New York releases teacher ratings today, but cautions against drawing conclusions. Then, why release them?

How long before we see such idiocy here in Georgia?

It seems like they had the data, flawed as it is, and didn’t know what to do with it. Wonder how much money they spent on the “database” used to compile it?

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The releasing of data without a proper analysis only substantiates the reality that our educational system is too political and not structured for continuous improvement. While scores tied to teacher performance are necessary, it is only valid if the score reflect appropriate growth thereby giving teachers credit for the progress made by the student while assigned to the teacher or by placing blame most appropriately if the data suggests that the student regressed or did not make progress while assigned to the teacher. Most importantly is the use of the data to ascertain what content the students did not master while assigned to the teacher, possibly indicating what areas of professional development are needed by the teacher. Clearly, we need an informed population of parents and consumers. Then and only then will they interpret the data most appropriately and come to the right conclusions. When the overall population cannot analyze data and make justifiable conclusions, it may be a most appropriate indictment on our educational system and our teachers in particular. I need to review the data and analyze it before I can make a valid conclusion of what it may infer or even suggest. I encourage all to do so if you are so skilled or inclined to do so. If not skill, call your teachers and ask them why.

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Maureen,

NYC is releasing the data because it was ordered to. After newspapers requested the records and then sued to get a ruling, New York’s courts ruled that the “TDR” database comprised public records under state law.

It should be stated that former Chancellor (Cowboy?) Joel Klein was in favor of releasing the data, no matter the flaws, while the current chancellor sees the problems with doing so. But a court order is a court order…

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The data are riddled with errors. I mean, even the people who created the value added assessment are cautioning about how it is used. There’s an article on HuffPo about this, and one of the teacher is quoted as saying that he takes time to teach his kids how to write a research paper. Because of that, they don’t score as high on the Regents exam as they could, but when they get to college, they are more prepared for actual college work than some of their peers who scored higher on the Regents because they were given more test prep. Now, on paper, the teachers who do test prep appear to be “more effective”, but which kids got a better education? And isn’t that the point?

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And, isn’t SOMEONE going to always be in the bottom 5%? I mean, it’s not Lake Woebegone. Not everyone is above average.

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You mean that people want to mistreat teachers? Color me shocked….

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From a link within the “SchoolBook” link above, entitled,”Value added assessments”:

“A computer predicts how a group of students will do in next year’s tests using their scores from the previous year and accounting for several factors, like race, gender and income level. If the students surpass the expectations, their teacher is ranked at the top of the scale — ‘above average’ or ‘high’. . . .”

=======================================================

I see both negatives and positives from this data evaluation of teachers. One significant positive is that teachers will probably more readily recognize that they must instruct every student where he or she is specifically functioning in order for the student to achieve maximum growth. Thus, teachers will find ways to insure that differentiated instruction is occurring within their classrooms.

In terms of a negative that I noticed, I have analyzed the value-added-assessment model, in detail, and I see no reference to the individual student’s IQ data. I recognize that even to mention the use of IQ scores is uncomfortable; however, I believe that that variable in data assessment must also be broached, if the assessment of teacher effectiveness and of students’ maximum growth for a given year, is to be completely valid. Here’s why:

A student with a below average IQ may have been instructed very well to have increased only 7 months, in a particular curriculum area, in a 12 month time period. However, a student who scored in the gifted range of IQ, and who only increased 1.6 years in a 12 month time period, may not have been instructed well. Based on the gifted student’s innate potential level, perhaps he should have progressed 2.8 years of growth, for a year’s time period, instead of only 1.6 years.

I recognize that the value-added-assessment formula measures not only the student’s progress for the current year, but it measures, also, the probability of the student’s progress based on how much that student had progressed for the past three to five years, on the average, for each year. Thus, if the student achieves less than that average amount of progress for his present year, his present teacher could be rated as a poor instructor. (Other factors, such as a principal’s evaluation through observation are, also, considered.)

However, here is the catch. I was taught, as a graduate student, that if a student is reading within two years of his grade level, that he will be able to function in the reading requirements for that grade level. This means that if a 7th grade student is reading on 5th grade level that he will be able to function in the material for the 7th grade, but if he is reading on 4th grade level or below, in 7th grade, then he will not be able to function on 7th grade material.

Now, in considering the variable of IQ score, Johnny has scored in the IQ range of 83 to 88 for several years. That means that he is probably below average in his innate potential. One could, then, reasonably expect Johnny to grow 7 months in a 12 month period. Let’s say Johnny is in 2nd grade and he is reading on grade level 1.5 which is sufficient for him to function in 2nd grade. Next, he enters 3rd grade and he is reading on 2.2 grade level, having grown 7 months in 2nd grade. Johnny should still be able to learn and grow in 3rd grade because he is not reading more than two years behind 3rd grade level. So, he grows another 7 months in 3rd grade, with good instruction, based on his potential.

