Valerie Strauss: On Obama (and Jay Mathews) and teacher accountability

[tonysam]

This writer is good but a lone wolf crying in the wilderness filled with right-wing garbage about public schools:

"Teacher accountability" is one of the central themes of President Obama’s new vision for the post-No Child Left Behind era, and that two-word term, unfortunately, has come to mean something it shouldn’t.

Today in the world of education the phrase has come to mean how well a teacher’s students perform on standardized tests. If the students do well, the teacher is considered excellent. If the students haven’t done well, the teacher is not excellent.

Here are just a few of the problems with this scheme:

If we had a test, standardized or not, that really was a complete measure of a teacher’s performance -- or a student’s, for that matter -- it would be hard to argue against its use.

But let’s be clear: We don’t. Our standardized tests are rudimentary assessments, still. They are nowhere near sophisticated enough -- if indeed any single test can be -- to be used as a real measure of performance.

Even if the test were an excellent assessment tool, some students will still wind up taking it sick, or hungry, or tired, or anxious, or depressed. What is a teacher supposed to do about that?

Not to mention the kids simply "Christmas tree" the bubbles on the answer sheet.

More from WP

[rfranklin]

1. It used to be that the home environment was factored in...

when explaining why students performed poorly.

[damyank913]

2. How was that quantified?

Individually? School district?

[rfranklin]

3. Sorry I was not clear...speaking in sociological terms...

If you were looking at a disadvantaged neighborhood, the teachers were not generally blamed for the students' failures. A balance of all the factors would be fairer.

[damyank913]

4. Thank you. I had no idea. Is this not done today?

[rfranklin]

5. I think NCLB made standardized test the only metric...

and the problems in failing schools are usually a combination of a number of factors.

[damyank913]

6. Thanks again-it does sound very unfair.

[mzteris]

7. that is factored in-

maybe you should read it yourself instead of relying on people who have an "instinctive hatred" of all things Obama . . .

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf

snippets of blueprint - you should read all of it. I think it's great!!

To foster public accountability for results and help focus improvement and support efforts, states must have data systems in place to gather information that is critical to determining how schools and districts are progressing in preparing students to graduate from high school college- and career-ready. States and districts will collect and make public data relating to student academic achievement and growth in English language arts and mathematics, student academic achievement in science, and if states choose, student academic achievement and growth in other subjects, such as history. At the high school level, this data will also include graduation rates, college enrollment rates, and rates of college enrollment without need for remediation. All of these data must be disaggregated by race, gender, ethnicity, disability status, English Learner status, and family income. States and districts also will collect other key information about teaching and learning conditions, including information on school climate such as student, teacher and school leader attendance; disciplinary incidents; or student, parent, or school staff surveys about their school experience.

America’s schools are responsible for meeting the educational needs of an increasingly diverse student population, and ESEA programs must provide a wide range of resources and support to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed in college and in a career. ESEA includes programs that help schools meet the special educational needs of children working to learn the English language, students with disabilities, Native American students, homeless students, the children of migrant workers, and neglected or delinquent students. In addition, the federal government has a responsibility to provide assistance to certain high-need regions and areas, including rural districts and districts that are affected by federal property and activities.
In each of these areas, the Administration’s ESEA reauthorization proposal will continue and strengthen the federal commitment to serving all students, and improve each program to ensure that funds are used more effectively to meet the needs of the students they serve.
Meeting the Needs of English Learners
and Other Diverse Learners
A Continued Commitment
▶▶Improving programs for English Learners and encouraging innovative programs and practices to support English Learners’ success and build the knowledge base about what works.
▶▶Maintaining and strengthening formula grant programs for Native American students, homeless students, migrant students, and neglected or delinquent students;
as well as for districts that are in rural areas or that are affected by federal property and activities.
▶▶Meeting the needs of students with disabilities throughout ESEA and through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

*****

Supporting student success requires deploying every tool at our disposal. The students most at risk for academic failure too often attend schools and live in communities with insufficient capacity to address the full range of their needs. The result is that students cannot always focus on learning and teachers cannot always focus on teaching.
Preparing students for success requires taking innovative, comprehensive approaches to meeting students’ needs, such as rethinking the length and structure of the school day and year, so that students have the time they need to succeed and teachers have the time they need to collaborate and improve their practice. It means supporting innovative models that provide the services that students need; time for teachers to collaborate to meet academic challenges; environments that help all students be safe, healthy, and supported in their classrooms, schools, and communities; and greater opportunities to engage families in their children’s education and strengthen the role of schools as centers of communities.


