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'Teacher Evaluation': Real Agenda Appears to Be School Privatization
In an urban Head Start classroom, a 3-year-old has just been dropped off by her father and sits on the lap of a volunteer from the "Granny Brigade." As he leaves, she begins to wail, "Daddy! Dadeeeeee!" Her "granny" holds her gently until she calms down and is ready to join other young children in their morning activities. They go through this ritual for several days until the little girl gradually adjusts to the new experience known as preschool.
All children depend on the adults in their lives to establish the basic trust that they will be safe. When parents lead especially disordered lives, there are at best few positive supports for their children, and at worst, abuse and neglect. Subjected to relentless toxic stress, the developing brains of perfectly normal babies literally fail to grow, creating lifelong emotional and cognitive disabilities. Without early intervention, the toll is often irreversible and tragic.
So what happens to these stressed-out children when they come to school; who is responsible for their academic progress?
The message of former D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee is that the adults immediately in charge of the classroom are most accountable. No one else has the same level of responsibility for student achievement; not parents, administrators nor the students themselves. And certainly not the politicians who vote to limit school funding while demanding high test scores from all children.
To spread this peculiar school-reform message, Rhee founded a national school-choice advocacy group called Students First. They and a sister group called Pennsylvania Students First are affiliated with a third organization called the American Federation for Children, headed by privatization activist Betsy de Vos.
AFC's mission statement from its website reads: "The American Federation for Children is a leading national advocacy organization promoting school choice, with a specific focus on advocating for school vouchers and scholarship tax-credit programs."
In 2010, with huge donations from AFC and the Susquehanna Investment Group, Pennsylvania Students First PAC contributed to the failed gubernatorial campaign of Democratic state Sen. Anthony Williams. He is one of the sponsors of Senate Bill 1, which would authorize new pathways to charter schools, vouchers for private schools, and expansion of the $75 million corporate-tax-credit allowance by Pennsylvania's Education Improvement Tax Credit Act.
In other words, gut the state public-school system. To justify this cannibalistic bottom line, privatization advocates have to emphasize that public schools are "failing" or "inadequate" and their union teachers "ineffective."
Rhee, in partnership with Pennsylvania Students First, appeared in June at Lincoln Charter School in York with Gov. Corbett, state Education Secretary Ron Tomalis and Senate Education Committee Chairman Jeff Piccola, a co-sponsor with Williams of SB1.
Their discussion was mainly about ways to promote school choice. (Corbett is scheduled to return to York today to unveil his school-reform plan.)
In order to facilitate the gradual takeover of public education, Rhee and her cohort want to promote laws that would end tenure, outlaw seniority rules and set up methods of teacher evaluation, such as competitive "value-added assessments," that are guaranteed to destroy professional collaboration and collegiality. This neatly fits the propaganda that public schools are a mess mainly because of entrenched, incompetent teachers, and that we have to provide alternatives before it's too late.
In a country where 50 percent of new teachers voluntarily leave the profession within five years, do we really need to set up more obstacles? A fair measurement of teacher performance is certainly possible with formal classroom observations, including diagnostic assessment of student work in that classroom, and by considering all variables. Where corrective action is needed, it should be provided, including weeding out poor teachers.
Professional educators rely on a community of colleagues to assist with decision-making, planning and implementing programs. The last thing they need are high-stakes competitive evaluations dependent mainly on the unpredictable performances of children too often impaired from early childhood by excessive stress.
23 Comments so far
Show AllI have been teaching on and off since 1957. In the 1970s I founded Justice for Children. I support freedom of choice for parents. I have seen too many dysfunctional teachers. I have also seen many, many great ones.
In many classrooms there is too much concentration on patriotism - having the troops come into 3rd and 4th grades to 'talk' to the students. The public government education system should not be supported until schools/teachers are brave enough to teach an accurate history of the USA. I support public financing of education K thru grad school.
