Tell the Truth

It's a novel concept, but sometimes required by law.  For example, parents now must be informed if bedbugs are found in NY State schools.  I don't know what exactly they're to do about it, aside from keeping kids home from school, or hosing them down before coming back in the house, but there you have it.  As teachers, we have the same options.  They're not very good, but we need to know what's going on if we're to have any chance of keeping away from these little bloodsuckers.

But they're not the only thing sucking the life blood from education.  The "reform" movement has managed to snag itself not only a NY Mayor, but a US President, and several state governors.  This led UFT President Michael Mulgrew to write a pretty sensible editorial in yesterday's Daily News.  We really don't want schools to become test prep factories.  Those of us who've done test prep are acutely aware it's different from actual class.  And given the debacle of the recent state scores, you'd think we'd learn something from it.

Yet, as Mr. Talk pointed out yesterday, Mulgrew's point is a little late.  Just a few months ago, he went to Albany and negotiated a deal that teacher evaluations would be based 40% on test scores.  It's tough to imagine Mulgrew hasn't figured that principals, constantly under pressure from Tweed, won't base 100% of their opinion on test scores.  And it's tough to imagine tests you can't prep for.  If I'm looking at dismissal based on test scores, I'm not placing kids in groups and having them express opinions.

If Mulgrew didn't want test-prep to be the be-all and end-all, he shouldn't have allowed us to be painted into a corner, or supported the AFT's rousing endorsement of Bill Gates, to whom tests are the only thing that matters.

Value-Added: What Can Be Done with it and What Can't (and What Won;t)

As the new school year inevitably and inexorably draws near, I've been thinking a lot about the new rules that may soon govern our profession. I've said all along that the current evaluation method for teachers is broken. It's one of the few things on which the "reformers" and me can agree. Where we tend to part company, of course, is the importance of test scores to teacher evaluation and, indeed, what teachers can actually do and control in their classrooms and practice. Any teacher who's been at it longer than five minutes can tell you that what you can actually do is much less than a lot of people actually think. That doesn't diminish the importance of what we actually can do--indeed, it makes the pieces of the achievement pie that constitute quality planning, instruction, and management all the more important for us to get right. But still, our effectiveness is, to some degree, always and already limited.

This piece helped me crystallize my thoughts on teacher evaluation, test scores, and the whole "value-added" proposition. Corey Bunje Bower parses some writing from The New Teacher Project pretty finely, making a distinction between the "blame-the-teacher" and the "anti-teacher" crowd. I've wondered myself if they aren't two different groups. You can blame teachers for problems in school, yes, but the flip side of that is that you can't celebrate the achievements of the good teachers out there if you're going to say that teaching is 100% chance. We do have some control, and we can argue all day about how much, over what happens in our classrooms. If we don't, then we don't deserve any credit for the good things that happen, either. The "blame-the-teacher" crowd might, from time to time, have a point, whereas the "anti-teacher" folks are your basic bitter teacher-haters.

So back to test scores. Test scores can (or maybe, given the crappy state of standardized testing now, could) tell us something about how much our students are learning and with which students and groups of students we have the most (and least) success. But they should be only a minor part of the evaluation process. The group of students we get is one of those things that is out of our control. We get students ready and unready for school, compliant and recalcitrant, engaged and disengaged, English-speaking and non-English-speaking...the list goes on and on.

Which brings me to my next point. What I suspect won't actually be done with test scores anytime soon is actually calibrate groups of students and teachers more finely. If tests were really good, and if they were scored really well, maybe what test scores could eventually do is tell us which class of students would be our ideal. Maybe, for example, my class should be stocked with female English language learners, since I tend to do well with that group. But will that actually happen? I doubt it. You'd need to be able to do much more in terms of class size and teacher assignment than is currently possible.

So perhaps the single most useful thing that can be done with test scores probably won't be. Which makes me wonder why some people are so keen on bludgeoning teachers to death with them. And that makes me wonder which side the education reformers are really on: "anti-teacher" or "blame the teacher." It can't, it would seem, be both.

