New evaluation system finds less than 1 percent of teachers are ineffective
Under the state’s prior teacher evaluation system, less than 1 percent of teachers were rated as unsatisfactory. So, the state used some of its Race to the Top millions to create and pilot a new evaluation system that was purportedly more comprehensive and more honest in its assessment of how effective teachers were in their classrooms.
While the old evaluation system rated teachers as satisfactory/unsatisfactory and didn’t judge them by students’ academic progress, the system being piloted contains four different ratings: exemplary, proficient, developing/needs improvement and unsatisfactory.
The AJC has a good story today about the initial findings of the pilot, which the newspaper obtained through an Open Records request.
Even under this new system, less than 1 percent of Georgia teachers were classified as ineffective and one in five earned the top rating of exemplary.
The story notes that identifying and removing bad teachers has taken on increasing importance, with research showing that three years under bad teachers can negatively change a student’s academic trajectory.
Teachers in DeKalb, Gwinnett, Cherokee, Clayton, Henry and 21 other school districts participated in the pilot from last January to May and resulted in 0.32 percent of teachers being classified as ineffective, 5.95 percent as developing/needs improvement, 74.4 percent as proficient and 19.3 percent as exemplary, according to a state Department of Education report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution under the Georgia Open Records Act.
Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council for Teacher Quality in Washington, told the AJC that she was most surprised that the pilot results showed so few teachers in need of improvement. “If we only had 6 percent who were anything less than perfection, student achievement would probably be off the charts,” Jacobs said.
One of the main impediments to comprehensive teacher evaluations in the past has been a lack of adequate observation. Principals did not have time to go into classrooms to watch teachers in action.
That remains a problem with a new evaluation systems being piloted through Georgia’s Race to the Top grant, according to many teachers and principals on this blog.
If you were part of the pilot, please tell us about your experiences.
Here is an excerpt of the AJC story: Please read the full piece before commenting:
The state’s new teacher evaluation system needs some work. That’s the lesson Georgia education leaders are drawing from a pilot study that unexpectedly showed only a tiny fraction of the state’s teachers are ineffective.
A report from the state Department of Education found ratings of about 5,800 teachers in last year’s pilot study “skewed to the positive,” with less than 1 percent of teachers classified as ineffective and one in five getting the top rating of exemplary.
State officials say they expect more realistic outcomes as teachers and principals are better trained and have more time to adapt to the new evaluation system, which is to roll out statewide in the 2014-2015 school year.
Senate Education Committee Chairman Fran Millar, R-Dunwoody, said the preliminary results — particularly the finding that less than 1 percent of teachers are unsatisfactory — raise serious questions.
“Statistically, this flies in the face of our academic achievement levels. These numbers just doesn’t jibe with reality,” Millar said. “If the Georgia evaluation system is going to be based on these type of statistics, I wouldn’t see us going forward with it because, just statistically, it can’t be valid.”
A major component of teachers’ evaluations — the measure of students’ progress — is not included. State officials said that’s still being analyzed and will be reported later.
The report acknowledges the pilot results did not meet state officials’ expectations and points to the need for more training. James Stronge, a nationally known education consultant who was hired to help develop the system, said he doubts that only about 6 percent of teachers need improvement.
“We’re not aiming to get people,” Stronge said. “But in an honest evaluation, that’s likely too low for the percentage of teachers needing assistance to improve their performance.”
Avis King, the state’s deputy school superintendent for school improvement, said the report on the pilot was “very honest, and that’s what we wanted it to be.” Martha Ann Todd, associate state superintendent for teacher and leader effectiveness, said she expects more realistic results as educators receive more training and become more accustomed to the new process. “I think it’s going to be a culture shift until we get a true measure,” Todd said.
Ten percent of teachers scoring at the extremes of exemplary and unsatisfactory likely would be more accurate, Todd and King said.
Initially, only the 26 local school districts that partnered with the state on its successful bid for a $400 million federal Race to the Top grant in 2010 were obligated to use the new teacher evaluation system.
But as a condition of its waiver from requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law, Georgia has since had to commit to using the new evaluation system in all 180 local school districts effective with the 2014-2015 school year. An expanded pilot program is taking place this year, involving about 50,000 teachers in 50 school districts.
–from Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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115 comments Add your comment
Linda
January 7th, 2013
1:40 pm
Not surprised by this at all. I only know of a couple of really atrocious teachers, but you bet they still have their jobs! They are very nice people, and that is perhaps the reason principals don’t fire them. I think principals would feel bad about firing some people, or even giving them well deserved poor reviews. I have never known a principal who could separate personal opinions for the sake of an honest evaluation. The only teacher I ever knew who was actually fired was one of the best, most inspiring, and most professional teachers I’ve ever known. You guessed it – she disagreed with the principal and stood up for herself. It is easier to fire someone who disagrees with you. We all seem to agree that the evaluation process is NOT about academics. It is about jumping through the right hoops with a smile on your face. I no longer teach, as this atmosphere brought me to the brink of nervous breakdown. I would like to return one day, when academics is the focus and not politics.
Looking for the truth
January 7th, 2013
2:20 pm
My child had approximately 40 teachers during his time in public schools. Though there were some I didn’t care for from a “bedside manner” aspect, they all did their jobs adequately (and in some cases, exceptionally).
