Teacher Evaluation Nightmare Updated - Forum - April 17

GEM, Class Size Matters and Parents Across America along with the GEM high stakes testing committee, Change the Stakes, are sponsoring this event on Tuesday, Apr. 17.

The idea for this event emerged out of a GEM steering committee meeting in Feb. We  postponed once because the UFT announced it would be doing some protest on March 15 which turned out to be the usual nothing.

The Change the Stakes committee has evolved into a strong parent influenced group with a lot of opt-out action. Leonie has some good stuff about it: NYC Teacher supports parents opting their children out of standardized testing and wishes she could as well!

And The Assailed Teacher also posted: The New Civil Disobedience

A great panel has been recruited headlined by Carol Burris and joined by NYC teacher/writers/bloggers Gary Rubinstein (see his blog) and Arthur Goldstein and joined by leading parent activist Leonie Haimson of Class Size Matters. After the panel speaks we will try to come up with strategies for fight back.

Julie Cavanagh will moderate. Independent filmmaker and reporter Jaisal Noor and I will be taping (I will also be doing interviews for our new film on high stakes testing. See my interview with Diane Ravitch.)

This is not just a sit, listen and ask a question event but has a working component to develop strategies to create the kind of rational policy we are not seeing out of the UFT and NYSUT.

NEW SPEAKER ADDED: Khalilah Bran, Teacher, Bushwick Community High School, a school threatened with closure: Bushwick Community High School’s supporters protested its planned turnaround. (GothamSchools, NY1).

More on BCHS:

This Is Arguably the Most Disgusting Failure of Metric-Driven ...

mikethemadbiologist.com/.../this-is-arguably-the-most-disgusting-fail...

Apr 4, 2012 – Michael Winerip has a great article about Bushwick Community High School, a transfer school–essentially the last stop for failing students.

Teacher Evaluation Nightmare !
          a forum on testing, teacher evaluations and our schools

Tuesday, April 17 at 5:30 PM

Murry Bergtraum High School Auditorium

411 Pearl Street, Manhattan

(Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall Station 4,5,6 -Fulton Street Station 2,3 - Chambers Street Station J)

Come to a Meeting to Discuss: Why are the new teacher evaluations bad for teachers, students, and families?

How can we organize to change them?

Speakers: Carol Burris: L.I. Principal, one of the co-authors of the principals’ letter against evaluating teachers by       student test scores, which has been signed by nearly 1,400 New York principals. Leonie Haimson: parent activist and  Exec. Director of Class Size Matters   Gary Rubinstein: Math teacher at Stuyvesant High School and critical analyst of the Teacher Data Reports Arthur Goldstein: E.S.L. teacher and  chapter leader at Francis Lewis High School in Queens

Come hear speakers  explain how the new evaluations will work and the implications for students, teachers, families, and education.  Join the discussion of how we can organize to change the final outcome.

Co-sponsored by: Grassroots Education Movement, Class Size Matters, and Parents Across America 

Blog  :   http://gemnyc.org/  or email:   gemnyc@gmail.com 

For more information about  the negative effects of high stakes tests or opting your child out of high stakes testing, please visit: http://changethestakes.org 

The Political Underbelly of Ed Deform: Enormous Money Wasted on Teacher Monitoring

UPDATED: Nov. 3, 2011, 11:40PM

On National Test, New York Declines in Math
Ohanian Comment: I had resolved to skip all stories about NAEP. After all, Gerald Bracey pointed out how corrupt the NAEP setup was from the get-go. And it certainly hasn't changed.[Don't miss this classic Bracey takedown.] And I studied the reading passages and questions carefully--and read the bizarre rationales the scorers gave for the scores they assigned. But I stumbled across this Merryl Tisch quote, and ohmygod, have to post it for posterity. It is so arrogantly incomprehensible that I'll post it twice, once here, and once in the article: 

"We cannot be diddling around with courts and lawyers while children and teachers in this state are going hungry for an evaluation. We need to get to a place in New York State where curriculum and instruction drive assets, and not the assets that drive the curriculum and instruction."--Merryl Tisch 

What IS she talking about? She is a prime diddler. 

