Vergara Decision Feeds Testing and Teacher Turnover
The Vergara decision feeds into our societal obsession with test scores, and propels us towards schools with even less stability, and higher turnover.Unfortunately, some who have been critical of test-mania are losing the plot. Education journalist John Merrow has recently been literally waxing poetic in his denunciation of high stakes testing.
Something there is that doesn't love more bubble testsAnd students bubbling and learning how to bubbleWhen they might be making robots or reading Frost.They take test upon test in arid classrooms,Mixing memory and guesswork, stirringDull anger and gnawing fear of failure.
But we are concerned not only with the quantity of tests, but with the consequences these tests carry, such as their use for decisions such as whether a teacher should be kept or terminated. InMerrow's latest post, he mostly supports the Vergara decision in California, asserting that California's tenure laws are "indefensible." In so doing, he does not seem to see how the policies he suggests serve to build the strength of tests, not tear them down.
Merrow argues:
1) Tenure after TWO years? How can any organization, let alone something as complex as a school function that way? And by the way, the 'two year' rule actually means that a school principal has to make that 'lifetime' decision about halfway through the teacher's second year on the job, after he or she has been in charge of a classroom for perhaps 14-15 months atVergara Decision Feeds Testing and Teacher Turnover - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:
