Look for the newspapers to complain, the education reformers to howl with disgust, and the displeased Governor to demand a more stringent teacher evaluation system, since few teachers can be fired on the first round of evaluations. Teacher season is just beginning with the second term of the Governor and a new NYSED Commissioner who's mandate from the Governor will be to go after teachers and not to help the students who will suffer with "high stakes" Common Core tests that they are ill prepared for and "Junk Science" for teacher evaluations.
In fact, Tisch is already signaled these numbers show the APPR teacher system needs to be "strengthened":
"The ratings show there’s much more work to do to strengthen the evaluation system,” Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch said in a statement. “We look forward to working with the Governor, Legislature, NYSUT, and other education stakeholders to strengthen the evaluation law in the coming legislative session to make it a more effective a tool for professional development.”
In short, they want to fire more teachers, this round didn't give them a high enough number of "ineffectives."
But here's a question I have:
What percentage of "ineffectives" on the APPR ratings would make Tisch, Cuomo and the other merry reformsters happy?
10% ineffective?
20% ineffective?
30%?
70%?
We keep hearing stuff like this from the deformers that makes me think they'll only be happy when the system is churning out 70% "ineffectives (this comes from a CBS piece entitled "Most New York Teachers Rated Effective Despite Poor Test Scores," so that should give you an indication of the frame for the story):
Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch points to the contrast between poor student performance on standardized tests and how their teachers and principals fared in evaluations.
Evaluations are based on student performance on state tests, locally approved measures and classroom observation.
Executive director of StudentsFirstNY, Jenny Sedlis, spoke with 1010 WINS and said when all teachers get good evaluations but the students are learning just at grade level, there is an issue.
“In New York State, roughly a third of our kids are reading and doing math on grade level, but every teacher is considered good or better on the evaluation system and that just doesn’t compute,” she said.
“Parents deserve a teacher evaluation system that’s honest and that sets the bar high,” Sedlis said.
Clearly they want the APPR ratings to track test scores - if 70% of students "failed" the new Common Core tests that Tisch and Company rigged for that number, than 70% of their teachers ought to be rated "ineffective."
Expect them to "strengthen" the evaluation system by rigging it so that the APPR ratings more closely track test scores.
They may not rig it to get 70% ineffective next year, but you can bet they'll rig it so that there's a much higher percentage of "ineffectives" and "developings" both statewide and in the city.
Education reform in a nutshell - they rig the Common Core test scores for 70% failing, complain when the teacher evaluation ratings don't mirror that number, then come back to rig the teacher ratings too.
How about Tisch 100% Ineffective?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately having married into the Tisch fortune, Merryl Tisch can pretty much get away with anything. This the "Tisch is the adult in education" frame we've seen from the media lately even though it's pretty clear she acts like a petulant child all the time. Dumping the Morris mess onto King was the latest "Merryl is unaccountable" event.
DeleteThe differences in the data mean that the Danielson rubric ican be applied both subjectively and in a capricious and arbitrary method. The differences between NYC and the rest of the state are so large so as to defy objectivity through meaningful evaluations.
ReplyDeleteCuomo and Tisch are going to look to make the rest of the state look more like NYC, only with higher percentages of "ineffectives."
DeleteThe question you should really be asking is " How much money is Cuomo looking to save on NY state pension costs by firing higher paid, longer service teachers?" Then you can work backwards to determine the percent of ineffective teachers
ReplyDeleteYes. I think that's right. Might add, he's looking to do in as many union members as possible. Makes future political battles easier for him.
DeleteI can't answer your question.
ReplyDeleteBut even I, a fighter in the battle against reformistas, cannot imagine that there are only 8.2% ineffective or developing teachers in the City or 2.4% in the State. There has got to be a reasonable, and, of course, "reasonable" is a highly contested concept, number of ineffective or developing teachers somewhere between 8% and 70% that makes intuitive sense.
I only offer this as a thought so long as the system provides useful and meaningful support for ineffective or developing teachers, which we know is unlikely, so perhaps I'm offering only a reflection that just as there is likely to be something between 8% and 70% ineffective doctors, lawyers, policemen, plumbers and accountants in NYC/NYS so there are likely to be a similar number of teachers.
Doesn't mean that they should be fired but the venemous and irreconcilable lack of trust between teachers, unions, reformistas and politicians is such that I fear to say anything more on the matter.
Harris , you are throwing up numbers between 8.2% and 70% based on what you "imagine" , not based an rigorous analysis.
ReplyDeleteHarris, you remind me of the common core reformistas, narcissistic but unscientific.
I bet they come in w/ 10% when they announce their "strengthening" proposal, then work it down to 5% and the UFT will declare that it scrapes the skies.
DeleteFolks: The argument LOST in all of this is that the evaluative models used in NYS (NYSUT, Danielson, Marzano, et al) WERE NOT designed to FIRE teachers. The numb nuts at state ed and in the guv's mansion (better known as "the FIRST BULLY") are approaching evaluations ALL WRONG. The models being used were designed to "improve teaching" (THERE'S A NOVEL IDEA, HUH). Merryl and her reformistas are in fact, pretty stupid to think that the models used today are punitive in ANY way. Nor were they negotiated and collectively bargained by local teacher associations and unions to be punitive. Believe it or not, once upon a time we had the time (and desire) to help new teachers and experienced teachers to improve in the classroom in the delivery of instruction. Today, we are slaves to standardized tests. I do not care WHO is in the classroom teaching. Every child learns differently (another FACT that the jerks at state ed AND in the guv's mansion find so easily to forget). Do you want proof? For years I used to give pop quizzes. As an experiment, on numerous occasions I actually posted the correct answers to the quiz being given on the board in an entirely different but, still visible location. KIDS STILL blew the quiz despite being given the answers.
ReplyDeleteFrom child psychology classes in college we know that so much of what a child can do in school is predicated on what happens at home. Even "Sheriff Andy" acknowledged this in his expensive and shiny campaign commercials.
What the hell makes Cuomo and Tisch (and many of the Regents, for that matter) think that force-feeding teaching to the tests in classrooms across the state defines GOOD TEACHING? This utter and fundamental lack of understanding is breath-taking when it is apparent that those who sit in judgement are corporate stooges and perhaps the worst individuals to be attempting to steer the ship that is public education in NYS.
Finally (and the rant is almost over on my end), I cannot wait for the lawsuits that start in earnest once Tisch starts summarily firing teachers. Especially in light of the % of teachers in many failing schools rated as "Effective." Tisch and Cuomo may believe that they have that power but, let's see the courts overrule collective bargaining and negotiated teacher contracts. If I'm not mistaken, there is STILL a teacher's right to due process.
I say, let Tisch and Cuomo run amok and then let them suffer the consequences. Now that King is moving on, this just could be a defining moment when the curtains are pulled back to expose Tisch. Let's get cracking on that Moreland Commission report, too. There's another emperor with no clothes on in Albany.
But remember, they're not in the business of improving education - they're in the business of firing teachers, cutting labor costs, enriching their Wall Street and Silicon Valley criminal friends and privatizing the system. They just want to make it look like they're trying to improve the system while actually doing their best to destroy it. And guess what? The rhetoric around this ("70% of students fail the tests, 95% of their teachers are effective or better") will work with a big segment of the populace. Most people won't understand they rigged the CCSS tests to get the 70% failing rate.
Delete100% is the magic number in order to facilitate a post Katrina New Orleans in New York.
ReplyDeleteWe may get there yet. New Orleans on the Hudson, brought to us by Cuomo, Tisch and Company.
Delete