We hope you have a good 2011. What's your New Year's resolution? Ours is to do the best job possible in the classroom, despite the best efforts of the Central Office.
Although I have been in IPS many, many years, I feel that our current leadership in just totally inept, incompetent and downright mean-spirited, to all stakeholders in our schools, students and their families and teachers and staff. Whether this is by design or just because they are so incredilby stupid--I don't care. I would love to stay and teach here, however, my New Year's resolution is to find another job, whether it is in teaching or a different career. BTW by leadership, I mean both on a Central and local level: OMG where do they get these people!!
My resolution for 2011 is to vigorously test each and every one of my students, then test them again and again and again and again.
My children will be the best in the state, no, the country, in the area of filling in circles, making certain that all extraneous marks are thoroughly erased, without evidence of cheating.
We will have the cleanest, neatest answer sheets in the history of our school system.
These tests will permit out students to remain in the 23rd position in the world for math and science abilities.
So you don't think kids who understand math and science do better on those tests than kids who don't understand math and science? I mean, there's always going to be a margin of error, but overall, you disapprove of the tests as a standardized measurement? Do you disapprove of all standardized measurement, or just the use of multiple-choice tests? I know it's not perfect, but I guess I've never been able to come up with a better way of a) figuring out who knows what and b) figure how how students in different classes, schools, states, and countries compare with each other.
In my post, I did not include any teaching in my classroom. In a perfect world, we'd all be able to assess each child's needs, present experiences to teach/anchor knowledge, test for assessment of growth, then reteach and/or proceed to higher skills.
I don't know about your school, but in our elementary, we test. Although my license says I'm a teacher, my job description has morphed into one of test administrator/proctor.
I wish it was sarcasm, but, sadly, it's the status quo.
I test a lot. More than what is even required. Sometimes I call them "quizzes" and sometimes my tests take the form of projects, but still I'm kind of "old school" in that I teach, assess, teach, assess, ad infinitum. I get uncomfortable with the stakes put on some of these tests, but I agree with the above poster. It might not be perfect but it's the best way I know to measure things.
I am "so you don't think" who posted above. I'm not a teacher. I'm just a parent and Indianapolis resident. I'm just curious to your line of thinking. How can we determine if we're keeping up with other states or other countries if we don't have some sort of standardized test?
I personally feel that is hard to compare the students in Indiana with the students in Minnesota based solely on test scores. Why? Because they don't take the same test. Using test scores to measure student achievement would make sense if every students in the US took the SAME test. The way it is now, states can dumb down their tests to make sure everybody passes.
Since as a Media Specialist I teach computer skills, I like to teach a skill and then assign a project that utilizes that skill. Then I grade the project and we move on to the next skill. Coming up in January.....Using a paper atlas vs Mapquest, to plan a vacation.
My resolution is to do whatever I can do whatever is necessary to get Eugene removed from his job. He is destroying IPS. We need to remove Busch and Gore from the school board. they are both clueless and spineless and pure puppets of Eugene.
What's going to be funny is when Eugene White finally leaves and you hate the new superintendent even more. Some of the hatred directed at White has nothing to do with White. People remember this idealistic version of education in the past and then accuse White of destroying that ideal. However, the changes in public education are national and global. White and company have as little control over that as you do. If I were superintendent of an urban district, I would try to raise expectations, have a firm discipline policy that focused on changing behavior (as opposed to overly negative/punitive). I would also attempt to change the teacher prejudices and attitudes that perpetuate the low achievement in urban classrooms. Although I disagree with some of policies White has put in place, and although I find the arrogance of IPS administration as a whole extremely grating, I think the problems he has tried to address are the same problems any superintendent is going to try to address.
To me the problem with White as well as many other members of the board and administration, is more about corruption than incompetence. I agree with the above post in that policywise most of the stuff he's done is the same type of stuff everyone else is doing. On the other hand not everyone does the sneaky stuff with the budget and the bloated administration and running IPS like a monarchy rather than a democracy. Thats the kind of thing I hope is different with the next superintendent or if the state takes over or whatever.
Agreed. Too bad we can't just TEACH like we all went to school to do. There are other factors involved where the corporate world has gotten into public education and tried to muck it up for their own $$$ gain as well. Contracts for ISTEP, testing, for-profit gimmick schools, consultants and all that crap have NOTHING to do with our students but EVERYTHING to do with someone getting more tax dollars not directly going in to our classrooms.All of this "reform" won't change anything and will only make the "reformers" look clueless and misinformed after this is all over with. By then the two years will be up. Keep your heads up and let's get ready for another bump in our ISTEP scores..even though WE KNOW we mean MORE to our students than just a McGraw- Hill test. God Bless you all and see you Monday morning!