I added the above since Susan grabbed the same Tisch asshole quote I did below.

First the ed deformers sell the idea that the teacher is the most important element in a child's education.
Then the witch hunts begin.

In my debate last week at Hofstra with Michael Regnier from the NYC Charter Center where ed deform reigns, he was asked for solutions and basically came up with better training for teachers, better method of teaching. That triggered my only heated moment of the evening where I categorically rejected the key idea of the ed deformers that all we need are better lesson plans. I'm glad that Yelena Siwinski, CL of PS 193K who accompanied me, asked Regnier if he ever taught- which he didn't - which led to his heated moment - he refused to accept the idea that you have to teach to discuss education policy. Sure, Michael, go discuss to your heart's content - but you are getting paid as part of the ed deform industry that has sprung up to move public policy. I stole the button from Pissed Off Teacher but there is another that reads - THOSE WHO CANNOT (teach) WANT TO MAKE ED POLICY. I just love those people on the ed deform dole who say they care about children but won't go near the highest level of showing how much you care - go teach those children you care so much about.

Oh, so simple. Just spend billions on measuring teacher effectiveness and get rid of the ineffective teachers who can't improve (hint: some have figured out a way to cheat on the tests).

The sad thing is that our unions - the AFT and UFT - often jumped in with glee to declare how important the teacher is while downplaying the factors that we know have the real impact.

At least Mulgrew jumped in to respond to this outrage by Tisch who placed the blame for the low NAEP's squarely on the teachers:

Merryl Tisch, the chancellor of the state Board of Regents, said the test results reinforce her argument that the state needs a strong teacher evaluation process.
“We cannot be diddling around with courts and lawyers while children and teachers in this state are going hungry for an evaluation,” Ms. Tisch said. “We need to get to a place in New York State where curriculum and instruction drive assets, and not the assets that drive the curriculum and instruction.”

And in the same Times article, another slug said:

Ms. Libfeld also blamed budget cuts and lack of money for teacher training. “It’s an issue all over that we need to focus on,” she said. “Money needs to be focused on professional development for teachers and that’s the bottom line.”

Sure, that's the bottom line. The reality is that we will always have a bunch of teachers who are problematic and even if you ended LIFO right now and allowed principals to fire every teacher they wanted to - we know that a whole bunch of these would be fired for nothing to do with their performance as teachers so so-called "good" teachers would be let go. But let's say they get rid of all the people they consider bad. Now they have to find replacements. Does anyone think that a whole batch of these replacements - who in most cases would be totally inexperienced - wouldn't also be problematic?

But this is where an enormous amount of money is going. Why test kindergarten kids? So they can get a baseline for their teachers. Insanity.

You can see ed deform at work every single day. Just this week we found out that NY State made no progress on the NAEP scores. Now as an opponent of using tests to measure everything I hate to jump on the necks of Merryl Tisch and her neighbor Bloomberg - no, I really don't hate to do it - they lived by the sword and should die by the sword. Even before the NAEP's were released I predicted that NYC would do a penny better than the rest of the state and even though last in the nation would declare victory. You know why? Because we have the least experienced corps of principals with so many coming from the Leadership Academy and many of them are at least competent in figuring out how to cheat - like going so far as to threaten teachers with their jobs if they don't. And of course with the witch hunts on to measure and fire teachers who don't perform, I can't blame them.

So there were lots of articles in the NY Times this week on what may look like separate issues but they are all connected.

Leonie Haimson linked these issues at the NYC Parent blog:

Today's scorecard on our schools: the news ain't pretty & the diagnosis bizarre

We have had nine long years during which NY state and city education officials have relentlessly focused on  high stakes testing, with school closings, grade retention, and teacher bonuses all linked to test scores.  So according to data released today, what have been the results?

• Test score tampering allegations are way up;

• So are suspensions;

• So are class sizes;

•  Meanwhile, our test scores on the most reliable national assessments are flat or declining.

So what do we need, according to NY education officials ?  Better tests.  Read it and weep.

Leonie Haimson tracks another waste of money by the Tweedies.

