Archives for category: Teacher Evaluations
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Make the Best of It?

By dianeravitch
October 2, 2012 //
20

Carol Burris has valiantly rallied her fellow principals in New York to oppose the state’s test-based evaluation system created in response to Race to the Top.

Carol is principal of an exemplary high school in Rockville Center, New York.

Some readers responded to her latest post by saying, “look, it’s over. They won. Live with it. Make the best of it.”

I hear this all the time: Stop fighting. The train is leaving the station. Resistance is futile.

Carol answers here:

I will continue to put my energies into bringing this awful system down even as I seek to protect my teachers from it as best I can. There is nothing that the creators of this system would like more than for us to ‘make the best of it’. The ‘make of the best of it argument’ was what inspired MLK’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. I am so glad that King wrote that remarkable letter and did not take the advice to slow down and make the best of segregation.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Education Reform, New York, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations

The Return of Michael Winerip

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2012 //
12

Michael Winerip of the New York Times has long been an invaluable source of information and perspective about what is happening in education. For whatever reason, the New York Times decided to change his assignment. He no longer writes on education, but on the boomer generation. I ask you, which is more important to the health of our society?

Be that as it may, Winerip’s first boomer column is also about education. He previously wrote about Professor Barbara Madeloni at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who led a protest against a Pearson-owned teacher evaluation system. Just weeks after his column appeared, Madeloni was informed that her contact would not be renewed. Now Winerip revisits the issue and hopefully the public discussion will persuade the University to revisits its decision to terminate her.

We are reminded, in this case, why tenure matters.

Categories Higher Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure

Principals Give Flunking Grade to NY Teacher Evaluation Scheme

By dianeravitch
October 1, 2012 //
12

New York had the bad luck to win $700 million in Race to the Top funding.

The politicians thought it would help balance the budget, not realizing that the grant would not be available to plug budget holes.

Now we know that principals think the costly, time-wasting evaluation system is useless. Eighty percent find it inaccurate.

Money will be wasted on this invalid system even as budgets are cut.

Some day we will look back at Race to the Top and wonder, “What were they thinking? $5 billion for that?”

Was it intended to demoralize teachers or was that an unintended consequence?

Categories Education Reform, New York, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations

Seamus the Dog and Teacher Evaluation

By dianeravitch
September 29, 2012 //
12

Kevin Welner is director of the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

If you open the link to this article, you can find Welner’s links to research and contrary views on the issue.

SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 8:09 PM

Teacher evaluation and Seamus
By Kevin Welner
Since it’s campaign season, I figured it might be fun to respond to this question using an extended metaphor, with teacher evaluation policy playing the role of Gov. Romney’s Irish Setter, Seamus, and policy makers (including Pres. Obama’s EdSec Arne Duncan) playing the role of Gov. Romney.
In reading on, please remember that I’m trapped here in a “swing state,” subjected to a barrage of distorted photos of candidates overlaid with announcers’ voices portending our collective doom should we vote for the other guy. So bear with me for a bit; hopefully this will resonate even with the non-brain-addled in the non-swing states.
The Seamus story is well-known, at least to regular readers of Gail Collins’ column in the New York Times. The Romneys went on a family vacation, which included a 12-hour drive to Canada (Lake Huron). Seamus, the family dog, was put in his crate and strapped to the roof of the station wagon. The trip was carefully planned, down to specified rest stops. But Seamus fouled up the plans a bit when he expressed his displeasure in liquid fecal form, thus soiling himself and his surroundings. So Mitt Romney had to stop and hose down the dog, crate and car. They all then continued on their way. Seamus survived and, according to Gov. Romney, he “loves fresh air” and continued to like car rides, even up there in his crate.
In writing this, I can’t help but note that this all took place in the summer of 1983—the same year as “A Nation at Risk.” Coincidence?? (I’ve really got to get away from these campaign commercials…)
So how is teacher evaluation akin to Seamus? Just as the Romney family and Seamus needed to get to Canada one way or the other, we can all agree that we need good systems of teacher evaluation. The question is how we get there. Our “reformer” friends have come up with an efficient plan: use statistical growth models based on students’ test scores. Let’s strap teacher evaluation to the kids’ tests! What could go wrong?
Plenty, it turns out. This option comes with many serious weaknesses and unintended consequences. The research tells us that “lawmakers should be wary of approaches based in large part on test scores: the error in the measurements is large—which results in many teachers being incorrectly labeled as effective or ineffective; relevant test scores are not available for the students taught by most teachers, given that only certain grade levels and subject areas are tested; and the incentives created by high-stakes use of test scores drive undesirable teaching practices such as curriculum narrowing and teaching to the test.”
But since nobody can come up with an alternative that is as efficient in generating concrete numerical rankings, we stumble (or drive) forward. Even when the brown muck starts to drip down the windows, we merely perform a quick clean-up and continue on our way.
Gov. Romney’s car trip was well-planned and was executed with an unyielding emphasis on efficiency. And at the end of the day, he and his family made their way to Lake Huron. But, notwithstanding Gov. Romney’s protestations to the contrary, it seems unlikely that Seamus or any other dog in that situation would come back wanting more. Yes, the careful planning and efficiency of the trip were remarkable, but there are less stressful and unpleasant ways for a dog to make that 12-hour trip—ways that aren’t as likely to lead to undesirable, unintended consequences.
This, lord help me, is what I’m thinking about when I consider the current push for more effective teacher evaluation systems. My conclusion is we should indeed go on that trip. But let’s invite our teachers and their evaluation systems inside the station wagon, and let’s plan the trip with a complete understanding of how best to get from Point A to Point B.
Last week, the NEPC published a 3-page brief explaining the importance of balanced evaluation approaches that include all stakeholders in decision-making about evaluation systems. Not easy. Maybe not even efficient. But we won’t have to stop mid-way through to get out the hose.