Dr. White is not the cause of all of the incompetence and misery in IPS. He is just a symptom. When he leaves, there will be another bully to fill his spot. Most urban school districts are run by bullies like Dr. White (Michelle Rhee for example). The underlying assumptions of policymakers, board members, administrators, etc. are that the teachers and students in IPS (or any urban school system) and stupid, lazy, and incompetent, or they wouldn't be in IPS (or any other urban district). This perspective is convenient for people who want to ignore the high levels of childhood poverty in the US. You should all read Linda Darling-Hammond's "The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity WIll Determine Our Future.: LDH lays out a very strong case backed up by research and statistics (general trends, not one or two isolated studies). She points out that we are 20-something in terms of childhood poverty and that the top half of our students are at the top of the international comparison rankings. It's the bottom half of our students who are struggling so much in terms of achievement. We don't have an educational crisis. We have a childhood poverty crisis. When children's basic needs aren't being met and they live in chaos and fear, then they don't learn well. It's only when their basic needs are met that they can focus on education (Maslow's Hierarchy of Need). Many of our kids are in crisis mode because of the instability in their lives. Unstable homes and communities make unstable schools. Some (not all) once well-meaning and motivated teachers fall into these same patterns of instability and disfunction because they are socialized into this system. They become angry and frustrated with the kids. Some stop putting their best effort out because it's so easy to become burnt out. (I'm not bashing all of us. Many of us are both talented and dedicated, but we all know those who should get out for their own sakes and the sakes of the kids. I think that IPS has some of the best and the worst teachers around). The Great Society legislation of the 60s started to show fruit in the late 70s and 80s. The achievement gap was closing. Then Clinton and Bush started to cut back these programs substantially and the achievement gap started to widen again. Now the Republicans in Congress want to dismantle these programs completely. You think that urban schools, neighborhoods, and families living in poverty now have challenges, if this process of dismantling the social support systems for people living in poverty continues, you haven't seen anything yet. Yes, IPS (and other urban schools) are corrupt and chaotic, but that's because this situation supports the current social structure. Society not only lets it happen, but policies like NCLB encourage it to happen. If a large number of talented and smart kids in IPS (and other urban schools) were to learn to question and become highly educated, many of them would be able to enact social change to dismantle to systems of power and privilege in the US. The chaos and and instability in IPS just mirror a large social issue of socioeconomic inequality in the US.
I meant to say that when we compare the top of of US students to the top half of students in other countries, we are at the top of the international comparisons.
There are obviously many different opinions on many different issues, and I get that. But who in the world would ever hire a teacher who didn't think it was possible to improve public education? Who would ever hire a teacher who didn't think teachers made any difference in education? How do these people get jobs in the first place, regardless of how difficult it is to fire them later. I can't wrap my mind around that. If you were a partner in a law firm, would you ever hire a lawyer who didn't think a good lawyer made a difference in winning a case. That if a guy loses a case, it's because he's guilty, and if he wins, it's because he's innocent, and lawyers don't make a difference. Or if you were collaborating with other physicians to open an office. Would you want doctors who didn't think being a good doctor mattered? That people with healthy lifestyles stayed healthy and people with unhealthy lifestyles got sick and died, and doctors played no part in changing that? Then why is it somehow acceptable to be a "teacher" with the attitude that teaching doesn't matter. It's shameful!
Teaching DOES matter. It's the restrictions by which we must align our lessons that hinder and frustrate our efforts. These obstacles include poor/indifferent/unqualified administration, ridiculous textbooks/resources/evaluation tools, and lack of technology/supplies/parental support.
It's so sad that the one bright spot of possibilities that a year-round schedule would have provided was dashed by ill-planned modifications.
When I return, I plan on teaching the test...no erasures for me....they won't need to erase as they will have the answers...therefore....I will be the best!....isn't that what its all about anyway????
Are you going to read the answers, too? That works for me! I have to be careful, though, since B and D sound alike. I think I'll use my letter signs, or write on the overhead again.
Wait....IPS won't fix my overhead. Perhaps I'll just give the kids a paper with item numbers and answers.
I wish my kids could spell better, though, since it slows us down when I have to spell the words on the extended response items.
Did anyone see today's Star article about the state's involvement in the assessment of teachers?
Workers who dread their annual job performance reviews might feel better about the process if they knew 99 percent of employees were rated as effective.
That's an unlikely outcome for many companies, but for Indiana teachers, it's a reality -- one that could soon be coming to an end.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett say Indiana needs a more honest look at the job teachers and principals are doing. How can an internal Department of Education survey find that 99 percent of teachers are rated as effective, they ask, when 25 percent of students don't pass statewide exams?
"What we are talking about is integrity," Bennett said. "Our current system is a statistical impossibility."
The issue is among the sweeping education changes Bennett and Daniels will be pushing when the General Assembly meets starting Wednesday.
Their agenda also calls for using student performance to measure teacher success, focusing teacher collective bargaining agreements only on salary and wage-related benefits and allowing local districts to reward the best-performing teachers instead of rewarding simple seniority.
But before local officials can create ways to reward the best teachers, Daniels and Bennett say, they need to have evaluations that really identify the cream of the crop.
Some school districts have contracts with teachers unions that prohibit principals from walking into classrooms unannounced for reviews, Bennett said, while other contracts prohibit annual reviews after teachers reach a certain point in their careers.
Indiana State Teachers Association President Nate Schnellenberger said every district handles evaluations differently, and he acknowledged that reviews might not be a priority in large school districts where evaluating hundreds of teachers is a matter of logistics.
But he said ISTA, which has clashed with Daniels and Bennett on other issues, is on board with yearly reviews.
"That's one place where we can agree with Dr. Bennett in that we support a fair, rigorous evaluation system for educators on a yearly basis," Schnellenberger said.
