Archives for category: Teachers and Teaching
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Why Did David Letterman Invite Only TFA for Teacher Appreciation Week?

By dianeravitch
May 25, 2013 //
52

This teacher noticed with chagrin that David Letterman invited ten Teach for America teachers to deliver his top ten reasons for Teacher Appreciation week. Somewhat in Letterman’s defense, I have to say that the top ten reasons, which were mostly sardonic and cynical, did not reflect much credit on teachers or on the kids who delivered the lines.

I conclude that David Letterman saw no reason to express appreciation for teachers.

Our elites have gone bonkers. How else can you explain their fascination with young college graduates who agree to teach for only two years as the very best way to improve education? Their “sacrifice” is only temporary; soon they will be in graduate school or law school or working for Goldman Sachs, leaving behind their measly teacher pay.

How would our elites (talking to you, Charlie Rose, and to you, editorial boards and corporate chieftains) feel about handing foreign policy over to the recruits in the Peace Corps instead of the seasoned diplomats in the Foreign Service? The kids are alright, but why are they celebrated instead of celebrating the three million plus women and men who make a career of teaching?

Categories Teach for America TFA, Teachers and Teaching

Alabama Teacher of the Year: A Great Teacher Whose School Did Not Make AYP

By dianeravitch
May 24, 2013 //
14

Alison Grizzle was chosen as Alabama Teacher of the Year.

Read this article and watch the video and you will see why.

She teaches math at P.D. Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham.

She is a National Board Certified Teacher.

Her school did not make AYP.

The punitive, no-brain law called No Child Left Behind claims another victim.

NCLB is the Death Star of American education.

The sooner this killer law dies, the sooner our schools will be free to educate again.

And when it dies of its massive flaws, its insatiable desire to crush schools, Race to the Top should go too.

Categories Alabama, Education Reform, NCLB (No Child Left Behind), Race to the Top, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Are Teachers Overpaid? The Last Word Comes from Oklahoma

By dianeravitch
May 23, 2013 //
30

A few years ago, a study released by the American Enterprise Institute concluded that teachers are overpaid.

Not so, writes CNN contributor LZ Granderson. In this wonderful article, he shows the every day courage of teachers–most recently demonstrated when a devastating tornado hit an elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma, and last December when teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, died shielding their students.

Here is the AP story about the Oklahoma tornado, showing how quickly teachers protected their children.

When the think tank desk jockeys have long been forgotten, we will still remember our teachers.

Categories Budget Cuts, Teachers and Teaching

Teacher: The News from New Mexico

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2013 //
16

New Mexico is the state with an acting superintendent who previously worked for Jeb Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Remember, they love teachers. They just don’t respect them.

This teacher writes:

“Hey, in New Mexico we’re already being told that 50% of our evaluation will be student test scores. Then at our last staff meeting, we were told that all the gifted students were going to be place in one classroom. If our test scores don’t go up, we are out of a job after a 90 day growth plan. Forget compensation (we haven’t had a raise in 5 years, and it doesn’t look like there will be one this year either), we will just be unemployed.”

Categories Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching

Michigan’s Bad Ideas, In Step with Race to the Top

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2013 //
30

The most noxious element of President Obama’s Race to the Top is the requirement that teachers should be evaluated to a significant degree by the test scores of their students.

By now, there is a large body of research that shows that this is a very bad idea, that the rankings based on test scores say more about who was in the class than the quality of the teacher.

But the idea of evaluation by test scores has been taken up with delight by the farthest right-wing state legislatures, the latest being Michigan.

Michigan has one of those legislative bodies that devotes considerable time to figuring out what they can take away from public schools and public school teachers.

And so now there is a bill to tie teacher compensation directly to test scores.

We know how this will end:

Teachers will teach to the test.

Schools will narrow the curriculum only to what is tested.

Some desperate teachers and/or administrators will cheat.

Some schools and superintendents will find ways to game the system.

Teachers will avoid the students who might drag down their rankings.

Some fine teachers will be fired because they taught the most challenging students.

Teachers will be demoralized by the abasement of their profession.

The only one who will look on these events with pleasure will be the architects of Race to the Top.

This is what they wanted.

And if they didn’t want it, they should stop it now. Admit their error.

How sad.

Categories Education Reform, Michigan, Teacher Evaluations, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

Why Does Experience Matter in Every Field But Teaching?

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2013 //
36

Responding to other comments, this teacher sent the following:

“Experience isn’t all its cracked up to be”?????? Tell that to a surgery patient.”

“Or just try saying that about the chef in a restaurant.

