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Teachers at Roosevelt HS Support Colleagues at Garfield

By dianeravitch
January 25, 2013 //
1

Forty-Three Roosevelt High School teachers (colleagues in Seattle Public Schools with Garfield High School teachers) signed this Letter of Support (on Jan. 23, 2012) for GHS teachers and a call to for expedient dismissal of the MAP exam because it has not proven to be useful or reliable. (PDF of original with signatures available upon request).

This We Believe:

Teachers, parents, students, school board members and the administration of Seattle Public Schools owe Garfield High School teachers their gratitude and thanks for speaking the truth.

We believe that any reprimand or negative consequences imposed by Seattle Public Schools, the superintendent or administration on the truth-telling teachers of Garfield High School would be unjust. Garfield High School teachers should be given public commendations for rightly raising their professional concerns and specific critique of our district’s choice and misuse of the Measures of Academic Progress® [MAP] testing.

An unspoken truth is that most all Seattle Public School stakeholders already knew that the MAP test was expensive and of little practical use in supporting our students’ learning, or in evaluating their classroom teachers before the Garfield High School teachers spoke up publicly.

We believe that effective teaching and learning must utilize meaningful tests, authentic assessments, and multiple-measures to evaluative what a student knows and can do. These measures are also critical to improve teaching practice, reflect on curriculum, and to evaluate school and district-wide policies. We want students who are struggling and those who have mastered skills and content to be identified and to be offered meaningful support to succeed and excel. We want teachers who are struggling in the classroom to be identified, offered useful critique and professional support. We believe that after due process, if these teachers are unable to meet the high standards we hold ourselves to as educators these individuals should be removed from their teaching positions. We wish to continue to improve our schools which are already rated as one of the best K-12 public school districts in the state and nation. To quote Garfield High School teachers, “The MAP test is not the way to do any of these things.”

We support an expedient dismissal of the MAP exam because it has not proven to be useful or reliable in its given tasks. We ask Superintendent Banda to reconsider his call to wait for a general evaluation of all Seattle Public Schools assessments as that report is not due out until the end of the school year. If MAP testing is already paid for this school year shouldn’t we finish out the school year with the planned MAP testing days? Budgets are in some ways both complex and simple. Seattle Public Schools annual “operating budget” for this year is around $566 million; delivering 180 days of school to our students. Rounding down the cost is still over $3 million-a-day to operate our schools. If we end MAP testing now millions of dollars of this year’s district’s operating budget would be spent on school days of teaching and learning instead of on ineffective MAP-testing.

We believe that process employed by Seattle Public Schools administration, school board, and (initially) by our professional association (SEA) in accepting this testing regime was flawed. We request an administrative and public review of the procedures related to these kinds of important adoptions needs to be established that engages all stakeholders to help prevent unworthy, expensive, MAP-like mistakes in the future.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned Teachers of Roosevelt High School.

Categories Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Washington State

Stay and Fight?

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2013 //
20

I know that many teachers are demoralized. It is not just because I read your comments every day, but because national surveys by Scholastic/Gates and by the Metlife survey report that this is so.

Some of the newbie organizations founded and/or funded by Gates (like TeachPlus and Educators4Excellence) think this is wonderful. So does The New Teacher Project (TNTP), founded by either Wendy Kopp or Michelle Rhee, depending on whom you believe.  They see a new day coming, when teachers who don’t care about a pension or job security, who want to be evaluated by test scores, will fill the classrooms of America.

I say all this is nonsense. Ten years from now, the teaching corps in most districts in the nation will be drawn from the same pool as now. It is an absurd goal to want to push out or drive out experienced teachers and rely on a group of young people to change teaching into a job for short-timers. It could happen, but if it does, it won’t be good for students or for the quality of education.

Short term, there is good reason to be demoralized. Long term, I am convinced that the destructive trends of this era will pass. Failed ideas eventually are recognized as failed ideas.

That is why I urge everyone to stay and fight for what they know is right for their students. Signs of resistance are growing. The test boycott at Garfield High School in Seattle is the first sign of spring. There will be many more.

Here is someone who disagrees with me, or made her decision a while back:

“Maybe the greatest act of defiance is to stay and fight for what is right.”