For teachers worried that personality conflicts with principals could prevent them from getting a fair shake during reviews, Bennett said more accountability and a focus on student performance would help.
"In a highly accountable system, the folks in charge are going to want to keep the best and recruit the best," he said.
Bennett, a Republican first elected in 2008, said he doesn't have a specific goal in mind regarding how many teachers should be classified as effective or highly effective, or how many would fall on the low end of the scale. But he said there could be some teachers who just don't belong in the classroom.
"A huge responsibility we have as professionals is to make sure we do address those who don't improve," Bennett said. "We should very honestly look them in the eye and say, 'Education is not the place for you.' "
Schnellenberger said administrators should work with teachers who aren't performing well and that the long-term goal should be to get all teachers rated as effective.
"Why would we want to have a non-effective teacher in the classroom?" he asked.
While Daniels and Bennett envision using yearly teacher evaluations to help local districts reward the best teachers, Daniels also suggested that they could later be used to determine which colleges do the best job of preparing Indiana teachers.
"I really wish I knew what the worst 10 were so we could say, 'Teach something different,' " Daniels said.
For now, though, Daniels and Bennett are hoping fellow Republicans who control the House and Senate will agree that teacher evaluations need an overhaul.
"We have to focus on teacher and principal quality," Bennett said. "We have to have an evaluation system that truly differentiates good and bad."
I hope to make the cut with the new evaluations that Bennett (leader of a failing school system). IPS needs to expell students who miss more than ten days of school like the townships, after ADM. Then we will have the money, time, and smaller class sizes that would allow the teacher to teach to the test.
I'm sorry, but I have to laugh on this one....I could write the answers on the board (if I had chalk) or I could write the answers on the overhead (if it worked) and my poor students would still get it wrong....guess I'd better head out to the Dollar Tree and stock up on erasers (my school doesn't have any) so I can get a good enough evaluation when my students PASS their tests! LOL LOL LOL
If Bennett were to be evaluated on his school district´s progress, he would be rated as a failure. He was the superintendent of a failing school system and he is the one who is going to tell the entire state how to run a school system. What is wrong with that picture.
Maybe the students in Bennett's district where he was the Superintendent are just dumb. Nobody ever mentions some students just are not very intelligent.
Bennett is an elected official. I don't even remember the name of his opponent. I vaguely remember his face because I pay close attention to Democratic politics; however, I still held my nose and voted for the Republican because he was the candidate really talking about making a difference. I don't regret that. We need a shake-up. What interests me is he has been traveling the state trying to meet with teachers and few have shown up in Marion County. Did Sue Ellen ever schedule forums with teachers statewide? She is now a highly paid consultant for a construction group. I don't think Bennett's opponent had a creative idea to throw on the table. He would have likely done what the State Superintendents have always done . . . kiss up to the administrators without any regard for teachers. The superintendents and principals don't love Dr. Bennett because now they have to take responsibility for the messes they create/support. Is teacher accountability an issue? Sure! Who in the heck wants to teach next to an idiot? Be a part of reform and stop being a victim of it.
I'm another teacher who is agrees that changes have to be made. The current system is corrupt. A few examples:
-In New Jersey, the head of the teachers’ union makes more than the President of the United States, raking-in $550,000 per year. -In Indiana alone, 170,000 students are trapped in chronically underperforming schools. - New York pays hundreds of teachers salaries of $70,000 to play Scrabble in the now infamous rubber rooms, costing taxpayers $30 million in compensation per year. - Average per-pupil expenditures exceed $10,000 per year, meaning a child entering kindergarten today can expect to have no less than $120,000 spent on his or her education by the time the child graduates high school. - Nationally, just 32 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading. - Cumulatively, states face a $1 trillion shortfall in under-funded teacher pension liabilities. - In 28 states, teachers can be fired for not joining a union or paying union fees. While half of teachers consider themselves more conservative than liberal, 95 percent of union dues go to Democrats and left-leaning causes. - More than 1,700 schools nationwide are labeled as dropout factories, graduating less than 60 percent of their students. - Only 57 percent of college students graduate within six years. - The average salary of an employee at the U.S. Department of Education is over $103,000.
The problem isn't the businesses or the corporations profiting off of education reform. The problem is the government and the special interest groups profiting off of the failure of public education.
I am still laughing at a high school teacher, who placed the answers to a Benchmarks test on the blackboard. The administrator knew and truly didn't care, well the little darlings even screwed that one up for the teacher. Sixty percent of his students failed the exam or could the teacher have picked out the wrong answers? Or the Benchmarks crew messed up the test, yep, they screwed up their own time after working during the summer and eight weeks into the school year.
Compare the benchmark questions to the questions provided by the College Board either on the AP test study guides or on the tests themselves. You will notice some similarities, if not out right copying of questions. Why are AP level questions given to students who are in regular classes? And then the results are used as a de facto evaluation instrument of the teachers.
You know what else?! ALL of the ISTEP tests for Language Arts for all grades include questions about parts of speech. So that means THIRD graders are being given TENTH-grade level test questions!! It's a conspiracy to get rid of teachers and replace them with robots!!!
Nobody trusts you. Nobody believes you. And our students are NOT stupid. I've worked in the townships, and IPS students are just as smart as the township kids. They just aren't given the same chances at education, either by their families and communities and/or by the school and teachers. It's the reason I came back.
