The new world of NCLB, testing and charter schools
Take a look at an Ed Week story on No Child Left Behind. The story discusses research presented at a meeting of the Washington-based Urban Institute’s National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research. Among the findings:
- The law has given schools incentive to leave the worst- and best-scoring students behind and concentrate on students in the middle.
- Schools with subgroups of Hispanic or black students were more likely to not meet AYP and lose experienced teachers after the failure to meet AYP is made public.
While many educators hoped that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan would temper the federal role in education, their new Race to the Top initiative uses federal dollars to force the hand of states.
The $4.3 billion in grants — part of the economic stimulus package — come with strings. The White House wants states to increase charter schools and link student test scores to teacher evaluations.
According to the pending US DOE rules, states seeking the grants cannot have “‘barriers to linking data on student achievement or student growth to teachers and principals for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation.”
Gerald Bracey, a former director of research, evaluation and testing for the Virginia Department of Education and an Obama supporter, wrote on his blog: “States are rolling over and playing dead on this issue because a) they are desperate for money and b) it is unlikely that people like Bloomberg or the Governator — or Duncan — have a clue about the abuse they are permitting.
“Duncan’s enthusiastic championing of a “reform” that has been shown not to work very well — charter schools — can only be taken as an instrument for union busting. If the NEA and AFT won’t stand up to this abuse of testing, they deserve to be busted.”
However, in speaking to the nation’s governors, Duncan said, “I understand that teachers are concerned about the fairness of performance pay. I share those concerns — but I am confident that if we sit down with the unions — instead of forcing it on them — we can find ways to reward excellence in the classroom,” he said.
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29 comments Add your comment
Professor X
August 17th, 2009
3:36 pm
I think we definitely should have a data base that can show students’ performance based on schools, teachers, and teacher education programs. What are we afraid of?
The Sarge
August 17th, 2009
3:59 pm
Let’s take a few hard looks at that which has become the (laughing stock) education model of the world:
1) No Child Left Behind…HOGWASH (for lack of a more-pointed term). Kids are kids for a relatively brief time, barely enough time to fit into that 12-year educational pipeline. Historically, it’s been a sink-or-swim approach to basic education…you either “get it” somewhere in that 12 year period, or you are relagated to the menial labor side of life (which is, incidentialy, still in high demand by our society).
2) Today’s teachers seem to be a brain-washed bunch, more-than willing to work free of charge while billions of tax-funded stimulus go into the craziest causes. Cash for Clunkers…one of too many examples…is nothing more than another bailout for the auto industry. The general public will not see one shred of “social” benefit, in the form of enhanced efficiency. A driving public, accostomed to operating motor vehicles in manners not at all in line with safety nor with efficiency will simply have newer vehicles, “compliments” of the American Taxpayer, to operate in the same stupid manners that caused them to get rid of the so-called clunkers in the first place.
By working in a “gratis status”, all they do is encourage our idiot leaders to depend on their/teachers’ fears and false senses of professionalism in order to deal with a rotten budget made so, in no small part, by their/legislators/educational leaders’ own mismanagement. All-the-while, these very same people show absolutely no willingness to share in the economic pain they so flippanly foist upon the educators of Georgia.
Bottom line: More action; less whining. If kids can’t hack it, send em to work. Lower the age at which kids can earn a buck and let em find out for themselves what the value of an education really is. If they want a GED after their 18th, they can pay for it.
Meanwhile, educators need more “guts” in dealing with a system which, on one hand, praises the values of education, but is not willing to pay the price. They have to walk the walk…talking the talk will simply not do.
What’s it gonna be?
Sarge
Dragonlady
August 17th, 2009
4:01 pm
What we are afraid of is begin held responsible for something we cannot control–a fact which is true now, but at least our pay is not attached.
I teach mostly gifted and AP students. However, I have taught at the other end of the scale, so I know how hard it is to produce improvement scores in students who can’t read, who hate school, who come to school from horrible home situations. A teacher can knock himself out all day long 180 days a year, work a great deal harder than I am doing now with my students who love to read and learn, and yet not be rewarded for excellence in the classroom.
I just don’t see how pay for performance can be done fairly. I am open to it, but doubtful.