Nothing to Hide

That, according to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, is what American teachers have.  Therefore it's OK to post their students' scores in newspapers, clearly suggesting they are solely responsible for whether or not they pass, fail, or fall somewhere in between.  Duncan, who failed miserably in Chicago in his effort to improve schools, is imposing his tried-and-failed methods on the rest of the country just for the heck of it.

For Arne Duncan, it doesn't matter that you, or I, or your Aunt Sylvia's name gets plastered all over the papers, as though we were serial killers or pedophiles.  After all, he's in the public eye, and when he falls flat on his face, he's praised by tabloids and promoted to national prominence by no less than President Hopey-Changey himself.  In fact, he doesn't even know anyone who opposes his policies.

This is what happens when you live in a bubble, when you have no idea what life is like for ordinary people, and when you don't give a golly goshdarn about finding out.  Most Americans won't know your student failed because there's no electricity in his apartment, because he's homeless, because he's had interrupted formal education, because she has a kid, because her mother and father are kids, because she's learning disabled, because she's pregant, because she's addicted to Facebook, to Xbox, to crack, to sex, to sloth, because he works after school, because he's been in school 12 years and never learned how to read, because he's obsessed, because he's out of the country, because he doesn't exist and was invented by a computer with a sense of humor.

All the fabled Joe Six Pack will know is you, the teacher, suck, you failed, the kids failed and it's your fault.  Your name will be in the paper like the Scarlet Letter.  You're Hester Prynne, Willie Horton, Charles Manson--a social outcast, an undesirable, a bum.   What's to be done?  Naturally, you have to be fired.  Being publicly humiliated for factors beyond your control isn't remotely enough for the likes of you. 

Perhaps then you can lose your home, like so many Americans, and end up living in an Obamaville.  Remarkable that, in a time like this, a Democratic President thinks what we need is more job loss.

Day After Day

There's a drumbeat demanding that teachers be judged by value-added measures, or student test scores.  The fact that such scores had been juked for years in NY State did nothing to slow down the drum.  People just said we have to do it more, and sooner.  Despite the fact that such logic is one step this side of insane, it just kept coming.  Another day, another study suggesting there's no validity to this.

Meanwhile, we're represented by a union that a few years ago, was adamant that value-added measures not be used to determine tenure.  Now they're jumping up and down to make sure that we get extra money specifically to enforce such measures.  In the comments at Gotham Schools, a Unity bigshot rationalizes that it was coming anyway, we couldn't stop it, we're powerless, so let's make sure we get a seat at the table.

And somehow, this same union has the audacity to claim that, because you will only have 40% of your evaluation tied to a wildly inaccurate and unreliable metric, this is a victory, since the AFT pushed for and got 50% in Colorado.  What you won't read in NY Teacher is what percentage of principals will look at anything but test scores.  Let's say yours, for example, suck.  Perhaps your principal will say, "Yes, but you're a great teacher the other 60% of the time."  On the other hand, it's entirely possible 99.9% of principals will say, "You suck and you are therefore fired."

I read somewhere that up to 40% of teachers could be fired baselessly.  To me, that's 100% unacceptable, and the entire reason we have a union is to preclude such happenstances.  But that's just me.  Do you think there is any possibility these evaluation measures will be used fairly?

Or is it more important to dump teachers right or wrong if that's what makes Bill Gates happy?

Trojan Horse Not Required

Arne Duncan's walking right through the door to discuss his Race to the Top with NYSUT.   Duncan famously said he hadn't met anyone who opposed his programs and he's not likely to encounter any such individuals at NYSUT either.  After all, they repeatedly rose to their feet to applaud Bill Gates, whose baseless meanderings and bountiful billions essentially fueled this entire exercise.

And yes, communication is good.  Exchange of ideas is healthy.  But I've yet to see a scintilla of evidence that union participation consists of anything other than appeasement.  That's a flawed strategy, particularly considering that every time the union cuts off yet another appendage, the tabloid editorials simply condemn them for not having given up more.