Please read my article THE TEXAS TEXTBOOK MASSACRE.
Michelle Rhee appears to be nothing but a parasite, trying to suck the lifeblood out of pulic education in the US. She has no interest in improving the eductional experience for children....her only interest is to get as much notariety and money for herself as possible.
A classroom, especially in the elementary grades, is much like a family, and teaching is really nurturing. A really good teacher is one who can not only demonstrate mastery of subject matter, but one who can demonstrate caring and compassion for children, instilling those attributes along with a love of learning in his/her students.
There are no 'value-added assessments' that can measure those qualities - just ask the kids.
-----The last thing they need are high-stakes competitive evaluations dependent mainly on the unpredictable performances of children too often impaired from early childhood by excessive stress.------------------
So now you're thinking that the teachers can't handle the stress of being evaluated on how effective they are in instilling things onto stressed children?
Well, of course, it's not really fair. There are many reasons why children don't learn and the work of the teacher is only one on the list.
On the other hand, what other function does a teacher serve except to find a way to overcome the obstacles?
------ the troops come into 3rd and 4th grades to 'talk' to the students.------
I can't recall ever hearing about anything such as that
do the troops march into 3rd and 4th grade classes daily, weekly or every time a teacher presses a little buzzer under the desk?
The purpose of "Teacher Evaluation" is to destroying the unions, the profession, and privatize education for corporate profit. NCLB is to make teachers and students widgets and unable to think or be creative. If a teacher or school happens to do well on a test. . . . just change the test to make it impossible to pass. The corporations will make more profits "retesting" and the "failed school" will be closed. For example, give the 3rd graders the 5th grade exam. . . they will fail.
We are moving to the Soviet Style education system with Central Control. This is being done by the same people who yap on and on about "not wanting to have government" intrude in our lives.
All teachers need to step up and become activists outside the classroom or the corporations that are attacking the schools and teachers will prevail. Not good.
fuster...It happens on a regular basis where I live. Also, the little kids keep 'in touch' with the troops and are 'pen pals' with them. This is an area where rallying around the flag is highly valued and any questioning of the nation's policies is frowned upon. Censorship of political speech accepted.
See the photos of Dennis Steele being harrassed and arrested. He was a candidate in the last election. His major crime was that he is not a member of the democratic/republican party. Things like this happen all the time.
There are lots of things that drive school reformers but I'd venture to say that the privatization of schools is only a very small part. I think that reformers, like Occupy Wall Street protesters, are just fed up with the status quo, which they believe to be unfair. A few may think privatization is the cure, some may think vouchers. Some may think teacher evaluations or merit pay for teachers are the answers. And there are many, many more issues they raise. But the common denominator is that they feel the system is working against them and their children, that it's not being responsible and is set up for the benefit of the adults not the kids. That's not the kind of American system people support.
Most teachers are terrific but there are some bad apples. My personal belief is that if we fired the 5-7% of teachers who are bad and replaced them with even moderately talented teachers, a lot of the bad statistics and the discontent would go away. And it's not really hard to know who the bad teachers are...everybody knows! Parents know, Students know. Administrators know and so do other teachers. They are an open secret that nobody talks about. And they are a cancer in the system.
Getting rid of the few bad apples is an easy way to respond to the problems the schools have. But it is unrealistic to think that getting rid of 5 to 7% of the teachers would have a noticeable change. No one can teach a room full of kids when a few of them are inattentive, disruptive, disrespectful, loud, violent, etc. The kids do not learn those kinds of behaviors in the schools - they bring them from their homes and local environments. Replacing all of the teachers in a school will not address the problems caused by the baggage the kids bring to school.
