Miami-Dade's Science Teacher of Year 2012 graded on what other teachers did. Poor review.

[madfloridian]

Julie Rich, 2012 Miami-Dade County Science Teacher of the Year and Howard Drive Elementary School science teacher, grades papers from her fifth-grade general education science class at her home in Palmetto Bay. She is appealing the poor Value Added Model score she received for the 2012/2013 school year.
Shannon Kaestle / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

For thousands of Florida teachers, evaluations aren’t making the grade

When Miami-Dade’s 2012 elementary science teacher of the year finally got her annual evaluation last May, she was confused.

Despite the top honor from her peers for her work with Howard Drive Elementary fifth graders, the official record ranked Julie Rich as barely effective due to her students’ poor test results — in reading.

This is happening more and more frequently now. It's a shame, too. A student reading below grade level can be an outstanding science student. The same for the areas of music and art. These can be areas of success to build confidence for such students, most teachers recognize that.

However the goals of the "reformers" do not include such things as self-esteem or in-depth learning.

The merit pay plans are in place, but the tests haven't been furnished or even developed for all the subjects. And after all how do you grade teachers on every aspect? Is it even possible?

And THAT is going to cost big money. Education reform companies will get huge profits from the new tests being developed. From the Miami Herald article about the science teacher....these words on the possible cost:

In Miami-Dade, officials said this month that they’re still trying to create exams for more than 1,000 courses, and expect the cost to be in the ballpark of $3 million. In a letter to the commissioner of education this summer, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said two-thirds of the school system’s courses lacked existing exams and only 4 percent were linked to standardized tests on basic subjects like math and reading. Last year, only about 8,200 teachers taught subjects that could be factored directly into value-added scores, he said.

The district plans to use a variety of new test scores in evaluations this year, but even then only 17,600 teachers would receive direct evaluations results, leaving thousands of others still in the lurch. For those teachers, the district has previously assigned school-wide averages, which likely won’t be possible after legislators voted up Flores’ proposal.

According to the article the state legislators realize the plans are lacking, but they apparently have no intention of doing anything about it.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Recommended. (nt)

[madfloridian]

2. Thank you. Miami-Dade cost will be 3 million....

Just think if that went to educating instead of testing.

[madfloridian]

3. Another 5th grade Miami-Dade teacher speaks out.

http://contextflorida.com/julie-delegal-florida-and-the-common-core-a-badass-teacher-speaks-out/

But Mace said it’s not the standards per se that bother her most. “A lot of it is what good teachers have always done. I’m not fearful of all this ‘go deeper.’ That’s fine.”

What’s not fine, she said, is the testing.

“We’re using the test inappropriately. They weren’t always so high-stakes. The difference is how we’re using them now, to label schools, to grade students.”

Mace said she worries that the narrow focus on reading, language arts and math will prevent many students leaving elementary school from being able to take interesting electives in middle school. To a fifth-grader who has a “bad day” on test day, she said, “Too bad. You won’t get to take certain subjects.”

Instead, students who don’t make the cutoff will be placed in remedial classes, which is a punitive move because those students will lose time for electives. For some students, that can mean the difference between staying in school and dropping out.

She makes the point that we don't even know if these high-stake tests are valid. The reformers are pushing them into the system so hard and fast that there is no time to evaluate. There is no common sense involved.

[madfloridian]

4. About remedial classes...straight A student placed there for leaving out one answer on state test.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3989542

“We’re doing vocabulary tests and chapter tests and it does become all about testing and spending more time on testing than teaching,” she said. “And then all of your teaching is tailored toward that test. Our teachers don’t want to teach to the test, but we have a whole curriculum, not just in this county, but nationwide that’s geared toward that.”

Tara Geissinger watched one of her twin daughters go from a straight-A fourth grade student last year to being placed in a remedial reading class this year after her anxiety led her to leave a question unanswered on state exam. “She had a panic attack and left a question blank… they basically told me her grades didn’t matter,” said Geissinger, of Fort Myers."

..."Remedial classes weren’t working either, so Geissinger learned she could request her daughter’s portfolio of work be considered. So now, her daughter is spending second quarter in regular courses. “It’s sad that the FCAT or PARCC or whatever test holds so much power over students, teachers and administrators. It’s tied into salaries and it creates an atmosphere of fear in the classroom that everybody can feel, including the children.”

[Ms. Toad]

12. That could easily have been my daughter.

Until 4th grade, most of the time I never knew when a test was coming up because they were such non-events to her. I would ask her daily/weekly what she had to do for the next day (or next week), and tests or quizzes only extremely rarely mentioned.

