Student Agency and Responsibilities when Learning to Write: More on the Failure of SETs – radical eyes for equity

Student Agency and Responsibilities when Learning to Write: More on the Failure of SETs – radical eyes for equity

Student Agency and Responsibilities when Learning to Write: More on the Failure of SETs

As anticipated and predicted, my student evaluations of teaching (SET) included what has become a classic contradiction; in my first-year writing seminar, I received strong praise for my feedback and diligent support for students revising their writing along side a student who proclaimed that I provided no valuable feedback.

I typically share this recurring evidence that SETs are deeply flawed on social media, and I also reached out to students in my upper-level writing/research course since the SETs from that course had a much higher number of negative comments than is typical (again including contradictory responses about my feedback and support for revising).

Several comments on social media—including those by former high school students from decades ago and current colleagues—helped me work past the frustration of anonymous and misguided comments. In short, I want to stress that while SET data lack validity, student comments may offer more insight CONTINUE READING: Student Agency and Responsibilities when Learning to Write: More on the Failure of SETs – radical eyes for equity

Teacher Evaluations (Hammers & Nails) | Blue Cereal Education

Teacher Evaluations (Hammers & Nails) | Blue Cereal Education

Teacher Evaluations (Hammers & Nails)

There’s a difference between caring how well you’re actually doing your job and caring how well you do on official evaluations. Ideally, the two at least overlap - like a Venn Diagram or pop and hip-hop. That’s not always a given, however. In practice, it’s often more like the relationship between reality and reality TV.

I know a teacher I’ll call Mr. Lutum. Mr. Lutum has been teaching forever - long enough that he began to fear he’d grown a bit stale. After some soul searching and a few months of crippling doubt and despair, he decided that if he were going to continue teaching, he at least needed a fresh start and a serious change of scenery.

He took a position in a high poverty, majority-minority district in the building people only work at until they have enough seniority to go elsewhere. Lutum figured he’d put his lofty rhetoric and progressive ideals to the test and see if he actually had the chops to work with kids who are nothing like himself – and without being either cynical or CONTINUE READING: Teacher Evaluations (Hammers & Nails) | Blue Cereal Education

CURMUDGUCATION: An Evaluation That Teachers Can Use

CURMUDGUCATION: An Evaluation That Teachers Can Use

An Evaluation That Teachers Can Use

A post from Jay Wamsted at Education Post (yes, that Education Post--I've said it before and I'll say it again--it's important to read from all over the edu-web) got me thinking about the sources of feedback that teachers can tap. He tells a story about a missed moment in which someone offered him feedback on his teaching that he didn't want to hear, and how he regrets that missed opportunity.

Which I get. I suspect most teachers who have been doing the work more than five years get it. Because the system so rarely gives us feedback we can use, teachers hunker down into a cycle of reflection and self-evaluation, and that is a great and beautiful thing, but it has its drawbacks. Teachers can fall into a despair spiral ("I should have handled that differently today and I also didn't get that student what they needed and I'm a week behind on papers and oh my god did I just choose the wrong profession??")

Teachers can also get into a place where outside feedback hits like a bucket of cold water and our back goes up and our claws come out. That's what happened to Wamsted. It happened to me, a bit differently. It was very early in my career. I was teaching ninth graders, and at the beginning of a unit doing a preliminary check what knowledge they had to bring to the table. And at some point, students said, "Mr. Greene, we don't know any of that stuff. They never taught us that in middle school."

Except, here's the thing--I had just switched teaching positions that year. I had been one of their middle school teachers. I knew damn well what I had taught them, and it had included the stuff CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: An Evaluation That Teachers Can Use

How My Theory Of Knowledge Students Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

How My Theory Of Knowledge Students Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

HOW MY THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE STUDENTS EVALUATED OUR CLASS – AND ME!

As regular readers know, I usually have students in my class do anonymous class evaluations three or so times each year (I don’t just wait until the end because then it’s too late to make any adjustments, at least for that class).

You can find many related previous posts at Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers), and you can see how my ELL History students evaluated me at a post published a couple of days ago (HOW MY ELL HISTORY STUDENTS HAVE EVALUATED OUR CLASS – AND ME!).

I haven’t done them as often this year because I’ve been meeting regularly with Leadership Teams in all my classes and inviting – and receiving – a lot of candid feedback that has helped me make a number of changes as this year of full-time distance learning has progressed.  One of the best changes that has come out of those discussions is making sure that there is enough in-class time to complete assignments so that students don’t have homework to do (except, of course, if they are absent from the class).