Sheepherder, two things:
1. Check out Eric Hanushek's research here:http://educationnext.org/valuing-teachers/ A key paragraph:
"Starting again with the estimates of the difference in effectiveness of teachers, it is possible to calculate the long-term economic impact of policies that would focus attention on the lowest-quality teachers from U.S. classrooms. Let us propose the following thought experiment: What would happen if the very lowest performing teachers could be replaced by just average teachers? Based on the estimates of variation in teacher quality identified above, Figure 2 shows the overall achievement impact through a cycle of K–12 instruction. Assuming the upper-bound estimate of teachers’ impact, U.S achievement could reach that in Canada and Finland if we replaced with average teachers the least effective 5 to 7 percent of teachers, respectively. Assuming the lower-bound estimate of teachers’ impact, U.S achievement could reach that in Canada and Finland if we replaced with average teachers the least effective 8 to 12 percent of teachers, respectively."
2. LOTS of young teachers leave the teaching ranks every year. Putting in a fair and equitable system for evaluating and growing teachers would be a huge Plus for keeping some of these young, talented people. There should be more than enough to cover the 5-7% loss.
the article's opening sentence:
~ In an urban Head Start classroom, a 3-year-old has just been dropped off by her father and sits on the lap of a volunteer from the "Granny Brigade." ~
this is the problem...
we need to bring about a world where dad and daughter remain together throughout the day...
school is an artificial creation...the separation described is not a natural one, to be overcome, it is unnatural, and should be decried...
schools teach reinforcements of a suicidal social system...they program...
they are the problem, not the solution...
we must not mistake schools for education...
education is a different issue...what might constitute education on a more local level would be interesting to discuss...local plants that are good or bad to eat, of medicinal or psychological value...self-awareness and defense...
dad and daughter, and mother and son, and grandma and grandpa and aunt and uncle and cousin and second-cousin-once-removed, need to live differently, together, in direct communion with their surroundings...
without jobs...without schools...without 'stuff'...
dubet...I agree. Schools have become big business, big government, big brother... It is disrespectful to assume that parents can not be the best teachers... especially in the formative years. 'Institutionalizing' children in schools is just plain wrong - as is the institutionalization of the elders in old age homes.
Teachers often suggest that smaller class size is an important factor. How about a class size of 1 or 2 or 3 - as in a family.
For the sake of argument, let's agree with Rhee's proposition that the main problem in education is incompetent teachers. Suppose we go along with her program and fire them all.
My question is: Where are all these wonderfully talented young teachers going to come from (who will make everything right)? I don't hear Rhee talking about lower class sizes, help with troubled kids from paraprofessionals, revamping the curriculum, knocking down shoddy schools and replacing them with modern facilities, providing funds for equipment and books, and granting teachers salaries at least on par with those of accountants and engineers. Without those incentives, according to neoliberal thinking (competition makes better schools), intelligent young people will not be lining up to get teaching certificates.
So what does Rhee really want? That is easy: a business model applied to education, whatever the consequences. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
More like damn the torpedoes, full speed around in circles. The good teachers teach despite the conditions that are imposed upon them.
A big part of the problem is that the culture of the U.S. does not really celebrate being truly well educated. It celebrates degrees, credentials, and numbers that look good as in test scores. Underpaying teachers and publicly going after incompetent ones (yes, there are some -- most of the ones I had) delivers this message to the kids who then do what they can to get through school learning as little as possible beyond how to ace tests to juke the stats.
Paranoid Pessimist... Good comment. It has become a paper chase, AND a way of insuring that we have a culture based on socail/economic class. Some of the most brilliant people I have known had no degrees, and some of the most ignorant had a lot of letters behind their names.
This form of prejudice against those who are not 'papered' is institutionalized. Being denied employment based on 'paper' or the lack of 'paper' is one of the few forms of discrimination that continues unchallenged.
I've made this suggestion before, and I think it could pose as a very powerful counteractive strategy. As George Lakoff has made clear, the way any issue is framed in the public mind (through PR people: media's manufacturers of consent) influences public opinion--substantially.