When the 4th grade state-wide tests rolled around, I knew months in advance because the hyped up preparations freaked her out so much. On the day of the test, she mistook the end of a question for the end of a section and stopped because she was afraid to look at the next page to see if it was still part of the same section. She turned in her test way early, and her teacher didn't bother to take a quick peek to make sure it was actually finished, and not just a misunderstanding about how far she was supposed to go.

Fortunately, they did not use the tests for placement purposes - but they easily could have. (And, several years later, she graduated as valedictorian of her class.)

[madfloridian]

17. Or mine, or many children. Often it is the best students who panic the most....

because they have the most to lose if they don't do well.

I am amazed how many at a Democratic forum refuse to question anything at all about this steamroller hitting our public schools in the name of reform.

Instead they kill or maim the messengers.

I retired just as this testing mania was starting. When we started having rallies and cheerleaders to pump kids up for the test.....I could see the handwriting on the wall. Glad I got out, never went back into a classroom.

[Ms. Toad]

19. The rallies, and banners

were two of the things that I specifically remember freaking her out.

[madfloridian]

31. And principals having their heads shaved at the rallies.....or

getting dropped into dunk tanks by the students. Ridiculous stuff. The rallies were embarrassing.

[ArcticFox]

26. I question

This testing craze seems to me just a thinly-veiled scheme to impose lower salaries on teachers. The harm to kids is likely just "collateral damage."

[madfloridian]

27. Very good point.

Then they will make teachers more like temp positions, with no job security at all. I know Florida teachers have already lost any of that they ever had.

I do take heart that parents are fighting back now more and more. They are tired of the endless test practice and the stress on their children.

[awoke_in_2003]

46. A rally for a test?...

Why does that creep me out?

[madfloridian]

47. It creeped all of us out.

The first one was the most shocking. They brought middle school cheerleaders to our elementary school to cheer for the FCAT.

[awoke_in_2003]

48. Reminds me...

of the spectacles put on by Nazi Germany.

[liberal_at_heart]

5. K&R

[madfloridian]

6. Thank you much.

Those are hard to come by on education posts.

[liberal_at_heart]

9. I'll always kick your posts madfloridian.

You're the best education expert we have on DU, and one of the only voices that speak out regularly about education when most democrats consider it a non issue.

[joeglow3]

7. What is the answer?

A friend of mine was teacher of the year in his district and then got fired under their last hired first fired policy. I don't know the answer, but there are issues.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. The answer is to get some far left progressives in office that will get rid of this crap.

Centrist democrats think this kind of evaluation is just fine. They also think forcing kids to jump three or four years at a time in curriculum under Common Core Curriculum is fine too.

[madfloridian]

10. It means parents and teachers must fight back against being tested to death.

It's being used as a means to failure, which then leaves the "reformers" free to move in and let private companies run public education.

[joeglow3]

11. True. But will you agree last hired first fired is bull shit too?

[madfloridian]

13. Not really.

I believe teachers earn their job protection after 3 years with continuing contract. Then they can be fired with cause, but not just because a principal or authority figure dislikes them.

Teachers deserve that. I think that is over with in Florida, I think they can now be fired on a yearly basis without cause. That's hard for a teacher to contend with. They must please parents, students, administrators, and Arne Duncan. It's impossible.

That is Michelle Rhee's slogan. Last in First Out. Her goal is to break the union contracts teachers have. That's wrong and it's sad.

[joeglow3]

14. Kids in a Missouri school district lost one of their best teachers

Because of this policy. I fail to see how that is in the best interest of students.

[madfloridian]

15. They have lost many great teachers let go to be replaced with temp TFAers.

It's too late to address all the problems with this, but will add more tomorrow. Many great career teachers are losing their jobs because of this damn testing. Did you know teachers' grade books don't matter anymore? Or daily or weekly classroom quizzes? Nope, the only thing that matters is the high stakes test. It gets good teachers fired, gets A students sent back to remedial classes....and I could go on.

If there is any field in which experience counts, it is education.

[madfloridian]

16. BTW, I gather you agree with Michelle Rhee.

And her Students First reform group. I think that is sad.

I believe many DUers refuse to criticize this obviously flawed education reform because it is Democratic policy...Obama's strong on it. That is not a good thing.

The harm being done to public education right now may never be fixed.

[joeglow3]

20. You have a one track mind and ignore other people

I made a point. You changed the topic. I said I agree with your point and shifted the topic back to my point. You ignore my point again, shift back to your point, ignore my previous agreement and accuse me of not agreeing with you.