The UFT's claim that test scores will be used in only 40% of teacher evaluations instead of 50% is less than impressive when one considers value-added has 0% validity and that hundreds, thousands of working American teachers could end up fired for no good reason.

Overheard

"A Canadian is an unarmed American with health care."  Yesterday, I personally traveled to Ontario to investigate whether there was any truth to this.  If I discover anything to confirm or deny that rumor, I'll report it here.

On Hedge Funds

Since so many hedge fund operators are writing about education, I've decided it's about time to return the favor.  For a long time now, educators have had no voice on hedge funds.  That ends now.

I know a lot about hedges, as I had hedges around my home when I was young.  Frankly, they were a pain in the neck.  We had to trim them on a weekly basis, a task often relegated to yours truly.  Back then, of course, there were no power clippers.  We had to do it by hand, with a huge scissor-shaped clipper.  I wanted to play with my friends but there I was, cutting hedges.  I tried the Tom Sawyer thing but all of my friends had read Tom Sawyer and weren't persuaded.

Now, of course, you can get an electric trimmer and it's quite a bit easier.  But you still have to clean up the hedges after they're cut, and that's not my idea of a good way to spend a summer day.  Of course, I understand those who run hedge funds are very wealthy, so they probably just have a gardener do it for them.  This notwithstanding, it still seems like extra work.  

So I'm afraid I'll have to take a firm position against hedge funds.  Despite whatever profits they may produce, there's really not much benefit to having hedges.  Personally, I don't understand why anyone would want to fund them.  If you see things differently, of course, please feel free to enlighten me.

In the coming weeks, I'll try to provide other teacher viewpoints about hedge funds in these pages.  Since hedge fund magnates have offered so much advice about our field, the least we can do is return the favor.  Please feel free to offer hedge fund magnates the benefit of your experience in the comments.

Slow and Steady Loses the Race

OMG, you guys, New York is a Race to the Top winner! Like, yay! It's going to be totally awesome! I, for one, am super-excited that we'll be hearing from more consultants who have possibly never been in a classroom and getting more principals who ran screaming from classrooms. I think it is awesome that we'll be getting more feedback about why we suck.

Sorry to sound bitter. I promise it has nothing to do with the fact that the first day of school is two weeks away. I'm actually pretty excited about getting back to work. No, the bitterness isn't really personal.

I just can't get excited about this business. Even if it didn't represent so much of what is wrong with education today (which it does), I don't see why it's such a good thing that all of the responsibility for change is out of the hands of teachers, kids, and parents. I don't see why people are so thrilled that we're getting all of this money if it seems like pretty much none of it is actually going to go into a single classroom or building. And I suspect that teachers and kids who are doing just fine (which is not all of them, but more than, say, the Post would have you believe) are going to be forced to change a lot of things, maybe even good things that shouldn't be changed, to comply with RttT requirements. Slow and steady, it seems, doesn't win this particular race.

Well, whatevs, you know? NYC teachers are used to mandates being dropped in our laps from above. I'm going to have a glass of wine and maybe buy another pack of markers. Because, in other news, it's school supply season, and if this post got you down a little, visit Mrs. Mimi's blog and revel in all her pretty postings about children's books and her love of folders. It will make you feel better. Heaven knows reading more about **hallelujahchorusing** RACE TO THE TOP won't.

Listen Up

At 9 PM tonight, you can hear Bronx Teacher's magical radio show right here.  Should you wish to participate, call in at (917) 932-8721.

Stereotypes Ahoy

That's what I see in New York Magazine, and ironically, it's in a column that calls itself "Intelligencer."  But the intelligence is lacking on multiple levels.  The column almost revels in teachers being stereotyped and reviled, calling them the "new lawyers."   While this column came out in early July (before the state acknowledged its inflated scores), it asserts, " test scores have been encouraging."