“After spending much of my career teaching a lot of people who thought they already knew how to teach because they spent years in classrooms as students, I cringed when I heard people like Oprah and Martha Stewart say they believe they are teachers.

“It’s a whole different ball game when you are performing and don’t need to know anything about the people in your audience, let alone interact with each one of them daily and promote their physical, cognitive and social-emotional development.

“Not to mention TFA and all the other non-educator “reformers,” out to dictate policies in our field, who think that neither experience nor formal training are necessary in education.

“Thinking you know how to teach because you were a student is like spending every day eating at your mom’s kitchen table and then declaring that you have become a master chef.

“Is there any other field people say that about –no experience or training necessary– and so easily get away with it??”

Categories Teachers and Teaching

Uri Treisman’s Powerful Speech on Equity to NCTM

By dianeravitch
May 21, 2013 //
10

Uri Treisman of the Dana Center at the University of Texas spoke about mathematics and equity at the annual NCTM meeting in Denver.

But he spoke about much more. He spoke about student performance on international tests; about the effect of poverty on achievement; about opportunity to learn; about the Common Core; about charter schools; about VAM.

Many who saw his speech said it was the best they had ever heard.

Please watch it. You will be glad you did.

Categories Charter Schools, Common Core, Curriculum, Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, Poverty, Teachers and Teaching, Testing, Texas

Rhode Island Board Chair Defends Status Quo

By dianeravitch
May 20, 2013 //
14

Eva-Marie Mancuso, chair of Rhode Island’s state education board, passionately defends the status quo.

Over the protests of parents, students, and teachers, Mancuso supports high-stakes testing. Despite overwhelming evidence from researchers that evaluating teachers by test scores is inaccurate, unstable, and demoralizing, Mancuso wants more. Despite the protests of student leaders across the state, Mancuso insists that standardized tests–the NECAP–should be a graduation requirement.

A recent poll of teachers found that 85% oppose a new contract for the state superintendent Debirah Gist. Mancuso doesn’t care. Gist is a member of Jeb Bush’s hard rightwing Chiefs for Change, which includes the most conservative, test-loving, privatizing superintendents in the nation.

Gist was the superintendent who wanted to fire every teacher and staff member at Central Falls High School in 2010 because test scores were low. No teacher or staff member had been evaluated.

Mancuso is prepared to stand and fight for the status quo.

Categories Privatization, Race to the Top, Students, Teachers and Teaching, Testing

When Can I Start Teaching Again–Instead of Testing?

By dianeravitch
May 19, 2013 //
13

This writer teaches in Pennsylvania. He wants to know when he will have time to teach again. He says about some 40 days of the school year are now devoted to testing. His students plead with him to know when will they have a “regular” day again? When will they have a day when he is teaching and they are learning?

When will our legislators figure out that testing is not teaching? That test scores do not go up because of taking more tests? That children don’t learn more when they get more testing and less instruction?

Categories Education Reform, Teachers and Teaching

Miami: Are These Fears the Reality?

By dianeravitch
May 19, 2013 //
15

A teacher in Miami asks these questions. Can you answer and help us understand?

“I am writing out of anxiety and fear .. I have been a bit down for a year, I realize I may have to switch careers or move to another state.

“I could be wrong but I feel the greatest school reformation in the US is occurring in Miami-Dade county public schools.

“Miami-Dade is the 4th largest district in the country (392 schools, 345,000 students and over 40,000 employees). Miami-Dade has a WEAK union (right to work state)… The union is so weak, it feels as if the union is part of the school system.

“Miami insights

– teachers contribute 3% of our salary for retirement
– salary tied to Testing
– VAM
– weak union
– Eli Broad award
– Common Core
– $1.2 new technology bond (My fear, Bill Gates’ cameras will soon be in the classroom.)
– charter schools/ virtual schools
– 11,000 new immigrant students a year, 68,000 esol .
– financially, it is difficult for teachers to make ends meet … Miami is an expensive city, I wonder if some teachers are on Food Stamps and or have lost their homes — our salary scale is shocking
http://salary.dadeschools.net/Schd_Teachers/

***( I have been teaching 14 years but I am on step 11 due to frozen salaries ($42,128) , I just advanced a step, $300, which the school system considered a raise ( it was a step)….. No cost of living expense was factored in)

– the school system pays for teachers health insurance but high out of pocket expenses (Dr visits, prescriptions are VERY high, I pay an additional $2,400 a year with dental & vision) .

What do you see happening in Miami Dade County public schools??

Are my fears a reality???”

Categories Corporate Reformers, Florida, Teacher Evaluations, Teacher Tenure, Teachers and Teaching, Unions
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