A recent op-ed in the Boston Globe, titled “,” examined the issue of teacher evaluations. The writer, Kim Marshall, believes that pay based on teacher evaluations could potentially be the solution to the nation’s achievement gap. However, Marshall points out that the system is flawed due to a lack of manpower to evaluate teachers, the difficulty in getting an accurate picture of day-to-day class instruction and the reality that teacher evaluations don’t reveal if students are actually learning what they are taught.
Marshall’s solution is that evaluations should be unannounced, teachers should be rated on a rubric scale in addition to their students’ gains on year-round assessments.
Many of the school improvement grants implemented in priority schools this year increase focus on teacher evaluations. What do you think about Marshall’s ideas?
Posted in News on April 5th, 2011 by Amy Buffenbarger – 5 Comments
By Amy Buffenbarger
“Ok, let’s count 91 to 100 all together.”
“I want to count one to 100 by myself!”
Alex, a first-grader and in , , is a refugee from the African country of Burundi. Eager to show off his knowledge, he is a perfect example of the progress English Language Learners can make in supportive environments.
(ELLs) are the fastest growing group of students in American public schools, with one in four students projected to be an ELL by 2020. While the largest group of ELLs is Spanish speaking, there are 460 languages represented in U.S. classrooms. A challenge facing many .
Edmunds Elementary has a large and unique ELL population. Half of the students are ELLs, and 85 percent of those students are refugees from Africa. The trauma of war at home, in addition to language barriers between teachers, students and families, is just part of the challenge in educating these students. Many of the students don’t have education records and their parents have never attended school.
With students from Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Iraq, Vietnam, Mexico and more, the immense challenge doesn’t discourage Dustin Hockman, the ELL Instructor at Edmunds.
Hockman, who has been teaching at Edmunds for 2.5 years, puts in 12-hour days during the week and keeps teaching through the weekend. He has become a familiar face in Oakridge, a low-income community located next to the school where most of the students live. When he isn’t at school, Hockman can be found taking donated computers to his student’s homes, visiting families in the community, teaching adults about resources in Des Moines and lending a supportive ear to his students. His passion and dedication to the success of students at Edmunds is clear. read more »
Portland, OR teachers and the school board have agreed to a new contract, fresh evidence that educators and districts across the country are pushing forward on collaborative reforms, despite political attacks and a difficult economy. The work of the and supported by the just this week stands in contrast to the so-called exercised by Republican pols in Madison, WI and that appeared to advance Gov. Walker’s union-stripping plan close to law.
While political opponents continue attacks on the rights of working men and women in some states, elsewhere the story is one of success for agreement-based approaches to advance education reform and budget savings. In the Portland contract, teachers agreed to small pay increases, additional workloads and adoption of a new evaluation system next year. PAT President Rebecca Levison told the new system is being piloted this year at a in Portland – – as part of its federal , “led by the teachers with the help of the union and also the leaders in the building…so we’re utilizing what they’re working on this year to inform what we’re going to do next year.” read more »
At the same time educators in several states face legislation to strip their right to bargain with school districts on most issues, teachers and support professionals in those states and across the country have entered a new era of collaborative reform with their school districts.
Despite the deep-pocketed promotion of an anti-union narrative in media and government, in state after state, unions are showing the way, not only in education reform, but specifically in strategies to close the achievement gaps and raise student achievement in struggling schools, what NEA calls Priority Schools.
In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Education Association Council for pay differentials and evaluation aimed at ensuring effective teachers in every classroom. The state’s governor is now trying to break the union’s right to bargain despite WEAC’s open offer to do its fair share in compensation and benefits to meet the state’s budget shortfall.
In Hamilton County, TN formed around five inner-city middle schools that tended to perform less well than the other middle schools. The district and union together formed networks to share and implement best practices throughout the district. Since the program was expanded to every one of Hamilton’s middle schools in 2005, the percentage of middle school students passing the state’s reading exam increased from 84% in 2005 to 90% in 2009. The percentage of middle school students passing the state’s mathematics exam increased from 86% in 2005 to 89% in 2009.
In Nevada, the Clark County Education Association initiated the . Under collaborative management teams, teachers were able to choose textbooks, they organized the day around a block of focused reading in ability-level groups, and initiated small-group tutoring after school. When Paul Culley Elementary joined the empowerment school project in 2005, fewer than a quarter of its students read on grade level. By 2008, 57 percent did.
Just five years ago, in Merced, CA was the lowest-performing elementary school in California’s Merced City School District. Now, thanks to a new focus on professional development and collaboration – and a seven-year grant from a union-backed program – John Muir is now one of Merced’s top-performing elementary schools. The school uses California’s Quality Education Investment Act funds to focus on professional development, reducing class size, and a boot camp where kids who were falling behind could receive additional instruction.
