[regional_school] Re: Mike Winerip is spot on again!
- From: Keith Rankin <keithwrankin@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Regional School <regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:44:54 -0500
Whether assessing students or evaluating teachers, the question should be: why
are we assessing or evaluating? And is this accomplishing what we want it to
accomplish.
If one were using a Total Quality Management model, a good case could be made
for the example given in the article that:
"... the most reliable way to evaluate teachers was to make 5-to-10-minute
“walk through” visits to their classes several times a month."
This requires a culture of trust and openness, where everyone (teachers and
administrators) is dedicated to needed adjustment along the way. Where
"walk-throughs" and feedback (good and bad) by administrators and staff are
welcomed and not perceived as "drive-bys."
Beyond an openness to change it is also important for teaching to stay fresh.
Fresh doesn't necessarily mean new, I was recently watching an old clip on
youtube of Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, in which he remarked that upon graduating
from University he asked Cardinal Mercier "... what is the best way to teach,
he said: "tear up your notes every year.""
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdbJUSMib1A&feature=related (9:20) That is
certainly one way to keep your teaching fresh.
For The Regional Academy differing ways to evaluate staff should exist simply
to achieve the goals of the institution.
Keith
keithwrankin@xxxxxxxxxxx
585.734.7295 cel | txt
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:39:56 -0800
From: dandrmacich@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [regional_school] Re: Mike Winerip is spot on again!
To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; ccse_core@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I've been working on it.
From: William Cala <wcala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: regional_school@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; ccse_core@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, November 28, 2011 12:24 PM
Subject: [regional_school] Mike
Winerip is spot on again!
I wonder if any Rochester principals are on the list???? PRINCIPALS PROTEST
ROLE OF TESTING IN EVALUATIONS New York Times "On Education" Column -- November
28, 2011 by Michael Winerip Through the years there have been many bitter
teacher strikes and too many student protests to count. But a principals’
revolt? “Principals don’t revolt,” said Bernard Kaplan of Great Neck North
High School on Long Island, who has been one for 20 years. “Principals want to
go along with the system and do what they’re told.” But President Obama and
his signature education program, Race to the Top, along with John B. King Jr.,
the New York State commissioner of education, deserve credit for spurring what
is believed to be the first principals’ revolt in history. As of last night,
658 principals around the state had signed a letter —488 of them from Long
Island, where the insurrection began — protesting the use of students’ test
scores to evaluate teachers’ and principals’ performance. Their complaints are
many: the evaluation system was put together in slapdash fashion, with no pilot
program; there are test
scores to evaluate only fourth-through-eighth-grade English and math teachers;
and New York tests are so unreliable that they had to be rescaled radically
last year, with proficiency rates in math and English dropping 25 percentage
points overnight. Mr. Kaplan, who runs one of the highest-achieving schools in
the state, has been evaluating teachers since the education commissioner was a
teenager. No matter. He is required by Nassau County officials to attend 10
training sessions, as is Carol Burris, the principal of South Side High School
here, who was named the 2010 Educator of the Year by the School Administrators
Association of New York State. “It’s education by humiliation,” Mr. Kaplan
said. “I’ve never seen teachers and principals so
degraded.” The trainers at these sessions, which are paid for by state and
federal grants, have explained that they’re figuring out the new evaluation
system as they go. To make the point, they’ve been showing a YouTube video with
a fictional crew of mechanics who are having the time of their lives building
an airplane in midair. “It was supposed to be funny, but the room went
silent,” Ms. Burris said. “These are people’s livelihoods we’re talking about.”
Last year New York was awarded $700 million as one of 11 states, along with
the District of Columbia, to win a Race to the Top grant. The application
process was chaotic, with Dr. King’s office making the
deadline by just a few hours. To win a grant, states had to pledge to follow
policy priorities of the Obama administration, like evaluating teachers by
student test scores, even though there were no implementation plans yet. New
York committed to an evaluation process that is based 60 percent on principal
observations and other subjective measures, and from 20 to 40 percent on state
tests, depending on the local district. In written responses to questions, Dr.
King said while there are bugs in the system, “we are confident that as the
state law on teacher evaluations phases in over the next couple of years, those
educators charged with ensuring its successful implementation will do so
professionally.” Asked if he was surprised by the number of principals who had
signed, he wrote, “It’s not at all surprising” that the introduction of a new
evaluation system “would produce anxiety.” Although testing is central to the
education reform movement, the word “testing” is considered crude in elite
education circles, and in a three-page response to questions, the commissioner
never actually used the t-word. However, he did include multiple euphemisms
like “data on the growth in student learning.” “A significant body of
research,” he wrote, “demonstrates that an educator’s past impact on student
learning is a strong predictor of that educator’s future impact on student
learning and a useful component of a fair,
transparent, and rigorous multiple measures evaluation system.” Merryl H.
Tisch, chancellor of the Board of Regents, said that because of the new
“scientific, objective” evaluation system, the public would see that teachers
were being held to a rigorous standard and would not dislike them so much. “I’m
seeing a much more positive focus about teaching, and I like that,” she said.
It is hard to overstate how angry the principals who signed are. Mario
Fernandez, principal of Stillwater High School near Saratoga, called the
evaluation process a product of “ludicrous, shallow thinking.” “My gosh, it
seems to be slapped together,” he said. “They’re expecting
a tornado to go through a junkyard and have a brand new Mercedes pop up.”
Katie Zahedi, principal of Linden Avenue Middle School in Red Hook in Dutchess
County. said the training session she attended was “two days of total
nonsense.” “I have a Ph.D., I’m in a school every day, and some consultant is
supposed to be teaching me to do evaluations,” she said. “It takes your breath
away it’s so awful.” She said one good thing about the new evaluation system
was that it had united teachers, principals and administrators in their
contempt for the state education department. Several interviewed said the most
reliable way to evaluate teachers was to make 5-to-10-minute “walk through”
visits to their classes several times a month. “My principal is frequently in
my class, and that’s the way it should be,” said Marguerite Izzo, a fifth-grade
teacher in Malverne, on Long Island, who was the 2007 state teacher of the
year. Ms. Izzo calls students up to her desk, one by one, every day to discuss
their work. “It’s the same for children or teachers: immediate feedback is
best, while it’s still fresh in their minds,” she said. The principals’ letter
was drafted last month by Ms. Burris and Sean Feeney of the Wheatley School.
“We tried and tried to talk to the state, but they don’t listen to
us,” Ms. Burris said. In his responses, Dr. King wrote, “The principals do
raise some legitimate concerns that we are carefully addressing.” But he also
wrote, “The structure of the evaluation system — including the use of data on
the growth in student learning — is set in state statute.” (Translation:
Testing full speed ahead.) About 300 principals out of 4,500 in the state had
signed by early November, when Newsday wrote a front-page story about the
letter. There has been steady growth since. Three-fourths of Long Island
principals have placed their names on the list. Outside of Long Island,
Westchester County has the
most principals on the letter, 31. Only 18 out of 1,500 from New York City
have signed. Ms. Burris is not sure if the principals are not aware, or if they
fear retribution from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is a big supporter of
using data to calculate growth in student learning.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/education/principals-protest-increased-use-of-test-scores-to-evaluate-educators.html
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