Dragonlady
August 17th, 2009
4:03 pm
Sorry, guys! “Being,” not begin! The typo gremlin at work again.
Evil Old English Teacher
August 17th, 2009
6:06 pm
Dearest Sarge,
Eloquent and truthful words bring joy to my old crusty heart. Thank you for a moment of truth in a world filled with hogwash.
Sincerely,
Evil Old English Teacher
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
7:00 pm
Sarge,
Perhaps they could practice standing up right here and demand some accountability from the AJC in the exact same way the AJC has demanded accountability from teachers.
I have posed a question, a tough question, but nonetheless a legitimate, valid question about the AJC’s editorial board’s education stances for Maureen to answer.
Unfortunately we have not had an answer to this point, even though multiple posters and even the AJC’s very own Ken Foskett agree that it is a legitimate, valid question to ask.
It begs the question if you aren’t willing to be accountable to the readers who pay your salary, by what moral and ethical standard can you then call on teachers to be more accountable to the taxpayers who pay their salary?
Maureen, you came on here with a promise to be more interactive with readers. You lamented earlier today about the back and forth bantering, that you implied devalued the blog but when you have been presented with a legitimate question, a question that arose from a education reformer that you made the topic of one of your blogs, and you make a conscious choice not to answer it, have you not devalued the blog yourself?
In essence, since multiple posters have agreed the question is a good one, and your very own colleague has said so as well, is it not fair to say that you have violated your own covenant with readers as far as engaging in honest, forthright dialogue?
yawn
August 17th, 2009
7:25 pm
yawn…
History1
August 17th, 2009
7:29 pm
If you want to make teachers accountable for test scores then allow them to give every student a pre-test on the first week, record the scores and let them take the same test at the end of the year.
BABY SAY...
August 17th, 2009
8:13 pm
METRICK—–U IS RIGHT. I WAKE FER DA ANSER TO. DUCKIN DUKCIN DUCKIN NOTT WONT TOO ANSER !!!
Camille
August 17th, 2009
9:02 pm
How may times do we have to see the same thing posted in this blog? If Maureen decides to answer the ‘question’, then so be it. If not, then so be it. Trying to force her to answer it and annoying others in the process (in essence, throwing a temper tantrum) will not result in anyone getting their way.
Anotherteacher
August 17th, 2009
9:27 pm
Do you people really want to know what is wrong with education in Georgia? Fine. I shall tell you. I spend my planning periods doing paperwork for my superintendent (who came from another state, is collecting retirement from that other state, and getting over $150,000 a year from this state) to prove to him that I am a busy teacher trying to educate my students. The leaders from the state department have said that that paperwork is no longer required since it takes away from our planning but! Our superintendent says we will do it or he can replace us. I do the paperwork because I am a single mother who can’t afford to lose my job. After spending an hour on one week’s lesson plan (I must follow his guidelines or be replaced), I must plan for my students. We are told we must do one lab a week. That would be fine if we didn’t have several teachers sharing one science lab room. And, there is no prep room so no safe storage.
If there is a special needs students, a non-English speaking student, or a student with a physical or psychological problem, I will get that student because my classes are geared toward the lower level learner. I don’t mind having the lower functioning students. But, that is more paperwork. I must document what each and every child in one of those categories has done to show progress in my class. And, I must make certain those children get to participate in lab. Heaven forbid their civil rights be denied. Better to have the building go up in flames than tell a child, “No.” (Thank you, NCLB.)
Plus, if there are any modifications to a test or work sheet, I have to make those modifications. And, I must faithfully follow any special guidelines for that child. If a child with special needs wants to have a screaming fit in class and a psychologists says it is OK, guess what?!
This year, we must make and keep a portfolio on each child we teach. We must access that student’s test scores and write plans for helping that student excel in his or her academic career.
Now, we are a standards based state. I must post each standard everyday. The students, if stopped by an administrator and asked, must quote, word for word, that standard. If they can’t, I get called in for a meeting to discuss the short comings of my teaching and I must go for remedial training.
Teaching, yeah,I miss teaching. That one thing I don’t get to do anymore due to all of the paperwork.