Many new positions to be  hired in “Teacher Effectiveness Support”; incl. two jobs at six figure salaries. meanwhile class sizes growing out of control and no money for classroom supplies. What does Support mean?  More rigid evaluation systems. Read the list below the fold.

Next GEM Meeting: Monday, June 20th-- Help Build a Campaign for Test-Free Teacher Evaluations!

The push for test-based accountability is out of control and seems to have no sign of slowing down. Standardized test scores have already been used in New York City to justify shuttering over a hundred public schools; often times that space is then handed off to education corporations known as charter schools. Now up to 40% of teacher evaluations in New York State could be based on tests, meaning that it would be next to impossible for a teacher to achieve a satisfactory rating with a poor grade on test-based measures.

We know that high-stakes testing narrows the curriculum and leads to teaching to the test. Instead of delivering the kind of challenging lessons which foster critical thinking and create thoughtful citizens, teachers feel pressured into teaching in ways we know are not effective: rote drills and memorization of multiple choice questions from previous exams. Students of color are most likely to fall victim to this kind of low-level instruction, which has become common-place in schools which are obsessed with raising test scores.

Join us for the next meeting of The Grassroots Education Movement to clarify our understanding of the ways in which the addition of test-based measures into teacher evaluations connects to the drive to privatize our public schools AND to build a campaign to advocate for test-free teacher evaluations!

Monday, June 20th, 5pm
CUNY Graduate Center
34th St and 5th Ave
(Please bring ID)

After the discussion on teacher evaluations we will break into action groups focusing on a variety of issues like planning the fight against next year's closings and co-locations, building Fight Back Friday for the fall, the Save our Schools march in July, and of course our test-free teacher evaluation campaign. Please join us! All are welcome!

The UFT is now soliciting opinions on Teacher Eval Agreement....

...and chapter leader John Elfrank responds

1. NEGATIVE: It’s a foot in the door for using Standardized Tests and Merit Pay.


2. NEGATIVE: The new system claims to eliminate what the UFT describes as a totally subjective system. Yet, seven of the eight criteria are the same. The UFT says the addition of an eighth criterion (test scores) changes everything. Can’t we find less subjective criteria other than standardized test scores? It’s gonna count for 40%! The UFT says it “limits the influence of state tests on teacher performance evaluations”, it actually INTRODUCES state tests into teacher performance evaluation. Anything less than 100% is a “limit”.


3. NEGATIVE: Since there’s still much that has to be “negotiated” the agreement will only lose some of what appeal it does have. For example, 40 of the eval will be test scores% for starters.


4. NEGATIVE: There are no specifics about how peer review would work, how test scores will be used.


5. NEGATIVE: The contract is NOT enforced now regarding Art. 8, so why should we assume the UFT will enforce what is in our best interests regarding this agreement? For example, if the UFT doesn’t want a “gotcha” system, why doesn’t it challenge the informal observations put in our files and used to U rate us? Read Teaching for the 21st Century… You’d never know it was meant to apply to our members. It was supposed to eliminate the “gotcha” observation.


6. NEGATIVE: Lead Teacher wannabes will compete with their colleagues, not cooperate. After all, it’s who ranks at the top that will get the lead teacher gig.


7. POSITIVE: is that if negations fail the old system remains in place, as would be expected with a contract.


8. POSITIVE: Growth model assessment seems to be the best model if you have to go with standardized testing.


9. POSITIVE: Teacher improvement plan looks like it will be specific and transparent. Again, depending upon what is negotiated.


These negotiations need to take place in full view of the membership in order to invite member feedback. Secret negotiations are only meant to keep the membership in the dark .

BOTTOM LINE: Teaching to the test will take on a new urgency. Gone will be creative pedagogy. Close the Teacher Centers, they’ll be a waste of money. We will all be in the test prep business.


John Elfrank-Dana
UFT Chapter Leader
Murry Bergtraum High School

Context

UPDATED: 2pm, May 14

That is what Michael Mulgrew and the Unity machine have left out. Context.