Now, we have Johnny in 4th grade and he has advanced in his reading skills to 2.9 grade level, which is within the two year cut off point for being able to master the curriculum for 4th grade. Next year, Johnny is in 5th grade and, having advanced 7 months in a year, he is reading on 3.6 grade level, but he can still cope. The next year, in 6th grade, Johnny is only reading on 4.3 grade level which is barely sufficient for coping with 6th grade material. In 7th grade, Johnny is only reading on 5.0 grade level, and he just barely passes his classes, but he does pass to 8th grade. In 8th grade, he reading on 5.7 grade level. Each year, then, from 2nd grade to 8th grade, Johnny has made his maximum progress which was, based on potential, 7 months of growth for a year’s work.

Johnny has been promoted to 8th grade because he passed 7th grade curriculum, but he is only reading on 5.7 grade level in the 8th grade, or more than two years behind his grade level. Therefore, although his 8th grade teacher may be a good teacher, Johnny may not advance 7 months in the 8th grade, as before, because he will have been taught on his frustration level during his 8th grade year. Johnny’s teacher was not aware of his IQ scores, nor of his academic developmental history, which had shown how he finally reached an academic frustration point in his 8th grade school year. In fact, Johnny may even regress in his reading skills in 8th grade because he will have spent a year being taught on his frustration level. At the end of his 8th grade year, his reading level may only be 5.5 grade level. When he entered 8th grade, his reading level was 5.7 grade level. His teacher is surprised that she received a poor rating based on Johnny’s 2 months’ regression in his standardized test scores. After all, his previous years’ scores had shown that Johnny could be expected to advance at least 7 months in a year’s time. His teacher does not know why he regressed by 2 months since she had tried so hard to help him grow. Johnny does enter 9th grade, however, because he (barely) passed most of his classes even though he regressed in his standardized reading scores, but now he is only reading on grade level 5.5 in 9th grade, or 3 and 1/2 years behind grade level – a perfect candidate for drop-out status. If teachers had made wise and prudent use of Johnny’s IQ scores, as well as spending time assessing his developmental history, they might have analyzed his unique needs more wisely, earlier, and they might have provided him with the remediation he needed earlier, even though he was advancing “according to how he had advanced previously.”

A factor of data so vital as IQ must be weighed, along with curriculum standardized pretest and posttest scores, in order to assess accurately both teachers’ instruction and students’ needs.

IQ is a variable that should be weighed within value-added-assessments, in addition to the named criteria, above, of “race, gender, and income,” in order to have a fuller understanding of each student’s potential. Of course, there are IQ variations within every race and ethnic group, within both genders, and within all income levels. IQ data is one additional source of data information which gives a more complete instructional analysis. Students’ IQ scores should be handled discreetly, and certainly IQ scores should never be published.

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Truth Today- are you aware of the main designer of these value added assessment algorithms has questioned the use of them. Are you aware of the margin of error of above 70% for both the math and the english exams? Educating ourselves with useless data is not educating ourselves. In no more gives information for formulating opinions and options than if I told you that gas prices for the next month will be based on a formula that is 70% WRONG all the time. How would it be if our economies based our budgets on that faulty input? How many household budgets would be adequately served by being dished misinformation like that. Margin of errors so high means it is not information at all and doesn’t even constitute data- throwing darts at numbers on the wall would likely result in more consistent results than these published results.

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The “value-added” approach based on student test scores may have some validity in evaluating a teacher’s performance, but it is limited even if the data is not flawed. Without many classroom observations by trained professionals from outside the system, teacher evaluation will remain bogus. Real learning isn’t like “piece work” on an early 20th century assembly line. The “value added” approach is simply trying to evaluate (or give the appearance of evaluating) on the cheap. Pure politics.

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we need to see ratings for newspaper employees.

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The problem that I see is not the school district putting out the scores, but the parents for not realizing that a child’s test scores aren’t how a teacher should be evaluated and should demand a better evaluation tool. Everyone gets evaluated on their job. These evaluations aren’t always “fair.” However, there needs to be accountability across the board in education (teachers, teacher aides, administrators at all levels), and there are much better ways to do this evaluation. These evaluations should not be made public, but should be used to get rid of teachers and others working in the field of education who do not belong.

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If you have cancer, do not go to an oncologist. Go see a family practice physician. The overall patient death rate for a family practice physician is lower than an oncologist’s. Family practice physicians must be better at their jobs than oncologists. The data says so.