Gwinnett citizen
August 17th, 2009
9:29 pm
MAM, while I can appreciate that you feel the need to keep Maureen on her toes, don’t you think you are overdoing it just a tad? Your ceaseless badgering is beginning to sound more like a rant. While I enjoyed your posts last week, now you sound like a broken record and are losing credibility. You have got to come up with a less annoying way of making your point.
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
9:31 pm
Camille,
Here are some reasons that make it legitimate to keep posting the question.
1) Maureen herself implied she was willing to engage in open and honest dialogue with what, in essence, are the people who pay her salary. If she’s going to avoid a tough, yet even in the eyes of her peers question, how can she have any credibility on topics of concern?
2) The mental and physical well being of those with whom we entrust our students is a legitimate issue. That this very paper has documented cases of teacher abuse, up to and including physical assault, where school systems have been alleged to not be in full support of the teacher, or for that matter compliance with state law, makes it all the more reason that one should question the editorial board’s stance, or more to the point, lack of stance.
3) It’s a question of ethics and morality. How can a newspaper call for more accountability for teachers, when it, or its agents, won’t hold themselves accountable to the public?
4) Multiple posters, and most notably a high ranking member of the AJC’s staff, Opinion Editor Ken Foskett, agree that it’s a legitimate question, one that deserves an answer.
If we are to, as a free society, are to take the role of the Fourth Estate seriously, then don’t we as citizens have the same obligation to monitor the Fourth Estate as the Fourth Estate has to monitor our government and elected officials?
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
9:44 pm
Gwinnett citizen,
Please advise! Seriously, please advise. How should this be handled? I do not think we are going to get an honest and forthright answer, one that the readers of this blog, teachers, and education supporters of this state deserve, unless the pressure is kept up.
Do you think Nixon would have just come clean, if Woodward and Bernstein had given just given it a rest? Locally, do you think the school officials who cheated on the CRCT would have come clean if the AJC reporters hadn’t kept the pressure on them with multiple stories?
Should we allow the AJC editorial board, which during Maureen’s tenure-no pun intended-frequently took teachers to task and demanded more accountability to themselves have no accountability to the readers they claim to be courting with this blog with their promise of open and honest dialogue.
How else, Gwinnettt citizen, does one keep the pressure on, other than, keeping the pressure on?
mdowney
August 17th, 2009
9:56 pm
Gwinnett citizen. I appreciate being kept on my toes – I never could in ballet class.
As to MAM, I feel like I have addressed your points, not only here but in conversations I believe we have had on this very same issue. (I believe similar conversations have also been had with other reporters.)
Here’s the short form so I don’t bore everyone else on this blog: I do not share your view of what the most pressing problems are in Georgia education. I see no data to support your statements and don’t believe it is because teachers are too scared to come forward. I have had countless off-the-record discussions with teachers about all sorts of problems. I have not found teachers to be reluctant to speak out when they perceive injustice.
And my job as an editorial writer was not to defend teachers, as you seem to believe.
It was to write about education policy though a single lens – what can Georgia do to improve student learning?
Whether writing about schools or child welfare, my focus was on the kids in the system, not the adults. The adults can speak for themselves, as the posters to this blog aptly demonstrate every day.
Cheers, Maureen
American
August 17th, 2009
9:57 pm
I support charter schools…there are a few bad apples to be sure, but there are many who are doing great things for their students.
Old Physics Teacher
August 17th, 2009
9:58 pm
Guys, guys, guys!
This whole situation is of our own making. We have shot ourselves in the foot! Too many teachers have closed their eyes and passed students that did not learn the required information because said teacher had a big heart and just couldn’t bring themselves to fail a student. That needs to stop, and I am fully behind it. That statement being said…
I have no problem with being held accountable for my actions. Unfortunately, how many students pass my class is outside of my control. Learning is an individual event. No one else can learn for you no matter what school bureaucrats and PAGE officials (read administrators) say.
If I teach a student, and they achieve a grade of 62 and make between a 50 to a 70 on the EOCT, then I have done a good job. If I teach a student, and they achieve a grade of 82, and they score between a 70 and a 90 on the EOCT, again I have done a good job. Only if I teach the student, and they achieve a “respectable” passing grade while failing the EOCT bigtime, have I failed as a teacher.