They were only encouraging, of course, if you didn't read Diane Ravitch, whose BS detector had identified the problem at least three years ago.  I suppose you could forgive the so-called Intelligencer for going with the mainstream myth, incorrect though we knew it to be, but then he goes and says this:

Bloomberg’s chancellor, Joel Klein, got teachers’ pay tied to test scores in exchange for pay raises.  

That's patently incorrect.  First of all, pay is not tied to test scores.  No such exchange was made.  Test scores became part of ratings as a result of a deal UFT President Michael Mulgrew made in Albany.  Up to 40% of teacher ratings can be tied to test scores (and UFT reps proudly boasted how much better it was than the deal Weingarten crafted in Colorado, which went to 50%).

Nonetheless, that statement reveals the "Intelligencer" doesn't bother reading the local papers.   The writer continues:

Then a funny thing happened. Klein’s talking points went national...

If you've read Diane Ravitch's book, you know these notions didn't originate with Klein, but this writer, clearly hasn't, and can't be bothered to find out where these ideas originated.  The most offensive determination this writer makes is this conclusion:

The teachers are trapped. The more they defend themselves, the more recalcitrant they seem. It’s permanent detention. 

This is the sort of thinking that's kept people sitting down and shutting up since time immemorial.  And anyone who follows history, even in the most cursory fashion, knows that common people have never accomplished anything with such thinking.  It's reminiscent of the racist rationale, "The bad ones spoil it for the good ones."

It's certainly an uphill battle for us nowadays, with not only Bill Gates, Wal-Mart, Eli Broad, and other heavily moneyed interests lined up against us, but also the President and some of our own leaders openly collaborating with them.  The writer of that article shows no evidence he's even heard of these folks.

Should teachers keep their mouths shut so as not to appear "recalcitrant?"  Or would that be dereliction of duty?

Save the Burlington Coat Factory

So says Curmudgeon, in an ironic but cryptic post.  It doesn't look like much of a garden spot, does it?  But this, it turns out, is the "hallowed ground" on which alleged evildoers wish to build a ground zero mosque, evidently to spit in the face of all Fox-watching good Americans.

Only it's not at ground zero.  It's two blocks away.  And it's not a mosque, but an Islamic center.  Having heard about the ground zero mosque ad nauseum in a hotel that played Fox in the lobby, I had no idea of either of these things.

So not only are Americans getting all riled up about a major religion exercising a fundamental right, but they're doing so under false pretenses.  Fox thoughtfully gave a free airing to a commercial by NY gubernatorial hopeful Rick Lazio, who's exploiting this non-issue to give racist galoots added motivation to vote for him.  

As an elementary student, I was taught this country was founded because people were seeking freedom of religion.  One would hope we'd still have that freedom in place, and that we could exercise it no matter how uncomfortable it made Sean Hannity.  Frankly, there are few things more disgraceful or embarrassing than seeing people who'd deny that right to others.  There are so many more important things on which we could focus, like the economy, or the ongoing fraud that passes for education policy in this city or country.

If these folks want that Burlington Coat Factory that badly, let them have it.

Thought for the Day

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

-Benjamin Franklin

Take a Good Look

This week I've been focused on the nonsense that passes for news at Fox.  This would be disturbing in isolation, but the supposed not-insane news outlets, like CNN, are not much of an improvement.  CNN features an education commentator named Steve Perry, much-lauded because 100% of his graduates go to four-year colleges.  What they forget to tell you is that 43% of his students never make it to graduation.  But that's OK, isn't it?

While Fox broadcasts all sorts of thinly-veiled hateful drek about Muslims, CNN is there to report the fallout.  And fallout there is, when a troglodyte Florida minister determines burning Korans is a way to lead his flock into his vision of spirituality.

"We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez earlier this week.

I'm reminded of the film Arthur, where the butler tells Liza Minelli, "One must usually go to a bowling alley to meet a person of your caliber."  But it's not all that comic to live in an economically-strapped state where such wackos are granted prominence by an inept and irresponsible corporate media.  And who is this celebrated Pastor Terry?  Well, he's an American, and he's innocent until proven guilty.