I am not a teacher, but I am curious about something that perhaps someone here might want to comment on.
In the newspaper article, it said that the state wants teachers to be evaluated and get paid according to test scores.
It also says that the state wants to eliminate all influence of the teachers' union except for collective bargaining for wages.
Aren't these two statements contradictory?
If teacher wages are determined by test scores (and maybe a few other other factors decided by a building principal perhaps), then what will the union do to be relevant for teachers?
Why even continue with the premise of "collective bargaining" if there is really nothing left to bargain for?
Could this be the beginning of the end for the teachers' unions in Indianapolis and Indiana?
These are not "loaded questions." I really am just interested in what teachers/others might think about this.
Oh, I see, you're referencing the article quoted above. But where does it talk about being paid according to test scores?
But to answer your question, I do think this is the beginning of the end for teachers' unions. One way or the other, either the state will enact laws to lessen their power and influence, or non-union schools will gradually recruit the better teachers and thereby increase enrollment until the union schools become obsolete.
"Their agenda also calls for using student performance to measure teacher success." _________________
That's from The Star's article that someone listed above in this thread. I'm assuming that the statement "using student performance to measure teacher success" translates to primarily mean test scores. I have read many articles in local news media recently that appear to indicate that the state wants test scores to be at the forefront in future evaluations of teacher performance.
A bad idea, in my opinion as a non-educator. But it seems that this steamroller isn't going to be stopped due to the results of the last legislative elections.
I have never once heard of mean test scores suggested as a measurement. I have only heard of value-added performance, which makes sense to me. We have no control over where students are when they come to us. But we have control over what we accomplish in our class, especially in relation to other teachers who have had these same students and/or taught the same subjects.
How would you measure teacher success? What criteria would you use to determine which teachers are great, which are mediocre, and which are really bad?
I wish we had the value-added data available to us now, even if they couldn't use it for teacher reviews. I remember reading about the teachers in L.A. who were really inspired and motivated by having access to that information, even though none of them were rewarded or punished for it.
"It's so sad that the one bright spot of possibilities that a year-round schedule would have provided was dashed by ill-planned modifications." I so totally agree! Sad that one school board member's guarantee of voting no caused such a reaction. Sacrificing all kids in favor of one school board member's son is a sad reflection of what IPS faces.
What do you mean the teacher's in LA weren't punished? They published all their names in the paper. One guy commited suicide over being ranked as inadequate! That's punishment to me.
Education is not a business and you can't run it as such.
Whether we run it like a business, or a charity, or a well-run government program, it still needs more efficiency and accountability that what we have now. It's one bloated, corrupt, ineffective mess. Obviously we want to find the parts that are working the best and do more of that. And obviously to find out what is working best, we need measurements and comparisons. And if the education system is indeed functioning at maximum capacity, then proper measurements and comparisons will show that as well.
I keep track of my own information regarding the academic progress of my students. But it would be more helpful if I knew how I compared to my peers. Not because I think its a contest but it would let me know whether I should be trying something different or if I was kind of setting the curve so to speak.
I never thought about it, but I wonder why they don't make the data available to us. Like you said, they wouldn't have to use it for anything formal. But especially in a district like IPS, it's not always easy to know how you're doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm floundering because there are students that I don't reach at all despite everything I try. But then other teachers will talk about half of their students failing tests or almost all of their students putting an x through a worksheet and refusing to do it, and I'll think I must be doing really good because I don't get anything like that, even from my worst students. I'm surprised more teachers don't ask for this information. I'm surprised I never thought to ask for it.
Yes, I have learned more about the interworkings of IPS and the wasted money. I have learned that a administrator changed answers, and that Mary Louis checks the blog daily. This blog has imparted members with information, so that I have blocked the blog from their computors.
Although I have been in IPS many, many years, I feel that our current leadership in just totally inept, incompetent and downright mean-spirited, to all stakeholders in our schools, students and their families and teachers and staff. Whether this is by design or just because they are so incredilby stupid--I don't care. I would love to stay and teach here, however, my New Year's resolution is to find another job, whether it is in teaching or a different career. BTW by leadership, I mean both on a Central and local level: OMG where do they get these people!!
ReplyDeleteMy resolution for 2011 is to vigorously test each and every one of my students, then test them again and again and again and again.
ReplyDeleteMy children will be the best in the state, no, the country, in the area of filling in circles, making certain that all extraneous marks are thoroughly erased, without evidence of cheating.
We will have the cleanest, neatest answer sheets in the history of our school system.
These tests will permit out students to remain in the 23rd position in the world for math and science abilities.
So you don't think kids who understand math and science do better on those tests than kids who don't understand math and science? I mean, there's always going to be a margin of error, but overall, you disapprove of the tests as a standardized measurement? Do you disapprove of all standardized measurement, or just the use of multiple-choice tests? I know it's not perfect, but I guess I've never been able to come up with a better way of a) figuring out who knows what and b) figure how how students in different classes, schools, states, and countries compare with each other.
ReplyDeleteIn my post, I did not include any teaching in my classroom. In a perfect world, we'd all be able to assess each child's needs, present experiences to teach/anchor knowledge, test for assessment of growth, then reteach and/or proceed to higher skills.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about your school, but in our elementary, we test. Although my license says I'm a teacher, my job description has morphed into one of test administrator/proctor.
