U.S. DOE smoke and mirror tricks, and teachers as scapegoats.

Readers in today's New York Times I found the following request from a respected colleague, and friend Joanne Yatvin. She suggests the following invitation to dialogue on teacher evaluation in the NY Times: Before I share my response to her invitation that I forwarded to the NY Times please read her respectful request:

Invitation to a Dialogue: Evaluating Teachers

Over the past year states have scrambled to rewrite their teacher evaluation procedures to satisfy federal demands. Because the main thrust of the new procedures is to remove ineffective teachers and, perhaps, reward superior ones, their key element is “value added” test scores — measuring how much students’ scores have improved.

To the Editor:

But they are also stuffed with multiple observations, often by different observers, long lists of criteria and lengthy written reviews. So freighted, they are not only unfair but also unworkable. There must be a better way.

What schools need are not only simpler and more flexible plans, but also evaluators with enough time and the expertise to do the job. At the elementary level, finding them should be relatively easy: appoint good principals and free them from bus duty and never-ending out-of-school meetings. In high schools, where principals have large numbers of teachers and numerous subject areas under their supervision, the evaluators should be department heads.

As for the evaluation process itself, it needs to be yearlong, with evaluators working alongside teachers and observing many different lessons. Thus, they will see what good teachers do: grading papers at lunchtime, coming in early to tutor a struggling student, staying late to meet with a worried parent, inspiring students to learn more than required.

Primarily, however, states would do well to abandon their obsession with student test scores. As many critics have observed, too many factors beyond a teacher’s control influence those numbers.

But an even bigger problem is teaching to the test. With so much weight given to the scores in new evaluations, only a few brave teachers will be able to resist concentrating on tests. As a result, real student learning will decline sharply, along with good teaching.

JOANNE YATVIN 
Portland, Ore., March 13, 2012

Joanne Yatvin is a retired teacher and elementary school principal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Editors’ Note: We invite readers to respond to this letter for our Sunday Dialogue. We plan to publish responses and Ms. Yatvin’s rejoinder in the Sunday Review. E-mail: letters@nytimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/invitation-to-a-dialogue-evaluating-teachers.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

My response sent to the N.Y. Times was:

Rather than have a dialogue on teacher evaluation I rather have a dialogue on evaluating the United States Department of Education landmark "No Child Left Behind/Race To The Top" federal policy.

It appears to me that the U.S. Department of Education is playing Smoke and Mirrors, and is looking for a scapegoat to defer blame from their failed polices.   We should ask ourselves why is the U.S. DOE in a rush to include valued added assessments in the form of test scores? Lets have a quick NCLB review. NCLB promised that it could close the achievement gap by mandating new rigorous standards, and annual testing. A decade later perhaps it is time that we evaluate the United States Department of Education reform policy using those very same valued added assessments they are recommending be used for teachers? Well our NAEP scores for 2009 17-years olds have been relatively flat since 1971. Andrew J. Coulson, the director of the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom, reflecting on those flat scores states in his review: “The latest NAEP results reveal a productivity collapse unparalleled in any other sector of the economy. At the end of high school, students perform no better today than they did nearly 40 years ago, and yet we spend more than twice as much per pupil in real, inflation-adjusted terms. I can’t think of any other service that has gotten worse during my lifetime.”

There is that well known biblical verse about those that "Live by the sword shall die by the sword" well when does the US DOE fall on it's own sword. After all after a decade of reform dominance clearly No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top/ are the status quo. Seriously what other education reform policy is completing with NCLB/RTTT? The U.S. DOE has led the show for over a decade, using 1.2 trillion dollars allocated under NCLB to dictate education reform at the state level. So states do what the U.S. DOE wants, or risk losing your federal funding. The Federal Government has cornered the market on education reform with punitive measures rooted in their high stakes test driven mandates under their promise that all children in grades 3 to 8 will be proficient at grade level in reading, writing, and math by the end of 2013.
NCLB allocated 1.2 trillion dollars for that purpose, and attached numerous strings to federal allocations through new state mandated standards and assessments requirements. We are less than two years away from that promise delivery date, and nearly a trillion dollars is spent on their promise. Shouldn’t someone be evaluating the promise of NCLB? NCLB allocations amounts to roughly about 10% of what we spend on our public schools. The other 90% comes from local and state funding. So roughly NCLB has spent nearly a trillion dollars thus far with the states adding nearly another 9 trillion. 