Let’s suppose for a moment that only 1% of the teachers are truly ineffective by the Danielson standards. Where do we place the blame next?
bootney farnsworth
January 7th, 2013
2:28 pm
once upon a time, Ike warned the nation of the perils of the military industrial complex. pity he didn’t warn the nation about the educational industrial complex. the business of education has little to do with education. it has everything to do with self sustainment, social engineering, and empire building.
despite the hard work of countless dedicated educators, the system continues to implode. and its designed to implode. at the heart of things is the vast and fundamental disconnect between faculty and administration. everywhere in Georgia, and many places nationwide, the people charged with running the schools seem of have interpreted this as a mandate to run schools into the ground.
most professional education administrators have limited (if any) time in the classroom. most regard classroom time as a necessary irritant, not the most vital part of the process. they are career builders, PR hucksters, and social engineers. rarely does what is in the best interest of the students, and by extension the faculty, enter into this equation. and when it does, most often its in the form of how can I maximize the numbers to best get money and recognition.
a quick look at APS, DCSS, CCSS and their school boards shows a massive and institutionalized system of corruption and failure. not to mention intellectual dishonesty at the highest levels. and while they are the worst of the lot, they are no means the only ones. the board of regents is no better, as witnessed by the pillaging of GPC which set a new standard for fiscal irresponsibility and gross mismanagement.
most educators will tell you the money spent on education is more than adequate – its how it gets spent which is the problem. when we need new computers, we get new middle managers. when we need cleaner classrooms, the administration remodels their offices. you want new pencils – answer is no-don’t have the money. but they did have the money to bring in some guest speaker no one has heard of.
a question which was routinely asked at GPC after the slaughter of over 282 positions – how many custodians or tech support positions could have been saved if just two of the new assortment of vice presidents had not been retained? these are the positions which directly impact the ability of students to learn. an assortment of vice presidents who will almost never interact with students? not so much.
advocate for a student, a pedagogical issue, or plain old fashioned honesty….God help you. if you’re lucky, your admin will give you a stern talking to. if you’re unlucky, the ombudsman comes calling.
and yet for some reason known only to God and the legislature, they don’t hold administrations run amok accountable. but they go after educators like lions. professional courtesy? and if we educators start making uncomfortable points, they whip out the imaginary boogie man of “teachers unions”
it isn’t teachers unions who are giving the administrator elite raises at the same time the legislature decries poor performance or wasteful spending. it’s not GAE who increased the size of non teaching, high paying middle management during a recession. and we have very little impact on curriculum, class size, classroom technology, but we are the ones who have to live with it.
and yet, we are the problem?
the current environment is like Rome during Nero. distract the opposition-feed them Christians. is a major crisis occuring – fiddle and watch, but do nothing which will actually help. but plan on your scapegoat.
except in this case, its educators who are fed to the public lions while the administration bloats away. Georgia is burning, and those who are supposed to do something about it are tuning up their fiddles.
race to the top? hell no. try plunge through the bottom.
when substance is more important than style, when advancing the careers of your teachers takes precedence over your own lofty goals, when the social engineers realize true social change comes from education, not Sustainability centers, when professional educational administrators are brought up through years in the classroom, when we’re treated as partners and not adversaries
when the students matter more than the national recognition or the football team
then things might get better for us all. students most of all.
but I’m not holding my breath for it to happen
Ed Johnson
January 7th, 2013
2:59 pm
“Ten percent of teachers scoring at the extremes of exemplary and unsatisfactory likely would be more accurate, [Martha Ann] Todd and [Avis] King said.”
Why would Todd and King say such a thing? Especially given that King is the state’s deputy school superintendent for school improvement, and Todd is associate state superintendent for teacher and leader effectiveness.
Could it be because they have been mis-educated to believe that a population must, by any measure, exhibit a normal distribution? Or, did they say it out of malice? Or perhaps out of allegiance to Fran Miller and company?
In any case it should be obvious that Todd and King express the predetermined outcome Fran Miller and company want: If ever any application of the teacher evaluation system does not yield a normal distribution of teachers, then the system must be tampered with until it is made to produce the desired normal distribution. That way, Miller and company can be lazy and slothful in identifying “bad” teachers.
The moral and ethical decadence, if not just plain rot, of the Fran Miller sort of legislators renders them untrustworthy at the personal level when it comes to public education and upholding and promoting democratic ideals in service to the public good. It really isn’t hard to see the damage Miller et al.’s decadence will reap for Georgia and, by extension, the nation.
Beverly Fraud
January 7th, 2013
3:01 pm
@Beverly Fraud, 11:08 am
I think that Attentive Parent has set up a false dichotomy in his/her statement.
@Mary Elizabeth thank you. I think you have made a legitimate case for the false dichotomy statement. I hope Invisible will respond. I think Invisible brings to the table some of the most provoking, and well researched food for thought I have seen on this blog, and the issues Invisible raises are ignored at our own peril.
I could be wrong of course, so let the discussion ensue.
Looking for the truth
January 7th, 2013
3:12 pm
Bootney, I agree wholeheartedly! When money enters any endeavor, the corruption and difficulties follow. It’s only about looking good so taxpayers will keep the money flowing without complaining.
The industry that is now education reminds me of all of those Medicare/Medicaid companies that developed when unlimited money began flowing for medical equipment. While there are some honest people out there, most of them are looking to sell taxpayers a $9000 hammer that will address all of the problems of education, but really aren’t doing anything except making people rich. If they went after education fraud like they do Medicare/Medicaid fraud, we might be able to educate our kids, pay our teachers better, and get better results if you get the “snake oil salesmen” out of the way.