Diane, I believe most teachers who have decided to leave the profession felt that way years and years before they left. These changes have been a long time coming. The writing was on the wall years ago and most teachers hunkered down and got the job done anyway. They stood up to bullying principals and insane edicts, more paperwork, much more testing, and more decisions being made by people who never taught a day in the classroom. They fought hard and were belittled, ignored, or forced out.

There comes a day when it becomes impossible to stay, when you feel you can no longer be a part of something that is directly harming children and that takes a little piece of your soul each day that you continue to play by someone else’s rules. I know because I was one of those teachers. I taught for 20 years and the district offered a buy out, hoping to get rid of their veteran teachers so they could hire cheaper, more pliable, younger teachers. That was almost two years ago, and most of the teacher friends I left behind are retiring this year. Like me, they reached a point where they had to leave.

Even though we’re no longer in the classroom, we continue to fight “from the outside.” Thank you for everything you do.

Categories Accountability, Education Industry, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

How Phony Reform Destroys Teacher Morale: “I Quit”

By dianeravitch
January 24, 2013 //
24

A reader sent this sad commentary on the state of education today. When you read dozens of letters like this from districts around the country, you have to wonder if the “powers that be” are trying to force experienced teachers out of the classroom, to make room for the young teachers who don’t know enough to think differently, who won’t stay around long enough to get a pension, who won’t question the New Order of testing and submission. Maybe the greatest act of defiance is to stay and fight for what is right. Because the end of the “reformers'” time in charge draws near:

 

I QUIT and I did not send a letter…One day’s notice ….as I have one life to live and had rather rake yards, mow lawns, and even clean houses thasn to walk in any of these schools..

I am exhausted from trying to figure out what to teach for the next county test……then state test.

I am tired of the CLAWS that come at you and the Ugly Faces of the Powers that be when your class of 33 can not make an A on one of those SO BAD BAD TESTS!!!.

Those “Frowny Powers that Be” people may not know it but they will die early and have so many wrinkles form those Ugly Ugly Facial Gestures!!!

I am so tired of the hiring of all of the coaches that nag and nag and nag the veteran teachers and pretend to know more…but they do not..

I am tired of the Professional Learning whatevers where teachers discuss TEST SCORES for a kid with a 58 I.Q….while an administrator that has never taught more than one year takes notes back to the Super Powers…or they have some person whose position has been created to sit there and take notes to take back to the Super Powers..

NY…..NC….should call those meeting-”TESTER MEETINGS”
I know that those States test and test and test and test and test and test!!!!

I am almost positive that the Powers that be will be in the future mandating Pregnant Women to test their Embryos for Gene Defects in order to get a Head Start on any problems the child may have for Future Testing…

I am tired of not having a book…but am asked instead to get all of the material on the web….run off enough material to kill all of the trees in Pennsylvania…..all of the trees in the National Forests.,…etc…

I can not believe that the State is asking for activities that the teacher creates to put on their website for this Common Core..
If I were that teacher..I would charge the state $500 for each and every activity after I had copyrighted the activity…

What the Educational Super Powers have done is to Drain teachers of any motivation and creativity…

The media has turned their heads on this one…unless someone comes to school with a gun or a knife, you never hear of any news of the Destruction of Public Education.

What a shame..

Categories Corporate Reformers, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Governor Cuomo: Listen to Arthur Goldstein!

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2013 //
10

Governor Andrew Cuomo famously declared himself to be the students’ lobbyist.

Yet he frequently advocates policies that are not in the best interest of students.

If he truly wants to advocate for students, he should spend a day with Arthur Goldstein in his high school classroom in Queens. Arthur could help Governor Cuomo. He could help him understand what students really need. And that would make Governor Cuomo a better advocate for students, as he hopes to be.

Categories Cuomo, Andrew, New York, Teachers and Teaching

Teaching in an Age of Injustice

By dianeravitch
January 23, 2013 //
63

Not long ago, I published a post by Carol Jago, a former president of the National Council of Teachers of English, about how to teach the Common Core in English.

The discussion that followed her post was disturbing. Several teachers said that in their school or district there was a strong mandate to cut back on the teaching of literature. This is absurd, and nothing in the Common Core says there should be less literature. Indeed, if you look at reading across all subject areas, the amount of time devoted to teaching literature in the English class should be untouched.

