Will Somebody Explain How The NYSED And NYCDOE Are Going To Calculate These Growth Measures For APPR For Me?

From the menu from hell known as the Measures Of Student Learning that was imposed upon us by NYSED Commissioner John King, we learn that the PSAT will be used as the baseline for growth measurements for ELA and math teachers who teach classes that end in a Regents exam.

Exactly how does the PSAT align to the ELA or math Regents exams?

Were these tests devised to see how much "growth" students made under a particular teacher?

Even better, what if students haven't taken the PSAT (as happens on more than occasion) and they go back to the 8th grade tests?

Were the 8th grade math and ELA tests devised to align with the Regents exams to see how much "growth" students made under a particular teacher?

Of course I already know the answers to these questions.

The answer is no, these tests were not aligned or devised see how much "growth" students made under a particular teacher,

This part of the evaluation will not stand up to court challenge.

There's more in the MOSL system as given to us by Dr. King and implemented by the NYCDOE that makes no sense and will not stand up to court challenges either.

The problem is, this crap is Michael Mulgrew's baby.

He loves growth measures - he even told the DA that.

So what are the chances the UFT challenges this garbage in court?

About the same chance as Michael Mulgrew turns down his double pension or explains how his sister's tutoring company got multi-million dollar contracts from the NYCDOE.

No, we're on our own, folks, but the good news, the MOSL is such a disaster that the negative news stories are going to start almost immediately as parents become aware of the mess that is MOSL and APPR.

As teachers, it is important we tell parents just how badly devised this system is and how much it is harming their children.

Under Danielson, teachers are required to make contact with parents on a regular basis in order to be rated "effective" on one of the Danielson domains.

I plan on making the most of these parent contact opportunities by informing the parents of my students just what a mess MOSL and APPR are and how they are both harming their children.

I suggest other teachers do the same.

Let them know that their kids are going to be taking a whole bunch of extra tests not to assess where their children are but rather to evaluate their teachers.

Let them know all the time you are going to have to spend on test prep in order to make sure students do well on all the tests added this year.

Let them know all the wonderful educational opportunities their children will be missing out on because Governor Cuomo, NYSED Commissioner King and Regents Chancellor Tisch have imposed this evaluation system on NYC teachers.

If every teacher in the city outside the three dozen Educators4Excellence still working in the system work to inform parents about this mess, you can bet by the end of the year, Cuomo, Tisch and King will be feeling some heat over it.

We do not have to take these APPR and MOSL injustices sitting down and we do not have to wait for our union leadership at the UFT, the NYSUT and the AFT to come on board and defend us.

Frankly, the union leadership at the local, state and national unions are not going to do that.

So it is incumbent upon we teachers to band together with other teachers and with parents to bring this system to a quick and speedy collapse.

It is so unwieldy and badly designed that it won't take much to destroy it.

Think the Soviet Union in 1989.

Looked impenetrable from the outside, couple of guys with hammers started knocking away at the Berlin Wall and the next thing you know, the whole system collapsed.

That is the analogy I am going to use for APPR and MOSL throughout the year.

It can be toppled.

It will be toppled.

Take the hammers out of your Common Core toolkit and start hammering away now.

The quicker we hammer away at this thing, the sooner we destroy it.