One of their main arguments was to point to the NY Post claims that Klein opposes the plan vehemently. "He's up in Albany right now trying to get it defeated," said one top union official. "If Joel Klein is against it, I am for it," said Michael Mendel. Peter Goodman is pushing the same line. Check out this very funny title of his blog post:

The Dynamic Duo: Tisch and Steiner Seize the Education Agenda, A New Teacher Evaluation System Created and Supported by Teacher Unions.

I found it hysterical when Mulgrew went over the top praising Meryl Tisch and David Steiner: It was wonderful working with these people at the state and so different from working with numbnuts- er - Klein. "These people really know education," he said. Sure, Meryl spent 30 minutes teaching kindergarten in a Hebrew school.

Does Mulgrew really expect us to fall for this? Tisch lives next door to Bloomberg (we were picketing her too in Jan.), is a major ed deformer and has numbnuts Klein at her Passover sedar.

Next time Joel asks the 4 Questions:

How is this sellout by the UFT different from all other sellouts?

The UFT knows it is being good-copped and bad-copped and tries to sell this crap to the members. You can only sell the same piece of cheap costume jewelry so many times.

Then they tell you that the teacher has some rights to deal with the principal. Oh sure, teachers will sit down with the principal. "They can't be forced to do anything they don't want to," they said. As I said to one of the top members of the leadership, "What world are you guys living in? Do you have a clue as to what is going on in the schools?" Ten minutes after the teacher tells the principal 'No thank you', whammo- verbal abuse charges. "You didn't tell that child how nice she looked. Rubber room. Oh, sorry, no more rubber room. We'll just fire you in 60 days."

The UFT has proved time and again they can't protect anyone. As I said, "Context."

If we trusted BloomKlein, or even the UFT leadership, the plan might even be a good one. But there is always context. On paper every football play works. In the reality of the NYC DOE, all balls are in the air.

They talk about a growth model for students. Meaning value-added, which has been much discredited. See Leonie Haimson's analysis I posted a few days ago (UFT Prepares Giant Vat of Kool Aid for Delegate Assembly). Interesting that a parent activist does the real work of presenting the issue honestly while the UFT sells their narrow self-interest to the members.

When the question was raised as to why this contract change is not going to the membership, Michael Mendel said: We didn’t go to the membership. We are the leaders of the union.

Of course they don't dare go to the membership as at this point there is major outrage. They need time to massage the members by sending out their troops to the schools. (By the way, that will be an indication of just how worried they are - a sudden appearance of every working stiff at 52 Broadway and from the borough offices and the district reps in the schools, the way they had to do it in the 2005 contract vote.)

The vote was overwhelming for the new teacher evaluation system at the Delegate Assembly on Wednesday. A slam dunk for Mulgrew and the Unity machine (see anon comment below on how Unity controls the DA). Even opposition people thought Mulgrew did an effective job of quelling the doubts even if they weren't convinced. But remember, the DA is a Unity body. That there were doubts in the first place withing the machine is indicative of some shakiness. But it is always easy for the leadership to calm the Unity gang. They have a vested interest in supporting all leadership positions.

What has to be understood is that it is very important for the leadership to make sure the caucus is on board because it is their job to sell it to the rank and file.

Some opposition people spoke. Peter Lamphere, Bronx HS of Science Chapter leader spoke very effectively. "There is not one rubric my principal can't figure out how to get around." There was a hush in the room when Peter, one of the best math teachers there is (students and other teachers rave about him, said he had gotten 2 U ratings.

If there was one statement that put the whole thing in context, that was it. The UFT can't even protect their chapter leaders from the vicious attacks. Chapter leaders who are renowned teachers. In some unions, the orchestrated attack on shop stewards, the glue of the union, would be a strikeable offense. Context.

The Peter Lamphere context is what makes this agreement a joke, no matter what it says on paper. A good chunk of the rank and file is living in fear of principals from hell. And that is what will inform their reaction to this deal over time.

So where does the mass of teachers out there in the schools stand? I think it will take the actual implementation horror story to play itself out over the next year before we get the full reaction. Will senior, higher payed teachers start disappearing - something the UFT will do its best to cover up?

