This teacher says that, for him, teaching is a “labor of love.”
Can it be measured by standardized tests?
Can his value be reduced to a number, fed into a data storage warehouse and crunched?
The tests measure one aspect of what students have learned.
Only one.
The tests do not measure everything that was taught, or everything that matters.
They are limited instruments, not designed to measure the worth of students or teachers.
A few days ago, I started honoring people who defend public education and teachers against reckless assaults on them. One of the first of those on the honor roll was Lottie Beebe, an elected member of the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Here is her response.
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Diane, you are my hero. Thank you for your untiring efforts to keep everyone informed of what is happening in Louisiana. We must continue to be vocal and strive to educate the public to the truth regarding education reform. I think your latest effort is remarkable! I think it is a wonderful idea to recognize those who stand up for students and traditonal public schools. I hope your list is infinite.
Again, let me say I decided to seek the BESE position because of my desire to see positive changes in the education profession–contrary to the train wreck that is destined to occur. I attended a National Association of State School Boards’ meeting in Washington, DC in July and had the opportunity to hear a speaker say the following: No state should implement a teacher evaluation program with a 50% value added component–particularly, with the roll out of the Common Core (CC) curriculum. He specifically stated there will be a decline in student achievement due to the rigor of the (CC). Consequently, there will be a greater number of teachers who will receive an ineffective rating. What are we doing in Louisiana? (50% Value-Added)
To add insult to injury, we are rolling out the teacher evaluation program statewide without a full year of piloting. My school district was one of nine participating school districts and the rubric used during the 4 month pilot was scrapped for another. Using a quote from another state–New York–“we are building the plane as we fly it!” Make no mistake about it, I am not anti-teacher evaluations. Teacher evaluations have been in place for years in Louisiana; however, a few districts neglected to evaluate annually. This fact was used during the 2012 Louisiana Legislative session to garner support for education reform and to vilify teachers, in my opinion.
During my participation at the National Association of State Boards of Education, I was amazed to hear another presenter mention the year, 2014, will likely be education’s Armaggedon–“eduggedon” or edu–cliff. I agree with this assessment due to the likely decline in student achievement, increased teacher ineffective ratings, and the negative campaign against educators and traditional schools.
This reform movement is, by design, to dismantle tradional public schools and the aforementioned prediction is what will likely convince many that our traditional schools are dismal failures. We must continue our efforts to educate the public and do everything we can to promote excellence. When our students succeed, we must celebrate and publicize their success. There are many outstanding traditional schools in this country and Louisiana. As a grandparent of two grandsons enrolled in Louisiana’s public schools, I can proudly say they are receiving a quality education at C rated schools which are deemed failing by Louisiana’s standards. (Somebody, please tell me when did a C become a failing grade?) Someone obviously lied to me! I was always told a C grade was average.
Thanks to all who responded to Diane’s call. I truly appreciate the emails! I also want to publicly express my gratitude to Ms. Carolyn Hill, my BESE colleague. I want to publicly thank the members of the Louisiana Legislature who had the intestinal fortitude to stand up to ALEC and the governor –those who voted against Act 1 and Act 2–Choice. Often, criticism is generically stated; yet, there are many legislators who did not drink the Kool-aid. On behalf of Louisiana’s educators, I want to thank them. Thanks to all of the other courageous educators who stand before our students each day providing a valuable service–educating and molding our future!
Lottie P. Beebe, District 3
Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education
lottieb@cox.net
I am starting an honor roll for hero superintendents.
As of now, there are four.
If you know of others, nominate them with your reasons.
They deserve our thanks and praise.
Paul Perzanoski of Brunswick, Maine, stood up to a bullying governor.
John Kuhn of Perrin-Whitt Independent School District is a national model of bravery in opposition to political meddling.
Vickie Markavitch of Oakland, Michigan, spoke out against the state’s mislabeling of districts.
Here is another: Joshua Starr of Montgomery County (Md) public schools.
He did not want his district to participate in Race to the Top funding, and his board agreed.
His district refused to sign the state’s RTTT application.