Infamous Pastor Terry Jones, known for his activism against the Gainesville Florida mayor, and for his "Burn a Koran Day" has been arrested for possession of child pornography. Wednesday August 4, 2010 Pastor Terry Jones was arrested for sharing pictures of children in various states of nudity over the popular file sharing network Limewire.

So I won't be burning him in effigy or anything.   In fact, though his followers are hateful bigots, I won't even accuse them of being child pornographers, though that's the MO they used to vilify absolutely every member of a major worldwide religion.   Still, it's very disturbing to see the hatefulness that can blossom in this country, and the utter lack of curiosity about who's really responsible for our problems.

After all, who enables this media?  Who elects the people who tolerate and encourage it?

The World According to Fox

I'm in Manassas VA, just outside of DC.  To show how all-American they are, the hotel I'm in is piping Fox News on their TVs.  They showed an embarrassing picture of Congressman Anthony Wiener and explained, somehow, he thinks he looks like a woman.  When I first walked in they were discussing how the GOP is going to win in November, and how this had something to do with Twitter.

There was an interview with some guy who said that companies wanted to hire people, but unfortunately the government charged so much they couldn't give people jobs.  I suppose the only thing we can do is offer tax cuts to corporations.

They then interviewed a woman from Canada, who said she was very open-minded about the mosque at the WTC site.  To show how open-minded she was, she said she was Canadian.  However, she spoke to the people responsible for the mosque, and found they were too aggressive in supporting it.  Therefore they could not be trusted.  Furthermore, she wasn't sure what countries may have provided funding for it.

They've also mentioned that GW Bush is now more popular than Barack Obama, and that the Democrats are in big trouble.  But they're really pounding away on the mosque issue.  So this, then, is what people who watch Fox are thinking about and talking about.

At a time like this, it's pathetic that so many of us are so ill-informed we'd regard this drek as news.  And it's not enough to get all snooty and say we're sophisticated New Yorkers--we just allowed Michael Bloomberg to buy himself a third term.  Tough to see how we're any smarter than the Fox viewers.

I gotta run.  They're gonna tell us how much taxpayers have to pay so Barack Obama can campaign for Democrats.  I wonder if they did the same when GW was President. 

Stuff and Nonsense

While the LA Times beats an insane drumbeat to publicly vilify teachers whose students score poorly on high-stakes tests, President Hopey-Changey's mouthpiece nods his head up and down like Jerry Mahoney, saying what a great idea.  By this time next year teachers will be wearing scarlet letters when they go out, so their neighbors can pelt them with rotten fruit.  It's discouraging for many of us, lifelong Democrats, that our party is run by lunatics jumping through hoops for Bill Gates.

The only positive side I can find is that the Republicans not only support these ideas, but have actually come up with some that are even worse.  They're now spinning the 14th amendment, which allows babies born here to become naturalized citizens.  This concerns them.  That the economy is in a tailspin, that no one knows when it will stop circling the drain, that despite recent news we're still heavily invested in two pointless wars--these are of no importance.  The important thing for Republicans is to establish a scapegoat, someone to hate, and that will be penniless immigrants working miserable jobs for next to nothing.  What's vital, apparently, is to make their lot even worse.

The other important issue is that of a mosque being built on the World Trade Center site.  Perish forbid we should show tolerance for other cultures and religions.  How awful it would be to make a gesture of good will and welcome this.  I've actually read people complaining this mosque is unsuitable because it looks like a building, and the WTC was also a building.  Personally, I find it obscene that there's a McDonald's nearby, as its sale of unhealthy garbage symbolizes everything that's wrong with this country to me.  However, I won't be starting a campaign against them, let alone a campaign against a major religion.  To judge an entire group by the actions of fringe lunatics is stereotypical nonsense.  Were we to apply such judgment to all religions, few if any would come out smelling like a rose.

 So congratulations to the GOP for holding onto its proud tradition of being narrow-minded, diversionary and intolerant.  As useless as the Democrats have become, you still make them look better by comparison.