You need to brush up on your conversation skills.

[madfloridian]

22. No, actually, you hijacked this thread for Last In First Out...which is union busting.

.

[joeglow3]

40. Topic was about teacher of the year and what has happened

I posted a reply about a friend that was teacher of the year and was fired. You just don't like the ramifications.

[madfloridian]

43. No, topic was about this....see this link to post 30

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024114449#post30

[joeglow3]

49. Then the premise of this thread is false

You are saying it is impossible to accurately evaluate a teacher, so it really is impossible to determine if someone is "teacher of the year." After all, that would require means to evaluate a teacher compared to their peers. If that is the case, then this thread is a nonissue. Basically, the teacher got a bullshit award that has no basis in fact. If that premise is true, then there is no basis to be outraged over their current situation.

[duffyduff]

34. You didn't make any "point"--it's standard neoliberal b.s. n/t

[msanthrope]

18. Tenure is an economic interest of unions and teachers. Nothing wrong with that.....but

when it works a disadvantage to the students there tends to be very little sympathy for them on this board...

You might find this thread interesting...you will note that when seniority rules were struck in the LA school district, because they worked an equal protection wrong on students, some DUers* claimed that the newer teachers deserved to lose their jobs because they were TFA hires.....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9298053

*HannahBell was a denizen of the education forum here....banned troll now.

[madfloridian]

23. TFA hires have 5 weeks training as teachers. They replace experienced teachers, take their jobs.

Teach for America. A way to replace experienced, higher-salaried teachers?

Those who are thinking of participating in Teach for America with a social justice mission in mind should consider this. Although a far more daunting task for sure, those really interested in social justice should consider ways of solving problems like unavoidable unemployment and low-wage jobs.

On top of failing to make a dent in poverty, Teach for America actually detracts from social justice by hurting real teachers. Teach for America students take low, entrance-level pay while also receiving a government subsidy for their salary in the form of Americorps stipends. Schools lay off teachers and then hire Teach for America teachers to fill positions that real teachers would otherwise be filling. Teach for America teachers are undercutting the wage needs of real teachers and causing them to be laid off as a result.

Imagine this: a well-off college student takes a subsidized teaching position at an impossibly low wage and displaces actual teachers who might already be struggling to get by — all for social justice!

TFA to expand in Chicago areas where many schools were closed, quality teachers laid off.

....Guess which neighborhoods TFA is targeting for their expansion? The very same communities being traumatized by the largest single number of school closings in the history of America. TFA is poised to profit dramatically from the misfortune of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students.

... And TFA wants to go into those communities after mass layoffs–where many quality veteran teachers will be displaced and many may not be rehired, teachers who fought side-by-side with the students and parents of the schools, teachers loved by the community–and offer them uncertified, poorly-trained novices many of whom have never even been to the Midwest, much less know the varied individual neighborhoods of Chicago. It’s like TFA is kicking these communities while they are down. “I know your school was just robbed from you, despite your loud, relentless, justified protest, but here are some uncertified, severely undertrained non-educators who won’t stick around long. We at TFA don’t think your kids deserve properly trained teachers dedicated long-term to your community any more than you deserve the choice of democratic neighborhood schools.”

And then there was the time the TFA had the arrogance to say they should train public school teachers....

The most insulting move ever by TFA. Offered to train experienced teachers to change their mindset.

While the budget picture looks no more pleasant than it has in past years, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Jacqueline Ellis said the A.J. Fletcher Foundation, a Raleigh-based nonprofit, has offered to cover the $3,000-per-teacher placement fee that TFA would have charged the district for the 15 teachers.

The positions that TFA teachers would fill are among 21 made available by retirements, resignations and transfers.

.."The 15 teachers primarily would be placed in math, science and exceptional children's classes -- all of which can be difficult to fill, especially in a low-performing school like Neal. TFA would also like to offer training to traditionally trained teachers who are already at the school.

...A big piece of Neal's program would be the training for veteran teachers - it's all about changing the mind-set of teachers to believe that every student can succeed, Lakis said. He said TFA is still working out the framework for the training program.

That is a bunch of BS.

I could go on and on and on, Misanthrope, but you would continue to come into the threads I post with insulting words.

I intend to keep posting, and I do not intend to respond to you anymore. It doesn't matter, and it gives you satisfaction.

[msanthrope]

25. Yeah--but did joeglow say his friend was TFA? No. But you decided to rant on about them.

You are the one who brought up TFA--don't blame me for pointing out a pretty revealing thread where Hannah Bell spent a lot of time talking about TFA.

