Archives for category: Teacher Evaluations
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Should His District Ask for RTTT $$$$?

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2013 //
19

A teacher writes to ask how test scores might be used wisely if his district gets Race to the Top funding.

My advice: RTTT funding will cost your district far more than it receives from the federal government. Your district will have to increase class sizes, lay off teachers, and cut programs to meet all the demands of the mandates. Some fine teachers will get bad ratings because they teach kids with disabilities or are ELL. The ratings will bounce around from year to year.

Just say no.

Here is the comment:

“I suspect this conversation is timely for many of us: my district is considering applying for a Race to the Top grant (and I’m quite worried about it). I’d love to hear reactions to this idea: since the grant application requires some “significant” incorporation of test scores into the evaluation process (which is probably just a bad idea, but is required) do any of you think that it might be possible to incorporate them in a “formative” phase? What if teachers got “test score feedback” early in the process, and administrators worked with teachers to use those scores to plan goals, etc. Then the actual “summative” evaluation (also required by the grant) was done using a system of standards and rubrics, similar to the system this teacher describes above (our district uses the Danielson model). I bet there are many things wrong with this idea, but it’s the only thing I can come up with that might (might) satisfy the requirements of the grant that doesn’t completely horrify me.”

Categories Race to the Top, Teacher Evaluations

A Better Way to Evaluate Teachers–Without Test Scores

By dianeravitch
March 27, 2013 //
33

A teacher from Montgomery County, Maryland, describes its innovative ad successful way of evaluating teachers in a professional way: with support and professional judgement, but not test scores. The state of Maryland had the misfortune to in Race to the Top funding, so the PAR program was found unacceptable because Arne Duncan demands test scores as the necessary measure of teacher quality.

She writes:

“Hi folks. I’m from Montgomery County which Diane references at the end of her blog. The PAR program we have in effect is fair, clear and spells out 6 Standards (and an additional Standard for school leaders) which provide a “rubric” for good teaching practices/skills. The standards are based on the book, “The Skillful Teacher,” by Jon Saphier, Mary Ann Haley and Robert Gower. As new teachers enter the county, they are asked to take The Skillful Teacher I and II PD courses valued with credits which clearly spell out the expectation MC has for it’s teachers. They are supported by teacher leaders in our schools as well as a Consulting Teacher outside of the school and connected with our union. If the new teacher or one who is tenured is found not to meet a standard, they typically have one year, with supports in place, to address the skills they are lacking. At the end of many observations, a PAR panel comprised of principals and teachers decide if they continue with their position in the county.

“Maryland rejected our county’s proposal to the state however, to evaluate teachers based on the PAR because it did not include using test scores as a part of Race to the Top. The county’s next steps are to be determined.

“As change is being pushed across the country in education, by other folks who clearly don’t have an understanding of what good practices in teaching are all about, can I suggest we, as educators find a solution to our individual issues in pockets across the US and WE take initiatives to advocate them. I often find myself complaining about what is wrong, just as many people on the outside of the education establishment complain about what they see as wrong…they’ve come up with a plan…what have we done?”

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Anthony Cody and I Weigh In on the Weingarten-Gates Article

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2013 //
40

In this post, Anthony Cody takes issue with Randi Weingarten’s decision to write an essay with Vicki Phillips of the Gates Foundation about teacher evaluation. Here is the essay.

The fundamental problem with the Gates Foundation is that they have directed the entire national conversation to blaming teachers–instead of poverty and segregation– for low test scores. They have put hundreds of millions of dollars into evaluating teachers, finding good teachers (and rewarding them), finding “bad” teachers (and firing them).

For the past four years, since Gates dropped his small high school obsession, the foundation has been determined to prove that it is possible to find a metric to evaluate teachers. Test scores are a large part of that metric. In some states, thanks to Bill Gates and the Obama administration’s Race to the Top, the test scores count for as much as 50% of a teacher’s evaluation.