I thought it interesting that I got two phone calls within 15 minutes yesterday from reporters from major top level publications asking about rank and file reaction. While I am usually a skeptic about the r&f because I have seen the Unity machine sell just about anything in the schools, these calls raised my antenna. These reporters must have been sniffing something out. I was asked whether I detected any negative reaction within the Unity machine itself. There are a few signs but not enough to create problems for Mulgrew. The real job of the school based Unity people will be to see how their members react. I have been polling some of the activist in schools with Unity chapter leaders to see how it is going for them. Something worth watching.


Other Reactions:

Jeff Kaufman
Not surprisingly the Q&A left out the expedited dismissal procedures of the new agreement. In fact their spin make the new agreement look so good it’s a wonder we didn’t agree to this years ago.

Philip Nobile
The low point of the DA was the highpoint of Unity arrogance and emptiness. Sounding like gangster union head Johnny Friendly in On the Waterfront, UFT Secretary Michael Mendel squashed skeptics bellowing: “Yes, we didn’t go to the membership [on the secret teacher evaluation deal]. We are the leaders of the union.” Translation: If you don’t like the deal, drop dead.

An anon CL
I was surprised at how the delegates accepted this evaluation thing. There were plenty of dissenters, myself included, but I didn't get a chance to ask a question. I also have issues with the way these things are run. They plant their special reps in the crowd to help move the mass along. I can't tell you how many times the crowd was absolutely silent and a Tool-in-a-suit would start clapping softly at one of Mulgrew's talking points. This soft clapping prompted clapping from the people around him and gave the impression that the people were more in favor of this all than they seemed to be. I hate the politics of the Union and makes me want to resign my CL-ship. I stick around for my members, but that's all I work for.

Another anon CL
Perhaps I should bring some Vaseline to the DA on Wednesday for the big screw. I feel ashamed today.


Add-ons
Other bloggers are on a rampage.

Perdido Street School has 3 posts, calling one union leader a "bald-headed pimp." (Hmmm. My principal used to call Randi a whore for selling out.)

Mr. A Talk: the Q and A fails to mention you're terminated 60 days after two unfavorable rating.

Chaz had a running battle on his blog with 58 comments:
Is This The Beginning Of The End For Seniority Protections? Is Teacher Tenure Next?


NYC Educator pin his post From the Folks Who Brought You the 2005 Contract

After having read voices like Diane Ravitch and Aaron Pallas on "value-added" measures of teacher effectiveness, I'm fairly convinced that there is no way to use it effectively. That's one reason I was wary to see the UFT get into bed with Bill Gates and his "Measures of Effective Teaching" program.

It appears the "teacher input" is restricted to those who control the union--the folks who brought us the 05 contract which was the best thing since sliced bread (which is highly overrated when you consider all those artisan breads you can bring home and cut yourself.) The best I can see is if we don't reach an agreement, the old arrangement stays in place. If we do reach an agreement, watch the eraser sales at Staples quadruple as teachers and administrators all over the state scramble to inflate scores.

And so it goes.

The UFT Q&A spinning straw into gold machine is at: http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/qa/teacher-evaluation/

Teacher Evaluations: Bill Gates and the Unity/UFT, Perfect Together

I'm just getting to the issue of that study on teacher evaluation being sponsored by Bill Gates in partnership with the UFT. At the bottom of it all is the neoliberal agenda.

We're certainly not surprised that they are in bed together. Bringing business practices to the classroom is part of the neoliberal agenda. And coming up with a way to measure teachers - for the purpose of weeding out certain types, like the ones who teach humanism and democratic principles instead od test prep - is a basic tenet. Neoliberals see democracy as an alien concept. Thus schools need dictators. As do unions.

We've been connecting the UFT to the neoliberals for a generation, especially since Al Shanker signed onto it in the mid-70's when the budget cuts hit deeply into the ranks, followed by his jumping on board the Business Roundtable's "independent" study, A Nation at Risk.

Unity Caucus is trying to play this as somehow being good for teachers. "Let's have a seat at the table." Just like the UFT/AFT had at the origins of NCLB. Nice job.