He opposes the RTTT emphasis on rating teachers by test scores.
He recognizes that NCLB and Race to the Top are a reversion to an “industrial model” of education.
Faced with the bewildering roll-out of federal and state mandates, Starr proposed a three-year moratorium on all standardized tests, “while we figure all this out.”
According to the Washington Post article about him from last April:
“Starr critiqued the growth models and rubrics being developed as contradicting research on what motivates teachers. He said Montgomery’s current system, which mentors struggling teachers for a year before decisions about termination are made, is a “hill to die on.”
And he said that singling out teachers as the culprit for education failures and shaming them is the most “pernicious part of the national reform movement.”
Accountability for student success should rightly extend to “you, me, and the entire community,” he said.
But in the midst of all the flux and change, he struck a hopeful chord. He said the transition could give Montgomery a chance to carve a distinct path.
“As No Child Left Behind is dying its slow death, it’s an incredible opportunity to fill that void with what we believe we should do for kids,” he said.”
Joshua Starr is an educational leader of the highest caliber.
He doesn’t comply and follow harmful orders.
He insists on thinking what is best for students and teachers and the community.
My friends at The Chalkface have thrown themselves into the fight to support public education, with a radio show, videos, and blogs.
Now they let you know–in language you won’ t hear from me–about the latest reformer attack on teacher education. The reformers want Arne Duncan to ignore the objections of major institutions of higher education. They want him to adopt regulations that would judge teacher education programs by the test scores of the students of their graduates.
Got that. The test scores of the students taught by the graduates of these institutions.
This is guaranteed to make teaching to the test the official doctrine of American education, top to bottom. It means imposing NCLB on higher education.
It is absurd. It is reckless. It is ___________. (Fill in the blank.)
A reader said he was shocked, shocked by a post that linked to an article that spoke disparagingly of Governor Bobby Jindal and State Commissioner of Education John White. He thought it was “uncivil” to refer to them in disrespectful language.
This teacher from Louisiana disagrees. Since there aren’t many places in Louisiana where his or her views may be expressed in print, I am happy to print them here.
But they are thieves, vandals, liars and profiteers here in Louisiana!
They are also people I disagree with. I disagree with them because I disagree with rating teachers on student test scores. I disagree with them on ACT 54 and value added.
I disagree with them when our Governor and education secretary intentionally ignore the facts and twist the data to spread lies about Louisiana teachers, students and schools.
I disagree with ignoring the real issues of poverty, school quality, teacher qualifications and standardized testing. I
disagree with elected public officials lying, cheating and profiting from the destruction of the lives of the children of our state.
I come here for the discussions, I come to hear people express the truth and if what is happening here is not civil discourse, (I think it is quite civil for the most part and the occasional attacks are quickly rebutted or patiently ignored) then I guess we will have to agree to disagree on what civil discourse is and should discuss if the time for statesmanship has passed in this battle and it is time to change strategy?
I sometimes feel as if teachers are prisoners of this war and need the allies to arrive; I just do not know who the allies are. I thought they would be parents, education program professors, student teachers still in school, the Wongs, NIH scientists, associations like ACSD, NSTA, NTMA, Kaplans and others who write all the books, journals, seminars we attend and buy and programs we use.
If they run an organization for professional teachers and there are no more professional teachers who do they think their membership will be? The graduate schools of education, doctoral programs and certification providers. Why are they silent? All the experts we go to listen to at conferences and national meetings, the employees in the state departments of education(surely they believe what they do is important?) school board members, PTAs, PTOs and governmental organizations like NASA, NOAA, US Geological Survey, and hundreds of other agencies whose resources and outreach we use.
What about the United States Military branches who are constantly short of qualified, educated, diploma holding troops? Does the Department of Defense intend to recruit graduates of virtual schools, students from charters taught by people who are not certified and maybe have college degrees?
Do they want to depend on the for profit companies who are even now submitting their applications for Louisiana’s Course Choice program intended to remove even more students from Louisiana public high schools. Will these programs free of accountability and totally opaque to the parents and community produce men and women with the skills and commitment for national defense?
