The Education Wonks
The union could do a lot worse than Ms. Neira. Very well put.
I especially like her points about teachers being the solution and accountability being done with rather than to teachers. The only argument I can see against her points is the classic joke of the teachers who can't "do" running amok.
great! thanks very much for sharing
School assessment and accountability goes hand in hand with reforming the American education system. Every test that is given each year measures the knowledge of a student. There is no limit on giving a test to someone whether they are applying to enter college or take advance placement test for a course. Along the same lines, tests go to the extreme level of being a requirement in order to graduate high school. There is always history to how every test began and what their purposes are within the school system.
Indeed. The problem with every merit pay scheme I've seen to date is that it attempts--in exactly the same ways and for exactly the same reasons as mandatory, high stakes testing--to impose a business model on education. And while there are some reasonably valid analogies that one can make regarding business and education, the teaching process has no useful analogs in business and trying to impose business practices therein is actively and immediately harmful, not to teachers so much as students, who after all, generally have only one year--one chance--to learn all that they should in 9th grade English or 10th history. Impose a lame-brained miraculous concept on a school and that opportunity may well be severely hampered or lost.
The author does hit on a very important issue: active, competent supervision. It is not difficult for competent principals to determine which teachers fail and which shine. It does, however, take time, knowledge, dedication and actual effort over time.
Having spent more than 17 years as a police officer I've always found it fascinating that most states demand three years of probation for teachers. The police are commonly able to determine if an officer is competent in no more than a year, that they are expected to make absolutely correct, life and death decisions without warning, in milliseconds. In reality, they do just that almost all the time, yet we can't expect a principal to determine if a teacher is competent within the space of a year, or in the case of merit pay, ever?
Just another example of government trying, more and more, to remove individual responsibility and substitute the all-encompassing embrace of the nanny state. Business can turn out lovely toasters, but kids aren't toasters.
"Kids aren't toasters." I love that.
Well, of course, we all know that if a students doesn't know something, it's because they haven't been taught it, right? There couldn't be any other reasons they don't know, could there?
There are so many real, rational reasons why merit pay schemes not only make no sense, but are actually counterproductive and harmful. But one that comes to mind--inspired by Ms. C. actually--is the curriculum vs. instruction issue.
Some suggest that teachers are utterly and completely responsible for student learning. If a student doesn't learn, it is the fault of the teacher and there is nothing else to be discussed.
Some suggest that the key to learning is the magic curriculum that essentially removes the human element (AKA the "teacher") from the equation. Merely having a non-certified "facilitator" or "monitor" read the curriculum to the students, or load the computer software, etc., will result in fabulous educational gains unattainable by the antiquated teacher/student model.
Teachers tend to understand that all they can do, ultimately, is to provide the best educational opportunity possible for their students. Of course they cajole, encourage, break dance, or do whatever they can to bring the kids along, but ultimately, they present the best material possible and the kids choose either to take responsibility for their education and do the actual work necessary to build their own brains, or they do not.
In this reality, the finest teacher in the world cannot download learning into the brains of those who will not learn. Thus mediocre teachers with a higher percentage of willing students might well be rewarded far more handsomely than outstanding teachers with more challenging students. When the toasters can determine whether they are actually assembled or not, and when they can, at will, choose to jump off the assembly line and bolt from the factory, it's rather difficult to have a consistent quality control program.
The solution for so many problems in education remains competent, engaged and involved supervision.
This year I went from teaching in The Ghetto to teaching at The School by the Golf Course (was tired of a 45 minute commute). Of 24 sixth graders last year, 10 or so were at benchmark in reading. Out of my 22 second graders this year, 20 are at benchmark in reading. Now, I don't think I suddenly became a phenomenal teacher from last year to this year. And I certainly wasn't asleep on the job at my old school. (In fact I worked my ass off). Merit pay makes no sense when it is based on test scores.
Perhaps it would work if we found some other measure of quality teaching to base it on.
And just as we teachers should not be judged based on the results of one week of tests, neither should our students...but they are! Two days before testing, I got a new 4th grade student from Saipan and he had to take the test. I am sure he did terrible on the test, but in those same two days he bravely learned how to say several necessary phrases in English and has made friends with kids despite the fact that none of them speak the same language. He's done in two days what most of us adults would take months to do. How do we give him public credit for his success?
There has to be some middle ground.
Merit opponents argue against using a "single test in mid-January" as if merit -based systems are that simplistic. They want you to believe that it is impossible to differentiate teacher performance based on observable student achievement.
Imagine if our doctors kept their licenses even though all their patients became ill. It was the patient's fault, afterall. Or that investors showed a loss year after year after year, but still were allowed to manage other people's money.
We all have metrics that can be used to measure performance. If teachers want to be part of the dialog, they should take these soapbox moments to put forward proposals of their own.
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