Home-tutoring parent
January 7th, 2013
3:16 pm
Mary Elizabeth said,
“The student may be asked, upon assessment, of the concepts learned to compare and contrast the literary work of Tolstoy with that of Dostoyevsky, or to explain the influence of Freud on Dostoyevsky’s body of work.”
The latter would require a time machine, as most of Dostoevesky’s works were written during Freud’s childhood, and his final opus (Brothers Karamzov) was penned before Freud graduated from medical school. Freud’s initial studies in psychiatry commenced one year after Dostoevsky died.
Assuming that ME was recounting a real “teaching event”, i.e. students have been able to digest and articulate Freud’s influence on Dostoevsky, they have absorbed a fantastic absurdity.
Game, set, match to Concerned Parent’s arguments.
P.S. I was a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, and earned high grades in English Literature and Composition in a “Top 5″ university English department. My spouse has read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in Russian.
We both have doctorates. In our joint opinions, the first of ME’s examples, comparison of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, a well-trodden path, would be suitable only for second-year or beyond university literature coursework (more typically fourth-year or graduate). An attempt to perform this exercise in high school, would require such oversimplification that the resulting “students’ understanding” would be at best a glimmer of insight, but more often gross misunderstanding.
Pride and Joy
January 7th, 2013
3:19 pm
When ANY evaluation tool finds that less than one percent of the employees are ineffective — the evaluation tool is ineffective.
Teachers are human and we well know that many in Atlanta stole, cheated and lied for a couple of thousand dollars of bonus money. We also know that many paid others to illegally and immorally take their ridiculously easy certification exams.
We also know that many are simply poorly educated.
If less than one percent were found to be ineffective by this evaluation tool, the tool itself is at fault.
10:10 am
January 7th, 2013
3:22 pm
A trait they share with traditional public school teachers …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257715/Study-shows-college-students-think-theyre-special–read-write-barely-study.html
Pompano
January 7th, 2013
4:51 pm
This just demonstrates the hubris of the current Public Education environment. It’s this false sense of perfection that has caused our Educational System at all levels to slowly and steadily erode.
Beverly Fraud
January 7th, 2013
4:58 pm
And, just as important as the evaluation instrument, has there been any talk about protecting teachers from the arbitrary and capricious abuse of the evaluation instrument?
PAGE? GAE? Or have they been silenced, because they get paid by some of the very ones who abuse the evaluation process to retaliate against teachers?
TechEducator
January 7th, 2013
5:39 pm
RJ @ 9:48 nails part of the problem…too much time taken away from teaching to complete reams of paperwork submitted ad nauseum to ‘prove’ we are doing our jobs.
Private Citizen at 10:17 am hits another nail squarely on the head: “Why the over-emphasis on evaluating teachers? Because it is a cover for dysfunctional system;” as do Old Physics Teacher at 11:40: “When I have no control over what I’m being evaluated on, and my boss tells me to do stupid things that aren’t effective, I’ll do exactly what the boss says; even if it is stupid!;” and pull my other leg at 11:28: “So let me get this straight. It is statistically impossible for there only to be 1% of teachers failing…. but there is supposed to be 0% of students failing. How is this possible?”
And I don’t know what evaluations are like in the K-12 system, but the evaluation experience at my state technical college goes like this: supervising Deans visit our classes once per year, for approximately 5 minutes, to observe. A few weeks later, each instructor meets with his/her respective Dean to discuss the evaluation which consists of a checklist of various areas where we are scored from 0-5. Three is the magic number because any score of more or less than a 3 requires additional documentation justifying the low- or high-performance, so everyone gets mostly threes, with an occasional 1, 2, 4, or 5 thrown in for good measure. (Fortunately for the students, most of my colleagues are committed to teaching and do their jobs well).
I have been teaching for close to 10 years now. I love teaching but I hate what ‘education’ has become. I’m seriously planning an exit strategy, just in case I finally hit the wall where I can’t take it any more. Based on comments I regularly read on the Get Schooled blog, I feel fairly certain that if I were teaching in the K-12 system I would have hit that wall a long, long time ago.
DunMoody
January 7th, 2013
6:09 pm
I look forward to the student evaluations … bet they’re just as skewed. My DHS student reports that she was allowed to evaluate only one teacher (one of the strongest in the school, by the way) and could NOT evaluate teachers she had looked forward to assessing. DeKalb didn’t provide the necessary infrastructure for evaluations, a chronic issue semester-long. Teachers couldn’t get online (that whole wireless and software issue) for RTTP testing let alone mandated evaluations. Computer labs were insufficient for the entire school. Fun!
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
January 7th, 2013
6:27 pm
Beverly & Mary Elizabeth–I actually enjoyed ME’s response myself. This will be briefer than I would like as I am about to do dance car pool. ME’s response seems to see reading as a matter of skills and strategies. I also think she is using abstract thought in the way I would use conceptual. Perhaps the best way to illustrate it is wanting conceptual thinking to still be concrete.
That’s not really abstract in the traditional sense of creating your own mental scenarios based on facts.
In the Common Core materials, both ELA and math, we hear the terms pathways, learning progressions, and trajectory a lot. The idea is that everyone has certain specified skills and familiarity with certain specified concepts that they can apply to “real world problems.” It has a real programmed feel to it.