Rather than asking to discuss evaluating teachers we should be asking to evaluate NCLB’s promise? Just when do we ask what does the United State Department of Education have to show for their efforts?

Certainly no real improvement in 17-year olds NAEP scores, or SAT scores indicate this critical data point: reading scores in 1972 were 530, and today after a decade of NCLB reading scores are at 497. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT - cite_note-06Report-21)  

I guess it is too much to expect that the U.S. DOE in DC would be willing to fall on their own high stakes data sword. 

We also have the Reading First Schools failure. Secretary Rod Paige and Secretary Margaret Spelling advocated, and pushed Reading First Schools as the DOE's showcase models of reform. For the first six years of NCLB the U.S. DOE awarded over 6 billion dollars to public schools that adopted their recommended Gold Cadillac Scientifically Based Reading Programs and train all it's teachers to fully use these programs. Well after 6 years the U. S. 2008 Reading First Impact Study indicated that children in non Reading First Schools control groups had higher reading comprehension scores than Reading First School students. Certainly we should have started questioning federal leadership back then. They have a record of documented failure that should have been raising red flags long ago. 

The pathetic truth after spending nearly a trillion dollars, and mandating numerous fail attempts to close the achievement gap the U.S DOE is once again calling for new assessments and new standards. Someone tell Secretary of Education Arne Duncan "been there did that one Arne"?

Returning to my opening point about the U.S. DOE Smoke and Mirrors, and scapegoats we find United States Secretary Arne Duncan in need of a way to keep the public's eye off that DOE NCLB/RTTT massive failure to deliver on it's promise to close the achievement gap. Thus his new scapegoat becomes teacher evaluations and value added assessments that rely once again on high stakes testing.

Please people tell me you are not going to fall for Secretary of Education Duncan's Smoke and Mirror tricks? I do wonder if the buck ever stops at the top at the DOE in DC?

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Children Are More Than Test Scores  
If you are wondering what the Walking man is listening today on his walk as he thinks about his coming trip to DC to join United Opt Out Occupy The DOE in DC it all Bruce Springsteen's "Rocky Ground" Man am I inspired: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUYnoWqct0
In case you want to sing long with me:

Singing those Rocky Ground lyrics
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Rise up shepherd, rise up
Your flock has roamed far from the hills
The stars have faded, the sky is still
The angels are shouting "Glory Hallelujah"

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Forty days and nights of rain have washed this land
Jesus said the money changers in this temple will not stand
Find your flock, get them to higher ground
Flood waters rising and we're Caanan bound

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)

Tend to your flock or they will stray
We'll be called for our service come Judgment Day
Before we cross that river wide
Blood on our hands will come back on us twice

(I'm a soldier!)
Rise up shepherd, rise up
Your flock has roamed far from the hills
Stars have faded, the sky is still
Sun's in the heavens and a new day's rising

You use your muscle and your mind and you pray your best
That your best is good enough, the Lord will do the rest
You raise your children and you teach 'them to walk straight and sure
You pray that hard times, hard times, come no more
You try to sleep, you toss and turn, the bottom's dropping out
Where you once had faith now there's only doubt
You pray for guidance, only silence now meets your prayers
The morning breaks, you awake but no one's there

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
(I'm a soldier!)
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
There's a new day coming
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground
We've been traveling over rocky ground, rocky ground

Yeah I’m still walking, still marching, still talking, still blogging, and I’m coming Secretary of Education Status quo Arne Duncan.
I travel over rocky ground for over 10-years now,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

Can we trust a U.S. DOE that approves of feeding our children Pink Slime?