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It would appear that the release of these (so-called) ratings is simply another tactic in efforts to get teacher in line. At least, NY teachers are, I imagine, unionized, so that they might present a unified voice. Right or wrong, there needs to be MEANINGFUL ADULT dialogue between the two groups of disputing parties. In the “Land Of Oz”, better known as Georgia, only the “great wizard” rules.

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To see, I applaud your work, but the problem is that your children are being put into a no win situation. Your students should not be put back into a regular classroom EVER if there behavior causes a disruption to the learning environment. It’s unfair to all parties involved and selfish on the part of the parents of the student with disabilities. I’ve been on both sides of this issue professionally and personally and no one wins. Add to the mix that a teacher is being rated and now you have a disaster in the making. Mainstreaming is a boon for advocates and looks good on paper, but in reality is a sham and causes more harm than good.

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@Sarah “As long as teachers resist accountability but demand more and more money, the public will be suspicious. ”

Teachers are not resisting accountability – they are resisting accountability measures that have been shown to have severe margins of error which make them about as accurate as a coin toss. They are resisting accountability measures that do not take into account student differences, or subject differences.

Let’s take a single scenario – which isn’t at all unlikely. In order to better facilitate services, teacher A has all the “English as a second language learners,” many of whom are below grade level in academic skills. Class B has all the inclusion students who have diagnosed learning difficulties. Class C has a new teacher who has been give behavior problems the other teachers don’t want to deal with, and class D had all the well behaved students and high achievers because they teacher is the wife of a principal. Do you really think deciding those teachers’ abilities and classroom effectiveness based upon their students’ scores is fair or accurate?

In Tennessee, they are basing “teacher accountability” upon the scores of students they don’t even teach! They are measuring the art teachers’ effectiveness based upon students’ reading scores! You tell me how that is accurate or fair. Of course teachers are resisting such idiocy!

We are getting closer, with testing that reflects student growth throughout the year, rather than merely an end point measure compared with “general” on grade expectations… however, you still have issues with student mobility, student motivation, etc.

I know of one teacher who was called to account for the reason a percentage of her students did not make huge gains on a “progress” testing over a three month period. Well, those students were very high achievers from the beginning and were at a point where they started topping out in the testing for their grade level. In order to score higher they would have to be taught content that was not developmentally appropriate for them, or was totally outside the purview of the curriculum… example teaching Latin or middle school algebra to third graders. You can toss a bit of that in here and there, but you can’t teach an elementary class Latin in order for some of your students to excel on a standardized test. On the other end, you have teachers struggling to have students identified and tested for learning difficulties, who are being judged by the fact that students who are not making sufficient gains, likely because they have serious cognitive deficits.

When they come up with an effective measure which truly reflects my abilities as a teacher, I will gladly jump on board, but as long as they try to judge my abilities based upon measures that are rife with errors and fallacies, then I will resist.

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I don’t know what the problem is. Everyone in the Tea Party knows that teachers are overpaid, underworked, and coddled by the unions. They are the enemies of the people, and suck up all our tax dollars. Our children don’t need such over-paid and under worked teachers. We should fire them all, and then let Tea Party volunteers take over those jobs. Then they would be done right, the children would become good Christian americans, and it would cost the tax payers nothing! God Bless the Tea Party!

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@redweather: Private school teaching definitely sounds attractive! This testing-driven atmosphere is toxic to everyone working in the trenches, and especially to the students.

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Mary Elizabeth: @1:39 (goodness, I thought I was a nightowl!!):

I work with struggling readers in a rural county. I frequently see the kids like Johnny. I even went so far as to get a master’s and certification in reading so I could help these kids. What frustrates me so is that not only are we told to teach the curriculum and “differentiate” instruction, I also tend to get funny looks from admins when I bring in the data showing kids reading on elementary levels in high school. The test is still the goal, no matter what evaluation system we come up with. I frequently move kids up at least one grade level, with many making over 2 grade levels of progress with targeted instruction. I LOVE what I do, but clearly if standardized test scores are the measure, my kids will likely fall short and I’ll be scored low. It’s sad to think that doing my job and helping kids build skills, confidence, and potential for future success could make me look bad. This year, my first group of 40 or so seniors who I worked with as freshmen are graduating. Of those who stayed in school (we lost 5 to transfer or dropping out), every single one will graduate either on time or within one semester of their orignial graduation date. Most didn’t pass the EOCT in ninth grade, but are ready to graduate and most are planning post-secondary education. I simply cannot believe that one, admittedly flawed score could cost a teacher like me. I fear what’s coming in Georgia as we implement the new college and career ready index for schools.

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Tony: when those discussions involve teachers and the decision makers really listen, we might see substantive changes. Ironically, most suggestions for improvement offered up by teachers are low-cost if not totally free, and would remove a ton of bureacracy. Therein lies the problem- there is too much at stake for too many highly paid people in administrative roles. The teachers are increasingly looked down upon or ignored because the simple solutions would cost people their jobs and might actually make the system work better.

