A funny thing happened to me when I spotted a blog posting this a.m.:
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2010/08/what-makes-for-an-effective-teacher/61565/
In this posting, the author describes in colorful language the upcoming "outing" of bad teachers in LA by the LA Times. What's in store is a public posting of standardized test scores and how teachers rank. Ouch! I found this development disturbing. So I answered this guy as follows:
"Wow! I am a future educator being schooled in the midwest, and I'm taking in all the wild changes around me. Hard for me to believe that we are posting teachers's "effectiveness" publicly, as if this were part of a crime-watch series.
How students fare on standardized tests is often a reflection on their socioeconomic status, and perhaps how diligently their state, district, or school reinforces test-taking. Must we resort to this "got ya" mentality to produce world class American workers? I hope not, or we may force more great people to leave the teaching profession (or not enter it at all).
I'm all for accountability - and perhaps standardized tests should make up one component of assessing teacher effectiveness - but this big stick approach creates a culture of fear and resentment. Trust me, I just left the working world, where "perfect execution" was the mantra. The result: low morale, fear of making mistakes, mediocrity.
We all want high motivation, innovation and fast results in our schools. How about we set aside the politics and posturing and focus on solutions that we can all celebrate? It's our future we're playing Russian Roulette with."
I rest my case.
--Joe
P.S. Technology suggestion: Let's plant a chip in every teacher's brain to measure their time spent on cognitive activities. We can plot that on an x/y axis against time. This will measure both efficacy and efficiency.
The article is here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers-value-20100815,0,258862,full.story
I also posted on this, with a somewhat different take, so it's good to read your thoughts on it. I think you're right that figuring out the right approach to accountability is key. I also think the LA school district lost control of the dialogue on that topic by giving the LA Times their data and letting the Times take the first stab at defining what could and should be done with that data.
Bravo! I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty cool to see the two of you jumping into this conversation...I can tell you that you will have *frequent* opportunities in which you can hone your thinking on this matter, because it's not likely to be going away any time soon.
ReplyDeleteEmily, I don't know how you billed yourself (e-mail me if you see this) so I don't know what you said, but I thought that your cautionary tale was well considered and nicely framed, Joe.