The Daily News and the Post editorial boards are asking NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King to institute the harshest, most punitive teacher evaluation system in the state.
NYSED Commissioner/rookie teacher John King is going to announce what the new system will be tomorrow at 4 PM.
The spinning has already begun, with UFT President and APPR pom-pom supporter Michael Mulgrew sending out an email to members last night telling them he believes the King system will be fair because the union helped develop it.
It's difficult to see how rookie teacher/charter proponent John King, the man who saw no issue with the Hare and Pineapple Pearson piece and who has defended every piece of crap corporate reform the state has pushed with every breath he has, will give us a fair evaluation system.
Rather, it is more likely that the system will be as punitive as the DN and Posties want it.
But in the end, the worse the system is, the better it is.
Because the more complex and convoluted they make it, the more they use junk science like value-added measurements that suffer from wide swings in stability and large margins of error, the more they add absurdities like growth measures on Student Learning Objectives that entail keeping student portfolios in every subject in every grade that will be used not to assess student performance but to evaluate whether teachers have "added value" to their students' performances, the more they force the Our Way Or The Highway lesson plan onto every teacher, the more likely this piece of garbage will fall apart under its own unworkability or die under the weight of court challenges.
There are, of course, two problems with this:
First, there will be teachers whose careers and reputations will be destroyed while that is playing out.
That is the most tragic part of this whole mess.
Second, Michael Mulgrew and the UFT leadership are bragging how this is their baby, how they helped develop it and how, if there are problems, it will not be with the system itself but rather with the implementation of the system by the DOE.
That suggests to me that the UFT leadership will not be challenging this system in court any time soon, unlike the Buffalo union, and if we in NYC want protection from it, we're going to have to mount the court challenges without the help of the UFT.
But even that problem might have a positive side effect.
See, that will show UFT members how little the UFT leadership cares about them or can protect them from the ravages of the corporate education reform movement and how, maybe they need a new UFT leadership who can do just that.
So in the end, I say, give the Posties and the DN and the DFER's and the Asshats and the rest of edu-reformers their harsh, punitive system with the many different moving parts.
Because in the end, the worse you make this system, the more complex and convoluted you make it, the more you rig the system so that a teacher can be ranked effective or developing on all three parts but still be ranked ineffective overall, the more likely this will not last.
How will the UFT, NYSUT attorneys argue in 3020a hearings when you know the department will no doubt argue that the UFT owns the system. Will arbitrators have to split the baby when both parents claim it is theirs?
ReplyDeleteIt surely does hamstring teachers that their own union leadership smiled when they were singing on the line that is dotted for this piece of shit...
Delete3020 hearings will not even need to happen if you do not do well on the tests that your students take. 2 years of being "ineffective" due to VAM and you will be fired. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. No lawyer, public or privately hired will be able to save a teacher once this crap goes through. Remember who to thank on Monday, THE UFT! (They agreed to all of this back in 2009) I remember and so should every other teacher now in the crosshairs.
ReplyDeleteThey'll have to challenge the whole law, the fairness and accuracy of the VAM, the SLO's, the observations, the 0-100 APPR point system - I think it can and will be challenged in court. Whether it's the UFT that does the challenging - well, that's a whole other question...
DeleteI think the city to watch is Buffalo. The BTU is challenging every word that King throws their way. They are challenging the APPR and if I remember they're in court because of an agreement BTU they with their supt. My gut feelings tell me that BTU will be the David that knocks down the Goliath.
ReplyDeleteI am hoping that will happen. It's clear the cronies at the UFT aren't going to fight this. But pressure from Buffalo could force them to have to reevaluate that strategy. Or even better, Buffalo could knock the whole system down...
DeleteLove that headline. I'd already read that DN piece, and your headline pretty much captured all of it.
ReplyDeleteThat's how the Posties wrote about it too. They're hoping for the worst system ever.
DeleteBut so am I. Because the worse King makes it, the more vindictive and petty and punitive, the more complex and convoluted, the sooner this thing gets challenged in the courts and in the court of public (and most importantly parent) opinion.
Let's see what happens when a swath of teachers rated "effective" on all three parts of the system - the local assessment, the state VAM and the observation part - come up "ineffective" anyway because Cuomo, King and Tisch decided to rig the system against teachers.
Let's see if that survives a court challenge.
The arrogance the educrats have shown in devising the most insane and unworkable system possible will ultimately be the downfall of that very system.