I wish it was sarcasm, but, sadly, it's the status quo.
I test a lot. More than what is even required. Sometimes I call them "quizzes" and sometimes my tests take the form of projects, but still I'm kind of "old school" in that I teach, assess, teach, assess, ad infinitum. I get uncomfortable with the stakes put on some of these tests, but I agree with the above poster. It might not be perfect but it's the best way I know to measure things.
ReplyDeleteI am "so you don't think" who posted above. I'm not a teacher. I'm just a parent and Indianapolis resident. I'm just curious to your line of thinking. How can we determine if we're keeping up with other states or other countries if we don't have some sort of standardized test?
ReplyDeleteI personally feel that is hard to compare the students in Indiana with the students in Minnesota based solely on test scores. Why? Because they don't take the same test. Using test scores to measure student achievement would make sense if every students in the US took the SAME test. The way it is now, states can dumb down their tests to make sure everybody passes.
ReplyDeleteSince as a Media Specialist I teach computer skills, I like to teach a skill and then assign a project that utilizes that skill. Then I grade the project and we move on to the next skill. Coming up in January.....Using a paper atlas vs Mapquest, to plan a vacation.
My New Years resolution is to pray that Justin Hunter gets FIRED!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteJustin ain't going no where. Dr. Johnson would never lose her pretty boy.
ReplyDeleteMy resolution is to do whatever I can do whatever is necessary to get Eugene removed from his job. He is destroying IPS. We need to remove Busch and Gore from the school board.
ReplyDeletethey are both clueless and spineless and pure puppets of Eugene.
What's going to be funny is when Eugene White finally leaves and you hate the new superintendent even more. Some of the hatred directed at White has nothing to do with White. People remember this idealistic version of education in the past and then accuse White of destroying that ideal. However, the changes in public education are national and global. White and company have as little control over that as you do. If I were superintendent of an urban district, I would try to raise expectations, have a firm discipline policy that focused on changing behavior (as opposed to overly negative/punitive). I would also attempt to change the teacher prejudices and attitudes that perpetuate the low achievement in urban classrooms. Although I disagree with some of policies White has put in place, and although I find the arrogance of IPS administration as a whole extremely grating, I think the problems he has tried to address are the same problems any superintendent is going to try to address.
ReplyDeleteTo me the problem with White as well as many other members of the board and administration, is more about corruption than incompetence. I agree with the above post in that policywise most of the stuff he's done is the same type of stuff everyone else is doing. On the other hand not everyone does the sneaky stuff with the budget and the bloated administration and running IPS like a monarchy rather than a democracy. Thats the kind of thing I hope is different with the next superintendent or if the state takes over or whatever.
ReplyDelete"White and company have little control."
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Too bad we can't just TEACH like we all went to school to do. There are other factors involved where the corporate world has gotten into public education and tried to muck it up for their own $$$ gain as well. Contracts for ISTEP, testing, for-profit gimmick schools, consultants and all that crap have NOTHING to do with our students but EVERYTHING to do with someone getting more tax dollars not directly going in to our classrooms.All of this "reform" won't change anything and will only make the "reformers" look clueless and misinformed after this is all over with. By then the two years will be up. Keep your heads up and let's get ready for another bump in our ISTEP scores..even though WE KNOW we mean MORE to our students than just a McGraw- Hill test. God Bless you all and see you Monday morning!
Dr. White is not the cause of all of the incompetence and misery in IPS. He is just a symptom. When he leaves, there will be another bully to fill his spot. Most urban school districts are run by bullies like Dr. White (Michelle Rhee for example). The underlying assumptions of policymakers, board members, administrators, etc. are that the teachers and students in IPS (or any urban school system) and stupid, lazy, and incompetent, or they wouldn't be in IPS (or any other urban district). This perspective is convenient for people who want to ignore the high levels of childhood poverty in the US.
ReplyDeleteYou should all read Linda Darling-Hammond's "The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity WIll Determine Our Future.: LDH lays out a very strong case backed up by research and statistics (general trends, not one or two isolated studies). She points out that we are 20-something in terms of childhood poverty and that the top half of our students are at the top of the international comparison rankings. It's the bottom half of our students who are struggling so much in terms of achievement. We don't have an educational crisis. We have a childhood poverty crisis. When children's basic needs aren't being met and they live in chaos and fear, then they don't learn well. It's only when their basic needs are met that they can focus on education (Maslow's Hierarchy of Need). Many of our kids are in crisis mode because of the instability in their lives. Unstable homes and communities make unstable schools. Some (not all) once well-meaning and motivated teachers fall into these same patterns of instability and disfunction because they are socialized into this system. They become angry and frustrated with the kids. Some stop putting their best effort out because it's so easy to become burnt out. (I'm not bashing all of us. Many of us are both talented and dedicated, but we all know those who should get out for their own sakes and the sakes of the kids. I think that IPS has some of the best and the worst teachers around).