I repeat ad nausium (because the education establishment [and I include the moderator of this blog] ignore this simple fact): I am accountable ONLY for MY actions; I am NOT accountable for my students’ and/or their parents’ actions. I am responsible for my actions, and if I screw up, I need to be held accountable.
Oh, and by the way, we’re not alone here. Other businesses also hold their middle management (which is what teachers are) responsible for someone else’s actions. Examples include GM, Chrysler, AIG, and many, many banking institutions. Notice what’s happening to them.
American
August 17th, 2009
10:01 pm
For example, in APS, last I checked, a school can only hire a position that has been officially approved by the district, regardless of need.
Charter schools don’t have to deal with this nonsense. This is why we need reform.
Old Physics Teacher
August 17th, 2009
10:11 pm
Maureen,
OK, I’ll bite. What is the most pressing problem(s) of education if not the individual student’s motivation to learn? What “research” have you seen/read/heard-about that states anything other than the individual is responsible for their learning? For 4 years, I had access to a university library’s every online database. During that time I read online most every journal article on educational motivation that has been been published in the last 30 years. Nowhere have I seen any “credible” evidence that contradicts Deci or Ryan’s statement that the individual is responsible and not the educator.
Seen it all
August 17th, 2009
10:23 pm
Maureen,
You stay on the blog too much!!! You’re getting your buttons pushed. Get a cup of coffee and play some solitaire. People are going to have you “twittering” on this thing soon. Or is it “tweeting”? I don’t do either.
mdowney
August 17th, 2009
10:31 pm
Seen it all. I can’t tweet as I can’t say anything in less than 140 words. Nor do I drink coffee but this blog may get me started.
Old PHysics Teacher. Certainly, a better, more motivated class of students would make teaching easier. But you do not address a teacher’s power to motivate students, to turn a lackluster learner into a passionate one. I would suggest that these studies speak to the power of strong teachers.
Students Assigned to Effective Teachers Dramatically Outperformed Students Assigned to Ineffective Teachers:
Source: William L. Sanders and June C. Rivers, Cumulative and Residual Effects of Teachers on Future Students Academic Achievement, University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center, 1996.
Students Who Start 3rd Grade at About the Same Level of Math Achievement
Finish 5th Grade Math at Dramatically Different Levels Depending on the Quality of Their Teachers
Source: Heather Jordan, Robert Mendro, and Dash Weerasinghe, The Effects of Teachers on Longitudinal Student Achievement, 1997.
“Most countries have at some point attempted to improve their schools. While some have succeeded, many have not. One explanation for failure is simply that insufficient attention has been paid to teacher quality. Estimated differences in annual achievement growth between an average and a good teacher are large. Within one academic year, a good teacher can move a typical student up at least four percentiles in the overall distribution (equal to a change of 0.12 standard deviations of student achievement). In fact, a string of good teachers can erase the deficits associated with poor preparation for school. The problem is that hiring good teachers is not easily achieved. Teaching ability is not closely related to training or experience. Moreover, most teacher salary systems do not reward high-quality teachers.”
Eric Hanushek, Stanford, Why Quality Matters in Education 2005
ScienceTeacher671
August 17th, 2009
10:36 pm
Old Physics Teacher, at the risk of being accused of being you, I totally agree with your statements about student motivation. “You can lead a horse to water….”
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
10:39 pm
Finally, we have a response! Now you guys see why I was persistent.
So Maureen, bottom line, you don’t think discipline is a “pressing issue” in education in Georgia? And your so convinced that it’s not a “pressing issue” that you justify it not being mentioned even once.
In close to a decade?
I wonder how many teachers out there share your view?
In fact, I would love for teachers out there that share your view to please post your reasons why discipline, and the support or lack of support thereof isn’t even a topic worthy of being addressed.
Not once.
In close to a decade.
Please teachers, please share with us why discipline isn’t a “pressing issue” even though the AJC has made it a major story multiple times with stories of the widespread sweeping of even violent incidents under the rug by school systems, and stories of teacher abuse including violent physical assaults where teachers have alleged their legal rights were violated.