ME-correct me if I am wrong but you also seem to be interested in sight reading as an acceptable technique. I think that’s horribly inefficient. No need to guess if taught properly. I actually have a copy of the reading progression which was hiding on a New Zealand server where I should not have gotten it.
It makes me sad to see years spent doling out words to know by sight that could all be known by 2nd grade and move on to knowledge if reading were taught phonetically and efficiently. And I do not mean phonics.
I have taught teachers how to do it because they had honestly never seen kids learn to read so fast. But my logic is letters do not have sounds sounds have letters and there are about 42 sounds.
Got to run. More later,.
Pride and Joy
January 7th, 2013
6:38 pm
Our favorite Beverly writes “even as we try to hold teachers accountable for everything…”
but Beverly..l.think about it. We obviously AREN’T holding teachers accountable because look at the results of the evaluation…almost none were found ineffective and of that less than one percent — were any fired? No.
It is absolutely impossible for any profession to have that few people counted as encompetent…
Even doctors have a higher failure rate and the bar for doctors is set much much much higher than for that of an educaiton major.
teachers are NOT held accountable, Beverly. that’s the whole purpose of this blog topic.
Pride and Joy
January 7th, 2013
6:39 pm
I obviously meant incompetent with an “i.”
Gwinnett teacher
January 7th, 2013
7:15 pm
I am a teacher at a school that is in it’s 2nd year as a pilot school. I can speak first hand that we have many more than 1% “unsatisfactory” teachers at my school yet there are several problems with identifying them as such. The administration at my school can’t see their own flaws as educational leaders and I doubt they want to find fault in colleagues they’d rather be friends with than manage.
The new evaluation system freely utilizes loose wording without concrete definitions of anything we are evaluated on, not to mention there are no standardized guidelines how to categorize a teacher as exemplary, proficient, needs improvement or ineffective. Unfortunately, unless there are examples for what signifies a teacher as consistent v. inconsistent v. inadequate, there cannot be standardization within this evaluation system.
Additionally, if we are serious about evaluating our education system, we have to evaluate ALL of it, top down, including every component that contributes to making our children successful. Which includes the people doing the evaluating.
Starik
January 7th, 2013
7:33 pm
We desperately need better teachers. Some of the teachers we have, and a lot more than 1% would be incapable of working a window at McDonalds. Raising their pay won’t help a bit.
Beverly Fraud
January 7th, 2013
7:33 pm
@Pride, you got a point there; but I think it’s this really odd dynamic of we blame teachers for everything, but since we know the process is so FUBAR, we won’t actually fire them particularly if they kowtow to the party line.
If fact I’d bet you find a shockingly high percentage of teachers who school systems try to fire are good teachers who speak out.
Again, where is the protection against arbitrary and capricious misuse of the evaluation instrument? Why hasn’t this issue even been discussed much less addressed? Hasn’t the massive retaliation during the cheating scandal taught us anything?
Beverly Fraud
January 7th, 2013
7:46 pm
“My spouse has read Tolstoy and Dostoevsky in Russian. We both have doctorates.”
I drank some Black Russian Cocktails while watching Doctor Zhivago. Does that count for a doctorate?
(Actually it might if one was a favored member of The Four Horsemen of the Incompetence LOL)
So Home-Tutoring Parent, do you also get the sense of anti-intellectualism that (correct me if I’m wrong Invisible) Serf’s Collar seems to think permeates the “reform” movement in education?
I hope ME and Serf will exchange more…
Mary Elizabeth
January 7th, 2013
7:50 pm
@Attentive Parent, 6:27 pm
I was taught in grad school that reading vocabulary is taught best through a balanced approach, i.e. using a combination of sight vocabulary, word attack skills including phonics, and context clues. Some students learn more easily in one mode than another. Some students are visual learners. Some are auditory learners. Some are kinesthetic learners. And, many students learn best by utilizing a combination of the three modalities in various combinations, or degrees of emphasis. Good teachers know which approach, or combination of approaches, works best for specific students. An overemphasis upon phonetics can create word-by-word readers, which can hinder the student’s fluency, and sometimes this overemphasis on phonetics can adversely effect a student’s comprehension of content read. On the other hand, some students are made more secure in the reading process by knowing the skills involved in breaking words down through phonetics and other word attack skills. Not all students will be able to learn a complete vocabulary listing, as you have suggested, by grade 2. As I have previous explained, students have varied backgrounds and aptitudes and will, therefore, learn at differing rates.
Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” certainly has “real life” application today, as does Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” and Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.”
You are correct that there are 42 sounds. Approximately 24 of these sounds are consonant sounds and the remainder are the various vowel sounds. I like your idea that sounds have letters.
For any who may be interested, here is an outline presentation of very basic phonetic and word attack skills: http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/04/10/about-education-essay-7-word-attack-skills/
Just A Teacher
January 7th, 2013
8:25 pm
I’m not familiar with the new evaluation system, but I can tell you something that many of you have overlooked: there aren’t very many people in the world who would put up with nonsense that K-12 teachers take every day. Don’t you think that might have something to do with the results? If a lot of teachers were deemed ineffective, where would you find people to replace them? I know, for instance, that I am considered a veteran teacher among my peers. I have no doubt that I could be replaced, but how many times would the school board have to go through the hiring process in the course of the 20 years I have been in the classroom? The average career span in my particular subject area was 7 years before the great recession. Who knows what it is now?