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DT says he or she is not in it to win a popularity contest. True. I appreciate that; however, surveying parents and students and allowin them to write comments is helpful. For example, my child is assigned homework on Mondays and it is due on Friday. this happens every week. I am a working mo m and I have time on the weekends to help my childdren with homework, rarely during the week. I asked my child child’s teacher if I could get the homework early — on Friday instead of waiting until Monday and he flat out refused…thus discouraging, not encouraging parental involvement.

Like it or not, parents and students are customers and you have to make an effort to accomodate them — or risk losing your job to some other teacher at a charter school.
GM

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@Hermione – I bought a place on a beach. My life will be better for sure. I am qualified to teach in college, so I’ll look at all of the local colleges to see if there is a fit.

Then, my fall back is to look at local high schools both public and private. Sure, it may be similar to GA – but it simply cannot be worse!

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Good Mother: good point, but I wonder how many people see it as “the grass is greener…” As my kids say, “it ain’t all that”. Many find the “admirable working hours” mean you do a lot of work at home instead of going home to supper and the TV. I fully appreciate the fact that I still have a job with good benefits in this economy, but it becomes challenging to retain a positive outlook in the face of sooooo much negativity. I love teaching, and I LOVE the work I get to do with my struggling learners, but I wonder if that passion for the profession will be enough to keep me going. In this economy, I’d be a fool to leave, of course. But is that reason enough to stay in a job and is it fair to the kids when teachers lose the love and desire for the profession? I don’t think I’d trust my doctor very much to do his job well if he came in saying “I used to really love this, but now I’m just counting days…” I’m trying my best NOT to end up like some friends/teachers I know who are just counting days to retirement.

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Hey Teacher: it will take a few years, but eventually we’ll end up with an inadequate pool of prospective teachers, and then what? If the numbers of young, energetic people drop too much, we won’t be seeing big score improvements then. We really need to be doing all we can to encourage new teachers with new ideas to join the profession. Especially now as the baby-boomers are retiring. In the next ten years, we’ll need a lot more new teachers than we’re going to be attracting I’m afraid.

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@Ron F. – Counting days to retirement? Heck, I am counting days to just get in my 10 years here in GA. Then I am “outta here!”

I have tried to understand the reasoning behind these types of decisions/attitudes in Georgia. And, the only thing that I can find is that the corrupt politicans are being swayed by the “education” corporations that want to set up shop here and open “charter” schools to make a profit. In other words, it is all about money.

Things are so overlooked to justify this money thirst…. the unbelievably strong PULBIC schools, the amazing STUDENTS graduating from these public schools, and so on.

But, hey – the Georgia voters seems so very ignorant and willing to latch onto any sound-bite thrown their way. They deserve what they get.

I just really hope that they are ready for the generations of stupid kids here in their future!

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I see four major flaws with Value-Added Assessments:

First, test scores allow for only so much growth. If a school scores at the top % one year, they are expected to exceed that performance the next year. If they do not for three years, they are a failing school, despite producing top scorers. Of course, any idiot can realize that you cannot score above the top %!

Second, states routinely track assessment data incorrectly. Rather than comparing the same set of students’ scores from year to year, they compare this year’s third graders against last year’s third graders. Two groups of completely different children. What if a teacher happens to get a class of geniuses one year and a class of dunces the next? Ooops.

Third, NCLB requires that all students, regardless of ability or IQ, be taught and tested on grade-level. This is true for extremely disabled students as well as for extremely gifted students. The student with a 70 IQ is never going to be able to do seventh grade mathematics in seventh grade, nor should he or she be expected to. The student with only the brain stem and complete lack of control of his or her bodily functions will never be able to read, especially not on grade level.

Fourth, the assessments are not standardized across the country. New York uses a different assessment from Georgia which uses a different assessment from North Carolina and so on and so on. The assessments can also be changed at will, making year-to-year comparisons largely invalid.

None of these points adds up to confidence on my part that a professional’s life should be ruined because of public reporting of rankings based on his or her students’ test scores. Remember, this data will now be around forever. It could potentially follow the named teachers for the rest of their lives, good or bad.

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saddly, I’ve reached a point where I just no longer care. I’m gonna do the math on how long til I can retire, shut down and coast.

and if I can find something else to do between now and then, I’m outta here.

I can’t care more than parents, “administrators”, and those idiots down at the dome do.

to use a oft quoted line, I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.

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Why aren’t they testing the educational administrators and making THAT public?

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The phrase “pushing on a string” comes to mind. On one hand, a large proportion of new teachers (1/3? 1/2?) are gone within 5 years of starting to teach. On the other hand, there is a large cohort of older americans aging out of the workforce – the first baby boomers turn 66 this year.