*****
PROMISE NEIGHBORHOODS
Our proposal will provide new, competitive grants to support the development and implementation of a continuum of effective community services, strong family supports, and comprehensive education reforms to improve the educational and life outcomes for children and youths in high-need communities, from birth through college and into careers. Programs must be designed to improve academic and developmental outcomes for children and youths through effective public schools, community-based organizations, and other local agencies. Programs will be encouraged to take a comprehensive approach to meeting student needs, drawing on the contributions of community-based organizations, local agencies, and family and community members. Grantees will conduct a needs assessment of all children in the community in order to establish baseline data against which the grantee will aim to improve outcomes, and will promote and coordinate community involvement, support, and buy-in, including securing and leveraging resources from the public and private sectors.

21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS
Our proposal will provide competitive grants for states, school districts, nonprofit organizations, and partnerships to implement in school and out of school strategies that provide students and, where appropriate, teachers and family members, with additional time and supports to succeed.
Competitive grants will be awarded to states, school districts, and community-based organizations to leverage models that comprehensively redesign and expand the school day or year, provide full-service community schools, or provide services before school, after school, or during the summer. All programs will focus on improving student academic achievement in core academic subjects, ranging from English language arts, mathematics, and science, to history, the arts, and financial literacy, as part of a well-rounded education, and providing enrichment activities, which may include activities that improve mental and physical health, opportunities for experiential learning, and greater opportunities for families to actively and meaningfully engage in their children’s education.

SUCCESSFUL, SAFE, AND HEALTHY STUDENTS
Our proposal will provide competitive grants to support states, school districts, and their partners in providing learning environments that ensure that students are successful, safe, and healthy. To better measure school climate and identify local needs, grantees will be required to develop and implement a state- or district-wide school climate needs assessment to evaluate school engagement, school safety (addressing drug, alcohol, and violence issues), and school environment, and publicly report this information. This assessment must include surveys of student, school staff, and family experiences with respect to individual schools, and additional data such as suspensions and disciplinary actions. States will use this data to identify local needs and provide competitive subgrants to school districts and their partners to address the needs of students, schools, and communities.
Grantees will use funds under the Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program to carry out strategies designed to improve school safety and to promote students’ physical and mental health and well-being, nutrition education, healthy eating, and physical fitness. Grantees may support activities to prevent and reduce substance use, school violence (including teen dating violence), harassment, and bullying, as well as to strengthen family and community engagement in order to ensure a healthy and supportive school environment.

[kwassa]

8. and if you don't do what we say, we will beat you with this stick.

page 16, same document. (Fire all the teachers!)

quote:

States will award the remainder of funds competitively to districts or partnerships of districts and nonprofit organizations to implement one of the following intervention models, to be selected locally, to ensure significant changes in the operation, governance, staffing, or instructional program of a school:

▶▶Transformation model: Replace the principal, strengthen staffing, implement a research-based instructional program, provide extended learning time, and implement new governance and flexibility.

▶▶Turnaround model: Replace the principal and rehire no more than 50 percent of the school staff, implement a research-based instructional program, provide extended learning time, and implement new governance structure.

▶▶Restart model: Convert or close and reopen the school under the management of an effective charter operator, charter management organization, or education management organization.

▶▶School closure model: Close the school and enroll students who attended it in other, higher-performing schools in the district.
Districts and their partners will receive 3-year awards to fully and effectively implement one of these intervention models, and will be eligible for two additional years of funding to support a school’s ongoing improvement if the school is showing progress

[mzteris]

9. wha?

Did you read the other 45 pages? Or just skip straight to the stuff you didn't like?

FIVE YEARS to get it right. FIVE years with extra support and extra money. FIVE YEARS to do the job you're supposed to be doing. I think that's ample time, don't you?

[adnelson60087]

10. Well, 5 years to solve poverty in America with a recession/depression ripping

a gaping hole in state, city and school district budgets? No, not nearly enough time IMHO. But plenty of time for what's good in America's schools to be ripped out and left to rot, and establish the foundation of for-profit-educational-corporations who will never deliver what they promise. Check the research, it's all there for anyone to see.

[mzteris]

11. not from NOW, silly

God I get tired of repeating myself.

10% of all Charter public schools are managed by a for-profit management company. That percentage keeps dropping. Those same company's ALSO manage some traditional schools.

10% of Charter public schools are managed by NON-PROFIT management companies.

80% are run by local individuals consisting of TEACHERS, PARENTS, and Individuals from the community.

All charter schools are non-profit schools. They are all open to the public. They are all free of charge to those who attend.

[Hannah Bell]

13. i get tired of you repeating yourself too. why don't you stop, you're not fooling anyone.

[Hannah Bell]

14. 22% of charters are managed by for-profit corps. & some percent of charters *are* for profit

schools.

and some of those "non-profits" are basically for profit.

[kwassa]

16. I skipped straight to the stuff that matters.

Much of this document is unfortunately blather, with few specifics, and lots of high-minded language

because it isn't what they do, it is how they do it.

Five years to overcome generations of poverty? and they are not even doing anything about the poverty?

Five years we will be laughing at this, when we are not crying about it.

[Hannah Bell]

12. could you do something besides cut & paste PR releases?

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. LOL