Principal: Stop blaming Common Core for problems in public education
This is the tenth in a continuing series of letters between two award-winning school principals, one who likes the Common Core State Standards and the other who doesn’t. The debate over the Common Core State Standards has become so polarized that it is hard to get people who disagree to have reasonable conversations about it. The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news Web site focused on inequality and innovation in education, is hosting a conversation between Carol Burris of New York and Jayne Ellspermann of Florida (in a format that Education Week once used with Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier as the authors). The Report’s editors as well as both principals have given me permission to republish each letter.
Burris served as principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District in New York for 15 years before recently retiring. In 2010, she was recognized by the School Administrators Association of New York State as their Outstanding Educator of the Year, and in 2013, she was recognized as the New York State High School Principal of the Year. Ellspermann is principal of West Port High School in Ocala, Florida. She has served as a principal in elementary, middle, and high schools for the past 24 years and is the 2015 Principal of the Year for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
The first letter was written by Burris, a Core opponent, to Ellspermann, a Core supporter. Burris explained why she once liked the Core but changed her mind. Ellspermann’s reply letter explained why she thinks the Core is helping schools in her district. In the third letter, Burris explains why she thinks Core testing hurts disadvantaged students. The fourth, by Ellspermann, says that critics should not blame the Common Core standards for bad implementation and she writes why she likes the English Language Arts emphasis on reading text rather than allowing students to rely on personal experience.
In the fifth letter, Burris asks Ellspermann why she thinks she needs the Core.In the sixth letter, Ellspermann responds by discussing why she opposes the opt-out movement and how the Core is working in her school. In the seventh letter, Burris explains why she doesn’t think the Core will do for students what supporters say it will. The eighth letter, from Ellspermann, talks about why she believes all students should have the same standards. The ninth letter, from Burris, explained that she was taking early retirement because she no longer felt she could work well in a test-based system.
Here is the tenth letter in the series, from Ellspermann back to Burris:
Dear Carol,
Your recent letter identified the drawbacks of tying teacher evaluations to student performance on the Common Core-aligned tests. In order to receive Race to the Top funds, states agreed to tie student test results to teacher evaluations. An outcry from teachers and school administrators followed. You wrote in your last letter that the New York State legislature recently passed a bill that increased the impact of student test scores on teacher evaluations to 50 percent. The Florida legislature just passed a bill reducing the weight of Principal: Stop blaming Common Core for problems in public education - The Washington Post:
This is the eleventh in a continuing series of letters between two award-winning school principals, one who likes the Common Core State Standards and the other who doesn’t. The debate over the Common Core State Standards has become so polarized that it is hard to get people who disagree to have reasonable conversations about it. The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news Web site focused on inequality and innovation in education, is hosting a conversation between Carol Burris of New York and Jayne Ellspermann of Florida (in a format that Education Week once used with Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier as the authors). The Report’s editors as well as both principals have given me permission to republish each letter.
Burris served as principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District in New York for 15 years before recently retiring. In 2010, she was recognized by the School Administrators Association of New York State as their Outstanding Educator of the Year, and in 2013, she was recognized as the New York State High School Principal of the Year. Ellspermann is principal of West Port High School in Ocala, Florida. She has served as a principal in elementary, middle, and high schools for the past 24 years and is the 2015 Principal of the Year for the National Association of Secondary School Principals.
The first letter was written by Burris, a Core opponent, to Ellspermann, a Core supporter. Burris explained why she once liked the Core but changed her mind. Ellspermann’s reply letter explained why she thinks the Core is helping schools in her district. In the third letter, Burris explains why she thinks Core testing hurts disadvantaged students. The fourth, by Ellspermann, says that critics should not blame the Common Core standards for bad implementation and she writes why she likes the English Language Arts emphasis on reading text rather than allowing students to rely on personal experience.
In the fifth letter, Burris asks Ellspermann why she thinks she needs the Core.In the sixth letter, Ellspermann responds by discussing why she opposes the opt-out movement and how the Core is working in her school. In the seventh letter, Burris explains why she doesn’t think the Core will do for students what supporters say it will. The eighth letter, from Ellspermann, talks about why she believes all students should have the same standards. The ninth letter, from Burris, explained that she was taking early retirement because she no longer felt she could work well in a test-based system. The tenth letter, from Ellspermann, which you can read in the post below, talks about how much she and Burris have in common, and says the standards themselves are not the root of problems in education.
Here is the eleventh letter in the series, from Burris to Ellspermann, which first appeared on The Hechinger Report on July 2:
Dear Jayne,
I am writing this letter the day after my last graduation ceremony. The past week has been difficult—full of tearful goodbyes. Although I am certain that my decision to retire was the right one, leaving a school that I love so much has been very painful. But, as I said to the Class of 2015 in my address, quoting Winnie the Pooh—“how lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
Your last letter acknowledged our mutual concern about the evaluation of teachers by student test data. Even if it were a perfect measure, and it is far from perfect, the unintended consequences of using test scores in this manner would never be worth the price. Back in 1976, social scientist Donald Campbell predicted what would happen if standardized tests became high-stakes. He wrote, “When test scores become the goal of the teaching process, they both lose their value as indicators of educational status and distort the educational process in undesirable ways.” Certainly, that is a worry you and I share.
You asked what accountability system produces a bell curve in which teachers are measured against each other. It’s called the “VAM” — for value-added Principal: How I know something is wrong with Common Core standards and tests