This emphasis on test scores has predictably led to narrowing the curriculum, teaching to the test, and cheating. It has also distracted policymakers from addressing the real causes of student failure, not teachers, but the conditions in which children and families live and the growing inequality in our society.

Gates has also funded phony teacher groups–made up of young teachers with little experience and no career commitment to teaching–who demand that teachers be evaluated by test scores, despite the evidence against it, and who testify in legislatures that they are teachers and they want no job protections. Gates, in short, is no friends to teachers, to the teaching profession, or to unions.

In 2010, he urged the nation’s governors not to pay teachers extra for experience or master’s degrees, but to increase class size for the most “effective” teachers. How will education improve if classes are larger, and teachers have less experience and less education?

I think I understand what Randi is thinking. She thinks she got Vicki Phillips to agree that teacher evaluation is moving too fast. And Randi did not endorse VAM or MET. She believes she won concessions from the nation’s most powerful foundation.

But here is my view: the teaching profession across America is under attack. The Gates Foundation has helped to fuel that attack by its claim that teacher quality is our biggest problem. Teacher-bashing has become sport for talk shows and pundits. Legislatures are vying to see what they can do to demoralize teachers, what benefit they can strip away, what right they can negate.

In the face of this onslaught, the issue of teacher evaluation is less important than the morale of teachers and the survival of the teaching profession. I have concluded that the effort to reduce teaching to a metric–the goal of the Gates Foundation–is failing and will continue to fail because the flaws are too deep for it to ever work. Teachers should be evaluated by their peers and experienced administrators. I have been impressed by the Peer Assistance and Review program in Montgomery County, Maryland. I note that no other nation in the world is trying to quantify teaching. There is a reason for that. What matters most cannot be measured, so we value only what can be measured. And that may be what matters least.

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Did Chicago Tribune and Joyce Foundation Do Push Polling?

By dianeravitch
March 26, 2013 //
18

Several weeks ago, a Chicago website reported that the Chicago Tribune, the Joyce Foundation, and the University of Chicago were engaging in “push polling.” This is a telephone poll that literally “pushes” the listener in a certain direction, with questions designed to have pre-determined conclusions.

Read the transcript. Do you think this was a push poll?

Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Randi Weingarten and Gates’ Phillips on Teacher evaluation

By dianeravitch
March 25, 2013 //
95

Randi Weingarten and Vicki Phillips of the Gates Foundation have jointly written an article bout teacher evaluation.

At a time when teachers and the teaching profession and teachers’ unions are under attack in states across the nation, how important is teacher evaluation?

What do you think?

Categories Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Unions

The Chicago Tribune’s Phony Poll Numbers on Reform

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2013 //
9

Yesterday I ran a post about an editorial in the Chicago Tribune. The editorial touted the results of a poll which the newspaper conducted in partnership with the Joyce Foundation. The poll purportedly supported privatization, merit pay, evaluation of teachers by test scores, and every other failed nostrum of the Rahm Emanuel-ALEC crowd.

But a Chicago parent group called PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education) says that the Tribune poll is a fraud. It underrepresented parents of children who attend public schools and it underrepresented African Americans. Based on PURE’s findings, the poll shows what white Chicagoans think that the children of black Chicagoans need.

According to PURE’s analysis, the poll was skewed towards privatization and it did not report its own findings accurately:

Who responded:

  • 50% of those polled were white. Less than 9% of CPS students are white.
  • 30% of those polled make more than $ 75,000 a year. 87% of CPS students are from low-income families that qualify for federal free or reduced lunches.
  • 43% of those polled do not know a Chicago Public School teacher or teachers’ union member. Really?

Of course, the Trib claims that results were “weighted” to assure a mix consistent with city demographics…but then, like Mayor Rahm, most of the white people in Chicago send their children to private schools.