James Eterno put up an informal poll on the ICE blog, How Should Teachers be Evaluated?

There have been 25 comments so far. A Unity flack is wondering why James doesn't sign up. "Try it before you criticize Unity all the time." These cloying games by Unity ignore the basic fact: They are the enemy. Of course Ed Notes and ICE and so many other teacher blogs see through the games they play.

Unity flacks and the leadership play the bait and switch game as cover for the real agenda. New UFT President Michael Mulgrew responded to a teacher:

Almost all of the "reform" ideas that are being discussed both here in NYC and nationally are ideas that are brought from people who are outside of the classroom. I felt it was imperative that we engage in research that truly looked at what happens inside of a classroom and worked with teachers as the main part of the research. It is a way that allows us to control what happens in our profession instead of waiting for those on the outside to pound us with their ideas when they have never walked in our shoes. [The full letter from the teacher and his full response is below.]

Does anyone think the UFT/Unity Caucus leadership represents what happens inside a classroom?

Mulgrew's original letter to teachers claimed the study was "being conducted by independent third-party researchers." Sure. Just like The New Teacher Project's attacks on ATRs were viewed by the NY Times as "independent" studies. I'll bet someone has a dog in the race. And I bet there's some Gates money going to flow to some elements at the UFT. I mean, where could Gates buy a better partner to peddle his junk?

Mulgrew also said:
we all recognize that the work of teachers must be measured in ways that are fair and valid. Nationally, current measures of teaching rarely take into account the full range of what teachers do (no single measure really can), or the context in which they teach. The Measures of Effective Teaching project, on the other hand, begins right in the classroom and will explore an array of teacher measures: video observations, surveys, and student growth. It will compare these measures to each other, and to nationally recognized standards, and it will look at their inter-relatedness. It will be informed by actual teacher practice.

Measured, Mike? What if we measured the performance of the UFT leadership over the past decade? What the UFT is covering for here is the concept that we need ways to measure teachers quantitatively. A major plank of the neoliberal agenda to privatize education is to quantify students and teachers. Do we see this occurring with other jobs? Police/fire/ lawyers/ doctors/politicians? Imagine saying that we will never bring down crime rates until we improve the performance of the cops? Or cut the number of fires unless we get higher quality firemen? Or win a war without better soldiers? Why not set up charter police stations and alternative military? Wouldn't the war go better if there was some competition? Shouldn't Afgans have some choice in the army they get to come into their villages? Shouldn't they be able to chose from competing organizations as to which missile get to kill their children? Come on, they need choice.

Here are a few words from the introduction to a book sent to me by former teacher Louis Bedrock: Capitalizing on Disaster: Taking and Breaking Public Schools by Kenneth J. Saltman:

In education, neoliberalism has taken hold with tremendous force, remaking educational common sense and pushing forward the privatization and deregulation agendas....the shift to business language and logic can be understood through the extent to which neoliberal ideals have succeeded in taking over educational debates...

The "TINA" thesis (There is No Alternative to the Market) that has come to dominate politics throughout much of the world has infected educational thought as omnipresent market terms such as accountability, choice, efficiency, competition, monopoly, and performance [outcomes] frame educational debates. Nebulous terms borrowed from the business world, such as achievement, excellence, and best practices, conceal ongoing struggles over competing values, visions, and ideological debates. (Achieve what? Excel at what? Best practices for whom? And says who?)

The only questions left on reform agendas appear to be how to best enforce knowledge and curriculum conducive to individual upward mobility within the economy [education only has the goal of preparing for jobs, not as productive citizens in a democratic society - something neoliberals really abhor] and national economic competition as it contributes to a corporately managed model of globalization as perceived from the perspective of business.

This dominant...view of education is propagated by.. Thomas Friedman...and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation...[add Broad and a horde of others.]

Saltman bases his book on Naomi Klein's "Disaster Capitalism" but focuses on education as he lays out the nuts and bolts of it in his intro and then zooms in on 3 examples: New Orleans, Iraq and Chicago. I will post more as I read more.

Now, I've said it time and again that the only force capable of organizing resistance to these attacks are the teacher unions. And they've punted.