Attentive Parent/Invisible Serfs Collar
January 7th, 2013
8:34 pm
ME–if a balanced approach is forthright in the logic, then that is fine.
But too many are Whole Language in function out of concern over the magic power of what a symbol system does to the human mind. Basically inadvertently.
That is quite well known. Hence the reason for psycholinguistics.
I think you would like equitable results which is not a bad passion per se. I recognize that we need the brainiacs to do what they are best at and then hire Mr Gragarious to be the salesman and Ms Persuasive to also help.
I think the push now from people that public school and higher ed must level so that credentials are equally available to all will leave us all poorer. Especially when coupled with too many deliberate refusals to teach reading properly.
What a lovely world books are. And print let’s all of us with our varying perspectives and experience carry on a conversation to try to honestly arrive at a discussion of what is best for the students and the teachers trying to do right by them.
RBN
January 7th, 2013
8:35 pm
Basing any accountyable system on Georgia’s awful testing regimen will not yeild meaningful results whether skewed or not. By the time our legislature gets through destroying the teaching profession through salary freezes over years, removal of education incentives to attain advanced degrees, removal of National Certification incentives, furloughs, decreased benefits, threats to retirement, removal of a required certificate, and an endless parade of canned ideas from ALEC designed more to privatize than improve education little will be left to attract the teachers of the future. Guess it woul be too much to ask to actually look at a model that works like Finland’s or Canada’s?
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
January 7th, 2013
8:47 pm
“Guess it woul be too much to ask to actually look at a model that works like Finland’s or Canada’s?”
You don’t even have to go to Finland or Canada. Just look at systems WITHIN the US that are working, and see what they are doing well! There are many public schools that are doing very good work, but acknowledging that does not jive with the whole “our schools are failing” hype that the educrats are pushing – especially the ones that stand to benefit from destroying traditional public education in favor of their pet projects.
Mary Elizabeth
January 7th, 2013
9:00 pm
@Attentive Parent, 8:34 pm
“I think you would like equitable results which is not a bad passion per se.”
“What a lovely world books are.”
==============================================
As a teacher to my core, I simply want to see each child able to reach his, or her, full potential, whatever his/her unique potential might be.
And, I agree wholeheartedly with you that “books are a lovely world.” Through the printed word, we are not only able to communicate with one another, presently, regarding teaching and the education of our young, but we are able to “communicate” with those great minds of the past who have left their perceptions for posterity, through their written words.
MASR
January 7th, 2013
9:15 pm
The ultimate evaluation is: how are students in government schools performing after graduation?
Considering the numbers of students who actually graduate from public high school and attend college and must take remedial courses, the performance of teachers is unacceptable.
Considering the numbers of students who actually graduate from public high school and have a job, the performance of teachers is unacceptable.
.
Beverly Fraud
January 7th, 2013
9:18 pm
“What a lovely world books are. And print let’s all of us with our varying perspectives and experience carry on a conversation to try to honestly arrive at a discussion of what is best for the students and the teachers trying to do right by them.”
Yes Invisible, that would be nice. I’d say Mary Elizabeth has done her fair share. But it does seem too many people shy away from tough, legitimate, questions.
How many educators, for example, are willing to admit when they first heard the Teddy Stoddard story, they swallowed it hook, line, and sinker? No, believing the Teddy Stoddard story isn’t damning in and of itself, but a mindset that routinely accepts what is presented in education training as “gospel” is damning. It’s how things like the Whole Language movement got foisted on education in the first place.
But when we can’t even question why Herb Garrett continues to honor Beverly Hall; when we can’t even question why Fulton pays consultants who praise Chairman Mao as an “effective leader” what does that say about the mindset of educators who seemingly can’t comprehend why these are important questions to ask?
Patricia Tomlinson
January 7th, 2013
9:28 pm
@ Michael Moore…come to my classroom
historydawg
January 7th, 2013
9:42 pm
Teaching is an art, not a science. It cannot be quantified, calculated, or repeated in a controlled experiment. Keep spending money on this, Georgia. The destruction of public education is the goal. We are unfortunately on our way.
God Bless the Teacher!
January 7th, 2013
10:02 pm
First, the results are NOT skewed to the positive. That would mean that very few of the results are in the proficient or exemplary categories, with the bulk of results falling in the ineffective or emerging categories.
Second, why won’t the naysayers actually acknowledge that abyssmal student results may actually be a result of poor STUDENT participation/performance, DESPITE teachers doing what they’re supposed to be doing to help said cherubs master content. Damned if we do, damned if we don’t…do we also have to walk on water and heal the physically infirmed before the educrats stop continully crucifying us with their spikes of political agendas and personal vendettas?
Private Citizen
January 7th, 2013
11:13 pm
I dare make some summary notes as I think there is some misinformation here.
1. I would not trust one of these teacher evaluations or reports for as far as I could pick up and throw a Range Rover. It is utter garbage, political to the max, and in my opinion, completely worthless. Basically I am referring to a 100% lack of trust of this entire proxy system.