Key results the Trib decided not to tell you about: 

  • The most popular answer to their question about what to do about underperforming schools was “devote more resources while keeping the staff intact” (37%). The least selectedanswers were “close the school and transfer students to a higher-performing school” (only 6%) and “allow an experienced nonprofit to come in and run the school” (18.8%) (question 24).
  • Nearly as many people think the CPS budget should be balanced by raising taxes on businesses as by closing schools. Oops! (question 31).
Categories Charter Schools, Chicago, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations

A Wonderful Editorial Supporting Teachers: Please Read It

By dianeravitch
March 24, 2013 //
7

When I was in North Carolina last week, I spoke in Raleigh at an event pulled together on short notice by NC Policy Watch, a state watchdog for the public interest. As it happened, I spoke just a few days after State Senator Phil Berger introduced a horrendous piece of legislation that he claimed would produce “excellence,” by removing all job protections (i.e., due process) for teachers), by tying teacher pay to test scores (aka merit pay), and by removing any salary increments for those who earn a master’s degree or have additional years of experience. Everything tied to test scores. (The video is here.)

While there I learned that it takes a teacher in North Carolina fourteen years of teaching to reach a salary of $40,000 a year.

When I hear stats like this, I grind my teeth thinking of the pundits and think tank gurus who collect six-figure salaries advocating that teachers should be cut down to size and have their benefits reduced and their salaries tied to student test scores.

I loved my time in Raleigh. The cherry blossoms were in bloom (it was snowing in New York), the audience was enthusiastic, and the best gift of all was this wonderful editorial that I received in my email today. When there are editorial writers like this one, a man who clearly understands the futility of what is now called “reform,” and the damage that the so-called “reformers” are doing to the education profession and to our nation, my faith is renewed that the privatizers and teacher-bashers won’t win. At some point and it will not be long, the public will get it too.

Categories Corporate Reformers, North Carolina, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching

Governor Malloy Abandons Equitable Funding Plan in Connecticut

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2013 //
16

In this important article, civil rights attorney explains how Governor Malloy switched sides on the funding formula for Connecticut public schools.

What hypocrisy! As mayor of Stamford, he was a plaintiff in the lawsuit. As governor, he now opposes the views he once espoused.

Lecker writes:

“As Stamford’s mayor, Dannel Malloy was an original plaintiff in the pending school funding case, The Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding v. Rell, and led the charge to win just and equitable funding for Connecticut schools. Now, Governor Malloy is trying aggressively to get the case dismissed. In doing so, he has exposed his 2012 education reforms as empty promises compared to what Connecticut’s children really need.

“The plaintiffs in CCJEF v. Rell charge that the state is violating the constitutional right of Connecticut’s children to an adequate education by depriving school districts of billions of dollars. Consequently, schools, especially in Connecticut’s neediest districts, cannot afford basic educational tools such as a sufficient number of teachers, reasonable class size, adequate school facilities, services for at-risk children, electives, AP classes, even books, computers and paper.”

Now Governor Malloy claims, with no evidence whatever, that his corporate reform plan focused on testing, accountability, rewards, and punishments, will do the job instead of equitable funding.

What hypocrisy!

Categories Connecticut, Corporate Reformers, Teacher Evaluations

An Open Letter to Governor Scott

By dianeravitch
March 23, 2013 //
26

The recent MetLife survey of the American teacher showed a high level of demoralization among the Marion’s teachers. For those wondering why, read on.

John Louis Meeks Jr. Is a Florida social studies teacher. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force. He wrote an open letter to Governor Scott to protest the disrespect shown to the state’s teachers. He points out that the Starr’s evaluation system makes no sense.

Governor Scott, please listen to Mr. Meeks:

Dear Governor Scott,

I have been teaching gifted social studies for over ten years in Florida and never have I experienced the type of fear and intimidation that I have endured either in my service to our nation in the Air Force or in any other capacity in which I have worked.

We would like to believe that education reform is designed to lift our students to a higher level of learning to best prepare them for citizenship and careers.

We would like to believe that the work of our state’s leaders is to truly improve our schools to ensure that educators are doing the work necessary to best serve our state and its future.

I take issue, however with the manner in which we evaluate our educators to gauge their work to teach our students and future leaders. The CAST evaluation system, in my opinion is grievously flawed because the value added formula actually ignores the value of the work that educators do every day.