The Great Society legislation of the 60s started to show fruit in the late 70s and 80s. The achievement gap was closing. Then Clinton and Bush started to cut back these programs substantially and the achievement gap started to widen again. Now the Republicans in Congress want to dismantle these programs completely. You think that urban schools, neighborhoods, and families living in poverty now have challenges, if this process of dismantling the social support systems for people living in poverty continues, you haven't seen anything yet.
Yes, IPS (and other urban schools) are corrupt and chaotic, but that's because this situation supports the current social structure. Society not only lets it happen, but policies like NCLB encourage it to happen. If a large number of talented and smart kids in IPS (and other urban schools) were to learn to question and become highly educated, many of them would be able to enact social change to dismantle to systems of power and privilege in the US. The chaos and and instability in IPS just mirror a large social issue of socioeconomic inequality in the US.
I meant to say that when we compare the top of of US students to the top half of students in other countries, we are at the top of the international comparisons.
ReplyDeleteThere are obviously many different opinions on many different issues, and I get that. But who in the world would ever hire a teacher who didn't think it was possible to improve public education? Who would ever hire a teacher who didn't think teachers made any difference in education? How do these people get jobs in the first place, regardless of how difficult it is to fire them later. I can't wrap my mind around that. If you were a partner in a law firm, would you ever hire a lawyer who didn't think a good lawyer made a difference in winning a case. That if a guy loses a case, it's because he's guilty, and if he wins, it's because he's innocent, and lawyers don't make a difference. Or if you were collaborating with other physicians to open an office. Would you want doctors who didn't think being a good doctor mattered? That people with healthy lifestyles stayed healthy and people with unhealthy lifestyles got sick and died, and doctors played no part in changing that? Then why is it somehow acceptable to be a "teacher" with the attitude that teaching doesn't matter. It's shameful!
ReplyDeleteTeaching DOES matter. It's the restrictions by which we must align our lessons that hinder and frustrate our efforts. These obstacles include poor/indifferent/unqualified administration, ridiculous textbooks/resources/evaluation tools, and lack of technology/supplies/parental support.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that the one bright spot of possibilities that a year-round schedule would have provided was dashed by ill-planned modifications.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs applies to those who provide the instruction, too.
ReplyDelete"when we compare the top of of US students to the top half of students in other countries, we are at the top of the international comparisons."
ReplyDeleteDo you have a source for that? That's interesting information if it's true.
When I return, I plan on teaching the test...no erasures for me....they won't need to erase as they will have the answers...therefore....I will be the best!....isn't that what its all about anyway????
ReplyDeleteAre you going to read the answers, too? That works for me! I have to be careful, though, since B and D sound alike. I think I'll use my letter signs, or write on the overhead again.
ReplyDeleteWait....IPS won't fix my overhead. Perhaps I'll just give the kids a paper with item numbers and answers.
I wish my kids could spell better, though, since it slows us down when I have to spell the words on the extended response items.
Did anyone see today's Star article about the state's involvement in the assessment of teachers?
Indianapolis Star, January 1, 2011
ReplyDeleteJob reviews for teachers might be re-evaluated
Workers who dread their annual job performance reviews might feel better about the process if they knew 99 percent of employees were rated as effective.
That's an unlikely outcome for many companies, but for Indiana teachers, it's a reality -- one that could soon be coming to an end.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett say Indiana needs a more honest look at the job teachers and principals are doing. How can an internal Department of Education survey find that 99 percent of teachers are rated as effective, they ask, when 25 percent of students don't pass statewide exams?
"What we are talking about is integrity," Bennett said. "Our current system is a statistical impossibility."
The issue is among the sweeping education changes Bennett and Daniels will be pushing when the General Assembly meets starting Wednesday.
Their agenda also calls for using student performance to measure teacher success, focusing teacher collective bargaining agreements only on salary and wage-related benefits and allowing local districts to reward the best-performing teachers instead of rewarding simple seniority.
But before local officials can create ways to reward the best teachers, Daniels and Bennett say, they need to have evaluations that really identify the cream of the crop.
Some school districts have contracts with teachers unions that prohibit principals from walking into classrooms unannounced for reviews, Bennett said, while other contracts prohibit annual reviews after teachers reach a certain point in their careers.
Indiana State Teachers Association President Nate Schnellenberger said every district handles evaluations differently, and he acknowledged that reviews might not be a priority in large school districts where evaluating hundreds of teachers is a matter of logistics.
But he said ISTA, which has clashed with Daniels and Bennett on other issues, is on board with yearly reviews.
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"That's one place where we can agree with Dr. Bennett in that we support a fair, rigorous evaluation system for educators on a yearly basis," Schnellenberger said.
ReplyDeleteFor teachers worried that personality conflicts with principals could prevent them from getting a fair shake during reviews, Bennett said more accountability and a focus on student performance would help.
"In a highly accountable system, the folks in charge are going to want to keep the best and recruit the best," he said.
Bennett, a Republican first elected in 2008, said he doesn't have a specific goal in mind regarding how many teachers should be classified as effective or highly effective, or how many would fall on the low end of the scale. But he said there could be some teachers who just don't belong in the classroom.
"A huge responsibility we have as professionals is to make sure we do address those who don't improve," Bennett said. "We should very honestly look them in the eye and say, 'Education is not the place for you.' "
Schnellenberger said administrators should work with teachers who aren't performing well and that the long-term goal should be to get all teachers rated as effective.