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, National Education Policy Center, Teacher Evaluations

A Hero Principal: Every Principal Should Be This Honest

By dianeravitch
September 28, 2012 //
19

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.

Categories Accountability, Cuomo, Andrew, Education Reform, Honor Roll, New York, Parents, Principals, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, US Education

John Kuhn’s Brilliant Analysis of Where We Are Today

By dianeravitch
September 27, 2012 //
12

If you read only one article today, read this one. Save it. Read it again. This is a must-read.

John Kuhn is superintendent of the Perrin-Whitt school district in Texas. He was the first person named on this blog as a hero of American education. If you read this, you will understand why.

A reader suggested I add John Kuhn’s great speech to the SOS March in Washington in 2011. It is here.

In this post, he nails the difference between charter schools and public schools. He agrees that much more is needed to help the students who are failing. But he explains exactly why the current crop of faux reform proposals is wrong.

A small example of the thinking in this brilliant essay about the lives of students and teachers and schools:

I believe fervently that Michelle Rhee and an army of like-minded bad-schools philosophizers will one day look around and see piles where their painstakingly-built sandcastles of reform once stood, and they will know the tragic fame of Ozymandias. Billion-dollar data-sorting systems will be mothballed. Value-added algorithms will be tossed in a bin marked History’s Big Dumb Ideas. The mantra “no excuses” will retain all the significance of “Where’s the beef?” And teachers will still be teaching, succeeding, and failing all over the country, much as they would have been if Michelle Rhee had gone into the foreign service and Bill Gates had invested his considerable wealth and commendable humanitarian ambition in improving law enforcement practices or poultry production.

Categories Accountability, Charter Schools, Education Reform, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Rhee, Michelle, Teacher Evaluations

Analyzing President Obama’s Education Interview with NBC

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2012 //
52

Yesterday I posted an interview in which President Obama expressed his views about education.

I wanted you to read it in its entirety without my comments.

Here are my comments.

First, the President acknowledged that he was not a very good student when he was in school. He said that he was “mediocre.” Several readers have asked: Does the President think that his teachers should have been fired because he didn’t try? Did he have bad teachers? Were they responsible for his poor performance or was he?

Second, the President lauded the idea of merit pay, paying teachers more if the test scores of their students go up (and firing them if they don’t). No one has told him that merit pay has failed wherever it was tried. No one has told him that it failed in Nashville in 2010, it failed in New York City in 2010, it failed in Chicago last year. Yet his administration has allocated $1 billion for more merit pay. Why doesn’t someone tell him?

Third, the President said that teachers in Denver are very happy to be paid more for performance. No one explained to the President that the Denver ProComp plan contains extra pay for taking on harder assignments, and that the Denver teachers opposed the pay-for-scores legislation that was imposed on them by the faux reformers two years ago. But Denver has little to show for its “reforms.” Denver is no national model. Read Gary Rubinstein’s post on the unimpressive results in Denver. The scores in Denver (which is what the President means by “results”) remain well below the state average.

Fourth, the President referred to class size. He said that he talked to teachers in Las Vegas who were unhappy that their classes at the opening of school had 42 students, and it took a few weeks to get them down to 35-38. The President didn’t say whether he thought that it was okay to have 35-38 students in an elementary school class. I wish the reporter had asked whether any of the classes at Sidwell Friends have 35-38 students.