So yes, if there was a large group of prospective teachers just WAITING for open positions, then shaming/embarassing/undermining the bottom 20% or so of current teachers might allow for some ‘creative destruction’ and make room for ‘new blood’. But honestly, who on earth is going to step into these vacated jobs with tough working conditions and low pay?

Playing games that are feasible during the ‘great recession’ might make things incredibly tough once our long economic night ends.

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” but in the long run exposing teachers who are far outside of the norm and making parents more alert to student problems may turn out to be a good thing.”

Shar: While I see your point, think about this. The teachers you’re referring to, trust me, are known. For a long time, they could hide behind tenure laws and keep a job. That just isn’t as easy anymore, and I find that more and more school systems are pushing prinicpals to identify and deal with these teachers. While I think these numbers may reveal a few truly “bad” teachers, the unfortunate fact is a lot of relevant information is overlooked. I purposely teach the low-achieving kids. I love working with struggling learners and helping them grow. I regularly see major gains in reading levels, but kids who are 3,4, or sometimes more years below “grade level” can’t grow that much in a year. They seldom reach grade level in one year, and generally don’t perform well on grade level standardized tests. My numbers would stink, but I’m choosing, because of my passion for them, to work with groups of kids who learn slower, learn differently, and who don’t care about bubble sheet tests. And I spend precious class hours teaching the language of the test and all the guessing strategies that in the end won’t help my kids gain any of the educational ground they’re missing. But I do it in the hopes that the test score numbers will look better. Would the numbers themselves be relevant data? Of course not- but parents reading a list in the local paper probably wouldn’t know, as Paul Harvey used to say, “the rest of the story.” I’m all for ferretting out the bad teachers and having tools to use to either get them better or get them out. But is it worth the damage it will do to teachers like me who choose to work with the kids who don’t score well?

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The facts are that even when teachers are identified as being at the bottom of the lists, they won’t be fired. it takes years and mountains of evidence and public outrage for a teacher to lose their job. Just look at the monster who fed sperm to kids — he is still getting his pension.
As other evidemce read the post from the teacher who says he or she is sick and tired of being sick adn tired and plans to “shut down and coast” until retirement.

Shut down and coast…for years.

How many of us oculd shut down for a week without losing our jobs? even when we work hard and are beyond reproach, we in the private sector, those non-government employees lose our jobs for no fault of our own and we never had a pension to start with.

the truth is bad teachers will continue to be on the payroll just as the 178 teachers who cheated are still on the payroll…6.2 million dollars later.
It takes a tsunami worth of motion to rid the system of a bad teacher or bad government employee and that is a tragedy.
Good Mother

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You said that your kids say about your job “it ain’t all that”….I;m sure they do as I did…but things like pensions and medical insurance are out of their scope right now. They can’t appreciate it and…

neither can government employees. Gov’t employees of all kinds are accustomed to griping about low pay and ignorning their golden benefits. The truth is now government jobs are HIGHER paying than private sector jobs. The “whoa is me” mentality has no merit. All government employees have a golden egg and they should appreciate it…or quit and make room for someone else…

and…

it is absolutely horrible to hear a teacher on this blog feel so confident and secure that they claim they have “shut down, quit caring and will coast for a few more years to retirement.” This teacher is admiitting they don’t give a rip, plan not to work and then just sit bakc, collect a paycheck for several years and then retire….and brag about it. It is absolutely outrageous.
Good Mother

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Shar: In my district (granted, it’s small and rural), parents make it known when a teacher isn’t performing well, and if enough of them speak up, things change. In my position, I wouldn’t mind at all having a comment system for parents and students to use. You’re right- I do maintain very close contact with parents and develop strong ties with my kids. They regularly come to me for help after I teach them. I don’t begin to think I’d get 100%, and I would love honest feedback from the negative views. I haven’t heard a lot of good things about Rate My Profressor, but I think some type of direct feedback system would be helpful. That, combined with standardized test scores and some type of growth records for kids throughout a year could, in my opinion, give a much fairer rating and offer useful feedback for teachers. I still remember one mom who cried on the phone when I called to talk to her about how hard her son was working in my class. He was 15 and a teacher had never called her with good news. Definitely made me stop and think about how important it is to make contact and establish that communication. It ought to be required and there ought to be time set aside for just that purpose.

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Why do teachers always reach for legal recourse. We see that our so called protections have resulted in continuing to pay the AJC cheaters.

Who is being protected?

Not the taxpayers. Not the students.

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@Unfunded pension -

Ummmm. Your post makes no sense. The AJC cheats? And teachers are causing the AJC to cheat? And teachers like lawyers?

HUH?