But even more disturbing were several comments by a teacher in Arkansas named Jamie Highfill. Jamie is in her 11th year of teaching in the schools of Fayetteville, Arkansas. Her students have achieved outstanding results. According to her profile on the district home page, her students consistently outperform district and state averages, and 77% scored advanced in 2011-2012.

In 2011, she was selected as Arkansas’ Outstanding Middle Level English Language Arts Teacher by the Arkansas Council of Teachers of ELA.

Read her resume. The plaudits and commendations go on and on. She is also a veteran of the U.S. Navy in the Gulf War of 1991, where she won many medals for her achievements. She is a leader.

But here is the kicker, which I learned from the comments: This remarkably accomplished teacher has been placed on an “improvement plan.”

How is this possible?

Offline, I emailed Jamie and asked her why she was put in the doghouse. She replied:

I was told that I “failed to properly administer the first quarter writing assessment.” 
 
The “assessment” spanned eight class days, and was to coincide with the lengthy paper the students were required to write under the PARCC Content Model Frameworks.  My principal told me that my students’ papers were “unscoreable,” but I was never given the papers back, nor did anyone explain to me what “unscoreable” meant.  My principal also told me that she would have the district’s ELA facilitator meet with me to explain it.  She never did, but she said she told me that “this cannot happen again.”
 
For the second quarter’s writing “assessment” (which lasted twelve days), my students papers were flagged because they were “too similar,” and “too good.”  My principal told me during the meeting where she put me on improvement status that she was afraid my students were “going to finish the year behind.”
I guess it “happened again.”
 
I have Co-Directed the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project since my own Fellowship in 2004, and have taught writing workshops to my students every year, with the result that my students consistently score among the top students in my state, but standardized testing scores aside, I TEACH my students to write.  Now I’m being told that I cannot teach them to write during joint workshop-assessments.

We live in mean times. We live with laws and policies that are meant to break the spirit of students and teachers.

We must not comply with injustice. When a teacher like Jamie Highfill is told that she needs to be on an “improvement plan,” you know that her school, her district, her state is on the wrong track.

Categories Accountability, Administrators, superintendents, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Bobby Jindal’s Campaign to Smash Public Education in Louisiana

By dianeravitch
January 21, 2013 //
33

This day, set aside to honor the egalitarian message and life of Dr. Martin Luther asking Jr., is an appropriate time to consider the efforts by Governor Bobby Jindal to dismantle public education in Louisiana and replace it with a free market of choices, one with for-profit schools and no unions.

This plan will benefit the haves while harming the have-nots. It is an affront to the legacy of Dr. King. It will be implemented by people elected with the support of economic royalists. It is the work of elitists who shamelessly call themselves reformers as they grind the faces of the neediest into the dirt.

The Jindal plan includes vouchers, charters, for-profit online schools, and for-profit vendors, as well as a teacher evaluation that assures that few teachers will get or keep tenure. They will never have the protection of academic freedom, a concept unknown to corporate reformers.

Jindal’s state commissioner John White, who taught for two years as part of Teach for America and has never evaluated a teacher, says that the his standards will make it very difficult for teachers in Louisiana to win tenure.

In response to the new evaluation system, there is massive demoralization; the rate of teacher retirements has spiked by 25%. Superintendents say they are having a tough time replacing veteran teachers who are bailing out of White’s dystopian state.

Surely, teachers with years of experience in Louisiana public schools must think they are living in a madhouse, when the state superintendent has so little experience, and White has put the evaluation system in the hands of a 20-something with two years of teaching experience and an expired teaching license.

Meanwhile, John White has recommended a change in state board policy so that schools no longer will be “required” to have a librarian, a library or counselors. He wants the language to be changed to “recommended,” so that principals have the autonomy to decide if they want to spend their diminishing funds on a librarian or something else. Will this improve education?

Was it as a member of Teach for America or a member of the unaccredited Broad Academy that Commissioner White developed such contempt for public school teachers and American public education?

Here are the proposed changes:

Teachers, parents, and students need to know the proposed changes Superintendent John White is asking the BESE board to approve next Tuesday.

Two large changes will result in the possible removal of all counselors, librarians, and libraries.

