reformers (some prefer to call them privatizers).
Race to the Top was a great coup for the privatizers/reformers.
Now they plan to follow up with a direct assault on schools of education, abetted by NCTQ’s forthcoming rankings, to be published by US News. NCTQ was created by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation a dozen years ago, and saved at the outset by a $5 million grant from Secretary of Education Rod Paige. In 2005, it got caught up in a federal investigation for taking money from the Department to speak well of NCLB. Read here to learn more about NCTQ.
The privatizers intend to move on principal evaluation, to make it more like teacher evaluation (test scores matter).
Pension reform will be high on their agenda.
Privatizers will promote digital learning by removing seat time requirements and following the guidance of former Governor Jeb Bush on this subject. No mention is made of the negative evaluations of cyber charters, both by Stanford’s CREDO and the National Education Policy Center, or of exposes that appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post about the awful performance of cyber charters.
Gird your loins, folks, the privatizers are flush with victories in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Ohio, Michigan, Maine, Florida, and other states, and they are coming back to do some more reforming.
Several readers, including parents in this district, have sent me a copy of this letter written by Don Sternberg of Wantagh Elementary School in Long Island, New York.
Sternberg wrote a letter to the school’s parents at the start of the school year telling them about how the politicians and bureaucrats at Albany were messing up their child’s education.
He wrote:
What we will be teaching students is to be effective test takers; a skill that does not necessarily translate into critical thinking – a skill set that is necessary at the college level and beyond. This will inevitably conflict with authentic educational practice – true teaching.
Unfortunately, if educators want to survive in the new, Albany-created bureaucratic mess that is standardized assessments to measure teacher performance, paramount to anything else, we must focus on getting kids ready for the state assessments. This is what happens when non-educators like our governor and state legislators, textbook publishing companies (who create the assessments for our state and reap millions of our tax dollars by doing so), our NYS Board of Regents, and a state teachers’ union president get involved in creating what they perceive as desirable educational outcomes and decide how to achieve and measure them. Where were the opinions of teachers, principals, and superintendents? None were asked to participate in the establishment of our new state assessment parameters. Today, statisticians are making educational decisions in New York State that will impact your children for years to come.
Standardized assessment has grown exponentially. For example, last year New York State fourth graders, who are nine or ten years old, were subjected to roughly 675 minutes (over 11 hours) of state assessments which does not include state field testing. This year there will be a state mandated pre-test in September and a second mandated pre-test in January for all kindergarten through fifth grade students in school. In April, kindergarten through fifth grade students will take the last test [assessment] for the year.
Excessive testing is unhealthy. When I went to school I was never over-tested and subsequently labeled with an insidious number that ranked or placed me at a Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 or Level 4 as we do today. Do you want your child to know their assigned ‘Level’? What would the impact be on their self-esteem and self-worth at such a young age?
Inevitably, he said, teachers would look at students as more or less desirable because what the students do will affect the teachers’ evaluation scores.
He urged parents to do their part, but he laid the blame for this massive distortion of educational purpose where it belongs: on the State Commissioner of Education, the Governor, and the Legislature.
The new system is a mess. It is an outrage. It is a crime against education and against children. Parents need to know what the state (and federal government) is doing to their children. They need to know how good schools and good teachers are being demoralized.
Donald Sternberg is a hero of public education. He joins our honor roll.
If every principal explained to the parents what the state is doing to their children and the harm being inflicted on them, we would turn this nation’s failed corporate education policies around and let our educators educate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 