Thus instead of seeing teachers on the defensive, seeking to defend their competence, teaching groups should instead ask why similar competency measures are not directed at the following:
1. Insurance companies and their direct responsibility for very real losses of life (in those claims they turn down).
2. Medical doctors--and all the medical mishaps that lead to an estimated 108,000 deaths per year
3. The Military: The costs per soldier, taken in light of the fact that no war has been won in some time, and then gems like:
A. There is no accounting for phenomenal sums/$ lost
B. Private miitary contractors delivering items like showers buillt so poorly, that soldiers are electrocuted while using them
4. Politicians: What direct community fall-out results from their piss-poor, self-serving decisions? As a sort of "People's Accountability Act," they should be forced to go public--in writing--with all of their positions. And when vote time comes, if they deviate 2 or more times, zip. They are OUTTA there! Contract violation, style.
5. Food makers: Where is the grade or accountability on the next (or last) lettuce recall, melon recall, beef recall, etc.
6. Wall St & its hustler class: Where is the accountability for the manipulation of the national economy leaving so many with underwater mortgages?
7. The news media for getting it so wrong about Iraq (I realize they were paid TO deceive), etc.
This is a partial list, but its intention is to show the basic sexism* in targeting teachers, of all professions, to justify their merit! (*The teaching field is dominated by women.)
IF all professions were held to accountability standards, that would be one thing; but we ROUTINELY see the slime walk (when they're not rewarded for malfeasance) while those who work honest, demanding jobs, get penalized.
Just as the right wing think tanks created memes that blamed union workers, public workers, Acorn, the poor, feminists, gays, "illegal aliens," and now teachers... it's ALL about deflection, to get public fury aimed at all the wrong targets. Meanwhile, the Disaster Capitalists design metrics they know will fail, so they can claim ownership of the commons. They want the $ that comes from education, textbooks, and in many instances, the very fine real estate that schools were built upon.
The "owners" of the ownership society want it all... even with rates of wealth accrued to the top 1%, their sinister, insatiable hunger for more now leads them to steal social security from Grandma, deny medicare to the 65 year old who daily endures painful injuries from a lifetime of labor, and steal the chance for a decent education from the inner city child who has no other options but a life of drug dealing or crime.
We just might become a banana republic, except... "Yes! We have no bananas, we have no bananas, today..."
Sioux Rose:
An interesting set of comments. Taking one of your points a bit further, consider the one about private corporations getting tax funds.
The movement to replace public schools with charter schools has had an unforeseen consequence. At least one hedge fund on Wall Street is funding one of the private corporations that is setting up charter schools in different states, so it appears that people on Wall Street have decided that charter schools represent a new source of profits. With a guaranteed source of income (tax funds that used to go to the public schools), and no need to pay teachers at union pay scales, there is plenty of money left over for corporate profits.
It is ironic that people complain about how the rapacious activities of Wall Street firms are responsible for the economic slump which shows no sign of improving, but no one seems to care that some of the same firms are edging into the nation's educational system. No one in state government seems to care that the charter schools these companies set up are no more successful than the public schools, so the tax funds intended for education are going to provide lucrative salaries and bonuses to the financiers who think of the school system as a goose laying golden eggs.
Sheepherder: I am aware of the insidious outcome you revealed. If this sociopathic ilk could make money from selling the organs of elderly people, they would. There is no low they won't sink to...
And as to this comment (of yours):
"Replacing all of the teachers in a school will not address the problems caused by the baggage the kids bring to school."
I agree. However, let's understand the culpable factors that contribute to this condition:
Hollywood--for its films (celebrating violence and power)
TV media--for the awful behaviors it normalizes (or lends fashion to)
Big Food--for the crappy "food" kids consume with Diabetes, obesity, depression, and behavioral disorders, the direct result
The commercialization of EVERYTHING, with no sense of the sacred
The war machine that makes it oh, so cool to be tough, macho, and often savage and cruel
The asymmetric economy--that leaves parents unable to support their families (or leads ghetto kids to drug dealing and petty crime)
To lock human beings into relative neighborhood prisons, lock out all positive options, and then blame them for their actions, while placing an elaborate for-profit prison industrial complex "at the ready," is another heinous development, almost inevitable when Capital is led to trump every other consideration.
