At the Capitol

Comments 8

1. Jane Peterson 11/14/2009

   I totally agree with all the previous comments!!!!!  My comment is, when are administrators and parents going to be held accountable for the students' learning?  I'm sick and tired of everything being blamed on the teachers!!!!!!!

2. Patti 11/9/2009

   How is this going to help urban schools?? We've got children who don't even have their basic needs met. We need good teachers in the urban school system. But if you have two teachers, one working in an urban school and another working in the suburban school, majority of the time the teacher in the suburban school will have students who do better on tests- Not because they are better teachers but because kids tend to do better in suburban schools because most of them have their basic needs met so they can concentrate on school more. Whereas many kids in urban schools are on free and reduced lunch and aren't getting all their basic needs met so school is a little bit tougher because they are worried about others things. So now you're going to have even more teachers moving to the suburbs because they do better on the tests and they will be guaranteed a job and better evaluation than if they stayed in an urban school.
   How are you going to retain good teachers in urban districts? 

3. Brian 11/6/2009

   Since we are educators when are our union leaders going to start educating the state legislature, the mainstream media, school boards and parents about the better measures of accountability such as performance exhibitions, portfolios and learning records.
   
   Many know the deficiencies of these discredited standardized tests that mainly function to narrow curriculum, control teaching strategies and limit the active engagement of student thinking.
   
   Why not, instead of just opposing the expansion of the use of these tests, present the better measures to complement these weaker accountability instruments?
   
   Hardly anyone I've ever talked to as a teacher has ever had a good word to say about standardized testing but when you explain the other, better accountability tools I noted above, they wonder why more schools don't use them.
   
   We need to change the frame of debate because as we continue to find out more about how kids differ in the way that they learn we need to directly connect that with the differing ways in which we should promote their telling us what they have learned.
   
   There is a massive disconnection between the research on teaching and learning and the increasing refinement of a bad instrument, the standardized test.
   
   Ignoring this in favor of making nice with the Democrats and trying to get a relatively small amount of funding---compared to what was cut from the state education budget---isn't going to make that disconnection go away.

4. Edward Ludwig 11/4/2009

   The idea that we can evaluate teachers using test scores does not recognize the fact that new and veteran teachers will begin to make career decisions based on test scores of schools.  It does not recognize that schools will begin to use test scores as a recruiting tool when hiring teachers.  Would anyone take a chance at teaching at a school with low test scores if they knew that they may lose their job in a year or two based on the use of student scores.
   
   Using test scores to evaluate teachers will eventually lead to the best new teachers coming out of our universities asking one question at their job interviews-"What are the test scores in your school?'. 
   
   This answer to this SINGLE question will lead to a flow of top teachers to schools with the best test scores.   The end result of evaluating teachers based on test score will be that the best teachers will either never go to the schools where they are most needed, or they will leave them for fear of being kicked out of teaching because of low test scores.  This migration of top teachers is the very opposite of what our state needs.
   
   Using test scores to directly evaluate teachers is just another poor example of attempting to apply a business model to public education.  It does not take into account the fact that we are educating children with unique needs and challenges in our schools-not making basketballs.
   
   

5. Steve Strieker 11/3/2009

   This test-based evaluation model is a slippery slope.
   
   I spent thousands of dollars on my graduate classes this summer to learn that learning cannot be measured. Growth can be observed, but the idea of a test being worth anything more than a single-moment snapshot of a narrow view of a student's intelligence is absurd.  It is absurd, therefore, to base teacher evaluations on this idea.
   
   At the core of this "Race to the Top" stuff is competition.  It pits state v. state, district v. district, school v. school, teacher v. teacher, and ultimately student v. student.  Is nothing sacred?  I got into education because of its largely collaborative model. Where has the ideal gone? I feel we are prostituting our profession. I don't care how much money is at stake.  Let's not get caught up in the"race."

6. Jackie Peterson 10/31/2009

   There are many holes in this thinking of using test scores to evaluate teachers. I teach first grade. What test score will you use to evaluate my teaching??? Will you now make up a test to measure me by putting first graders through standarized test scores? How fair is it to measure a third or fouth grade teacher by their students test scores when the Kgn., first or second grade teacher may have had a hand in that students lack of achievement. There are so many flaws to this. The superintentent in Washington DC at least offered a huge pay hike for those teachers who raised test scores in students. Where is the monetary motivation in this? It sounds as though this is only punitive. A whole lot of work is needed on this. Many teachers will leave the field if this isn't worked out fairly.

7. Priscilla Thibodeau 10/30/2009

   When so many students come to school not ready to learn due to multiple factors over which teachers have no control, then it is unwise to blame teachers for student achievement.  Many outstanding teachers who work their hearts out may still be unable to bring an individual's test scores up to mastery.  Meeting the students' basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, and a basic sense of self worth must be intact to provide conditions under which children can thrive and learn.  How can we legislate that? 

8. Curt Christensen 10/30/2009

   Way to go Mary!  Now let's move to the next level.  Use student test scores to evaluate an individual student's achievements over their educational career and move away from this insane notion that comparing test results from one year to the next gives validity to what we are doing in the classroom as educators.

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