Here's what I never understood about your animosity towards TFA hires---why didn't the unions outreach to them, and co-opt them? I mean, after all, these are co-workers who tend to be young, idealistic, and eager to learn. I think allowing a wedge between teachers serves the very corporate masters you are trying to defeat.

[roody]

28. Any workplace with employment rights

has this type of policy.

[joeglow3]

41. So, the interest of the students be damned?

[roody]

50. Teachers with employment rights and

experience are in the students' best interest.

[joeglow3]

51. I call bullshit

In every field I have worked in, I have seen superior employees with half the experience of their peers outperform them. It is naive to think years of service is the only indicator of how good someone is at their job.

[roody]

53. Who made that claim?

[joeglow3]

54. Anyone who supports LIFO

[duffyduff]

33. SOP in private business, too. Stop with the anti-teacher rhetoric. n/t

[joeglow3]

42. Not at my employer

Or any other company I have worked for. I pride myself in busting my ass and being a top performer. I have been there for six years and am still the least tenured person. For the last four years, the five senior directors and the VP have rated me number 1 of the eight people at my level. I am not worried about losing my job because it would not be in the best interest to let me go.

[LWolf]

29. What is the answer? Really?

Okay. Here you go:

1. BAN HIGH-STAKES TESTING
2. De-privatize what is supposed to be PUBLIC education
3. Take education "reform" out of the hands of corporate tools and put it in the hands of actual educators
4. Stop electing centrist/corporate deformers and start electing left-of-center non-neoliberals who blatantly oppose this shit.

That will do for a start.

[mountain grammy]

21. High stakes testing is ruining public education, but that's the whole idea..

This is crap. Here in Colorado, it's voucher fever with plenty of money going to religious education. The great transfer of public wealth to private corporations churning out tests at the expense of the taxpayer and American school children.
Thank you madfloridian! I'm plenty mad too.

[madfloridian]

24. AMEN! "The great transfer of public wealth to private corporations"

[madfloridian]

30. LIFO takes over a thread about a teacher judged on merits of others....so ironic.

This thread is about a science teacher who is not judged on what she taught but on whether a student's previous teachers in reading did their job.

LIFO is Michelle Rhee's terminology...Last in First Out. She doesn't think layoffs or firings should be done on the basis of tenure.

Job security has been secured for teachers through their unions.

So this is union busting to do away with a contract.

And since there is no good way to actually judge a teacher on his/her own merits, then LIFO should remain in force until there is that good way.

If the criteria are not there to pick which teachers are good and bad....then let the union contracts remain.

Those here who would fight union busting in other fields seem quite happy to go along with it regarding teachers.

Here is a blog post by a long time TFA teacher explaining what LIFO really is.

LIFO is good

I’m against abolishing LIFO for a bunch of reasons, none of them that I’m scared to lose my own job to some hungry novice.

First of all, I don’t like anything that contributes to the current fad to vilify teachers and teacher’s unions. The premise is that the education system would be fixed if all teachers were really trying hard. They don’t try hard because they are protected by ‘tenure’ (said with a sneer, as if it was ‘diplomatic immunity’ or ‘double jeopardy’) so they are lazy and don’t do their jobs and the innocent kids are the ones who suffer. Supporting the abolishing of LIFO supports this very narrow minded view. I don’t think that abolishing LIFO would actually improve educational outcomes because I don’t think the problem is the old, lazy teachers.

Keeping teachers by their ‘merit’ sounds good until you realize that there’s not a good way to accurately measure this ‘merit.’ A teacher can have a bad year, a year where the chemistry just made it difficult for his or her class to perform on those standardized tests. The next year the same teacher can have a good year. It’s hard to compare two teachers since they are teaching different groups of kids. Yes, if you have a teachers who is horrible for five years in a row then that teacher isn’t very good and is in need of some kind of support at first. But you need to have about five years to really see how good or bad a teacher is. A brand new teacher, by definition, hasn’t had enough years to establish his or her self as an effective teacher. (Also, a lot of first year teachers — most, I’d say — are not very effective, so they’d probably deserve to be the first to go.)

Another thing I think should be considered is why LIFO was implemented to begin with. It was so teachers couldn’t be fired indiscriminately. If it’s gone and a principal wants to get rid of a veteran teacher with her fat, uh, paycheck, there are ways to artificially lessen her ‘merit.’ The principal can give that teacher the toughest-to-educate kids, the charter rejects, and then watch the stats go down and rack up those ‘U’ ratings until the teacher can be fired.

