Archives for category: Teacher Evaluations
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Reformers Target Teacher Education

By dianeravitch
September 1, 2012 //
11

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.)

Categories Accountability, Corporate Reformers, Duncan, Arne, Education Reform, Higher Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, U.S. Department of Education

An Angry Teacher in Louisiana Replies

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2012 //
11

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?

Categories For-Profit, Jindal, Bobby, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Why Not Evaluate Everyone?

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2012 //
5

A teacher asks a reasonable question: Why are teachers the only ones to be evaluated?

Evaluate everyone!

Categories Accountability, Humor, Teacher Evaluations

Whose Side Are You On?

By dianeravitch
August 28, 2012 //
7

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.

Categories Principals, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

What Parents Need to Know about “Reform”

By dianeravitch
August 26, 2012 //
3

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.

Categories Corporate Reformers, Parents, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Texas

Why Data Count More Than Any Other Measure

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2012 //
10

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.

Categories Accountability, Teacher Evaluations

The Damage Done by Data-Driven Evaluation

By dianeravitch
August 25, 2012 //
37

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.

Categories Education Reform, Teacher Evaluations

Judge Invalidates Florida Evaluations

By dianeravitch
August 24, 2012 //
28

This just in.

The Florida Education Association and two named teacher-plaintiffs sued to block VAM because the process is confusing and the state has provided inadequate guidance.

A judge agreed with the plaintiffs. The state education department will either appeal or have to redo the rules and clarify the way VAM is supposed to work.

This teacher-evaluation stuff is complex, poorly thought out, and endlessly divisive.

It is being foisted on states across the nation–thank you, Race to the Top–without any clear evidence that it works.

No one knows whether VAM identifies the worst teachers or those unlucky enough to get difficult students or those who are good at teaching to the test.

District after district will be thrown into unnecessary turmoil.

A few teachers will be thrown out, and they may not be the “bad” teachers.

And the cult of data worship will grow stronger.

 
 
Categories Accountability, Florida, Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations, Unions

What We Can Learn from the New PDK/Gallup Poll

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2012 //
2

The annual Phi Delta Kappa-Gallup poll on education was released today.

The sponsors characterize public opinion as split, which is true for many issues.

We must see this poll in the context of an unprecedented, well-funded campaign to demonize public schools and their teachers over at least the past two years, and by some reckoning, even longer.

The media has parroted endlessly the assertion that our public schools are failures, they are (as Bill Gates memorably said to the nation’s governors in 2005) “obsolete,” and “the system is broken.” How many times have you heard those phrases? How many television specials have you seen claiming that our education system is disastrous? And along comes “Waiting for ‘Superman'” with its propagandistic attack on public education in cities and suburbs alike and its appeal for privatization. Add to that Arne Duncan’s faithful parroting of the claims of the critics.

That is the context, and it is remarkable that Americans continue to believe in the schools they know best and to understand what their most critical need is.

Here are the salient findings:

1. Americans have a low opinion of American education (how could they not, given the bombardment of criticism?): only 18% give it an A or B. And here is the real accomplishment of the corporate reformers: Those who judge American education as a D or F have increased from 22% to 30% in the past 20 years. Actually, their success in smearing U.S. education is even greater, because in 2002, before the implementation of NCLB, only 16% judged the nation’s schools so harshly. So the reform campaign has doubled the proportion of Americans who think the nation’s schools deserve a D or F.

2. When asked to evaluate the schools in their own community, 48% give them an A or B, which is the highest rating in 20 years.

3. When asked to evaluate the school their oldest child attends, an astonishing 77% give it an A or B. This is the highest rating in 20 years. Only 6% give it a D or F. This question elicits the views of informed consumers, the people who refer to a real school, not the hypothetical school system that is lambasted every other day in the national press or condemned as “obsolete” by Bill Gates.

4. When asked whether they have trust and confidence in teachers, 71% said yes. Americans continue to respect and admire teachers, despite the nonstop public bashing of them in the media.

5. When asked whether standardized test scores should be used to evaluate teachers, opinion split 52-47 in favor. Considering that the public has heard nonstop endorsements of this bad idea from President Obama, Secretary Duncan, and most other political figures–and very limited dissent–it is surprising that opinion is almost equally divided. How did so many Americans manage to figure out that this idea is problematic at best?

6. When people were asked to describe the teachers who had the greatest influence in their lives, they used words like caring, compassionate, motivating, and inspiring. Interesting that few remembered the teachers who raised their test scores.