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D – I do not recommend disruptive students return to their regular school. I teach students proper ways of dealing with frustration, how to ask for help, etc. The kids return to their main school slowly, one class at a time. A successful student is able to return to his/her regular school by NOT causing disruptions. These are truly the success stories of our school. They may not pass the CRCT and they may not be able to understand the curriculum, but they will be able to hold down a job because they have learned socially acceptable ways to disagree and/or ask for clarification.

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“No principal would solely assess a teacher on one year of iffy data, but equally, no principal would ignore it either.”

Yes they would Shar, YES THEY WOULD! It’s called administrative RETALIATION, and it is RAMPANT, even if it is GROSSLY under reported.

You know, if the same people pushing these assessments spent even a TENTH of the time dealing with the issues of DISCIPLINE and administrative RETALIATION, they may even find teachers THEMSELVES would be happy to embrace getting their DEADWEIGHT peers away from them.

But when you CONSISTENTLY cut teachers off at the knees, set them up to fail THEN blame them for failing, all the while do virtually nothing to protect them from RETALIATION when they try to advocate for students, why is anyone surprised that teachers resist such treatment?

It’s simple. Deal with DISCIPLINE. Deal with RETALIATION. Then you have set teachers up to SUCCEED, so rightfully you hold the DEADWEIGHT accountable.

But we as a society really aren’t THAT invested in giving teachers the AUTHORITY to succeed are we? We just want someone to BLAME, when our collective lack of WILLPOWER leads to the inevitable result.

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@ Shar

+1 for Beverly.

it happens all the time. I’ve seen some really good and dedicated
people hounded right out of their jobs because of bogus evals
created specifically to create trumped up data to use against faculty
and staff alike.

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rate my professor is a joke, and everyone knows it.
its little more than a bitch session/popularity contest

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bootney you’ve hit the nail on the proverbial head, sad to say. But have educational leaders and politicians even BEGUN to deal with that dynamic?

Here’s a headline from MSN about the release of the SO CALLED “teacher ratings”

‘Simpsons’ bully namesake put among NYC’s worst teachers.

Does that headline sound like it even BEGINS to “exercise caution about drawing conclusions”?

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@ScienceTeacher671, 8:43 am

“@Mary Elizabeth, 1:49 a.m: The problem for high school teachers in Georgia is that students who are promoted to 9th grade with a minimum score on the 8th grade CRCT are reading at a 4th-5th grade level — so we get students in 9th grade who aren’t really prepared to do middle school work, and we’re supposed to prepare them for college. And that’s just the regular ed. kids.”

========================================================

You are so correct. And what you say is happening in schools across the state and nation. Moreover, this phenomenon will continue to occur, into the future, because students have now – and will have in the future – differing ability levels (as well as other factors) which should necessitate creating differing academic objectives for different students in the same grade level. The only blame that should be cast is that educators, collectively, are not acknowledging that this fact of individual student academic differences is, and will be, an ongoing phenomenon which will require adjustment of assessment instruments – for both teachers and students – which reflect these natural academic variances, and that educational leaders are not setting standards that allow teachers to adjust their instruction to accommodate these individual variances in students.

——————————————————————————————

I have often written on this blog regarding the fact that, as a Reading Department Chair of a major suburban high school, I supervised the testing of all incoming 9th grade students for well over a decade. Invariably, half of those 9th grade students would be reading on 6th grade level or below, and the range of reading scores for those incoming 9th graders would be from 3rd grade level to grade level 16+.

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/about-education-essay-5-assessing-teachers-and-students/

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Pat, you may have a good point in that these attacks upon the educational systems simply give the APPEARANCE of failure. However, traditional yardsticks of progress seem to point in the wrong direction, from the world of young people to the adult community: high rates of college dropouts/failure to graduate within a reasonable period of time, relatively high rates of unemployment…NOT because the jobs are not there, but because the GOOD jobs require skills and educational levels which, despite available educational opportunities, do not seem to filter down to job seekers. For this very reason, the influx of skilled foreign workers, often viewed with disdain, seems to be the only source of labor in many growth fields.

Viewed from the “less-attractive” side of life, rates of teen pregnancies, domestic unrest, incarceration, etc…all the signs of a society in decay seem to point to the basic premise that our 21st century society is nowhere near ready for 21st century demands.

Are these issues new? Of course not; my generation, as well as those of earlier years saw the same social ills as we fret over today. Yet somehow, generations of yesteryear have, for the most part, overcome these social impediments and contributed to social and scientific growth. Now, in the dawning years of a new century, I simply do not see a continuation of the hopes and promises realized 30, 40, and 50 years ago.

