Responding to Bill Gates' Destructive Model of Teacher Evaluation
By Anthony Cody.
On October 7th, Bill Gates gave a speech providing a comprehensive review of his Foundation’s K12 education strategy. This arena is their number one domestic priority, and a place where they have invested billions of dollars over the past 15 years. As we approach the end of the Obama administration, which has served as their close ally, we might expect some serious reflection on lessons learned.
The Common Core is struggling along on continual life support from Gates and the Department of Ed; the charter school illusion is less sustainable every day, and in his own state of Washington, the charter school ballot measure Gates helped get passed was recently declared unconstitutional. In spite of these setbacks, serious reflection was not in evidence. While Gates acknowledged some missteps in the rollout of the Common Core – blamed on there “naivete”, the emphasis was on advances made, with a pledge to continue pushing in the same direction.
Their confidence notwithstanding, I think their direction is severely flawed, in several respects. In the first place, they continue to believe that test scores and the Common Core “define excellence.” In the second, they have created a fatal error in attempting to embed teacher professional growth into an evaluative framework – harming both.
[Please note that the text provided by the Gates Foundation here is not the same as the speech delivered by Gates. I took the time to transcribe what he said, and will focus my response on that transcript, posted here, rather than the “official” text.]
Gates began with a model provided to him by Washington’s “teacher of the year,” Lyon Terry, throughout his Responding to Bill Gates' Destructive Model of Teacher Evaluation - Living in Dialogue:
By Anthony Cody.
On Sunday I spent several hours transcribing Bill Gates’ Oct. 7 speech on the subject of the Gates Foundation’s K12 education strategy. The Gates Foundation had published the text of the speech here, but I found that his actual remarks, while roughly similar, were not the same. I think it is important to understand what he actually said, so here it is, taken from the video posted here, minutes 1:22 to 1:54.
I have posted my response to this speech here.
Bill Gates:
As Melinda said, I get to update you on our K12 education strategy. It’s not our whole education strategy, but it’s a very core piece. The idea that the kids who do make it to college get there with a sense of confidence, the right grounding, that they’ve met high standards, and that they can go ahead and not have to go into remedial classes – that’s very, very critical. This is an area that we’ve always viewed as a very key priority.
As Melinda said, we’re always trying to learn, to see what’s going to work, and as part of that, earlier this year I welcomed a guest to my office, a man named Lyon Terry, who teaches fourth grade at Lawton Elementary here in Seattle. Lyon is the 2015 Washington state teacher of the year. He’s here with us today, and I’d like him to stand up so we can honor his accomplishment (applause).
When I met Lyon, he shared a few of his secrets. Here is a good one. At the beginning of every year, he draws an arrow on a piece of paper, pointing up and to the right. He labels that “the Learning Line.” He puts a dot at the bottom, and labels it “birth.” He then puts another dot a little higher up where a fourth grader would be, Bill Gates on the Gates Foundation's K12 Education Strategy