Something is wrong with a DOE
who approves of feeding our children Pink slime!

How much money are you willing to bet that no one's children at the United States Department of Education will be eating any Public School Pink Slime burgers, or tacos?

Something is telling me that Arne Duncan's children won't be eating that ammonia-treated meat.  Something is very wrong with buying meat by products that were rejected by McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Burger King, and approving it for public school school lunches. The U. S. Department of Agriculture is purchasing 7 MILLION TONS for school lunches. 

Where is the outcry from Secretary of Education Duncan? 

Where is the outrage from a First Lady who wants to help end childhood obesity?

Where is the outrage from the American Medical Association? 

Something is very wrong in a Washington DC that feeds our children this stuff. 

Just what is this pink slime they are going to feed America's school children anyway? It is officially known as "Lean Beef Trimmings," a product made from ground-up combination of beef scraps, cow connective tissues and other beef trimmings that are treated with ammonium hydroxide to kill pathogens like salmonella and E. coli. 

It gets all blended into regular meat products like ground beef and hamburger patties.

Read it for yourself @ http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/05/030512-news-pink-slime-1-3/

This is the problem when we turn children into test scores. We dehumanized them. Our schools are for sale, and so are our children. The United States Department of Education under Race To The Top is working with private venture partners to capitalize on the 58 million children that go to public schools in America. There is a for sale sign on our public schools, our children, our parents, and our teachers. 

It is time to occupy the DOE in DC.  Please call the First Lady this surely can't be part of the plan to fight childhood obesity? Secretary Status quo Duncan the Walking Man is coming to occupy the DOE house of shame in DC this March 30, 31, and April 1 & 2. 

http://unitedoptout.com/event/we-endorse-occupy-wall-street-with-action/

Silence and apathy are not acceptable when it comes to our children.

Ready to Occupy,

Jesse The Walking Man Turner

For those interested in a little extra credit:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/opinion/sunday/school-lunches-and-the-food-industry.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

If you are wondering what the Walking Man is listening to on his walk this morning it Makana We Are The Many 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq3BYw4xjxE 

Here are the lyrics for those of you coming to DC to start practicing for DC people

We Are The Many
Lyrics & Music by MakanaMakana Music LLC © 2011

Ye come here, gather ’round the stage

The time has come for us to voice our rage Against the ones who’ve trapped us in a cage To steal from us the value of our wage

From underneath the vestiture of law

The lobbyists at Washington do gnaw At liberty, the bureaucrats guffaw And until they are purged, we won’t withdraw

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts We’ll occupy the offices of you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few

Our nation was built upon the right

Of every person to improve their plight But laws of this Republic they rewrite And now a few own everything in sight

They own it free of liability

They own, but they are not like you and me Their influence dictates legality And until they are stopped we are not free

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts We’ll occupy the offices of you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few

You enforce your monopolies with guns

While sacrificing our daughters and sons But certain things belong to everyone Your thievery has left the people none

So take heed of our notice to redress

We have little to lose, we must confess Your empty words do leave us unimpressed A growing number join us in protest

We occupy the streets

We occupy the courts We occupy the offices of you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few

You can’t divide us into sides

And from our gaze, you cannot hide Denial serves to amplify And our allegiance you can’t buy

Our government is not for sale

The banks do not deserve a bail We will not reward those who fail We will not move till we prevail

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts We’ll occupy the offices of you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few

We’ll occupy the streets

We’ll occupy the courts We’ll occupy the offices of you Till you do The bidding of the many, not the few

We are the many

You are the few

Who will teach our children? What I learned in Selma!

The lesson from Selma Alabama keep on marching

 

I want to comment on Valerie Strauss's article in last week’s Washington Post: Teacher job satisfaction plummets — Survey By Valerie Strauss. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/teacher-job-satisfaction-plummets--survey/2012/03/02/gIQAmB5lvR_blog.html Kevin G. Welner, Strauss’s guest blogger writes: " It’s not fun to be repeatedly punched in the gut. And we can now quantify how not-fun it is, at least when teachers are the punches.  Over the past two years of gut-punching, teacher job satisfaction has fallen from 59 percent to 44 percent."   