Your analogy of patients not taking their meds pretty much coincides with students not taking their “educational medicine”. If the patient does not realize his failure to take the prescribed meds will surely lead to health problems and, very possibly, ultimate death…SHAME ON THE PATIENT. By the same token, why hold teachers responsible for their students’ failure to “take their ed-meds”?

I’ll tell you why: Teachers are (or should be) far more than sources of educational trivia; they are (or should be) motivators, leaders, and ENFORCERS OF THE EDUCATIONAL STANDARD. THIS is where the miserable failings occur. Your arguement rests on the premise that students are in charge; that if “good” students are assigned, both school and teacher will be allowed the label of GOOD. What’s wrong with this picture? Why are schools AND teachers not stepping up to the plate of responsibilities; ENFORCING THOSE STANDARDS, failing kids who need to experience the foul smell of failure?

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I’ll tell you why: Teachers are (or should be) far more than sources of educational trivia; they are (or should be) motivators, leaders, and ENFORCERS OF THE EDUCATIONAL STANDARD.

Ole Guy, you’re doing the moral equivalent of blaming the common foot soldier for losing the war in Vietnam.

Vietnam was lost in WASHINGTON D.C. And that’s EXACTLY where the war on education is being lost.

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@ Mary Elizabeth

sounds good in theory, but better chance of Elvis showing up
at your next birthday.

Georgia, it’s elected legislators, its so called educational administrators (re: whores), and far too many of our general
population just don’t care

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@ Beverly

the war on education is lost, as is past tense.
most of us here are just the stubbon holdouts who’ve not
yet been dealt with by the victors

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@Mary Elizabeth, I agree with you completely except for one point. I don’t see educators denying that students need to be educated and treated as individuals with individual strengths, weaknesses, and interests. Rather, I see the policymakers as the ones denying this fact, thereby making it nearly impossible for educators to reach students where they are academically and socio-emotionally.

@Science Teacher, Exactly!

Imagine if we actually had a society where every single person read on grade level, could do high school mathematics, graduated high school, and went to college. We would have no one to dig ditches, clean restrooms, build cars, or all of the other important, necessary jobs that college graduates are very VERY rarely interested in doing. Unfortunately, our society would collapse…or we would have to import workers from other countries.

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@ScienceTeacher671, 1:48 pm

I completely agree with you, and most of what I write on this blog, instructionally, emphasizes your thoughts.

I was fortunate to have been chosen to be the Instructional Lead Teacher in a continuous progress school by an outstanding principal who understood mastery learning well. He designed his school without walls between classrooms, in the mid-1970s, so that multiage groupings of students, housed within pods equivalent to 5 classrooms each, could form instructional groups according to individual student need. One of my main job functions as ILT was to insure that each student in the school was functioning, at all times, within his or her correct placement in reading and math levels, from levels
1 – 24+, which were designed for a curriculum continuum for all students in grades 1 – 8.

A given student may have been functioning on level 15 in his 4th year in school and that student might have been working in a group with a 3rd grade student and a 5th grade student who each needed to be on level 15, at point in time. All students moved through reading and math levels at their maximum rates for mastery learning, and they changed groups as frequently as was needed in order to adjust to their individual rate of learning variances.

I realize that the complexities involved in that type of instructional design and managment is not applied often today. However, I believe that modified variations of that instructional model (individually based instruction) can be accomplished in traditional classrooms today. See my link to “Cyndie’s Story” for information regarding how an innovative science teacher accomplished individually based instruction within her traditional 5th grade classroom.

http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/02/11/cyndies-story/

—————————————————————————————-

I write not only to inform teachers, but, hopefully, to enlighten those in educational leadership
positions of the effectiveness which will ensue if they will accommodate individual student need when they establish curriculum standards for students in various grade levels, and also if they will establish assessment instruments, for both teachers and students, which will reflect individual student variances. I have written on this blog of the need to incorporate students’ IQ data (discreetly managed), among other data, which will reflect individual student’s potential, within these assessment instruments.

I believe in the long-ranged benefit of attempting to educate others, including educational professionals, in order to effect a positive end for every student. I would not have been much of a teacher if I did not believe, in my core, that education is not only impacting, but that it will forever enlighten.

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@ bootney farnsworth,1:13 pm

“@ Mary Elizabeth
sounds good in theory, but better chance of Elvis showing up
at your next birthday.
Georgia, it’s elected legislators, its so called educational administrators (re: whores), and far too many of our general population just don’t care”

============================================================

I come from a long line of educators and ministers. My father, who was Director of Vocational Education in south Georgia, before his passing, gave me an old saying, which most people know from memory, engraved in wood, so that I would never forget it:

“God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change
Courage to change the things I can; and
Wisdom to know the difference.”

