Thursday, July 19, 2018

NAACP OPPOSES HIGH STAKES TESTING; GATES SQUANDERED PUBLIC MONEY TRYING TO RATE TEACHERS BY STUDENT TEST SCORES

One of the arguments AFT President Randi Weingarten when she was UFT President used to shove down our throats when defending the test and punish system was that our allies in the civil rights movement are in favor of high stakes testing. It was not a strong position for the Union to take as our members were being blamed for circumstances which went way beyond the control of teachers but the NAACP was cited to defend testing. Times are changing.

This is from Diane Ravitch:
Today, the NAACP released a statement (“issue guidance”) opposing the use of a single standardized test score to determine students’ promotion or graduation.

Ravitch and others want the NAACP to go further down the anti-testing road:
I encourage the NAACP to delve further into the misuse of standardized testing, which is scored on a normal curve and should never be used to make high-stakes decisions about promotion or high school graduation, not even as part of multiple measures. 
Meanwhile, we also learned this week that Bill Gates wasted about half a billion dollars in his quest to have teachers rated by student scores on standardized tests.
This is from the Washington Post in the Valerie Strauss blog called the Answer Sheet. It is written by Network for Public Education leader Carol Burris. We copied the first few paragraphs.
The New York Times called it “the first principals’ revolt in history.” During the fall of 2011, 658 New York state principals signed onto a document voicing their strong objections to the state’s new teacher evaluation system. During the next few months, the number of objecting principals would swell to 1,555. Thousands of educators, researchers and parents joined in. The message that united them was simple — evaluating teachers using student test scores was a terrible idea.
With a disregard that bordered on contempt for school leaders, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, the self-proclaimed “lobbyist for students,” pushed himself into the debate by insisting that teachers who were rated ineffective on the student score component of the new evaluation be rated ineffective overall.
By January 2015, he called the 2011 plan he crafted “baloney” and championed a new plan that further increased the test score component, while demanding that districts call in outside observers to evaluate teachers in an attempt to make sure that teachers got the low scores he believed they deserved. A few months later, his approval rating dropped to under 50 percent due primarily to the public’s disapproval of his education policies. A divided New York State legislature is still battling over how to fix the mess produced by an evaluation system that became known as the plane being built in the air.
Was it worth all the political and financial capital it took to create a broken system that few, if any, believe works?
Apparently not, according to the final report of a longitudinal study by the RAND Corporation and the American Institutes for Research (AIR), which was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 
The study examined the effects over six years of the Gates Foundation’s Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching (IP) initiative that included, as a key feature, teacher evaluations systems similar to New York’s. It concluded that the IP project did not improve either student achievement or the quality of teachers. In fact, it did more harm than good.
You can read the specific details if you like but we all know rating teachers based on student test scores is an invalid way to judge teachers. Don't forget we have a petition to repeal the NYS teacher evaluation law which bases half of our rating on student assessments. Please sign but just as importantly, encourage others to do so. We have kind of stalled lately at 1300. We need your help.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

QUESTION: Is there any chance that the UFT/DOE might hash out a deal before the school year starts where tenured teachers could have the option to get 2 observations? If I remember correctly, last summer they made a deal where "Highly Effective" teachers were able to choose to have 3 observations instead of the mandatory 4 observations like all the other teachers in NYC. This action would be a very positive gesture to show that the UFT actually is willing to work for us in the new post-Janus world. I would hate to have to wait another entire year before our new contract comes through before the possibility of having the choice of 2 observations. Thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Why would DOE give in?

Anonymous said...

DOE would "give in" because there are plenty of admins that are sick of doing 4 observations per teacher per year. Also, the admins also have to do pre and post observation meetings for teachers who choose to do formal observations. Thus, many admins have to conduct 4 observations and 2 meetings with many individual teachers in a year. (3 informal observations, 1 formal observation, as well as 1 pre observation and 1 post observation meeting) That is a lot of time that admins have to spend. If an admin wants to target a teacher, he or she could do it with 2 observations just as easily as 4. Thus, admins would save time with 2 observations and teachers would be less stressed with 2 observations. It is a win-win situation.

Anonymous said...

Mulgrew reacts to @NYGovCuomo's directive to the Department of Labor regarding the #Janus decision.... @NYSUT @AFTunion @NYSAFLCIO @CentralLaborNYC

Anonymous said...

So you think the DOE wants to lighten the load for administrators? I don't think so.

Anonymous said...

Oh great, so nothing changes. That's why i dropped dues.

Bronx ATR said...

If we are or aren't going to remain in the union, we should all consider joining the NAACP. ( You don't have to be Black.) I joined many years ago at the instance of a very beautiful lady. The NAACP has consistently been the voice for those that don't have one and has always been a friend to teachers. Since the UFT no longer fulfills that, think about supporting the NAACP. https://www.naacp.org/become-a-member/

Anonymous said...

im weak

Anonymous said...

BATR, do not forget to join blm and antifa too.
Really get out there and signal your virtue, love and tolerance.
Try the Rachel Dolezal angle as required.
rofl.

Anonymous said...

Rachel Dolezal is a lot more honest that Mike Mulgrew and Randi Weingarten. NAACP is not antifa or blm. ROFLMAO

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that’s hilarious. The KKK used to call white people that marched and helped us nigger lovers. That’s what you're calling BATR. Hilarious.