Hopefully teachers out there will counsel these reporters, tell them that these front page stories are not “pressing issues” and that they should focus on truly “pressing issues” like allowing peace activists to come to the schools. In this regard, Get Schooled gets in right when it comes to “pressing” right?
Sure only 11 people commented just like only 11 commented on the oh so important Student Advisory Council of Kathy Cox.
But I trust that the teachers who read this board will be quick to explain why these are more “pressing” issues than the support of the classroom teacher.
Explain away!
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
11:08 pm
Well if we’re going to cite research:
The New York City Teaching Fellows program is a program that has a reputation of attracting so called “top candidates” to teaching.
Yet a 2003 study showed that only 62% of the fellows from 2000 were still in the program.
Exit surveys completed in 2003 indicated a full 50% left due to discipline problems, 29% left due to lack of student motivation and up to 30% left due to poor administrative leadership.
You have a program noted for taking only the best and the brightest; 38% left within three years, and exit surveys showed that 50% of those who left cited discipline.
No word on if any of that was considered “pressing” though.
maureen's accountability metric
August 17th, 2009
11:24 pm
Seen It All,
Do you think it was wrong to “push buttons” until a response was garnered? Now that Maureen has been kind enough to give a response, at least we have a framework to debate, for purposes of this blog, what is and what isn’t a “pressing” educational issue.
Who knows, maybe this well bring back, by popular demand, the Student Advisory Council of Kathy Cox, and how they are a, if not the, seminal influence in shaping educational policy in Georgia.
Maybe they should rename it the “Pressingingly Important” Student Advisory Council.
Perturbed
August 18th, 2009
5:25 am
MAM, who ever said Maureen was the oracle of all educational topics? She’s smart, has some great points, but the paradigm of look for one leader is a wrong one. Read “Here Comes Everybody” sometime.
My two bits on the topic:
Some tests are necessary as an evaluation tool, to discover what needs to be done. When’s the last time you went to a doctor, and he just randomly flipped you a prescription (unless you’re a Hollywood actor in need of Oxycontin).
I feel Charter schools might see more success is in ownership: when a new school starts, especially one that has the focus of a community’s mission, there is almost always more participation, more involvement, more ownership, and more effort to succeed. How can we get our sleeping dinosaur schools and systems back to community ownership? It’s hard to feel a part of a 160,000 student group.
Gwinnett citizen
August 18th, 2009
7:52 am
I believe it was Dr. Trotter who suggested that Maureen spend some time in some of Atlanta’s “rougher” schools to expand her horizons. There are plenty of schools out there where student discipline problems are not a pressing issue, but as bloggers on this board will attest, disruptive and disrespectful students are crippling the ability of teachers to teach and the other students to learn in a huge number of GA schools.
Reality 2
August 18th, 2009
10:59 am
MAM,
So, 50% of 38% left the profession because of discipline problems. That’s 19% of the teachers (in that group). It’s not a small number, but not a huge one either. Moreover, what do all of those reasons mean? “discipline problems” may be in part that those teachers didn’t have the skills. “lack of motivation” — did those teachers somehow end up with disproportionally large number of unmotivated students? Or, what was that those 19% couldn’t deal with that other 81% could?
Your statistics seems to be pretty much meaningless in this context.
Tony
August 18th, 2009
7:15 pm
17 years ago when my kids went to preschool, the teachers always had an end-of-year program. They included some ridiculous song that repeated the verses. Between each verse the kids would yell, “Same song, second verse. A little bit louder and a little bit worse.”
Duncan and Obama are completely unable to back up any of the claims they make regarding education – and the claims are many and false. Bracey tries to debunk the garbage the politicians and business leaders put out, but the media seems to love the “crisis” mentality rather than the sane and evidence-based information from people like Gerald Bracey.
Brand new information available today shows that Washington DC’s public schools are outperforming the charter schools. Has this made a headline yet? Charter schools are a major component to the Race to the Top load of BS being shovelled down our throats from Washington. And just like Cash for Clunkers, the American people are falling for it.
Anything that comes down from the Feds is loaded with strings. Why do we keep falling for the same old tricks?