Do they not see that the destruction of public schools will eventually make them obsolete? Do they not all have a stake in collaboratively helping teachers make our schools the best and able to meet the needs of the children we serve?
We know about the people who are using “reform” as their stepping stone to fame and fortune.
We know about those who demand more testing, more standardization, more dehumanization.
We know about the policymakers and pundits who think that test scores are the object of education.
Nothing else matters to them.
What do we know about the administrators and teachers who look on their students as if they were their own?
When history judges what you did now, how will you answer?
In the end, ask yourself, whose side are you on?
This reader did:
Everything in my being is telling me this is all so wrong. I keep thinking of my own two grown children. They are bright and hard working and successful. They were lucky enough to have been educated before NCLB morphed our education system into something unrecognizable to those of us who understand what really great teaching looks like.
As an administrator I am required to observe and evaluate teachers at my school. I see great teaching on a regular basis. But I also see teachers who are scared because their jobs are tied to test results. So they fall back on teaching test taking skills and constantly focus on the test. Louisiana law now requires a teacher whose state student scores give her an ineffective rating to be fired, even if I rate her as an effective teacher through my observations and evaluations. How can teachers function with this hanging over their heads all year.
I try to tell them to relax and do what they know works. But how can they relax? Their classrooms are filled with students who are terrified of that same test. Some refuse to participate because they have had enough of the pressure. Our 4th and 8 th grade tests are high stakes, meaning if they don’t pass the test, they don’t pass the grade.
As I said, this all feels so wrong. But by law we are required to submit and subject teachers and students to this torture year after year. How do I reconcile all of this? It doesn’t really matter what I say or do because their value added (VAM) score comes from the state and student test scores, and it will determine if they have a job next year or not. My goal this year is to be their support system, their cheerleader, whatever they need. I will do my best to be in the classrooms, walk the halls, remove disruptive students, give recognition, anything, and everything.
Whenever I am not sure how to handle a situation with a teacher, student, or parent, I stop and ask myself it the situation were reversed, how would I want to be treated? Then I proceed. As I am struggling with all of this I ask myself, what would I want for my own children? Then I know what I need to do for these children. It feels like an uphill battle, but I can’t give up. I want to be on the right side when history judges our actions. I answer to the children.
A teacher responded to the administrator in the same thread:
Bless you for your compassion. We wish there were more of you, not in the schools, but in the legislature so that this nonsense could be stopped. Thank you anyway. We shall continue to do our best to remember these are human beings. I have already planned on what my wife and I must do should I be fired. When I started I was an excellent teacher because I could use my knowledge gained in 40 years of work in other fields and several advanced degrees. I knew as things stood then I would have a job as long as I did my job. This created an atmosphere where I could teach, innovate, and seek excellence in my students and myself. Because my job was secure, it paid enough to meet my needs, I could give more of myself and joyously teach. I was blessed with administrators like you. Now I am reminded every day that if test scores don’t rise we older “suddenly less effective” teachers will be gone. The evil tenure no longer protects us. I remember the kids that I am now inspiring to explore science and read about great inventions may be the generation that overthrows this mess. I may lose my career sooner than I had hoped, but I will not offend the dignity of my students. I teach Kindergarten through 5th graders, 160 kids a day, I regard them as my much younger siblings, I can’t turn them into a number.
Carol Burris has written an article addressed to parents, explaining what tests are good for and how they are being misused.
Send this to your friends, especially if they are public school parents.
She identifies three “reforms” that parents should be concerned about, involving the misuse of testing.
This is the “reform” that you should keep your eye on:
The amassing of individual student scores in national and state databases.
State and national databases are being created in order to analyze and house students’ test scores. No parental permission is required. I wonder why not. Students who take the SAT must sign off before we send their scores to colleges. Before my high school’s students could participate in the National Educational Longitudinal Study, they needed written permission from their parents. Yet, in New York, massive amounts of student data are now being collected and sent beyond the school without parental permission —end of year course grades, test scores, attendance, ethnicity, disabilities and the kinds of modifications that students receive. This data will be used to evaluate teachers, schools, schools of education and perhaps for other purposes yet unknown. Schools are no longer reporting collective data; we are now sending individual student data. Although the name remains in the district, what assurances do parents truly have that future databases will not be connected and used for other purposes? The more data that is sent, the easier it will be to identify the individual student.
