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It's really scary to think that all these policy decisions keep making it through state legislation even in the face of evidence. Part of me wants to believe that this is just the result of some anti-education lawmakers in the south who are doing this and that the reform agenda is falling apart everyone, but it seems the reality is that laws like this one and many others keep getting passed because lawmakers are funded by organizations such as ALEC and The Gates Foundation who want to turn education into a commodity and teaching into a low wage service job.
Can't access the article, but I think it would depend on how this is implemented. There are a lot of teachers in the Memphis school system that have no business being teachers, and I would happily see them removed.
This is RTT implementation. RTT puts the blame right on the teacher when kids don't pass their standardized tests.
From the OP link:
"..linking teacher evaluations to test-score improvements..."
The link came up inaccessible unless you have a subscription.
But if you google the title then you get a link with the entire article.
I tried to link that here but reverted back to just the headline.
Under the new policy in Tennessee, teachers must show they are boosting student achievement or they would lose their teaching license.
Do they want to make sure no one will teach in their struggling schools unless they are so desperate that they are willing to risk their future livelihood?
Quote:
Over the past three years, many states have started linking teacher evaluations to test-score improvements and other measures of student performance. But only Rhode Island, Louisiana and Delaware have tied some teaching-license renewals to these evaluations, according to Sandi Jacobs of the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and advocacy group that supports grading teachers on classroom effectiveness.
If this is the wave of the future, and I highly suspect it is, I can not understand how they expect to keep teachers or encourage people to even enter the education field.
Our state evaluations are graded on a scale of 1 thru 5, with 5 being the highest. What's slightly amusing (but at the same time, very depressing), we were told that in order to get a 5, we had to be able to "walk on water." No joke - that statement came from Nashville.
Now if the value-added assessment part of our evaluation - the part that shows growth in our standardized testing - is a 1 for, I think, 3 yrs straight, we can have our license pulled. We can appeal, but...
Now, let's talk about the "growth". The state uses previous TCAP (K-8 tests) and other End-of-course exams (HS) to predict what these students should make on other exams. If they are predicted to make 65% but actually make 70%, we show growth. If they are predicted to make a 100% (and this occurs rather frequently) but score a 98%, then these students show a loss. Too many losses and the get a 1 on our eval's.
Now knowing this, where do you think most teachers will focus their attention - on the upper quintile which we know will pass the test (but by missing only 1 question on the 65 question test will actually hurt us) or on the lower quintile that are expected to make a 20% on the test, but will make us look good if the get a 30% (but still fail the exam)?
People who are nor educators should have not hand in making educational policy. But since these people are educated, they seem to think this gives them the knowledge of how to educate. Nothing could be further from the truth. And since they don't ask us teachers about these policies before they vote on them, they show us - and the whole world - a total lack of respect and utter contempt they have for our profession as teachers. We obviously don't know enough about education to help policy makers make educational policy. It's enough to make a grown man cry...
This is RTT implementation. RTT puts the blame right on the teacher when kids don't pass their standardized tests.
From the OP link:
"..linking teacher evaluations to test-score improvements..."
The link came up inaccessible unless you have a subscription.
But if you google the title then you get a link with the entire article.
I tried to link that here but reverted back to just the headline.
Yeah I had to google it to view when I first saw the headline earlier. And it's pretty funny in sad way how RTT is turning out to be worse than NCLB
Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldhag1
Do they want to make sure no one will teach in their struggling schools unless they are so desperate that they are willing to risk their future livelihood?
If this is the wave of the future, and I highly suspect it is, I can not understand how they expect to keep teachers or encourage people to even enter the education field.
That's what I would think as well, but the choice rhetoric is seductive. I mean who wouldn't think that someone who says that "schools should be run like a business" isn't being reasonable when they hear it during a campaign speech. With alternate pathways becoming more common into teaching, it's almost as if they expect people to enter the field for 3 years making a low wage, burn out, and recruit the next batch. The Virginia legislature is in the process of approving TFA which will no doubt be used to crowd out experienced teachers in the poorest districts across the state under the guise of cost cutting.
So, since this is based on predicted scores and testing is almost always normally distributed...
every year you should lose 1/8th of your teachers, and that is on top of attrition.
I sense a wave of alternative licenses showing up very soon.
Do they want to make sure no one will teach in their struggling schools unless they are so desperate that they are willing to risk their future livelihood?
If this is the wave of the future, and I highly suspect it is, I can not understand how they expect to keep teachers or encourage people to even enter the education field.
Yep. This kind of policy will only make the revolving door of teachers in struggling schools that much more pronounced. This is what happens when you have people who are in the dark about some of the inner-workings in public schools making key decisions.
I heard they are starting to bring computer based learning programs into the classrooms and have an assistant stand by for concerns. The teacher is only needed to find trouble spots and reprogram the direction of the student or assist until they understand it. Khan Academy is one being used with a lot of success. The future holds some changes for sure. With these programs less teachers will be needed.
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