Fifth, the President lauded his administration’s Race to the Top as he talked about “results,” but he seems unaware that it has no evidence to show that it will produce results. States and districts are now spending hundreds of millions of dollars to tie teacher evaluations to test scores, and not one of them can show that schools are better or kids are learning more because of this unproven method. Where are the successes? Not in DC, which has been practicing Rhee-form since 2007 and is still one of the nation’s lowest performing districts; not in Chicago, where teachers recently struck over poor working conditions and lack of necessary resources for students; not in New York City, where the scores collapsed in 2010 after the state acknowledged that it had gamed the testing system; and not in New Orleans, where an almost all-charter system is ranked 69th of 70 districts in the state and 79% of the charters are rated D or F.

Sixth, the President says he really likes charter schools. But nowhere does he acknowledge that charters are recreating a dual system of publicly funded schools in the nation’s cities and are now starting to expand their “market” into affluent districts where there are no “failing” schools. Nor does he acknowledge that numerous studies find that charters don’t get different results than public schools if they serve the same students. Why does he want two systems, one regulated, the other deregulated? I wish the reporter had asked those questions.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The President has many more pressing issues to think about, both foreign and domestic. He wants to win the election.

But he is woefully misinformed about his own education policies, about the absence of evidence for them, about the lack of results, about the harmful effect they are having on students and teachers and the quality of education, about the shared assumptions of Race to the Top and the failed No Child Left Behind. He doesn’t seem aware that his own policies require “teaching to the test,” which he says he opposes.

He has not heard the voices of teachers and parents. He is not changing his policies. They will fail as No Child Left Behind has failed because they are based on flawed assumptions about teaching and learning, and because they are based on carrots and sticks.

Carrots and sticks work for donkeys, not for professionals.

Categories Charter Schools, Corporate Reformers, Democrats, Education Industry, Education Reform, Merit pay, Obama, Teacher Evaluations, Testing, US Education

Rhee’s Teacher Evaluation Program Bombs in DC

By dianeravitch
September 26, 2012 //
28

This is a stunning article about the teacher evaluation system that Michelle Rhee put in place in the District of Columbia. The article was written by Ben Nuckols of the Associated Press. He is not usually an education writer, but he dug deeper than many education writers.

Rhee fired about 1,000 teachers during her time as chancellor.

Since her evaluation system was put into place, 400 teachers have been fired.

Since the evaluation system was put into place, the federal test scores for the District went flat.

Some teachers get big bonuses. One teacher, at the end of the article, says she is rated “highly effective” and she turned down the bonus.

As Mary Levy, a long-time analyst of the DC school system, says in the article: We have gone from a system where almost no one was terminated, no matter how bad, to the other extreme, where good teachers as well as bad are terminated,” said Mary Levy, an attorney and a longtime analyst of city education policy. “The latter is probably more damaging due to the stress and demoralization it causes.”

Advocates of merit pay and test-based evaluation claim that it will strengthen the teaching profession because teachers will be drawn to the chance to earn a big bonus or higher salary.

This isn’t happening. As the article says, “But many teachers aren’t sticking around long enough to enjoy the higher salaries. The district has one of the highest teacher turnover rates in the nation. Half of new teachers leave the system after 2 years, according to Levy’s analysis, compared with about one-third nationwide. Levy recently began examining individual schools and found two-year turnover rates as high as 94 percent at one elementary school and 66 percent at a high school.

Tim Daly of the New Teacher Project, founded by Rhee, says it is too soon to judge the evaluation system. Give it 5 to 10 years, he says.

Question: Why are we foisting on the entire nation a method that has not been proven successful anywhere? Why not give it 5-10 years and see what happens before making it a national mandate, imposed by state legislatures at the behest of the Race to the Top?

Categories Accountability, Education Reform, Rhee, Michelle, Teacher Evaluations

How to Put an End to VAM-Mania

By dianeravitch
September 25, 2012 //
4

A reader has a suggestion:

I suggest that we create similar VAM tests for doctors, lawyers, and politicians and start ranking them according to their contributions.  Oh, and reporters and news editors too.  That will solve this problem real soon!

Categories Accountability, Teacher Evaluations

Do You Trust Opinion or Research?

By dianeravitch
September 24, 2012 //
7

Tim Slekar of Penn State has been watching NBC’s Education Nation, for which we are all grateful. Someone has to do it.

Today he watched the teacher town hall and discovered that a matter that has been settled in research was turned by NBC into a matter of opinion. And whose opinion counted was, in Tim’s view, questionable.

Categories Teacher Evaluations
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