Why does the UFT go along with the people who have been aiming the blame darts at the very people the UFT is supposed to represent? There are a few explanations, which we'll get into another time in depth. But for now I will list two reasons: 1) the UFT basically agrees with neoliberalism and 2) what I often refer to as the "Vichy mentality" - if we don't cooperate with the Nazis they will destroy all of France, especially Paris, so we cooperate with the idea of preserving what we can." I am not equating this to cooperating with Nazis, but as a way of thinking the UFT engages in. For a while they called it the New Unionism - we'll cooperate with management - or Randi's favorite word, "collaboration." Pretty interesting since collaborators in WWII got their hair sheared off - or worse.

Here is the letter from teacher (T) to Randi, who forwarded it to Mulgrew, followed by Mulgrew's response, followed by an excellent post by Marjorie Stamberg.

Randi

I was wondering why the UFT is collaborating with the Bill Gates foundation in collecting data on how to establish an effective teacher. Over the past few years all in the name of educational reform, Bill Gates has undermined public education by opening up charter schools, he even went as far as opening up charter schools in public school spaces essentially taking over the school and displacing public school teachers. So with the growing number of schools being closed and then reorganized and ATR and senior teachers being harassed, it's no wonder why a growing number of teachers are becoming disenfranchised and only see our union as a dues collecting machine.

T

There are many good reasons but I have referred your email to the new President, Michael Mulgrew. -Randi

Mulgrew response:

Thank you for sending your concerns. As you have so rightly stated public education is under attack but more importantly to me our profession is under attack. The research project that we are entering into is one that starts and ends inside of the classroom. Almost all of the "reform" ideas that are being discussed both here in NYC and nationally are ideas that are brought from people who are outside of the classroom. I felt it was imperative that we engage in research that truly looked at what happens inside of a classroom and worked with teachers as the main part of the research. It is a way that allows us to control what happens in our profession instead of waiting for those on the outside to pound us with their ideas when they have never walked in our shoes. As for the Gates foundation they are funding the project but please don't confuse them with chancellor. When Gates finished the small school project they determined that it was not a success and that curriculum and school supports were more important than a school structure which was very ethical considering that the small school movement originated with them.

Thanks again,
Michael

Marjorie Stamberg lays out the position many of us are taking:
Greasing the skids: UFT participation in a teacher evaluation studyMarjorie Stamberg to ICE-Mail listserve:

Any "teacher measurement project" funded by the Gates foundation should start ringing alarm bells. What on earth is the UFT doing participating in this "study," as UFT president Mike Mulgrew just announced?

The UFT's "participation" reminds me of the" time-motion" study guy coming to the factory assembly line, and you're asked to help him out as he measures arm movements and clocks your bathroom breaks so they can use it for speed-up. No way.

What makes an effective teacher? We do not accept the premise that individually evaluating teachers' "techniques" is relevant to improving education. The whole emphasis on "teacher evaluation", tied to students' test scores, is part of the corporatization of American education.

The UFT Teachers Center is an excellent resource that works with teachers to be more effective in the classroom. They do some excellent PD, workshops, cooperative modeling and team-teaching. This is NOT what the Gates foundation study is about.

We need good professional development, and we are committed to teachers' lifelong learning, and use of the most modern technology and methodology in the classroom. But that is very different from what is going on here.

The education "business" aims to "cut costs" in the classroom. Beginning in the 1980s, nationwide the education budget as a percentage of the GNP was sharply reduced. These corporate chiefs wanted to get more bang for their buck. This means attacks on teacher tenure, getting rid of senior teachers to drive salaries down to the level of teaching fellows. It means, not "spending time" in the classroom on enrichment activities, on general topics, reading, discussion that goes anywhere except how to pass standardized tests so kids can be useful for the employers. Now, it means the proliferation of charter schools which by getting rid of union contracts sharply increase teacher time, and regulated salary increases.

