Comments on: Teachers surveyed agree: end ‘quality-blind’ layoffs http://toped.svefoundation.org/2010/03/07/teachers-surveyed-agree-end-quality-blind-layoffs/ Analysis, opinion and ruminations on California education policy Wed, 30 May 2012 07:31:37 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: G. Doty http://toped.svefoundation.org/2010/03/07/teachers-surveyed-agree-end-quality-blind-layoffs/comment-page-1/#comment-16406 G. Doty Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:35:21 +0000 http://educatedguess.org/blog/?p=1449#comment-16406 Thank you for addressing some of the issues in education. I have taught school for 33 years in a variety of settings and I would like to share some of my experiences and observations. Teacher evaluation is so difficult because it teaching situations vary so much from school to school and the human factor is so hard to qualify. I was involved in a pilot teacher evaluation program in Georgia in 1977. That program failed because of its inherent bias and a lawsuit by the NAACP. I have been leary of teacher evaluation ever since then. The three factors that are proposed for evaluating teachers; attendance, classroom management, and test scores are all directly related to the socio-economic level of the classroom students, in my opinion. A teacher working in a classroom with students from secure, financially stable homes with parental support will of course have better management, better test scores and probably less stress-related health issues. If a teacher is confronted with fights in school, gang-related activity, homes in crisis, and hungry, impoverished students there will be less time to focus on standards and test-taking skills and more time managing behavior. This leads to stress and more attendance problems. As for myself, I worked much harder to be a good teacher when I taught in a low-income school with poor test scores and challenging management issues as when I taught at a high-middle income school with few management problems . I made many more home visits, bought many more supplies for students with my personal money, worked longer hours, gave up lunch time and weekends. Yet, behavior issues and low test scores were a constant concern. If I were evaluated in both settings using management and student performance (test scores), my evaluation would have been much better at the high-income school than at the low-income school. I don't know about attendance as a factor in evaluation, but I do think that health issues are not something that teachers can control. If a teacher contracts H1N1 virus from a student and has to stay home for 10 days, that should not be a part of a teaching evaluation. Those are the type of subjective issues that make teaching evaluation so difficult. Thank you for addressing some of the issues in education. I have taught school for 33 years in a variety of settings and I would like to share some of my experiences and observations.
Teacher evaluation is so difficult because it teaching situations vary so much from school to school and the human factor is so hard to qualify. I was involved in a pilot teacher evaluation program in Georgia in 1977. That program failed because of its inherent bias and a lawsuit by the NAACP. I have been leary of teacher evaluation ever since then.
The three factors that are proposed for evaluating teachers; attendance, classroom management, and test scores are all directly related to the socio-economic level of the classroom students, in my opinion.
A teacher working in a classroom with students from secure, financially stable homes with parental support will of course have better management, better test scores and probably less stress-related health issues. If a teacher is confronted with fights in school, gang-related activity, homes in crisis, and hungry, impoverished students there will be less time to focus on standards and test-taking skills and more time managing behavior. This leads to stress and more attendance problems.
As for myself, I worked much harder to be a good teacher when I taught in a low-income school with poor test scores and challenging management issues as when I taught at a high-middle income school with few management problems .
I made many more home visits, bought many more supplies for students with my personal money, worked longer hours, gave up lunch time and weekends. Yet, behavior issues and low test scores were a constant concern. If I were evaluated in both settings using management and student performance (test scores), my evaluation would have been much better at the high-income school than at the low-income school. I don’t know about attendance as a factor in evaluation, but I do think that health issues are not something that teachers can control. If a teacher contracts H1N1 virus from a student and has to stay home for 10 days, that should not be a part of a teaching evaluation. Those are the type of subjective issues that make teaching evaluation so difficult.

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]]> By: David Brooks http://toped.svefoundation.org/2010/03/07/teachers-surveyed-agree-end-quality-blind-layoffs/comment-page-1/#comment-7062 David Brooks Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:21:03 +0000 http://educatedguess.org/blog/?p=1449#comment-7062 Although many are in agreement with the proposal to keep the proven quailty, high performing teachers; school district officials are bound by the ed code and negoitated contracts to use only seniority. It will take action by state government to give professional school district administrators the tools they need to effectively run the school districts. But wait; isn't it the state governance people who created this disaster in the first place? Although many are in agreement with the proposal to keep the proven quailty, high performing teachers; school district officials are bound by the ed code and negoitated contracts to use only seniority.
It will take action by state government to give professional school district administrators the tools they need to effectively run the school districts.

But wait; isn’t it the state governance people who created this disaster in the first place?

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