7. There has been a big change in what the public sees as the biggest problems facing the schools today. Ten years ago, the biggest concerns were about discipline (fighting, gangs, drugs, lack of discipline, overcrowding). Today, the biggest problem that the public sees, by far, is lack of financial support. 35% chose that option. Among public school parents, it was 43%. Concerns about discipline almost faded away in comparison to concerns about the lack of financial support for the schools.

8. On the subject of vouchers, there was a surprising increase in the proportion who would support “allowing students to choose a private school at public expense.” It increased from 34% to 44%, which is a big jump. I recommend that future questioning ask about support to allow students “to choose a private or religious school at public expense.” That would be closer to the reality of voucher programs in Milwaukee, Cleveland, D.C., Louisiana, Ohio, and Indiana.

9. On the subject of charters, public opinion dipped, from an approval rating of 70% in 2011 to 66% in 2012. It will be interesting to see where this number goes as the public begins to understand more about charters in their own communities.

10. A question about the parent trigger was so vacuous as to be misleading. The question was “Some states are considering laws that allow parents to petition to remove the leadership and staff at failing schools. Do you favor or oppose such laws?” 70% favor, 76% of public school parents favor. This is a misleading question, however, as the parent trigger is not a matter of simply allowing parents to sign a petition, but of allowing parents to take control of a public school and hand it over to private management. My guess is that the public doesn’t know much about the parent trigger concept and hasn’t heard a discussion about the pros and cons. So, I don’t put much stock in the response–after all, why shouldn’t parents have the right to sign a petition to change the staff at their school? It does show how clever the corporate reformers are in framing issues that advance privatization and doing it in ways that are deceptive and alluring.

11. In a series of questions about the Common Core standards, most people believe they are a good thing and that they will make the nation more competitive globally; about half think they will improve the quality of education while 40% think they will have no effect. These answers exemplify why polls of this kind must be viewed with caution. I am willing to bet that the majority of respondents has no idea what the Common Core standards are; and willing to bet that 98% have never read them.

In future versions of the poll, I hope that questions will be asked about for-profit schools, privatization, and vouchers for religious schools. These are big issues today, and the poll should ask about them.

My takeaway from the 2012 poll is that the corporate reform movement has succeeded in increasing support for vouchers, but that the American public continues to have a remarkably high opinion of the schools and teachers they know best despite the concerted efforts of the reformers to undermine those beliefs. This is an instance where evidence trumps ideology. The reformers have not yet been able to destroy the bonds between the American people and their community’s schools.

 

 

Categories Budget Cuts, Charter Schools, Common Core, Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Opinion Polling, Parent trigger, Parents, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, US Education, Vouchers

“A Daily Act of Love”

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2012 //
4

I came across a moving story about a music educator in Wisconsin whose death stirred his town and wrote about him last night. His influence was widely acknowledged.

I asked, in light of the community’s reaction, how such an inspiring teacher should be evaluated. It was obvious that test scores was not the right answer, in part because what he taught–music and band–do not lend themselves to measurement by test scores. But the qualities that the community honored in him–his ability to inspire, his love for music, his concern for students–are inherently not quantifiable. The same might be said for teachers in other subjects as well, not just teachers of music and the other arts.

A music educator commented:

As a former high school band teacher, and current music teacher educator, this story shines a light on one of the glaring inadequacies of the current, one-size-fits-all approach to teacher evaluation. music teaching is different than teaching math, or science, or reading–and one rubric or test can’t measure every kind of teacher. or school. or community. music teachers across the country are struggling with how to use these tools to describe the totality of what we do, and with the reality that our jobs–as it is with our colleagues in every other other discipline–are just too complex, complicated and messy to fit in this tiny little box.

It has always seemed to me that the things we care the most about, that are most important to us, are the most resistant to this sort of simplistic measurement. do we measure our marriages with a 4 point scale? do we “grade” the love we have for our children on a rubric? teaching is a daily act of love; love for our students, for their learning, for our colleagues, and for our communities. to think that we can measure our effectiveness as teachers with a 4 point scale is not only absurd, its insulting.

Mr. Garvey made a difference in his community that could never be measured by a test. it was measured by the length of the line at his wake, and by the depth of the grief felt by his former students and his family at his funeral. Mr. Garvey, like many, many teachers across the country who are getting ready to return to their classrooms, taught because he wanted to bring his love of his subject matter to his students, to make them think about the world differently, and to help them become the persons they wanted to become. there aren’t enough “points” on any teacher evaluation rubric to measure the difference these teachers will make this year.

Categories Arts Education, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching
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