One student did give me an F, though she said it was for “Fantastic.”  That’s better than the year The Washington Post picked up on one of my blog posts and published an article with this headline: NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’

Here are the results of last week’s student evaluation (I think the answers to the last question are the most CONTINUE READING: How My Theory Of Knowledge Students Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Progress Monitoring … But Whose Progress Are We Monitoring? – Grumpy Old Teacher

Progress Monitoring … But Whose Progress Are We Monitoring? – Grumpy Old Teacher

Progress Monitoring … But Whose Progress Are We Monitoring?

What few people ever want to talk about is how 20 plus years of ed reform has taken the focus off the purpose of education. It’s easy to see why; when a person tries to convince parents and the public that public education, a/k/a the traditional school system of neighborhood schools managed by an elected school board, is the best option, that person doesn’t want to admit that those schools (under the pressure of test-and-punish laws that began in 2001 with No Child Left Behind) are focused on the needs of adults, not the children who show up to learn.

We do a lot of progress monitoring in schools, which does not mean that teachers are carefully gauging how well their students are doing, but does mean that we do a lot of ill-timed, poorly written, state-test-guessing-as-to-what-May’s-questions-will-look-like assessment of children.

It’s like school improvement plans. Have you ever looked at one? In Florida, the state-mandated exercise that takes place every year asks each school to document how they will raise test scores. They pretend it’s about making CONTINUE READING: Progress Monitoring … But Whose Progress Are We Monitoring? – Grumpy Old Teacher

How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

HOW MY ELL HISTORY STUDENTS HAVE EVALUATED OUR CLASS – AND ME!

As regular readers know, at various times during the school year I have my students complete anonymous evaluations of our classes. I advise them that I always make the results public – to blog readers and to our administrators.

Sometimes that commitment results in unexpected situations, like the year The Washington Post picked up on one of my blog posts and published an article with this headline: NEWS BREAK (not breaking news): Teacher asks students to grade him. One wrote: ‘I give Mr. Ferlazzo an A at being annoying.’

I’ve collected many of those posts, along with other articles about the use of anonymous student surveys, at Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers).

This post will review the evaluation done my by ELL US History students in our full-time distance learning class (theoretically, we may go to hybrid in May).  It’s the first post about a series of surveys I’ve been doing over the past month.

Most of the questions asked students to respond using a linear scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best.

Here’s the first question:

In an ordinary year, I would be disappointed with these results – I’ve usually gotten mostly 5’s.  However, this CONTINUE READING: How My ELL History Students Have Evaluated Our Class – And Me! | Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day...

Evaluate This | JD2718

Evaluate This | JD2718

Evaluate This 

I’ve just spent the last two hours reading the evaluation letter that Mulgrew sent out. (Letter linked here). I’ll probably write much more, later. But for now I have a few observations:

Unnecessary

Why was this necessary? (I know, there is a state law – which the UFT helped pass – and which Mulgrew used to claim credit for helping to write)

Where was the fight to twist Cuomo’s arm?

Where was the full court press to get Cuomo to waive this nonsense for this year? (there was no full court press – why not?). Cuomo is wounded, vulnerable. It may have been possible to stop this.

Where is the guide to teaching during a pandemic?

Where is the “research-based” framework that we were trained on for remote and hybrid teaching? (there is none, just a rewrite of the Danielson framework. And – oh oh oh – Danielson herself says that it is inappropriate to use it to evaluate teachers! So, Mulgrew and Carranza, if Danielson did not think her stuff was appropriate for evaluation, who decided to use it anyhow?)

Did Danielson really say this is not appropriate? Take a look. Focus on

√ No Rubric. “Teachers need support, not scores. Now is not the time to be thinking about how to evaluate teacher performance.”

Here is the link. Scroll to page 4.

Have the evaluators successfully taught during a pandemic? CONTINUE READING: Evaluate This | JD2718

NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

For a while, I was wondering why we would even bother negotiating an observation system with the city. I mean, here we are, all of us, doing a job none of us had trained for or even conceived. How can our supervisors come in and determine exactly how much we suck at these jobs? For one thing, they've never attempted them themselves. I mean, sure, they have a lot of experience telling teachers they suck and exactly why, but supposedly they themselves were teachers at some point. 

In my school, supervisors don't teach at all anymore. That's too bad, You'd hope they'd be out there setting an example of best practices for us, rather than simply talking about it. 