[duffyduff]

36. Just put those people on ignore, and that'll save you the trouble.

Their repeating lies from neoliberal, right-wing think tanks aren't worth bothering with. "Merit" doesn't exist anyway.

Especially when it pertains to public education, when anybody who has taught in it knows of the power imbalance between teachers and principals. Principals have all of the power and none of the accountability, while teachers have NONE of the power, but ALL of the accountability.

[Starry Messenger]

32. k&r

[duffyduff]

35. Isn't it now the case in FL that if you have two bad annual reviews you can have

your license revoked? That is utterly insane given how much power principals have over teachers they don't want around. They can fabricate charges and literally destroy a teacher's career so he or she can NEVER teach again anywhere in the United States, which is what license revocation does.

Revocation should only be for criminal convictions and misconduct involving children, NOT over some stupid evaluation where some batshit crazy, vindictive principal scapegoats a teacher out of a career.

[madfloridian]

37. Okay I found this from 2011....teacher job security lost in Florida.

I don't know about the 2 bad reviews, but I did find this. It's hard to find stuff on this...the media hasn't covered it much lately that I can find.

No more tenure for teachers hired in Florida after July 1st this year. Lose collective bargaining.

The Florida House and Senate passed on party-line votes the Republican-sponsored legislation setting up a merit pay plan for teachers, and ending tenure for new hires.

This is the first bill sent to Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has made the bill a priority and that he will sign it. It’s similar to a bill former governor Charlie Crist vetoed last year, after statewide protests by teachers and their supporters.

The legislation will establish a statewide teacher evaluation and merit pay system by 2014 and get rid of tenure for teachers hired after July 1 this year. Fifty percent of a teacher's evaluation will depend on how much progress their students have made on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test or other exams over a three-year period.

Here is more:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/k12/gov-scott-signs-first-bill-sweeping-teacher-pay-tenure-evaluation-overhaul/1159307

The article makes the point that I make....that there is no effective method for determining teacher merit. Yet they are choosing to end tenure.

[duffyduff]

38. Since teachers are now on annual contracts, it seems I am right more or less about the two lousy

reviews, and that teachers can have their licenses taken away as a result. The only question is if it is actually LAW there, but at least an attempt was made.

This is what I found. Here is the pertinent part:

Good teachers can now be fired because of bad math. As mandated by Race to the Top and the NCLB waivers imposed under current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, which require districts and states to use standardized test scores as a significant portion of teacher evaluations, the Florida Senate passed bill 736 last spring. Under Race to the Top and Senate Bill 736, teachers with two years of “ineffective” rankings will be fired and their teaching license will be revoked by the state of Florida, thus banning them from teaching in any other public school in the United States.

http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2012/03/23/good-teachers-can-now-be-fired-because-of-bad-math/

Yes, theoretically they could work in charter schools and regular private schools, but given the glut of teacher applicants, it's not likely they could EVER teach again.

[madfloridian]

39. Bookmarking that link.

Thanks for finding it.

[madfloridian]

44. Congress, Obama, extended "teachers in training" as highly qualified...without disclosure.

They overturned a court ruling which struck that rule down.

2. Labeling Teachers-in-Training Highly Qualified. In 2010, in a lawsuit brought by low-income students and parents in California, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Bush-era regulation that allowed teachers-in-training through alternative programs to be labeled “highly qualified teachers.” The label mattered because without it, districts would have been forced to actually disclose to parents that their child was being taught by a teacher-in-training and fix the inequitable concentration of these teachers in low-income, high-minority schools. In response, Congress passed—and President Obama signed — a law to temporarily overturn the Court’s decision, effectively endorsing the disproportionate assignment of teachers-in-training to low-income schools without posting any data on the practice. Last month, Congress and President Obama slipped into the budget deal an extension of this provision for another two years. Apparently for Obama and Duncan, supporting Teach For America — whose first-year recruits are now labeled “highly qualified” after just five weeks of training — is as much a priority as reopening the federal government after a 16-day shutdown. The low-income, minority students and their parents who are begging for equitable access to fully prepared and effective teachers? Not so much.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/02/obama-administration-backtracks-again-on-teacher-equity/

So since no disclosure is needed, parents are not told that teachers with a few weeks training, recruits actually, are allowed to be called highly qualified.

That especially hurts when trained teachers are marked down on tests that judge the work of someone else.

[xchrom]

45. du rec.

[madrchsod]

52. some people just do`t get it or are for it....

but when it all comes down it`s the kids are losing out on good teachers and the equality of resources.