First of all, the time that administrators are charged with observing educators is limited to small windows of opportunity to grade teachers according to a rubric that is well-intentioned but restricts them to what they actually see in the classroom. In this finite amount of time, principals and their designees only are allowed to record what they see and hear. I find fault in this because it provides no real context with which to judge classroom performance.

For example, a principal can walk into a classroom and can see that a teacher is sitting down to take attendance. This is behavior that is frowned upon as teachers are expected to be walking around the room and constantly hovering over their students.

For example, a principal can walk into a classroom and hear students talking about something other than their work. It is the teacher’s fault that they are not limiting their conversation to the work at hand. For example, a principal can walk into a classroom and observe that students are cleaning up the room to prepare for the next class. There is no instruction going on, therefore there is no learning going on.

And, once the administrator leaves, whatever flawed impression he or she has of the classroom is written in stone. It is because of this that I believe that CAST was designed to be a gotcha to drum out allegedly bad teachers for what may have been an anomaly in their performance that includes 180 days of constant work to help our students.

The darker side of CAST is the assessment end of the evaluation which is tied to student learning gains. Even with value added factors, this is a set-up in my opinion. The value of student learning gains cannot and should not be forced to rely on students’ performance on tests only.

Based on this metric, I am the second-worst social studies teacher in my school and this will become public knowledge when these CAST scores become public record in accordance with state law……

I am disappointed because I am often the last person to leave work each day because there is always something else to work on or complete and it is often the custodians who remind me when they are locking up the school. I am disappointed because there is no metric for the dedication that I have for my students and my school, and yet there is plenty of punishment lined up for me is I fail to make the grade for my students.

This is not the usual ranting of a lazy union flunky who wants to rest on his laurels. There have been days when I was sick and still went to work because it was my ultimate responsibility to serve the public. There have been days when I went to work on sick days to collect work to complete in my sick bed. Instead of appreciation, the usual condemnation that I receive from critics continues because I am a victim of the trite stereotypes that we are all bad teachers who get what is coming to us.

You might wonder why I do not leave for greener pastures. I should have left after being hospitalized for two weeks last year. I should have left after dealing with students who did not want to do any work no matter what incentives, prizes and rewards I offer. I should have left after my test scores remained stagnant in spite of all of my most sincere efforts. I stay, however, because I trust that our state’s leaders will finally hear what our educators have to say about CAST and its unintended consequences. I keep teaching because I know that a better day for education is ahead and because there will always be a better day for our students if we all believe that we are working as a team for public education.

Sincerely,
//signed//
John Louis Meeks, Jr.
Educator

Categories Florida, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Chris Cerf Is Certain….and Wrong

By dianeravitch
March 22, 2013 //
3

New Jersey’s Commissioner of Education Chris Cerf has the good fortune to be leader of a state with some of the best schools and school districts in the nation. New Jersey also has some districts with high concentrations of poverty and racial segregation, where test scores are very low.

But New Jersey–inspired by the example of Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top–will attempt to raise test scores by imposing a teacher evaluation program. Will this address the root cause of poor academic achievement? Of course not.

In theory, it will identify the “best” teachers and the “bad” teachers so that the latter may be fired.

In reality, such statistical models have not worked anywhere because there are so many confounding, unmeasurable, and unknown variables.

But Commissioner Cerf is quite certain this plan will work, despite all the pitfalls and lack of evidence.

Jersey Jazzman explains here in detail why Cerf’s certainty is faith-based.

What is predictable is that teachers will be demoralized as they see their profession turned into a testing game, teaching to the test will become the norm, and teachers will figure out how to game the system. In time, teachers will avoid the high-risk students to preserve their jobs.

This teacher-evaluation-by test-scores is junk science.

What we really need is a way to evaluate our policymakers and hold them accountable for the damage they inflict on students, teachers, schools, and communities.

Categories Accountability, Cerf, Chris, New Jersey, Teacher Evaluations
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