The Failure of Corporate Reform (continued)
The current era of school reform has nothing to do with improving education or helping kids and everything to do with imposing business values on schools, specifically, (1) subjecting schools to measurements that distort their goals and (2) privatizing public schools so as to disable the public responsibility for public education.
This project has many tentacles, such as opening privately managed charter schools, evaluating teachers based on the test scores of their students, merit pay, vouchers, etc. It all boils down to the same basic goal: to set unrealistic targets for school performance and to use those metrics to advance privatization.
The corporate reforms fail and fail and fail and fail, and eventually their unending failure will break through to the larger public.
Just yesterday, Jay Matthews of the Washington Post, who has dependably supported the corporate reforms, explained that he no longer believes that it is usefl to evaluate individual teachers by the test scores of their students. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/why-rating-teachers-by-test-scores-wont-work/2012/05/13/gIQAJb5lMU_blog.html). Jay now understands that this doesn’t work. The one-year models don’t work. Family income has a bigger effect on test scores than teachers. He still sort of believes in value-added assessment, because over three years, he thinks, you can identify the best and the worst teachers. But as Jay probably knows, states are hanging single-number ratings around the necks of teachers that discourage all teachers, including the very best ones. Teachers feel demeaned when all their hard work turned into a number
This project has many tentacles, such as opening privately managed charter schools, evaluating teachers based on the test scores of their students, merit pay, vouchers, etc. It all boils down to the same basic goal: to set unrealistic targets for school performance and to use those metrics to advance privatization.
The corporate reforms fail and fail and fail and fail, and eventually their unending failure will break through to the larger public.
Just yesterday, Jay Matthews of the Washington Post, who has dependably supported the corporate reforms, explained that he no longer believes that it is usefl to evaluate individual teachers by the test scores of their students. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/class-struggle/post/why-rating-teachers-by-test-scores-wont-work/2012/05/13/gIQAJb5lMU_blog.html). Jay now understands that this doesn’t work. The one-year models don’t work. Family income has a bigger effect on test scores than teachers. He still sort of believes in value-added assessment, because over three years, he thinks, you can identify the best and the worst teachers. But as Jay probably knows, states are hanging single-number ratings around the necks of teachers that discourage all teachers, including the very best ones. Teachers feel demeaned when all their hard work turned into a number
The Failure of Corporate Reform (2)
It turns about that Houston has been awarding test-based bonuses for years. It turns about that tying test scores to scores has not been good for teachers or students. It turns out that the ratings jump around from year to year. They are inaccurate, unreliable, and unstable. Value-added assessment, as everyone recognizes, creates massive pressure to raise scores on standardized tests of questionable value. The more pressure, the less reliable the scores. The more pressure, the more teaching to the test and the more cheating. (http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/houston-you-have-problem)
Value-added assessment is inherently incapable of producing better education because it does not measure better education. It only measures test scores. Higher test scores are a byproduct of better education. If you aim for the scores, you miss the target. The target is deeper understanding, greater knowledge, more thoughtful writing, more careful observation, a greater love of learning. The very act of measuring destroys the target instead of bringing it closer.
Value-added assessment is inherently incapable of producing better education because it does not measure better education. It only measures test scores. Higher test scores are a byproduct of better education. If you aim for the scores, you miss the target. The target is deeper understanding, greater knowledge, more thoughtful writing, more careful observation, a greater love of learning. The very act of measuring destroys the target instead of bringing it closer.
How to Get Rich Quick in Education
Most people who go into education don’t expect to make a lot of money. If they had that expectation, they would be demented, since teaching is not known as a profession that is high-paying.
But yes, there is a way to get rich in education, and it is not by becoming a teacher.
Become a bill collector of college debt! That’s the ticket! John Hechinger discovered that one collection agent made $454,000 last year by dunning students to pay back their loans. His boss made over $1 million. Several other debt collectors in the same agency made more than $300,000 annually. How cool is that?(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/taxpayers-fund-454-000-pay-for-collector-chasing-student-loans.html)
It’s a well-known fact, documented again recently in the New York Times, that student loans now exceed one trillion dollars. Pursuing hapless students and collecting what they owe turns out to be a way to fast riches.
But yes, there is a way to get rich in education, and it is not by becoming a teacher.
Become a bill collector of college debt! That’s the ticket! John Hechinger discovered that one collection agent made $454,000 last year by dunning students to pay back their loans. His boss made over $1 million. Several other debt collectors in the same agency made more than $300,000 annually. How cool is that?(http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-15/taxpayers-fund-454-000-pay-for-collector-chasing-student-loans.html)
It’s a well-known fact, documented again recently in the New York Times, that student loans now exceed one trillion dollars. Pursuing hapless students and collecting what they owe turns out to be a way to fast riches.