2. Before I get going, here’s a middle finger – screw you! – to the clown who keeps harping about teacher unions. There are none in Georgia, or if there are they have had their testes chopped off like a goat on the ranch. If I saw you in person I’d give you a good tussle you’d never forget for harping about teachers unions in Georgia, as if you think there is good clean oxygen in the bottom of a coal mine, you jerk! I’ve had to put up with so much poser corrupt garbage from these highly paid corrupted managers and I’ve gone to seek union protections from harassment and found that there is none. So when you want to right a check for a private lawyer just so I can work in peace without harassment, then you can harp about that. And when you see how corrupt are the network administrator crowd, that just heats up the fire – once you see what they are doing and they know it. They ran off the only two good principals I liked working for and harassed me like I was Ben Stein in a concentration camp. They are corrupt corrupt corrupt corrupt and their Arne Duncan evaluation instruments belongs in the sewer with the rest of his yesterday’s dinner. We need a revolution but if anyone ever tries one, at least they can read all your email. We need to stop respecting and responding to these initiatives as if they have an legitimacy. They do not. And I don’t want to hear any more harping about unions in Georgia, like someone is having fun at the pinball machine. Georgia teachers have no protections from harassment except for using a private attorney. They should teach this doctrine in teacher training and give new teachers a lawyer directory and 10% discount card.
2. Evaluations – d$%@ right it is the good teachers who get run off.
3. Who volunteered for the new evaluation system? You have got to be kidding. No one even wants anything to do with this garbage. Senior proven and politically reliable (in other words, they would go along with it) teachers were volunteered for this exercise in time-suck. No one volunteered and those who were co-opted did not like it and considered it to be a burden additional to their work.
4. So that’s the message. No one volunteered. There are no unions or teacher protections in Georgia. And none of this garbage is relevant or trustworthy and no one should even give it legitimacy or fall for the con. And whoever said Georgia “was awarded” “Race to the Top” money is just a sucker in a bad poker game. ‘Award for $500M” and cost you $1B will making you destroy yourself. That’s no award.
5. And whoever used the term “adversary” is exactly correct. Teachers are treated as adversaries by the managers. Well then, teachers should fight back. Somebody should. How many days until the former professional basketball player Arne Duncan stops authority role playing? What happens when he is gone? Another czar and another cartoon-named theme? There nerve of these jerks. Like that Michele Rhee chick. Somebody has given her a script and she is expecting a pay-off. Arne Duncan is on video saying schools should be open 18 hours a days and serve as community medical clinics at night. The man is a flim-flam artist idiot and you can be assured he does not go to the after hours clinic for his medical care. He’s a con man with a sales pitch. Again and again and again and again. And he’s in your classroom in Georgia because you fell for the “award.”
Private Citizen
January 7th, 2013
11:25 pm
The last school building I worked in, there were no bad teachers in the entire building. Everyone was working like a fiend and the last words to me from one of the best teachers was silently lipping the words “we have no materials to work with” as if I was then tasked with taking that message to the outside world.
Private Citizen
January 7th, 2013
11:32 pm
Oh now this is rich. Reading Arne Duncan’s biography, His father was a psychology professor
Private Citizen
January 7th, 2013
11:50 pm
Oh I remember what I was going to say. I read through my evaluations, and it is just like a clock. If the evaluator respects you, the evaluation reads like you are a “valued member of the community, professional doing exemplary work.” This is the type evaluation I get written by someone who has a doctorate and also a second job writing tests for the test company. Then there is the other type of evaluations, that reads like someone is actively trying to undermine you, -chop, chop, chop- like they’re trying to chop down a tree. This is the kind of evaluation I have received from evaluators who are lesser educated than me, from lesser schools, and are occupied with political gamesmanship. Meanwhile, I have consistently done the same dedicated high level work / service for my students, but the evaluations clearly read as if either “type A” or “type B” depending on who is writing them. And the irritating part is that I could care less about any of it, except that will use the tacky evaluations to ramp up pressure and hostility. Dishonest administrators expect subordinates to act like the subordinate has a lobotomy or something. If an intelligent person bristles at one of these bozos with their formula, the evaluator can and will chop you down. Point is, in school districts where they have upper end membership schools for the kids of the elite, there is such a culture of corruption, that this is the priority. It is the all / everything agenda, the corruption of the few who force the behavior of the many. Basically, Georgia teachers have to go around and act like a little mouse and literally go along with anything / everything. It really is like the politicians / administrators are lions dining on the teachers, It’s like the lower level administrators are the soldiers managing the arena where the lions eat the slaves.
Negotiator
January 8th, 2013
12:47 am
@Dr. Monica Henderson, you are spot on!
Using the TKES and LKES could be one of the most effective ways for administrators to change the culture of learning in their building. It first requires that the administrator not only know the 10 dimensions of the evaluation instrument thoroughly , but to have a grasp of what quality instruction looks like in the classroom. The latter takes hours and hours of study. A great administrator will spend time observing in the classroom those that do it well and view videos of great teaching practices online . Teaching is an art and a craft that teachers learn from practice and observing others do it right.
Developing a system where teachers spend time observing each other to ensure that instruction, practice, assessment, reteaching, extending and reassessment can produce excellent results.
This evaluation system coupled with coaching and direction by an administrator who has learned the craft well can transform the culture of learning in a school.
Evaluation was not meant to be an “I got you” system. It is meant to be a measure of a quality end product produced by teachers and administrators. Much like a conductor and his/her orchestra. The product is evident to all.
But it has to be done correctly
waltbellamy
January 8th, 2013
4:10 am
So by this metric 99%+ of teachers are successful. What other field of endeavor pretends that this fantasy is reality?
This is why I throw up a little bit every year when I pay $3K in property taxes for DeKalb County schools. I work with a ministry program that provides after school homework help / tutoring for North DeKalb elementary students. Not a single one of the 15 fifth graders I work with can perform simple addition on a second grade level.
