Evaluation Reform Means Big Profits (Big Surprise?)

[Modern School]

(Cross posted from Education forum)

The Ed Deformers have been attacking teachers and public education from numerous fronts (e.g., charter schools, vouchers, LIFO, VAM, etc.). While they claim that their intentions are to improve educational outcomes for students, each of these “reforms” allows entrepreneurs to transfer tax dollars into their pockets. NCLB, for example, has given away billions of dollars to textbook and test publishers, and billions more to Supplemental Educational Service providers. Both NCLB and Obama’s Race to the Top (RTTT) have accelerated the growth of private charter schools and for-profit Educational Management Organizations (EMOs), worth billions more in taxpayer dollars, while Common Core Standards (CCS) has been driven by publishers, who have reaped millions of dollars by forcing states to purchase new textbooks.

One of their latest targets of “reform” is the teacher evaluation system, which critics cite as one of the biggest causes of low student achievement. If school districts are culling less than 5% of their teachers each year, they argue, then certainly there must be a lot of lousy teachers slipping through the cracks to molest, torment, ignore or otherwise harm children. The Gates Foundation and the United Way just came out with an extensive study on how to improve LAUSD, placing evaluation reform at the top of their agenda (see Destroying Education Teacher by Teacher).

While there is no logical reason to assume that low dismissal rates mean that our schools overrun with bad teachers (it could be evidence that the vast majority of teachers are actually quite competent), these statistics have been used to whip up hysteria about our children’s safety and well-being. Allowing even one bad teacher to remain in the system becomes tantamount to child abuse, in the propaganda of the deformers, thus justifying a complete overhaul of the system and (though never mentioned publicly) a further opening of the Public Education Market. Education Week's Stephen Sawchuk has called it a “Teacher-effectiveness industry,” but it is really just another angle in the corporate race to loot public education tax dollars.

In one example, Sawchuk cites an Atlanta Journal-Constitution story reporting that Georgia plans to spend $758,000 on outside experts to develop a teacher evaluation plan, provide training to teachers and administrators and perform follow-up surveys. The Georgia plan also includes a merit pay scheme based on student test scores.

Both the revamping of Georgia’s evaluation system and the merit pay scheme are part of the deal that brought the state $400 million in RTTT funds. Like most states that have joined the Race to the Trough, the “reforms” required to win RTTT funds cost far more than the federal grants they could or did win (though, in this case, the money for the evaluation reform contract is coming from the feds and is on top of their RTTT grant). While these economics might seem idiotic considering that the “reforms” have little or no benefit to students and that states already have huge deficits and cannot afford to spend frivolously, they make perfect business sense (i.e., the role of the state is to create a favorable business climate and help maximize profits).

For the rest of the article please see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219x33358

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/