Eleven states have agreed to give confidential teacher and student data for free to a shared learning collaborative funded by Bill Gates and run byMurdoch’s Wireless Corp. Wireless received $44 million for the project. With Common Core State Standards testing, such databases are expected to expand. Funding for data warehousing siphons taxpayer dollars from the classroom to corporations like Wireless and Pearson. Because Common Core testing will be computer-based, the purchase of hardware, software and upgrades will consume school budgets, while providing profits for the testing and computer industries.
Although all of the above is in motion, it can be modified or stopped. Parents should speak to their local PTAs and School Boards, as well as their legislators. They should ask questions regarding what data is being collected and to whom it is sent.
Burris recommends that:
It is time to get Back to Basics. Let’s make sure that every test a student takes is used to measure and enhance her learning, not for adult, high-stakes purposes. Basic commonsense tells us that student test results belong to families, not databases. Remind politicians that the relationship between student and teacher, not student and test helps our young people get through life’s challenges. Finally, let’s return to the basic purpose of public schooling — to promote the academic, social and emotional growth of our children. It is the role of schools to develop healthy and productive citizens, not master test takers.
When the purveyors of evaluation systems are hawking their latest program, they confidently assert that the test scores are only one of multiple measures.
Don’t worry, they say, the test scores are only 20%, or 30%, or 40%, or 50%.
We will put them into context with lots of soft measures derived from classroom observations or other non-data sources.
But it is not true, even if they mean it when they say it.
This principal writes:
The allure of data is simply too strong to resist.
I began teaching in a state where a high-stakes state testing system was already in place. Naturally, the pressure was intense on teachers, schools, and districts, but it was the only reality I knew.
Later, my wife and I moved to another state where high-stakes tests were just a seed of an idea, almost beginning to germinate. Of course, there was talk of it being just “one of many indicators.” Both my wife and I thought, “Yeah, right. We know what’s coming.” And ten plus years later, this fleur du mal has fully bloomed.
As a principal, I try to use data sensibly, as just “one of many indicators,” but it’s a losing battle. It’s difficult to complicate people’s thinking, to point out the complexities of educating young people, in an environment hooked on numbers. They’re so tangible, so easy to communicate. We can wave them about as proof of success or failure. As complicated as the algorithm can be, the numbers dumb us down.
I need our numbers to show improvement or else my leadership is questioned (or I’ll possibly get turnarounded). I don’t need to point out the numbers to our teachers; they scour them, searching for vindication. Our community judges us by them. As for the politicians and policymakers, we know how they use them.
I can’t go so far as to say the numbers have no place in education (Why can’t I go so far? Maybe I need to challenge my thinking on this.), but it appears that consuming them in moderation demands a level of intellectual rigor and self-discipline we don’t possess.
I often hear from teachers who tell me how the professional conversations within their schools have changed. They no longer discuss instructional improvements in their staff meetings; they no longer review opportunities for professional development related to classroom practice. They talk data. They hear from data experts. They strategize about how to get the numbers up. They drill down into the data. They focus on the kids who are a 2 on the state tests and ignore the 1s and the 3s and 4s. Data drive their conversation, their practice, their life. Data determine whether they will have a job next year. Data determine whether their school will live or die.
This state of affairs is the direct result of NCLB and Race to the Top. Miss your targets and you lose your profession. If you want to survive, be driven by data.
What’s wrong with that? It is the end of education. Education is not about amassing data. Education is about changing the lives of students; enabling them to become wiser, more thoughtful, more intelligent, more judicious, and to grow in health and character.
David Gamberg is the superintendent of schools in Southold, Long Island, in New York state. He describes what happens when educators lose sight of their purpose.. When your goal is to educate children, numbers do not tell the whole story. And when you forget sight of why you educate, you may no longer be educating. Just serving the dictates of distant policymakers.