Siousrose, So true. The "No Child Left Behind" put scholastically challenged (retarded) children in the same classes with other students. This was planned to slow the progress so complaints will command different options like vouchers. An influx of children KP-12 who can't speak english and are in school for the first time is also a drag on the entire educational system also planed as an excuse for failure and the need for vouchers.
What These Billionaires w Wall St Connections who are spear-heading this so-called {phony} education 'reform' [actually Deform] see is a great Biz-opportunities [BIG$] in leveraging a take-over of public assets. I've read articles where Wall St Banksters actually said this is so.
For instance there's a recent article about LA's public schools where a consortium of Billionaires IE: The Gates [MicroSoft] & Walton [Walmart] families, Hewlett Packard Corp, etc put up $1,000,000 for a charter initiative there - which may sound like a lot of money but is a small investment [IE: chump-change] for these Billionaires.
First- We know that the billionaire Waltons [but it's also true for the Koch Bros, etc], based on Walmart's standard MO, hate unions & paying a fair wage, love to over-work their Walmart workers [so-called increased worker 'productivity'] & regularly discriminate against Walmart's women employees [often women of color]! So is it any wonder that this phony RTTT / NCLB movement results in attacking teachers unions [FYI: most teachers are women- often women of color], de-professionalizes the teaching profession, drives down teachers salaries & increasing teachers' work loads [IE: increase class-size per teacher]!
Then there's Bill & Melinda Gates & MicroSoft. The multi-billionaire Gates can easily finance $1,000,000 all by themselves. I'm not personally familiar w LA schools but lets take Chicago's CPS Schools [where RTTT 'deformers' Obama, Arne Duncan & Paul Vallas are from]. NOTE: {Forgive me but I'm going to do a little number-crunching to make my point!} There are 675 CPS schools- which went all in w MicroSoft's Windows Server platform in 2005 - to the exclusion of other server platforms [IE: Novell]. At an average of two 25 seat servers per school costing $4000 ea = $8000 - plus maybe another 50 - 75 seat licenses at $40 - $50 per seat = another $2000 - $3750 [round off to $3000]. Thus Total Microsoft Server sales per school = about $11,000. Plus another $350 per PC for MS Windows Desktop & MS Office = [@ 50 - 100 PCs / school] - $17500 - $35000 per school. Multiply Xs 675 schools = $7,425,000 + [$11,812,500 - $23,625,000] = $19,237,500 - $31,000,000 worth of Microsoft product sales to CPS [not including installation, training & ongoing tech support] for [a fraction of] a $1,000,000 investment! Sounds like a 'good' biz deal [in the guise of phony school 'reform'] to me! And Likewise for Hewlett-Packard / Compaq hardware IE: Server Boxes & desktop &/or laptop PCs, And last but certainly not least- Printers! Every Biz, Gov't, & educational institution I've ever seen has a substantial amount of HP printer equipment- oft times exclusively! Again all of this [as I've shown above] adds up to BIG-$!
Schools are being privatized because the corporations need "obedient workers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsL6mKxtOlQ
Yep- The Late Great George Carlin lays out just what the masses of people [the 99%] are faced w in this classic 3 min diatribe!
Just curious to know what all of the 'good' teachers are doing while waiting for jobs in the private sector while the bad ones are out there on the front lines fielding questions like these? Every profession has a few 'bad' ones, is that to say they all need to be replaced by a faceless and yet unemployed 'better' employee who's waiting in the wings to take your place when your job becomes privatized, as if there are no 'bad' employees in the private sector? I'm confused. Either this is about the continued economic policy being rammed down our throats or dribble for the uninformed.