"Why would we want to have a non-effective teacher in the classroom?" he asked.
While Daniels and Bennett envision using yearly teacher evaluations to help local districts reward the best teachers, Daniels also suggested that they could later be used to determine which colleges do the best job of preparing Indiana teachers.
"I really wish I knew what the worst 10 were so we could say, 'Teach something different,' " Daniels said.
For now, though, Daniels and Bennett are hoping fellow Republicans who control the House and Senate will agree that teacher evaluations need an overhaul.
"We have to focus on teacher and principal quality," Bennett said. "We have to have an evaluation system that truly differentiates good and bad."
I hope to make the cut with the new evaluations that Bennett (leader of a failing school system). IPS needs to expell students who miss more than ten days of school like the townships, after ADM. Then we will have the money, time, and smaller class sizes that would allow the teacher to teach to the test.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but I have to laugh on this one....I could write the answers on the board (if I had chalk) or I could write the answers on the overhead (if it worked) and my poor students would still get it wrong....guess I'd better head out to the Dollar Tree and stock up on erasers (my school doesn't have any) so I can get a good enough evaluation when my students PASS their tests! LOL LOL LOL
ReplyDeleteIf Bennett were to be evaluated on his school district´s progress, he would be rated as a failure. He was the superintendent of a failing school system and he is the one who is going to tell
ReplyDeletethe entire state how to run a school system. What is wrong with that picture.
Maybe the students in Bennett's district where he was the Superintendent are just dumb. Nobody ever mentions some students just are not very intelligent.
ReplyDeleteBennett is an elected official. I don't even remember the name of his opponent. I vaguely remember his face because I pay close attention to Democratic politics; however, I still held my nose and voted for the Republican because he was the candidate really talking about making a difference. I don't regret that. We need a shake-up. What interests me is he has been traveling the state trying to meet with teachers and few have shown up in Marion County. Did Sue Ellen ever schedule forums with teachers statewide? She is now a highly paid consultant for a construction group. I don't think Bennett's opponent had a creative idea to throw on the table. He would have likely done what the State Superintendents have always done . . . kiss up to the administrators without any regard for teachers. The superintendents and principals don't love Dr. Bennett because now they have to take responsibility for the messes they create/support. Is teacher accountability an issue? Sure! Who in the heck wants to teach next to an idiot? Be a part of reform and stop being a victim of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm another teacher who is agrees that changes have to be made. The current system is corrupt. A few examples:
ReplyDelete-In New Jersey, the head of the teachers’ union makes more than the President of the United States, raking-in $550,000 per year.
-In Indiana alone, 170,000 students are trapped in chronically underperforming schools.
- New York pays hundreds of teachers salaries of $70,000 to play Scrabble in the now infamous rubber rooms, costing taxpayers $30 million in compensation per year.
- Average per-pupil expenditures exceed $10,000 per year, meaning a child entering kindergarten today can expect to have no less than $120,000 spent on his or her education by the time the child graduates high school.
- Nationally, just 32 percent of fourth graders are proficient in reading.
- Cumulatively, states face a $1 trillion shortfall in under-funded teacher pension liabilities.
- In 28 states, teachers can be fired for not joining a union or paying union fees. While half of teachers consider themselves more conservative than liberal, 95 percent of union dues go to Democrats and left-leaning causes.
- More than 1,700 schools nationwide are labeled as dropout factories, graduating less than 60 percent of their students.
- Only 57 percent of college students graduate within six years.
- The average salary of an employee at the U.S. Department of Education is over $103,000.
The problem isn't the businesses or the corporations profiting off of education reform. The problem is the government and the special interest groups profiting off of the failure of public education.
"The average salary of an employee at the U.S. Department of Education is over $103,000."
ReplyDeleteAre they hiring?
I am still laughing at a high school teacher, who placed the answers to a Benchmarks test on the blackboard. The administrator knew and truly didn't care, well the little darlings even screwed that one up for the teacher. Sixty percent of his students failed the exam or could the teacher have picked out the wrong answers? Or the Benchmarks crew messed up the test, yep, they screwed up their own time after working during the summer and eight weeks into the school year.
ReplyDeleteI gave a test once and #17 said this one is free mark B. Over half of the students picked something else.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they actually read the questions.
Compare the benchmark questions to the questions provided by the College Board either on the AP test study guides or on the tests themselves. You will notice some similarities, if not out right copying of questions. Why are AP level questions given to students who are in regular classes? And then the results are used as a de facto evaluation instrument of the teachers.
ReplyDeleteYou know what else?! ALL of the ISTEP tests for Language Arts for all grades include questions about parts of speech. So that means THIRD graders are being given TENTH-grade level test questions!! It's a conspiracy to get rid of teachers and replace them with robots!!!
ReplyDeleteI know the teacher who gave out the Benchmark answers. Trust me he did NOT get them wrong, our students are just that stupid.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the students had the integrity not to cheat, unlike the teacher you know.
ReplyDeleteNobody trusts you. Nobody believes you. And our students are NOT stupid. I've worked in the townships, and IPS students are just as smart as the township kids. They just aren't given the same chances at education, either by their families and communities and/or by the school and teachers. It's the reason I came back.
ReplyDelete"...And our students are NOT stupid."
