Do You Understand My School? (Part One)
This blog entry continues a series, asking if the non-educators who advocate using state test scores to evaluate teachers actually understand my job, my students, or my school. Of course, it’s not just my personal circumstances they need to understand. I write from the perspective of a high school English teacher, one of many thousands around California and around the country. Like our teaching brethren in other subjects and grade levels, we find ourselves facing a barrage of snake-oil salesmen, peddling a product that might have one legitimate use, but they promise it will cure all the ills in the teaching profession. Enough already. Today, I focus on what they need to understand about secondary schools. If there are some elementary school teachers reading this post, I hope you’ll add comments sharing your professional perspective.
Governor Charlie Crist’s recent veto of Florida’s Senate Bill 6 was a victory for teachers in the Sunshine State, as their legislature had begun to lead them towards a dismal future of testing malpractice. Sadly, the Race to the Top has created a frenzy of interest in linking student test scores to teacher evaluation. The next step they promote is ending the use of seniority and tenure (ideas I’d be more likely to support if their advocates could better understand teaching and evaluation). Teachers are supposed to be “data-driven” now, while the Department of Education and legislators throughout the country ignore the utter lack of data to support their “reform” efforts. I think part of the problem is that they need to better understand schools – at least, I’d like to think that’s the problem. Because, if they do understand schools and still promote these measures, one can