————————————————————————————————-

My words from my 2:47 post, restated:

“I believe in the long-ranged benefit of attempting to educate others, including educational professionals, in order to effect a positive end for every student. I would not have been much of a teacher if I did not believe, in my core, that education is not only impacting, but that it will forever enlighten.”

——————————————————————————————————

And, finally, words from Albert Einstein:

“There are two ways to live your life. . .
One is as though nothing is a miracle;
The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

I believe in miracles.

—————————————————————————————————————-

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More interesting than this is a NYTimes story today about “being black” at Stuyvesant High — NYC’s top magnet school. There are very few black students and many Asian and white students at that school because it’s based on a race-blind standardized test score. Would love to hear peoples’ takes on that.

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@Ron F, 8:00 pm

I agree with you. In fact, the assessing of individual student needs and instructional levels is as essential to quality instruction as is the instruction, itself. If a teacher instructs any student on his or her frustration level, instead of his or her instructional level, that child may regress, rather than grow.

It will help teachers with planning, enormously, when the data base of student scores is transferred to computers so that teachers can instantly retrieve students’ individual instructional information, as doctors presently are able to access, immediately, regarding vital individual patient information.

I am delighted to read that you now share student data with other teachers and that teachers discuss individual plans for students based on where they are presently functioning. More time during the day is needed for this purpose in order to enhance the quality of instruction.

I repeat: You are an outstanding teacher.

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@ Ole guy. Tean pregnacy is a religious issue and the schools are shying away because of the religious right. If they DID THEIR JOB, the schools would never have to address it. We are charged to teaching, not curers of social ills. Where is society, parents, the community, churches? We didn’t give birth to these children AND we are not allowed to discipline them. We can be fired for raising our voice to them. AND we are the blame?

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@Ole Guy –

In the news today…. An 11 year old girl in elementary school dies after a fight with a classmate in an alley after school. The girl had gone home after the fight and her mother put her to bed. Later that night, the mother took the 11 year old to the hospital where she was in a coma and passed. Her mother had talked to the TEACHER and the teacher said that she was going to talk to the girls on Monday.

Get it? The MOTHER wanted the TEACHER to do the job of the parent!

That is what’s wrong with education! Parents do not want to do their job and put it on the teacher!!!!!

Education will NEVER improve until we allow teachers to teach and not burden teachers with doing EVERYTHING from parenting kids to buying them pencils to providing them with food and so on.

Good teaching is a full time job. When you pile everything else onto the responsibilities of the teacher, it just cannot be done by anyone.

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I read the story, Teach…very sad indeed. Your’s…the teaching profession…is most-certainly not an easy road to navigate. I see, what amounts to, a slippery slope pretending to be public education. I don’t have all the answers; I don’t believe I have ANY answers which would be “warmly received”. Speaking as an old timer, I see a self-perpetuating system of social decline. The parents who refuse to accept parental responsibilities are, themselves, products of the early decline in education. So the big question(s) remain: WHERE/WHEN DID IT START? WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT CORRECTIVE ACTIONS ARE REQUIRED? HOW ARE WE TO ACHIEVE THOSE ACTIONS?

These are questions which many, both in and out of YOUR profession, ask.

I often feel extremely fortunate to be a part of my particular vintage. The educational systems across the Country were being geared up with the sole intent of preparing a generation, called the Baby Boom, to face the global challenges of a space race, and post-war technological achievements. The Nuns ensured that 4th graders were proficient in stuff which seems to stymie too many older kids today. The Nuns also ensured that kids were fully aware of the relationships between actions and consequences. Both high school and college graduations (for me, anyway) were EARNED; the results of much “mental torture”.

While it is far too easy to simply say “Godspeed, Teachers”, one must wonder if this is the first time in the checkered history of mankind when someone didn’t feel that the “social applecart” had to be upset.

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@ Ole Guy. Given the amount of time it must have taken Mary Elizabeth to type out her 12:36 am post above, she must have been writing it about the same time that you were writing your own 12:15 am post; so it most probably was not intended as an answer to your post. But it certainly does that.

It seems that what you really wish is that teachers today would be kamikaze pilots…all for the good of public education, of course.

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The actual data on teachers and schools is here http://teachrate.com

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@ Ole Guy. Like you, I’m on the sidelines of this educational battle, for college/University professors have nothing to do with K-12 teachers, and their working situations are very different. And the K-12 teachers know that. Professors have the sort of autonomy and authority for which you call, because they have tenure. Their students are there voluntarily, and can be ousted quite easily and legally. So I don’t presume to give them advice, because I’m safe from any retaliation as they are not….just as you are.

I will observe, however, that what you equate with cowardice– buying classroom supplies themselves and coming in to teach on furlough days–I equate with putting their students before themselves, children’s interests before adult’s interests. And I respect them for that, although you clearly do not.

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