ReplyDeleteNo, they are not stupid. They are street smart, but we need them to become book smart, also.
I am not a teacher, but I am curious about something that perhaps someone here might want to comment on.
ReplyDeleteIn the newspaper article, it said that the state wants teachers to be evaluated and get paid according to test scores.
It also says that the state wants to eliminate all influence of the teachers' union except for collective bargaining for wages.
Aren't these two statements contradictory?
If teacher wages are determined by test scores (and maybe a few other other factors decided by a building principal perhaps), then what will the union do to be relevant for teachers?
Why even continue with the premise of "collective bargaining" if there is really nothing left to bargain for?
Could this be the beginning of the end for the teachers' unions in Indianapolis and Indiana?
These are not "loaded questions." I really am just interested in what teachers/others might think about this.
Can you link the newspaper article?
ReplyDeleteOh, I see, you're referencing the article quoted above. But where does it talk about being paid according to test scores?
ReplyDeleteBut to answer your question, I do think this is the beginning of the end for teachers' unions. One way or the other, either the state will enact laws to lessen their power and influence, or non-union schools will gradually recruit the better teachers and thereby increase enrollment until the union schools become obsolete.
"Their agenda also calls for using student performance to measure teacher success."
ReplyDelete_________________
That's from The Star's article that someone listed above in this thread. I'm assuming that the statement "using student performance to measure teacher success" translates to primarily mean test scores. I have read many articles in local news media recently that appear to indicate that the state wants test scores to be at the forefront in future evaluations of teacher performance.
A bad idea, in my opinion as a non-educator. But it seems that this steamroller isn't going to be stopped due to the results of the last legislative elections.
I have never once heard of mean test scores suggested as a measurement. I have only heard of value-added performance, which makes sense to me. We have no control over where students are when they come to us. But we have control over what we accomplish in our class, especially in relation to other teachers who have had these same students and/or taught the same subjects.
ReplyDeleteHow would you measure teacher success? What criteria would you use to determine which teachers are great, which are mediocre, and which are really bad?
I wish we had the value-added data available to us now, even if they couldn't use it for teacher reviews. I remember reading about the teachers in L.A. who were really inspired and motivated by having access to that information, even though none of them were rewarded or punished for it.
ReplyDelete"It's so sad that the one bright spot of possibilities that a year-round schedule would have provided was dashed by ill-planned modifications." I so totally agree! Sad that one school board member's guarantee of voting no caused such a reaction. Sacrificing all kids in favor of one school board member's son is a sad reflection of what IPS faces.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you mean the teacher's in LA weren't punished? They published all their names in the paper. One guy commited suicide over being ranked as inadequate! That's punishment to me.
ReplyDeleteEducation is not a business and you can't run it as such.
That's kind of my point. Why would the L.A. Times have access to that information, but not the teacher? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
ReplyDeleteWhether we run it like a business, or a charity, or a well-run government program, it still needs more efficiency and accountability that what we have now. It's one bloated, corrupt, ineffective mess. Obviously we want to find the parts that are working the best and do more of that. And obviously to find out what is working best, we need measurements and comparisons. And if the education system is indeed functioning at maximum capacity, then proper measurements and comparisons will show that as well.
ReplyDeleteI keep track of my own information regarding the academic progress of my students. But it would be more helpful if I knew how I compared to my peers. Not because I think its a contest but it would let me know whether I should be trying something different or if I was kind of setting the curve so to speak.
ReplyDeleteGive a shout out for Arsenal Tech High School, they are getting the Mr. Microphone from Northwest. Just pray for them.
ReplyDelete"Give a shout out for Arsenal Tech High School, they are getting the Mr. Microphone from Northwest. Just pray for them."
ReplyDeleteIs this official? If so, when does he leave Northwest?
I never thought about it, but I wonder why they don't make the data available to us. Like you said, they wouldn't have to use it for anything formal. But especially in a district like IPS, it's not always easy to know how you're doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm floundering because there are students that I don't reach at all despite everything I try. But then other teachers will talk about half of their students failing tests or almost all of their students putting an x through a worksheet and refusing to do it, and I'll think I must be doing really good because I don't get anything like that, even from my worst students. I'm surprised more teachers don't ask for this information. I'm surprised I never thought to ask for it.
ReplyDeleteNot true about the Northwest principal. Think of another lie to spread. I know someone who has asked him.
ReplyDeleteNot a lie, heard it from the man himself.
ReplyDeleteI pray that Larry Yarrell does accept a administrative position at Tech High School. It's time for a change at Tech.
ReplyDeleteHas the time and effort on this blog brought ANY constructive change that can be verified?
ReplyDeleteThe Blue Meanie...
Yes, I have learned more about the interworkings of IPS and the wasted money. I have learned that a administrator changed answers, and that Mary Louis checks the blog daily. This blog has imparted members with information, so that I have blocked the blog from their computors.
ReplyDeleteHas Eugene White or Mary Busch brought ANY constructive change to IPS that can be verified???
ReplyDeleteWe hate most in others what we dislike in ourselves.
ReplyDelete"Narcissus in Chains"
The Blue Meanie...
Yarrell is at Tech now, proven.
ReplyDeleteAnd Phyllis Barnes is going to Northwest?
ReplyDelete?
ReplyDelete