Saturday, January 17, 2015

Play Governor Cuomo's High Stakes Testing Three Card Monte Game

Commenters in this post point out how, if Governor Cuomo gets his way on teacher evaluation reform and makes test scores 40% of a teacher's evaluation, teachers who teach subjects without state tests will have to figure out whether they should use math or ELA scores for their test component.

Here's how that string went:

How do Art, Music, Dance, and Theatre teachers play into the 40%? How about the Physical a Education teachers? Other non regents teachers? How does the 40% state effect these several thousand teachers?
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Anon 10:25pm. I am a phys ed HS teacher. I was given the choice of which subject to link to last year. Of course I looked at the overall scores for my school for the past several years and going that the English Regents was highest at around 84% passing. I linked to them and scored very high. Research your schools history on all regents subjects and link to that subject, which is part of the rules for non regents teachers. It's probably English. Do not allow your administration to make the decision for you. You are allowed to link to any subject You choose.
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I am an elementary PE teacher and the poster above is correct. I was able to link my evaluation score to the overall math scores of my school. (The students in my school do better in math than language arts due to the high ELA population)

There will be plenty of games that will be played in order for teachers who teach subjects without annual state tests to be evaluated on their 40% component (if Cuomo gets his way on that, at any rate.)

Will it be like roulette, spin the wheel, see if it's ELA or math this time around?

Or will it be like three card monte - follow the positive VAM, here it is, here it is, oh, no sorry, that's a negative VAM...

These will be high stakes games, of course.

Because if a teacher chooses wrong and she/he comes up "ineffective" on the 40% test component, she/he will be rated "ineffective" overall for the year.

And if Cuomo gets his way on streamlining the dismissal process, two consecutive "ineffective" ratings will trigger automatic incompetency charges and firing.

So choose well, folks.

The wrong choice and you can lose your profession and your livelihood.

9 comments:

  1. Cuomo hired Quinn as advisor. Hmmmmmm. Interesting to crap on DeBlasio (again).

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  2. There is no way that this elementary PE teacher is being honest. There is no individual teacher choice in linking to math/ela scores.

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  3. The VAM system is obviously capricious and arbitrary. Why is it not being challenged in court by the UFT and/or by teachers? It is a hurtful scheme that creates undue stress with absolutely no positive results.There are signiificant damages that should be and must be awarded to all plaintiffs as result of the gross negligence and obscene mismangement by the NYSED and the Board of Regents and the uber-governor Cuomo, What on earth is is going on here?

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  4. As the prototypical uber-governor , Cuomo is the ultimate neo-fascist, neo-liberal governor.

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  5. New York politics makes for strange bedfellows.

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  6. Reality-based blogger....

    It'd be REALLY interesting if teachers all over could be encouraged to send in descriptions of the bizarre, contorted ways districts have been forced to throw together exams to evaluate teachers who have no actual state tests. NYSUT could do this or......?? Then maybe the whole list could be published, without mentioning specific districts. The whole thing has been so rushed and half-assed. It's shameful.

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  7. Didn't NYSUT/UFT win a lawsuit years ago on allowing tests, overall, to be only 20% of teacher evaluations instead of 40% originally?

    Did they not acquiese on that?

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  8. What does acquiese mean?

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    ReplyDelete