Yes teachers can quantify it, teachers can feel it, and teachers are under vicious attack from both the right and left.
The emerging problem: Who will teach our children if job satisfaction for teachers keeps plummeting?  Reflecting on that question I posted the above article on our Children Are More Than test Scores Facebook page with this caption: "Perhaps in the future our children will be taught by robots, machines with out feelings, without emotions, and who view all children as data to be crunch. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's policies inspire no one, but testing company CEOs. The DC DOE has failed from the very beginning of NCLB to understand rather than testing children they needed to find ways to inspire them.  To win their minds you need to win their hearts. They just don't get it."

Word from the street: Members responded quickly to this one. However one response from a teacher I highly respect, a teacher who has been fighting the good fight since her first day in the classroom stuck out among the others:  "No, they used "force" Jesse did I ever tell you about the regional meeting I went to out here in Southern CA a Principal sent me-she sent me because she wanted me to see, I think, what the machine looked like. A Fed ran it. It had to do with underperforming schools-back 7 years ago. In this he talked about forcing teachers to do these things. Using profanity, talking about shoving down our throats-whatever is necessary. Most unethical thing I ever saw." 

The truth: This teacher is right NCLB/RTTT is top down driven policy FORCE down our throats. The Feds have bullied children, parents, teachers, and public schools at every level. We have been isolated, marginalized, and threatened by the DOE in DC for over a decade at this point. Secretary Arne Duncan likes to say he respects teachers. If his reform policies are his way of supporting and respecting teachers than he must believe the Moon is made of cream cheese.  

A fact: the DC DOE has spent nearly a trillion dollars on experimental education reform models that have shown little or no effect on closing the achievement gap.  In 2001 the DOE said we needed new rigorous standards and new tests. All 50 states developed new standards and tests, and they failed to close the achievement gap. Now the DOE is saying once again we need new standards and testing Part 2. Of course if states want access to the very tax dollars they send to Washington they better shut up, and follow along. 

America's parents, teachers, and schools have a choice. We can go along to get along, or we can resist. We can learn about resisting from the Civil Rights Movement.

A little history: I view NCLB/RTTT policies as the new Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws were created to keep African Americans from voting, and living freely in the south. Jim Crow created two sets of laws one for whites, and another for blacks. Under the law Whites would have all the powers granted them under the constitution, and African Americans would be denied those very same rights. In particular the right to vote would be kept from African Americans. Thus the voice of African Americans would not be heard in state capitals. Opposition to Jim Crow is a long bloody brutal history of oppression against Black Americans. Our nation has a rich history of resistance to Jim Crow. My 400 mile-walk from Connecticut to DC to protest excessive high stakes testing in 2010 was inspired by the Civil Rights movement’s response to Jim Crow.   

Sometimes you go to the source: Last week I went to Selma Alabama for the Sunday Bloody Sunday Jubilee. I went to Selma cognizant that the Edmund Pettus Bridge is sacred ground in the Civil Rights Movement. I went to the place where I could draw strength, the place where I could draw inspiration. The sacred place where I could learn how to fight back against unjust policies. I went to place where I could learn from the elders. 

Those elders who marched on that bridge in 1965,

Those elders met by Governor George Wallace’s State Troopers,

Those elders who were gassed,

Those elders who were beaten,

Those elders who lost love ones,

Those elders who were brutally beat, but could not be beaten,

Those elders who carry sacred lessons,

Those elders taught us

Force won't turn you around,

Shame won't turn you around,

Lies won't turn you around.

You have a date with justice, you have a date with righteousness, and until that date comes keep on moving, keep on talking, and keep on marching.
Something deep in my soul tells me a change is gonna come.
Jesse The Walking Man Turner

If you want to know what the walking man is listening to today on his walk it's Leela James "A change is gonna come"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT-bolii83w&feature=player_embedded#!