However, even if they were doing that, I don't know a single supervisor with experience teaching online. I don't know a supervisor with experience teaching masked students who are socially distanced either. Maybe in other schools supervisors teach, and maybe some of them have as much experience as we do, i.e, very little.

Who on earth is qualified to design a system to rate those of us doing these new things? I'd argue not even we are, let alone our non-teaching supervisors. If you've been doing this work for less than a year, unless your soul is frozen colder than Mitch McConnell's heart, you're still on a steep learning curve.

Of course, that was no impediment to Charlotte Danielson, who's actually conjured up a Framework for Remote CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Teacher Evaluation Will Show Whether Biden Is Friend or Foe

NYC Educator: Can We Agree on a Fair Evaluation System?

NYC Educator: Can We Agree on a Fair Evaluation System?

Can We Agree on a Fair Evaluation System?

That's a tough question. Our esteemed chancellor writes us missives telling us how much he respects and cares for us. Our safety is the most important thing there is. Yet you don't see him setting his foot in a school unless it's pre-screened and a whole lot cleaner than any I've seen over the last decade or two. 

If Regents exams are canceled, and if no student can fail, how exactly are we supposed to come to a fair evaluation system? We can't use Danielson. The participation in online classes, or in socially-distanced masked classes, is something altogether different from that which we've experienced over our careers.

I am big on classroom participation. I love when kids act spontaneously, and nothing makes me happier than seeing some kid get up an take a class over. However, I can't count on that happening, and my plans ensure we'll be doing something productive if it does not. I can't guarantee on any given day that kids will carry me to highly effective. (If you can, more power to you.)

Nonetheless, Danielson herself said that her rubric laid out an ideal, and wasn't intended as a rating system. Of course, that didn't stop her from taking a shit-ton of cash to allow it to be used that way anyway. In fact, it didn't stop her from writing some kind of online rubric too, hoping to cash in further. It's Spaceballs II, The Search for More Money. 

Let's say we finally agree on something, just for the sake of argument. Let me ask you this--how many times have CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Can We Agree on a Fair Evaluation System?

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now

Audrey Amrein Beardsley writes here about Houston’s experience with value-added evaluation of its teachers.

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) contracted with William Sanders’ SAS to provide a model to calculate the “value-added” of its teachers from 2007-2017.

Teachers objected that the method of calculating their scores was opaque. They couldn’t learn how to improve their practice because Sanders’ methodology was proprietary and secret.

Teachers were fired based on their VAM scores.

The Houston Federation of Teachers sued to stop the use of the “black box” method.

In 2017, a judge agreed and enjoined the use of VAM.

Thus by now, after a decade of VAMMING teachers, Houston should have identified and removed all the “bad” teachers and employ only “effective” or “highly effective” CONTINUE READING: Houston: Why HISD Should Have the Best Teachers in the Nation By Now | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: There's Only One Reason Districts Should Be Doing Teacher Evaluations This Year

CURMUDGUCATION: There's Only One Reason Districts Should Be Doing Teacher Evaluations This Year

There's Only One Reason Districts Should Be Doing Teacher Evaluations This Year

Word keeps popping up on line from here and there that some schools are going ahead with teacher evaluations this year, even this fall. 

Which is nuts. Teachers are reeling, scrambling, doing their damnedest to stay upright on constantly shifting ground, trying to maintain some semblance of education in the midst of chaos and uncertainty that is marked by a widespread lack of leadership and direction on all levels. Even in schools that are open for face-to-face, teachers work wondering at what instant things will change. And of course, underneath all the rest, anxiety about the possibility of debilitating illness and death.

But sure-- now is an awesome time to make sure that teachers are checking off all the items on the Madeline Hunter checklist and are keeping their classroom spic and span. The Big Standardized Test, previously almost completely useless for truly measuring teacher performance, will be double-plus-useless this year. The whole standard array of teacher evaluation techniques will be pointless this year, like judging a round of Dancing with the Stars on the deck of a ship knocked to and fro on CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: There's Only One Reason Districts Should Be Doing Teacher Evaluations This Year

New Teacher Evaluation Report Released by the Network for Public Education REDUX | VAMboozled!

New Teacher Evaluation Report Released by the Network for Public Education | VAMboozled!