Please take a victory lap for the 99%+ effective job you are doing.
Beverly Fraud
January 8th, 2013
6:31 am
“Evaluation was not meant to be an “I got you” system.”
I’m not so sure I believe that Negotiator and here’s why:
If true, why has there been zero talk about protecting teachers from the arbitrary and capricious misuse of the evaluation instrument?
Surely anybody who knows anything about education in Georgia knows that’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed, not only for teachers, but for students as it was one of the “tools in the toolkit” that help keep the cheating going for close to one full decade.
Dr. Monica Henson
January 8th, 2013
6:50 am
Thanks, Negotiator. You and I are in agreement on what effective supervision & evaluation is supposed to be.
Beverly F, have you been credentialed as a TKES evaluator? It is going to be doggoned difficult for an evaluator to be “arbitrary & capricious” in terms of scoring a teacher below proficient on any of the criteria. There has to be clear evidence provided if a teacher is not scored at least at proficient (which is one of the reasons why most administrators are defaulting to “Proficient” when they rate teachers–this is the case with ANY evaluation instrument).
The training of the evaluators to credential them in TKES is rigorous. The devil is not in those details–it’s in what happens when the administrators go back to their schools and actually implement the system. In any organization, at any level, what gets paid attention and done at least close to correctly is what gets evaluated. If an administrator is not being evaluated on how effectively s/he is implementing TKES, or any other teacher evaluation instrument, then it’s a crapshoot on whether the instrument is used correctly & effectively. It becomes totally dependent on the intrinsic motivation of the individual administrator.
GaDOE would be well advised, in my opinion, to launch a campaign to educate superintendents on the crucial nature of THEIR implementation of LKES–that would be the avenue to help ensure that TKES is being executed as intended by principals and assistant principals. Even better, if GSBA began educating its members on the importance of evaluating superintendents in part on how they evaluate principals on teacher supervision and evaluation.
The ways things have always stood is that BOEs generally presume (usually incorrectly) that superintendents already do this, if it even is on the BOE’s radar at all, which it generally is not. Because superintendents are not evaluated by their BOEs on the quality of their evaluation of their principals on teacher supervision & evaluation, there is little or no incentive for most superintendents to make it a priority. It gets delegated to the human resources director or a deputy superintendent. That person isn’t evaluated on it, either, except to the extent that all paperwork makes it to HR by the spring deadline for renewing contracts.
It truly is a trickle-down stream of apathy with regard to the single most important responsibility of administrators, after ensuring safety of staff and students.
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
7:21 am
Negotiator says: view videos of great teaching practices online
source? You’re saying evaluators should see such “videos” and you do not even mention teachers, as if the teachers are some unrelated thing, like a tomato in a field, instead of a human? If you are going to use “videos of great teaching practices,” this is shared resource for teachers and administrators alike? This type video sounds like a great idea,. Dear Mr. Barge even has a website about it that is so nice and beautiful is looks someone made an FAO Schwarz marketing site using an Apple computer. Here, let me dial it up for you.
Can someone explain this to me? You wonder why I act like I want to jump off a bridge? Okay, Here’s the trailer for the videos you mention: http://gafuturenow.org/modern-teacher/
Here’s the testimonial videos telling how great “the movement” is http://gafuturenow.org/video-testimonials/
Now where are the videos? Did they just formally promote a snipe hunt? (an elaborate practical joke in which the unsuspecting victim hunts a snipe and is typically left in the dark holding a bag and waiting for the snipe to run into it). What’s going on here? It’s like a bad acid trip. Didn’t this guy’s mama teach him that you don’t sell something that you do not have? I’ve really appreciate if someone could explain these “videos of great teaching practices online” because I don’t see them, but I see them being promoted. How can the bosses practice such incomplete action will putting the point of a drill onto the teachers? Who’s the leader? Are you the leader? Am I the leader?
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
7:22 am
Negotiator says: view videos of great teaching practices online
source? You’re saying evaluators should see such “videos” and you do not even mention teachers, as if the teachers are some unrelated thing, like a tomato in a field, instead of a human? If you are going to use “videos of great teaching practices,” this is shared resource for teachers and administrators alike? This type video sounds like a great idea,. Dear Mr. Barge even has a website about it that is so nice and beautiful is looks someone made an FAO Schwarz marketing site using an Apple computer. Here, let me dial it up for you.
Can someone explain this to me? You wonder why I act like I want to jump off a bridge? Okay, Here’s the trailer for the videos you mention: http://gafuturenow.org/modern-teacher/
(part 1)
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
7:23 am
(post continued)
Here’s the testimonial videos telling how great “the movement” is http://gafuturenow.org/video-testimonials/
Now where are the videos? Did they just formally promote a snipe hunt? (an elaborate practical joke in which the unsuspecting victim hunts a snipe and is typically left in the dark holding a bag and waiting for the snipe to run into it). What’s going on here? It’s like a bad acid trip. Didn’t this guy’s mama teach him that you don’t sell something that you do not have? I’ve really appreciate if someone could explain these “videos of great teaching practices online” because I don’t see them, but I see them being promoted. How can the bosses practice such incomplete action will putting the point of a drill onto the teachers? Who’s the leader? Are you the leader? Am I the leader?
redweather
January 8th, 2013
8:11 am
@Ernest, “Given the demands placed on many principals these days, would it make sense to have certified retired educators perform the evaluations, in conjunction with a school based staff member?”
