OK. Obama/Duncan/Gates School "Reform" Model: The results Are IN !!! Today's NYT: P. A1

[LWolf]

115. I'm going to have to make this one the last.

If you've got the time or its easy to do, I'd like any links to source material about these two teams and their work.

I could dig through files at work and probably find the name of at least the group working with my district. It's not likely to happen, though. Once I get to work I'm scrambling to get more done than time allows, knowing I'll be there for at least 10 hours, often 11, sometimes beyond that; I'm pretty single-minded and not likely to remember a spring break conversation on DU.

I'm not sure why you think that a teacher whose techniques have been validated by objective testing would be reluctant to share them.

1. "objective testing." We're not against objective testing, but at this time there is no such thing.

2. We aren't reluctant; it's setting us up to compete with each other that creates that reluctance. On our own, we share all the time.

3. There really isn't such a thing as the "star" teacher. There are teachers. Some are weaker, some are stronger, and, in general, every teacher has both strengths and weaknesses. Every teacher has something of value to share, and something that he or she can use help with improving.

4. For us, our students are individuals. It's all about the individual. When we talk about our students, we're sharing concerns, frustrations, and successes about individuals, not a whole group. While we might share something about the whole class..."I did this thing and they loved it!" Those tend to be about a lesson that went well. When we share concerns and frustrations, they are about specific students, and the strategies we share tend to be those that have worked with other individuals in our experience. We aren't referring to a list of interventions that have been statistically quantified, but to those that have been successful for some in the room. To think that any one strategy or method works with every student is nonsensical. To think that teaching, and teachers, can be limited to "either/or" polarized thinking is misleading, to say the least. Disciplinarians can be inspiring, or not. Not every teacher has to be a particular type of person to inspire. As a matter of fact, some students are more inspired by Teacher A, others by Teacher B, and still others by Teacher C. No teacher inspires everyone. Every teacher should be trying to build a positive working relationship with every student. Some students prefer disciplinarians, because the order feels safer to them. Others don't like toeing the line. The bottom line is that students are different. They don't all respond to the same thing the same way, or the same person the same way, which is why we bring experience to the table. We rely on our collective experience, which is different than something statistically quantified. We're trying to find a solution for an individual, who may or may not respond like the statistical norm.

Like these, standardized testing of student's educational attainment is a non-monetary, non-market measure of the success of our educational system.

Standardized tests do not measure the whole of a student's educational attainment. As a matter of fact, they don't measure much of it. They can be useful, when high-stakes are not attached, as a small part of a larger measurement system. The misuse of high-stakes standardized tests has led to LESS learning, as I've already illustrated.


If teachers don't think standardized testing is a fair and accurate way of evaluating their performance, then they have a professional responsibility to the public they serve to come up with a way that is mutually acceptable. If teachers don't take the initiative, they will eventually, one way or another, have one imposed on them.

A professional responsibility to the public? The public doesn't listen. We aren't at the table when those at the top are formulating evaluation policies. Oh, at the local level, we'll be included in meetings about evaluation procedures, but by that time, we are continually reminded that the feds and the state have already dictated what will be, and that we can decide how to comply, but we can't overturn those mandates.

Take the initiative? Who says we haven't? The fact that we don't have a voice with tptb doesn't mean that we haven't been speaking out, that we haven't been working on this all along. Nobody brings our ideas to the table.

In reality, coming up with a fair and accurate way to evaluate teachers' performance has not yet been done. Ideas? Yes. Ideas that work in practice? Not so much. Just a few of the ideas we've debated:

Parent and student surveys: If parents and students are happy with the teacher, that means the teacher is doing a good job, right? A good job at what? Building relationships that lead to successful learning, to creating a working partnership with the family. Those are important things. I guess you can measure it on a survey. But...what are the pitfalls? Disgruntled parents and students can use those surveys, not to give objective information, but as a weapon. Are there reasons why parents or students would be disgruntled with a good teacher? Sure. It happens all the time with some who don't like being held accountable for things like attendance, behavior, or work habits. Can some parents and students who love their teacher skew such surveys with overly positive responses, because the teacher is nice, and they like the classroom, regardless of whether or not students are learning what they should? Of course. Could parents use those surveys to punish or reward teachers based on their perception of a teacher's politics or faith or race? Of course.

Teacher portfolios: Like student portfolios to demonstrate learning in an alternate format, can teachers demonstrate proficiency with a portfolio? In part. A teacher's portfolio could contain things like outstanding lesson plans with notes about results and future modifications; student and parent communications; examples of efforts to differentiate for individual student needs; records of various professional work groups the teacher has led and participated in; evidence of collegial collaboration...of course, the time invested in creating and maintaining such a portfolio is extensive, and no district is likely to add that paid time into a teacher's contract.

Observations: The traditional observation is not effective, to say the least. Right now, across the country, districts are experimenting with numerous, "drop-in" (no advance notice) "mini" observations, which are compiled into a summative evaluation at the end of the year. I've seen this done well. As a matter of fact, I had an admin who did this back in the 90s, and it was my favorite kind of observation. He would just drop in whenever, at least a couple of times a month, sometimes more. He might stay for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour. He would participate and interact with students, ask questions about what was going on, write up his notes, and use those notes to write a several-page narrative about what he observed, strengths, weaknesses, and suggestions for improvement. The modern version is a little different. In those minis, there is...you guessed it. A checklist of things to look for. If they are there, you get a positive write-up. If they aren't, not so much. These are focused, not on the actual experience of students in the classroom, but of "objective, quantifiable" behavior on the part of the teacher. Things like whether or not standards are posted on the wall.

Peer observation: this is more useful as professional development than for evaluative purposes.d

There are others. All of them have some merit, and something that keeps it from being the ultimate answer. Here's one I like the best: Long-term data.

For example, my very small K-8 school tracks data after we send students to high school. Compared to the traditional large middle schools, our students have a higher gpa and a higher rate of graduation. Considering that we have the lowest SES and the highest percentage of sped students in our district, that's saying something. My students, despite the low SES and high sped count, by percentage, take more IB and AP classes than those students coming from other schools.

That's some data that has meaning for me, and for my school. The whole point is not to produce scores on a standardized test, but to prepare students for what comes next. Data that we've done that successfully, in the form of gpa, graduation rate, etc.. is valuable. Of course, a lot of what we do has nothing to do with standardized tests, and it's a group effort, so that makes it hard to use for the evaluation of individual teachers.

For individuals, until we have something better, I'd like to see student and parent surveys and observations, and observations of the type I experienced back in the 90s. The goal, for me, is to demonstrate that I'm doing my job. That job is to provide abundant opportunity to learn, and abundant support in the effort to learn. The learning itself is the student's job.