"You can not tie teacher evaluations to test scores. This will produce no results other than teachers teaching to the test - a phenomenon already occurring with alarming regularity. This will only work if tests are not multiple choice, but include competencies showing integration of thinking skills such as essay writing and data manipulation. We can't teach FACTS. We must teach THINKING skills."
Jenni White - ROPE (Restore Oklahoma Public Education)
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By JENNIFER GOLLAN
Published: January 20, 2011
Grade inflation — a term normally associated with students — is widespread among Bay Area teachers, who receive so many favorable evaluations that it is impossible to tell how well they are performing, some educators say.
For the 2009-10 school year, just 40 out of 1,924 teachers — or 2 percent — reviewed by the San Francisco Unified School District received below-satisfactory performance reviews, district records show. Those figures are consistent with recent years: an average of 2.7 percent of teachers evaluated over the past five years received marks of “unsatisfactory” or “needs improvement,” records show. And education scholars say that in a system where all teachers are winners, a crucial gauge of teacher quality is essentially lost.
A similar pattern has emerged in nearby school districts. In the San Jose and Oakland Unified School Districts, for example, about 1 percent of teachers received ratings of “ineffective” or “unsatisfactory,” records for 2009-10 show.
Administrators emphasized that weaknesses in the evaluation system did not diminish the work of teachers who educate students under difficult conditions exacerbated by a state budget crisis that has increased class sizes and reduced financing for schools.
But the numbers reveal that the review process is effectively broken, parents and administrators said, at a time when the Obama administration is seeking to tie federal money for education to the use of teacher evaluations based on student performance. That policy is controversial, particularly among teachers, who say that a variety of factors — some beyond their control — should be taken into account.
“We have to create a better evaluation system that really names what high-quality instruction looks like,” said Superintendent Anthony Smith of the Oakland district. He favors including student performance as a factor in evaluations.
Linda Shaffer, a parent of two children in San Francisco schools and a founder of Educate Our State, an advocacy group led by parents seeking more accountability, said, “The numbers tell me that there is a low bar to jump over, which doesn’t tell me anything about the teachers in the classroom.”
Some districts across the country — including Oak Grove in south San Jose — have begun to change how they evaluate teachers, incorporating student-achievement data to assess a teacher’s performance.
But those districts are in the minority. Partly because of resistance from teachers unions, most districts do not factor student test scores into evaluations.
Educators said the wide-ranging and sometimes-vague standards weaken the evaluation process. “A majority of districts in the state and the nation currently have dysfunctional evaluation systems,” said Eric A. Hanushek, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. “They neither help any teachers to get better nor point to teachers that should move out of teaching.”
Until this school year, San Francisco lacked detailed criteria for evaluating teacher performance. Under a revamped system put into effect last fall, teachers will be evaluated according to how well they engage students, maintain decorum, grasp subject matter, plan lessons, help students progress and expand their teaching expertise. The evaluations do not hinge on student achievement.
Principals and assistant principals observe teachers in the classroom before drafting evaluations. Teachers are then ranked as “outstanding,” “highly satisfactory,” “satisfactory,” “needs improvement” or “unsatisfactory.”
Most veteran teachers in San Francisco are evaluated every two years. Teachers who rank “satisfactory” or above on their most recent evaluation are eligible to receive a “short-form review” the next time. In it, principals have limited space to describe a teacher’s strengths and challenges.
Superintendent Carlos A. Garcia of the San Francisco district said that in the past administrators might have been less demanding in their assessments because they had concluded that the system was ineffective. “People felt, What’s the point in trying to be tough in evaluations?” Mr. Garcia said.
“We have to create a cultural shift for principals and assistant principals to be more honest with us,” he said.
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Replies
I have worked with Developmentally Disabled individuals close to 40 years (son is 39 and DD).
I have taken him to the hospital for injury and accompanied by a staff member from the provider service. When we arrived, the doctor who knew a DD individual was coming to the hospital began treating the staff member.
Another instance, the staff member, a Graduate from an Electrical Engineering program at a Florida University, could not write legible notes and could barely read. His qualifications were his attention and kindness to the three DD individuals in the group home.
Yet another individual, who managed the group home (3 on; 3 off shift) was so low level that the DD individuals felt he was their client and they were the managers.
All three individuals referenced graduated from high school and one of the three from college.
I just read another post where the Chancellor of a Community College was forced to admit individuals that could not transition from the primary grades to the 12th Grade graduate status, yet he was forced to admit them into college.
At some point, we have to get the Federal Government out of the Education Business because their only objective is statistical numbers: "During my government tenue, we graduated 9,999,999 students from high school" leaving out the statistical numbers: "During my government tenue, of the 9,999,999 students that graduated from high school, only 999,999 could read and write legibly!"
Without Federal Government involvement, the teachers would have a better chance of teaching; and, the ones that could not would be readily identifiable. (PS: Get rid of teacher unions also - government should not be unionized!).
Teachers do not get to pick and choose their students..
Teachers have no control over home environment, where the learning begins and is supposed to be reinforced..
Teachers can not do brain surgery and kids that have been brain damaged by their parents and/or environment are pouring through the classroom doors..
When did test scores and reading-writing go down??? when substance abuse escalated.. marijuana, cocaine, lsd, crack, meth, and now smoking salvia-sage plants..
I taught over 30 years, and never figured out what to do with all levels of fetal alcohol, drug-crack damaged babies... If all the "EXPERTS" out there know what to do--POST IT..
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I went from "inner city" teaching to small town-rural.. Drug addiction is rampant in every part of America.
God help us...
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