Comprehensive Counseling (1125) no longer requires secondary schools to have counselors, only that “It shall be recommended that …” they have them. Libraries and Librarians (1705) have been reworded similarly: “It is recommended that each secondary school have [them]…” (All italics are mine.) This will allow school systems to eliminate these highly valuable and necessary individuals.

“Carnegie Unit and Credit Flexibility” (2314) allows students to earn credit in two ways. The traditional path involves passing a course with a 67 or greater. The new path is for students to demonstrate proficiency in one of three ways. 1) They can pass a nationally-recognized test, though no definition of such a test follows. 2) They can pass a locally developed test of proficiency, with, again, no definition following. 3) Lastly they can submit portfolios that meet a list of requirements to demonstrate proficiency. Students can now attend any amount of time they wish, because should they demonstrate proficiency, they can still earn the Carnegie credit.

This is only a sample of other changes.

  • · No school system is required to participate in a School Accreditation program (311) every five years and receive a classification.
  • · The school will no longer be sited for having staff not holding a valid Louisiana teaching certificate or for having physical facilities that “do not conform to the current federal, state, and local building fire, safety, and health codes.”
  • · One section (1103) states a high school student shall be in attendance a minimum of 167 days out of 182, but later Section 2314 says the minimum number of minutes required is 7,965, whic! h can be achieved in 159.3 days in a 7-period day, and in 133 days in a 6-period day.
  • · Section 2313 for Elementary Program of Studies (covering K-8) has been stripped of its suggested outline of content areas. Any school can design any curricula it deems appropriate.
  • · The section on Summer Schools (2501 and 2503) have been gutted of most of their requirements, including minimum instructional hours and class size limits.
  • · One person without a valid teaching certificate could teach hundreds of students in one class taught for one week if the school superintendent approves it.
  • · Section 1703 also allows local educational agencies to use state money to purchase textbooks that BESE has not approved.

Please contact the BESE board and strongly voice your objections to these proposed changes by Superintendent White and Governor Jindal.

No one could seriously believe those changes will improve education in Louisiana.

Vincent P. Barras, educator

Categories Corporate Reformers, Education Reform, Louisiana, Privatization, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

How Do You Answer This Teacher’s Question?

By dianeravitch
January 20, 2013 //
146

I am a strong supporter of the public schools and opposed to the “reform” movement attempting to privatize education. I didn’t find your article divisive. But, I do have a question that keeps coming up for me about some of the reasons why charters gain traction.

Charters benefit from the real and perceived impact of heterogeneous grouping upon the achievement of more prepared students. Similarly, they score points because public schools are less able to address and remove disruptive children. For these reasons, a diverse district with students from all socio-economic backgrounds is at risk for charter take over.

We complain that charters are skimming the top, we have to take all comers and we can’t cherrypick; we can’t dump the least school ready students. We wear it as a badge of honor; we’re a force for egalitarian education for all. We’re a place where all children come together to learn. Well, that’s great.

BUT… a parent who wants to limit negative influences or increase challenge of instruction may not care about the general mission if the impact of that mission upon their child is negative. I’m not sure we can stem the tide of charters when we use middle class children as social equalizers and consider the annual limitation upon their achievement and growth as an acceptable loss. That’s an insufficient mission. This makes public school less desirable for parents who have prepared, able children.

I understand why these parents want to flee classrooms when the books are two or three levels below grade and their children are rarely challenged in the school day. And, I understand why they get tired of being told that every need is met with skilled teachers who can differentiate. It’s not true. Differentiation is frequently insufficient in classrooms where the range of student skill base goes from 2nd grade to post high school.

If we are going to meet the challenges posed by privatizers, we need to look at what we’re doing with a clear eye. Research shows that the positive impact of heterogeneous grouping is on the social development for lower income students. It is a benefit.

In my experience, most students in a well constructed, heterogeneous classroom, headed by a teacher who is skilled share a common positive culture that makes it possible for students who might otherwise have few positive role models to grow. It has been my experience that a middle of the pack student will make academic gains if they are in a class that is challenging, but not too challenging.

However, it is also my experience that the lowest skill level student makes no progress in a heterogeneous setting and would benefit more from a homogeneous, small class with more focused and direct instruction. It is my experience that the middle top and top does not receive academic benefit from heterogeneous instruction. I don’t know of any study of heterogeneous grouping that shows a positive academic impact on above average students.