New Teacher Evaluation Report Released by the Network for Public Education REDUX

A new report on current teacher evaluation systems throughout the US was just released by the Network for Public Education. The report is titled, “Teachers Talk Back: Educators on the Impact of Teacher Evaluation,” and below are their findings, followed by a condensed version of their six recommendations (as taken from the Executive Summary, although you can read the full 17-page report, again, here):

FINDINGS

• Teachers and principals believe that evaluations based on student test scores, especially Value Added Measures (VAMs), are neither valid nor reliable measures of their work. They believe that VAM scores punish teachers who work with the
  most vulnerable students. Of the respondents, 83% indicated that the use of test scores in evaluations has had a negative impact on instruction, and 88% said that more time is spent on test prep than ever before. Evaluations based on frameworks and rubrics, such as those created by Danielson and Marzano, have resulted in wasting far too much time. This is damaging the very work evaluation is supposed to improve, as valuable time is diverted to engage in related compliance exercises and paperwork. Of the respondents, 84% reported a significant increase in teacher time spent on evaluations.
• The emphasis on improving test scores has overwhelmed every aspect of teachers’ work, forcing them to spend precious collaborative time poring over student data rather than having conversations about students and instruction. CONTINUE READING: New Teacher Evaluation Report Released by the Network for Public Education | VAMboozled!

Laura Chapman: Can Teachers Be Measured by the Same Methods Used for Cows? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Laura Chapman: Can Teachers Be Measured by the Same Methods Used for Cows? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Laura Chapman: Can Teachers Be Measured by the Same Methods Used for Cows?

Our wonderful reader Laura Chapman reports here on the origins of the laws that purport to measure teacher quality by the test scores of their students. The founding father of this methodology was the late William Sanders, an agricultural statistician who believed that the same productivity used to measure cows could be used to measure teachers. His ideas were adopted and promoted by Arne Duncan’s Race to the Top, which required states to adopt “value-added methodology” if they wanted to compete for a share of billions of federal dollars. The Gates Foundation also embraced test-based accountability. These methods proved to be ineffective at measuring teacher quality; they are inaccurate and demoralizing.

According to a 2019 report coauthored by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, 15 states are still inflicting teacher evaluations by VAM (value added measures) and 28 are using the equally invalid process of writing up Student Learning Objectives (SLOs). SLOs require you to predict the end-of-year (or end of unit) achievements of students, among CONTINUE READING: Laura Chapman: Can Teachers Be Measured by the Same Methods Used for Cows? | Diane Ravitch's blog

EdWeek: Teacher Evaluations Resume, Despite Pandemic and Chaotic Conditions | Diane Ravitch's blog

EdWeek: Teacher Evaluations Resume, Despite Pandemic and Chaotic Conditions | Diane Ravitch's blog

EdWeek: Teacher Evaluations Resume, Despite Pandemic and Chaotic Conditions

Madeline Will wrote in Education Week that many states plan to resume teacher evaluations, despite the pandemic and the difficulties of teaching remotely and/or in-person. Some will incorporate student test scores, which is absurd. Many teachers believe this is unfair, since teaching conditions are adverse. Unfortunately, Will relied on the “National Council on Teacher Quality” for its “expertise.” This is an organization launched by the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Foundation that has no professional credibility and that issues an annual rating of teacher education programs based on its reading of course catalogues and on whether the programs offer instruction in Common Core, for example.

The best authority on VAM in the nation is Audrey Amrein-Beardsley of Arizona State University, who earned her Ph.D. as a student of David Berliner and Gene Glass. She has written the definitive studies of test-based teacher evaluation. Her blog VAMboozled! is the go-to place for updates on this fraudulent evaluation CONTINUE READING: EdWeek: Teacher Evaluations Resume, Despite Pandemic and Chaotic Conditions | Diane Ravitch's blog

CURMUDGUCATION: Today in Teacher Depreciation

CURMUDGUCATION: Today in Teacher Depreciation

Today in Teacher Depreciation

When you're in the work, the general noise from the chorus of teacher devaluators can become a faint background buzz. And then something happens, and you're reminded suddenly, "Oh, yeah. That's a thing." 

Happened twice to me on Twitter in the past 24 hours. First, there was the noise surrounding the Trump thing on the teevee last night, including this little punch from Mercedes Schlapp, a senior advisor for the Trump/Pence campaign

This is obviously supposed to be an insult, but I live in western Pennsylvania, right up the road from Pittsburgh, where the international airport includes a whole display/play area devoted to one of Pittsburgh's most beloved sons, Fred Rogers (she spelled his name wrong). Mr. Rogers is a national treasure and one of the few icons who hasn't been outed as some sort of secretly terrible monster. 

Why would anybody treat him as an insult punchline? Because they respect strength and cruelty and in Mr. Rogers, they see the twin "weaknesses" of being kind and gentle and of communicating with CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Today in Teacher Depreciation