How do you "measure" a good science teacher? I've seen superb science teachers teaching high school kids in the Bronx, without a science lab, without the most minimal equipment, standing up on a chair in the hallway and dropping a ball to demonstrate gravity! If you want to measure what makes a good science teacher, how about giving him or her a decent science lab and then comparing the results before and after? If you want to help kids learn, have decent equipment in every high school, smart boards in every classroom, give every student access to computers that don't belong in a junkyards.

Coming from Mike Mulgrew, as with Randi, this offer to "collaborate" on a "teacher measurement" paid survey is typical of how they now operate. Instead of just saying "no", and opposing something outright, they cooperate with it and try to "make the best of a bad situation." Then we're stuck with the bad situation, and they say, "Well, it could have been worse."

The same thing happened when seniority transfers was given up in 2005. Instead of holding on, they traded it for a raise and the result ...... up to 2,000 teachers now in the Absent Teacher Reserve.

The answer is a union leadership that demands massive new investment in school facilities, training, and resources. Can't do it because of the economic crisis? Wrong, this is exactly when they ought to be investing. They find trillions to "rescue" the banks. Right now, a quarter of NYC schools don't have gyms, and 70 percent don't meet state requirements for hours of physical education' Of all schools in the Bronx, 22 percent don't have outdoor physical education activities at all?

Where are the art and music teachers? In the ATR pool or on the unemployment line.

Related
The Labor Notes article on organizing charters in Chicago posted on Norms Notes.

Why did the UFT agree to teacher data initiative?

UPDATE 2:15 PM:

If you can wade through the wordiness and obfuscation, watch the most intellectually dishonest member of the UFT/Unity hierarchy - aka Leo Casey - justify this mess at Edwize.

Blogger JD2718 calls Casey's junk "essentially Bunk"
These reports will provide new a ways to discipline teachers, and new tools to bend all of our teaching to ‘the test.’ Read his complete take.

Will this be the result when teacher evaluations are made public?


People are asking what the UFT had to gain by agreeing to the measuring of teachers based on students' test scores? Did they get something under the table for this? Did Tweed put a gun to their head? My guess is that is exactly what Klein did.

If Tweed made a unilateral announcement they would implement the program no matter what the UFT said or did, the UFT would look as helpless as it is. So they chose to jump on board to avoid looking even worse for the membership, who have to be outraged at this agreement.

The realities in the schools are that all the assurances given mean nothing. The UFT is not capable of resistance given the destruction of the union at the school level by Klein. They are only culpable for the current sorry state of the union.

Even reporters who have contacted me seem incredulous at the actions of the UFT.

Let's look at some implications.

• A teacher looks for a job and the principal asks for the personal report, which the teacher according to the union doesn't have to show. Good luck.
• Teachers who are measured will absolutely make sure they get good scores by whatever means necessary. Voila. The scores go up. Look how well BloomKlein are doing. Someone should measure the scores of a test group.
• Teachers in schools score poorly. Time to close them and create a whole new wave of ATR's.

What does this mean for ATR's who on the surface do not seem connected to this policy? If the UFT can give up teachers on this one, why not a deal that even if hidden under the covers, will end badly for ATR's? What if the DOE were to announce it would unilaterally fire ATR's after 1 year? "Go ahead, Chickie, do something," Klein challenges the UFT. "Grieve!" the UFT will tell people. "We'll go to court." Hey, maybe they'll even win. One day. The UFT can scatter the money over the graves of the ATR's.

Let's reiterate that no matter what is said in the joint statement, a witch hunt for teachers is behind it all, as Chris Cerf stated in the NY Times:

In introducing the pilot program, Mr. Cerf said it would be a “powerful step forward” to have the teacher measurements made public, arguing, “If you know as a parent what’s the deal, I think that whole aspect will change behavior.” But this week, he said that for now the reports will be treated as personnel records not subject to public-records laws.

In addition, no independent monitor has ever been able to verify the oft-repeated claim from DOE that “the school system has shifted more than $350 million from the bureaucracy to schools and classrooms” in recent years.

Ya gotta love Cerf. He says it like it is. Well maybe not exactly love.

How about bringing back the old colonial stocks and put teachers who don't measure up on public display?

Coming around 6 PM today: Sample teacher data reports