Teacher Evaluations And Test Scores!
For possibly the only time in history I find myself on the same side of an issue as the Tennessee Education Association though not for the same reasons.
It seems the governor wants to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores and even plans to have a special session of the legislature to approve his idea.
I believe it is counter productive to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores because as we have seen with No Child Left Behind, the Bush/Kennedy solution for improving education, the pressure becomes so great that teachers are simply forced to teach the test.
It's past time for the public and the teachers to band together and force the unions, politicians and administrators to get out of the way and let teachers do their job of teaching. When teacher unions put as much emphasis on discipline in the classroom as they have traditionally put on pay, things will begin to change but not until then.
Teachers must become fearless in demanding not only a fair wage but working conditions that are safe and productive for both them and students.
Parents must become more involved with the school system and the teachers in order for realistic goals to be set and accomplished.
The legal system must become more active in dealing with the parents of delinquent students and forcing them to be responsible.
The numbers of administrators must be reduced with resources redirected away from administration and into the classroom.
Teachers should be evaluated not on the manipulated test scores of students but on such things as student interaction, student involvement, discipline in their classes, interest generated in students to learn, number of days absent from class, developmental thinking and creativity, etc, etc.
Schools should stop the social experimentation and social engineering and get back to the basic goal of teaching students to think, process, learn and explore knowledge.
Allen Barrett
It seems the governor wants to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores and even plans to have a special session of the legislature to approve his idea.
I believe it is counter productive to tie teacher evaluations to student test scores because as we have seen with No Child Left Behind, the Bush/Kennedy solution for improving education, the pressure becomes so great that teachers are simply forced to teach the test.
It's past time for the public and the teachers to band together and force the unions, politicians and administrators to get out of the way and let teachers do their job of teaching. When teacher unions put as much emphasis on discipline in the classroom as they have traditionally put on pay, things will begin to change but not until then.
Teachers must become fearless in demanding not only a fair wage but working conditions that are safe and productive for both them and students.
Parents must become more involved with the school system and the teachers in order for realistic goals to be set and accomplished.
The legal system must become more active in dealing with the parents of delinquent students and forcing them to be responsible.
The numbers of administrators must be reduced with resources redirected away from administration and into the classroom.
Teachers should be evaluated not on the manipulated test scores of students but on such things as student interaction, student involvement, discipline in their classes, interest generated in students to learn, number of days absent from class, developmental thinking and creativity, etc, etc.
Schools should stop the social experimentation and social engineering and get back to the basic goal of teaching students to think, process, learn and explore knowledge.
Allen Barrett
posted by Allen Barrett | 6:58 PM
13 Comments:
And this is one of the rare instances that I agree with everything you said.
Ditto.
As I said on a previous thread, education needs to be tied more to parents. There is such a lack of accountability, and a lack of responsibility in our education system. Parents need to help the students, and the teachers. I think this idea is just as stupid as the healthcare reform bill.
Tell me that a student who misses 30-50 days from school should be used as a means of evaluating a teacher. There are children who take test and will mark randomly on the test page without any thought of the correct answers. That child gets finished with a 45 min session of a test in 3 min. Tell me that score should be used a means of evaluating a teacher. Teachers are at the mercy of students when a test is used to dictate pay raises, promotions or evaluations of them. I have always been a fan of the governor, but not with this one. How ridiculous. It appears no thought went into his decisions except to apply for the RTTT (Race To The Top) monies available.
The special session is to change the current legislation so the state is in line with RTTT (Race to the top) funds. All states are doing this so they can "get a piece of the pie." What they don't realize is once these changes are in place, and the RTTT funds dry up, the individual states will be left holding the bag and the finances to keep the current policies and programs in place. I am sure the federal govt. officials who thought of this are laughing as they watch the states scramble for the $$$ they may or may not receive. I wish Tennessee for once would look at the long range picture and say to the feds no thanks.
teachers deserve fair & equal pay....they work hard for their money...very stupid bill...
I think that any teacher will tell you that there are students who no matter what do not test well. I know that I was one of those. The idea of those test made everything that I had learned fly completely from my test. I should have been given a nerve pill before I started. Even zombied out I would have done better. I was a good student but bad tester. You cannot teach that. Teacher should not be evaluated like that. Are you evaluating what a student learned from their current test or what they learned or did not learn in years before?
Well said by the above. Why should teachers be at the mercy of the students when the students are at the mercy of the teachers? And, why in the world would you evaluate a teacher by their students test scores when the students are being evaluated by them?
It's a teacher's job to evaluate a student. I teach and you tell me what you have learned. I was referring to those students who mark answers and are finished before the entire class can even read the first passage or perform the first set of problems. You must teach to understand what this means.
Attention all teachers show up at the school board work session on Monday Jan. 4 to see how much of a bonus you will be getting. Jackson has said he didn't want the teachers present. Some board members feel the teachers should come and take a stand and by numbers show that they truly want this bonus. So come to the Board Meeting.
Jackson's evaluation is on the table. He evaluated himself for the board as requested and I think he scored himself pretty high. To bad he has his head in the clouds. How much has changed since he came along?
If teachers are evaluated on test scores, then the same logic might be applied to doctors. If any doctor has a patient that dies, oops, guess he gets a bad evaluation. What about the special ed teachers whose students will NOT make much gain or the gifted teachers who students are pretty much topped out and probably won't make a lot of gain either? Same for the medical profession; many physicians specialize in geriatric care, terminal illness, trauma, etc; Their patient doesn't recover, deduct their pay or boot them out? So what if the circumstances of the situation are beyond their control; so what if the patient doesn't cooperate and follow instructions, so what if family, laws, red tape tie their hands so they spend more time on busy work than actually treating patients; (analogy-teaching students, not going to meeting after redundant meeting) If an unrealistic # of these patients do not recover, and become physically as strong as say, an olympic athlete, it's all the docs fault. If students can't,won't, has roadblocks beyond the teacher's control, especially when they are too busy filling out a ten page document that basically says, "Today I am teaching the multiplication of 2 digit #'s and we will practice this objective in class before any homework is assigned." That is not good enough; The teacher must say " I am teaching sip A.3.a.ii.xyz pg 60 of the handbook of standards or page 5 on the TN website, using textbook xyz pgs123+ 561 and supplemental text ACME math pages xyz, problem 1,3,5,7,and 36, and I will ask the student to write on college ruled paper with a purple #2 pencil unless purple is against their religion, in which case I will contact the Office of Civil rights, the health dept and the department of ed in Nahville to see what modifications I should make for this student, if any, and then I will document what reaction this student has to the predicament as well as the 20 other students in my room. I will leave my door open so that I will not help my children cheat and at the same time I will keep my door closed so that noises in my room won't disturb others, but since I am not in my room during THE test because I cannot be trusted to not cheat (again the faith the boe has in teachers is evident). I will do all of this during school hours because to take test materials home is a breach of security, but I will also be teaching while I am completing this paperwork and disciplining any student that might require it and having a parent teacher conference, unscheduled but mom is not happy because I showed displeasure when her darling didn't do their homework because 10 math problems are too much and anyway he shouldn't have to do homework, it's the teachers job to teach, not mine.
Heck yeah, it's a great idea to base teacher evaluations/pay on test scores!
(Please understand folks, there is a sentence in this post that is intended for sarcasm- the last one!
Sympathetic parent-part-time sub!
RTTT FUNDING EQUALS $500 MILLION FOR EDUCATION IN TENNESSEE. THANK GOD WE GOT IT.
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