Indeed it would.
Colonel Jack
January 8th, 2013
8:38 am
@redweather … Indeed it would! And that is why it will never be implemented.
Because it’s a good idea….one that didn’t come from some “central” authority.
If I sound bitter, well, it’s because I am. After 23 years of good-to-excellent “evaluations,” my last two were “unsatisfactory” and I was railroaded into retirement…by a principal who (I just learned) doesn’t even have a leadership certificate, but would do what *someone* in the central office wanted done – get rid of some payroll. (23 years and an Ed.S. degree … you do the money math. I cost the system too much money.)
Keep this in mind as we evaluate the evaluation system…if there’s someone in the central office who wants a teacher gone, no evaluation system will prevent an administrator from getting rid of that teacher. It matters not if that teacher is good, great, or SuperTeacher. If someone wants that teacher gone, it’s just a matter of time until they are gone.
Principal
January 8th, 2013
8:41 am
This new evaluation system is VERY cumbersome and overly time consuming
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
9:17 am
it make sense to have certified retired educators perform the evaluations
Oh, who are you kidding? Evaluations are used to promote or railroad whoever is chosen for “the treatment.” I do not know what is the answer to this outside of 100% voucher and a market-based school environment. In a government school district, it might be the black / white / purple / male / female people getting either promoted or railroaded. There is a very short chain of command of who tells the “evaluator” what to do. You might get railroaded because you actually taught content. Or – my favorite – you were firm with some jerk kid whose mama got the last teacher fired – and informs you as much – and mama has “friends on the board.” There is so much of this rotted networking in these bottled up “districts,” there must definitely be answers for teachers. For one thing, currently, teachers have no power and avenues or ability to stand up to abuse from management. Or what about the teacher who bats their eyes and flatters the principal mercilessly and gets promoted etc., meanwhile the hard-nosed content teacher who is actually preparing students for professional work gets the bad review from a principal who says “You’re asking too much from the students.” Sounds like a comic book? I’ve had it happen to me. Same bunch when I delivered the high test scores from students, gave me Zero mention of it and basically informed me that I needed re-training. Oh yes, well guess what. I stepped back. And now that person, the principal, is themselves currently getting THE TREATMENT from the corrupted upper political squad. It is a nasty thing. Principals have it no better than teachers, maybe worse, when it comes to this Peyton Place local politics. And yes, they do intrude on schools and micro-manage and politic and busy body. Some days I think there are local power people who DO NOT WANT the underclass to learn anything. Otherwise, why would they destroy good / able / performing teachers?
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
9:30 am
get rid of some payroll. (23 years and an Ed.S. degree … you do the money math. I cost the system too much money.)
It would be perfectly fine with me if there was no extra pay for years of service. In some ways, I think this would be a lot better. I had one friend in the same building as me, had 30 years in the system and a few other income increasing add-ons, and received almost double the rate of pay that I did. I harbor no ill will about this. I also think adinistrators, including central office staff should absolutely receive no more than 150% of what a teacher is paid. In other salaries of $50k / $75k in the administrator must be paid more. Currently it is more like $40k / $100k. That is not too great when the admin. is a political careerist who comes in and tells the teacher how to teach, meanwhile they have their evenings and weekends, meanwhile the teacher is on the hot wire and is also spending their own money on materials to get the job done, something an administrA
Private Citizen
January 8th, 2013
9:32 am
and (the teacher) is also spending their own money on materials to get the job done, something an administrator does not do.
Beverly Fraud
January 8th, 2013
9:34 am
“Beverly F, have you been credentialed as a TKES evaluator?
In a word, no.
“It is going to be doggoned difficult for an evaluator to be “arbitrary & capricious” in terms of scoring a teacher below proficient on any of the criteria.”
I strongly suspect you are speaking with a voice that would use such an instrument with integrity and thus may not understand the mindset of those who would abuse it.
“which is one of the reasons why most administrators are defaulting to “Proficient” when they rate teachers–this is the case with ANY evaluation instrument)”
True for most, unless they want to retaliate and systems like APS have actually said what is contained in a principal’s observation is not subject to appeal, even if it can be independently verified that it contains factually incorrect statements.
It’s one of the reasons Dr. John Trotter at MACE called APS a “gangsta” system; they openly violate the law when it comes to due process of teachers (and still do by the way, according to MACE)…of course he caught heat from the AJC for statements like that.
But as Jay Bookman readily admitted (correct me if I’m wrong Maureen) the AJC was more interested in “believing the narrative” than they were hearing the truth from “radicals” like John Trotter.
Sure some poor teachers probably benefit from gaps in the evaluation process, much like some criminals go free because we have Bill of Rights. But to think that good teachers who dare to speak to the best interests of their students aren’t retaliated against by evaluation instruments, and PDPs is the height of folly.
In the same way you would ask if I’m a TKES evaluator, I invite you to ask Dr. John Trotter if he’s ever had to represent a teacher who had verifiable falsified information on an evaluation form.
There is already a lot of mistrust about the new instrument. As such what possible harm could have come from an honest discussion about misuse of it? We’ve seen the harm in being silent about this-the largest cheating scandal in US educational history.
Dr. Monica Henson
January 8th, 2013
10:50 am
Thanks Beverly. I wasn’t asking to make a rhetorical point–I don’t know if you are yourself a teacher or administrator, so that’s why I was inquiring whether you’d had the training.
M