But, I do know that a homogeneous class of top of the middle and top students will make significant progress each year. We need to look at how to really challenge all of our students if we are going to compete with charters and private schools. We need to be willing to consider the cost of chronically disruptive students upon the efficacy of the regular classroom and the lack of alternatives for students to run their own race in our schools.

I don’t know what the answer is, but 25+ kids each period wait upon our ability to figure out what to do. If we don’t come up with solutions in the traditional public school setting, parents are going to opt out.

Categories Charter Schools, Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching

AFT Endorses Garfield Teachers’ Test Boycott

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2013 //
34

AFT Stands with Garfield High School Teachers

Washington—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued this message of support to Seattle’s Garfield High School teachers standing up against the use of high-stakes testing.

Dear Garfield High School Teachers:

Thank you. Thank you for taking a courageous stand against the fixation on high-stakes testing and its harmful impact on our ability to give our students the high-quality public education they deserve.

Your actions have propelled the national conversation on the impact of high-stakes testing. Every educator understands that appropriate assessments are an integral part of a high-quality education system. But an accountability system obsessed with measuring, which punishes teachers and schools, comes at a huge cost to children. This fixation on testing has narrowed our curriculums and deprived our students of art, music, gym and other subjects that enrich their minds and make learning fun. Teachers have been forced to spend too much time on test preparation and data collection, at the expense of more engaging instruction. Ironically, this fixation on high-stakes testing actually does the opposite of what its proponents tell us it will do.

Learning is more than a test score, and teaching and learning—not testing—should drive classroom instruction. We need to be focused on growing and nurturing the minds of our students—to ensure that they can think creatively and analytically. It’s no longer enough to teach kids to memorize a bunch of numbers and terms; they must think critically and be able to absorb and interpret knowledge. We must ensure that our children are able to not only dream their dreams but also achieve them. At the same time, we must prepare students for civic engagement and to value that we all have a collective responsibility to one another.

The AFT and tens of thousands of educators, parents and students stand with you in this effort. The AFT passed a resolution at our national convention last summer focused on rebalancing our national education priorities and ensuring that teaching and learning drive our education policies. And we are focused on uniting communities across the country around this issue.

Thank you for leading this conversation.

Randi Weingarten
AFT President

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Unions, Washington State

Will a Bar Exam Improve the Teaching Profession?

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2013 //
149

Randi Weingarten proposed a national bar exam for future teachers, and it stirred quite a reaction. Most worrisome is that the idea appeals to certain figures in the public eye who are known for making negative comments about teachers.

Some on this blog complained that Randi was echoing the corporate reformers’ complaint that teachers are the problem and must be blamed for the achievement gap, low scores, and every other issue.

But I’m inclined to agree with Randi that the profession needs higher entry standards or it will never get the respect it deserves.

One of the admirable aspects of Finnish education is that there are high standards for entry into teaching. Only 1 in 10 applicants is accepted into teacher education programs. Teachers have high prestige, as high as other professions. There is no Teach for Finland.

By contrast, many US states have low standards for entry into teaching and welcome teschers with little or no professional preparation. Growing numbers of teachers acquire their masters degree through dubious online “universities.”

I don’t think that a bar exam, by itself, will make much difference, although in the long run it may raise the prestige of the profession.

The question that must be faced is that any such exam is likely to have a disparate impact on minorities. The courts might even strike down an exam that excluded disproportionate numbers of black, Hispanic and Asian applicants. And there are unintended consequences; I am thinking of a story I read a year or two ago about a great music teacher, beloved by his students, who had to leave teaching because he could not pass the math section of the state test.

It’s always wise to look before you leap.

Categories Teachers and Teaching, Testing, U.S. education

Why Garfield Teachers Boycotted the MAP Test

By dianeravitch
January 18, 2013 //
16

Jesse Hagopian a teacher at Garfield High School in Seattle, explains why every teacher in the school voted to boycott the MAP test.

The teachers at Garfield are an inspiration to friends nd supporters of public education acros America.

They are champions of students, and they are already on the honor roll for their courage and heroism.

Categories Support for public schools, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Washington State
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