In Indiana, Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation and the Evansville Teachers Association jointly developed a plan called , targeting two elementary schools and a middle school where scores on the state test were low and falling. The plan includes increased professional development designed jointly by teachers and the district, and compensated longer school days and a longer year. The district and union bargained the changes, including a requirement that, beginning in the 2010 school year, teachers wanting to work in the three schools were required to first pass through a rigorous Equity Academy program designed by the district and the union. More teachers applied than there were positions available.
In Illinois, three unions representing more than 230,000 education employees, the Illinois Education Association, the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Chicago Teachers Union jointly developed to streamline the process for removing underperforming teachers and resolve teacher dismissals in a much shorter time, helping to reduce costs associated with dismissals for both districts and employees. The unions also proposed that evaluations be clearly tied to a teacher obtaining due process rights, usually known as “teacher tenure.”
Back in October, NEA President in Tampa, Florida with Education Secretary Arne Duncan to highlight the collaborative progress lead by the Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association.
This week, Newsweek magazine picked up on that great work and reported what happens when .
As summarizes, Jean Clements, President of the Hillsborough CTA, says the collaboration has allowed both sides to have conversations about education topics that would normally be “taboo” in other locations.
If you are a fan of science and space films, the phrase Houston, we have a problem is a clear warning of danger ahead. After spending two days in San Francisco visiting two schools identified as NEA Priority Schools that will receive , I feel that phrase sums up the message I would like to share with :
Mr. Secretary, you are creating a launch problem for schools that are already filled with hard-working professionals who work with kids that bring tough problems to school with them every day. The schools I visited have not been given time to implement the models for major change that the told school districts they must adopt. Mr. Secretary, you must carve out time for schools to determine what programs are needed in their schools. They must have time to plan and collaborate together. read more »
Watch Dr. Sheila Simmons, Director of , talk about collaboration and engaging educators, administrations and the community to achieve results during her testimony to the West Contra Costa School Board in Richmond, California.
National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel stopped in Columbus on Wednesday, Aug. 25, as part of his week-long, multi-city, back-to-school tour. The veteran high school math teacher arrived at West HS at 6:20 a.m. on the first day of the new school year to meet and greet the staff.
West HS is one of seven CCS Priority Schools designated by the Ohio Department of Education. The seven schools could receive a total of $20 million in additional federal funding over the next three years as recipients of School Improvement Grants (SIGs). President Van Roekel spoke with teachers and administrators of West’s Innovation Team tasked with using SIG monies to facilitate the transformation of teaching and learning at the school.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel, OEA President Patricia Frost-Brooks and CEA President Rhonda Johnson traveled from West HS to join Gov. Ted Strickland, Supt. Gene Harris and other dignitaries at South Mifflin STEM Academy to announce the award of a $550,000 service learning grant from the federal government.
Awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, the “Bringing Learning to Life” grant partners include NEA, OEA, CEA, CCS and The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology.
“Teachers will receive professional development to help them create more effective hands-on learning opportunities for students,” stated Van Roekel. “We look forward to seeing the work that comes out of this project; it is our hope that we will be able to replicate it in other places.”
“The grant is vital to the Columbus community,” agreed President Johnson. “It will allow the members of the Columbus Education Association to receive professional development that will help them continue to lead the way in restoring schools to their traditional roles as community hubs.”
After a tour of South Mifflin STEM Academy, Van Roekel, Frost-Brooks and Johnson traveled to Champion MS. The visit to Champion MS illustrated NEA’s Positive Agenda and Priority Schools principles. Teachers recruited to staff this high-needs school are paid an extra $4,000 a year.
Critics of the federal School Improvement Grants process have long argued that many schools desperately in need of additional support will not receive a dime. There will be a culture of winners and losers — and as the SIG process rolls forward, the schools on the losing end are unsure how to proceed.
As part of the , priority schools from throughout the country crafted plans to institute reforms such as firing half their staffs, lengthening the school day or year, and adding professional development and other instructional supports.
But what happens to those best-laid plans when schools find out they won’t receive any SIG funding?
Education Week reporter Stephen Sawchuk just posted a great article about the on his blog. Sawchuk learned more about PSC while covering NEA’s Representative Assembly in New Orleans earlier this month. He reports that the campaign “will focus on four core tenets for improving low-performing schools: increasing staff effectiveness; developing family and school partnerships; increasing district and local-union collaboration; and leveraging community assets. Those tenets aren’t groundbreaking in and of themselves, the directors noted. What’s new is that they are being put together in a comprehensive reform approach.”
Sawchuk’s article and interview with Sheila Simmons and Steve Snider, the director and associate director, respectively, of the campaign.
